Join us for a half-day conference on fiction writing and publishing in partnership with the Writers House at Case Western Reserve University. The February Fiction Conference takes place Saturday, February 29 from 12-5pm at Clark Hall - Case Western Reserve University (11130 Bellflower Rd, Cleveland OH 44106).
This conference is designed to help fiction writers of all genres improve their writing and advance their careers. The day begins with a panel discussion on the craft of fiction, tips for improving your writing habit, and strategies for getting your work published. Participants will be able to choose between two workshops during each session. Session 1 topics include "Building a Setting that Comes Alive" and "Voyage & Return: A Storytelling Map." Session 2 topics include "Plan. Plot. Publish a Page Turner." and "Mining the Subconscious." The day ends with a reception and book-signing.
Hone your craft with award-winning local and national authors, connect with other writers, and develop new work at this essential half-day conference.
"Building A Setting That Comes Alive" with D.M. Pulley
Best-selling author D.M. Pulley shares tips and techniques to constructing a setting that becomes a living, breathing character in the story. Through multiple examples, Pulley will demonstrate ways that the setting informs and anchors a narrative and gives historical context and meaning to the plot. Participants will evaluate the settings in their works in progress and consider ways to improve and deepen the connections between the setting, the plot, the characters, and the reader.
"Voyage & Return: A Storytelling Map" with Kevin P.Keating
Do you have great story ideas, but sometimes you're not quite sure how to go about arranging those ideas into one coherent narrative? This workshop will provide writers with a kind of roadmap so they won’t lose their way and stumbledown paths that so often lead to frustrating dead ends. We’ll discuss some of the more archetypal “paths” found in stories, ranging from the epic poetry of Homer’s The Odyssey to the classic film The Wizard of Oz to an award-winning collection of short fiction by Danielle Evans.
"Plan. Plot. Publish a Page Turner." with Abby L. Vandiver
This workshop with best-selling author Abby Vandiver provides step-by-step strategies to craft a story your readers can't put down. Learn how to structure and plot your story, shape it through scenes across a narrative arc, and develop strong characters and real dialogue.
"Mining Your Subconscious" with Allegra Hyde
What holds a work of fiction together? While elements such as place, character, and plot are essential, what can make a novel or a short story truly cohesive -- and unexpectedly moving -- is an underlying network of images and ideas. In this class we will examine sample texts for their "metaphoric superstructure." Then we will practice an easy, yet powerful technique for mining the subconscious and creating our own such networks. There will be time to write as well as share work.
Work with the best...
Abby L. Vandiver, who also writes as Abby Collette, is a Wall Street Journal, USA Today and internationally bestselling author who has had success in both self-publishing and traditional publishing. Abby has penned more than thirty books and short stories. Her most recent novel, A Deadly Inside Scoop, was published by Penguin Berkley in the spring of 2020.
Allegra Hyde's debut collection, Of This New World, won the John Simmons Iowa Short Fiction Award. Her honors include three Pushcart Prizes, as well as fellowships and grants from the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, The Elizabeth George Foundation, the Lucas Artist Residency Program, and the U.S. Fulbright Commission. She currently teaches creative writing at Oberlin College.
D. M. Pulley's work as a structural engineer in Cleveland, Ohio inspired her debut novel, The Dead Key. Winning the 2014 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Grand Prize launched Pulley's career as a published author. Her other novels include The Buried Book (2016), The Unclaimed Victim (2017), and No One's Home (Sep. 2019). She lives in Northeast Ohio with her husband and two children.
After working as a boilermaker in the steel mills in Ohio, Kevin P. Keating became a professor of English and began teaching at John Carroll University, Baldwin Wallace University, and Cleveland State University. His first novel, The Natural Order of Things, was a finalist for the 2012 Los Angeles Times First Fiction Award. His second novel, The Captive Condition, was launched at the 2015 San Diego Comic Con.
Clark Hall - Case Western Reserve University
11130 Bellflower Rd, Cleveland OH 44106
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