The Muse & The Marketplace 2020

Emerging writers often find themselves isolated and eager for mentors and connections, and this session will delve into what it takes to build a community that will support you in achieving your professional goals. Are residencies frivolous or invaluable—and how do you decide? Does receiving a writing award really make a difference? Do you need an MFA to make it in the cutthroat world of publishing? At what point should you start (or stop!) going to conferences and taking workshops? Even when time and money are in short supply, there are ways to be strategic and make use of these game-changing opportunities.

You’ll get the perspective of a novelist who runs programming, scholarships and awards for a literary nonprofit, and a memoirist and writing professor who, through trial and error, have learned how to determine what actually works for them, and will share resources and tricks of the trade.