4th Annual Conference

SCBWI is Partnering With
Alaska Writers Guild, and Romance Writers of America
To Bring You
An AMAZING Line up of Presenters

JOIN US

September 15-16, 2017

BP Energy + Conference Center

Anchorage, Alaska

REGISTER HERE NOW!

Keynotes and Panels

Breakout Workshops on Marketing, Craft, Traditional and Self Publising, and More

Optional Intensives and Roundtable Critiques on Friday

DELICIOUS Lunch Inlcuded

Illustrator Portfolio Show, Contest, and Art Show

Book Sales

Free Industry Panel with Conference Faculty open to the Public Friday Night 6:15PM

SPEAKERS

STEPHANIE PITTS

Stephanie Pitts is an editor at G.P. Putnam’s Sons, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group. Prior to joining the team at Putnam, Stephanie worked at Schwartz & Wade Books, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books. She once pulled a darling picture book manuscript, Sophie’s Squash by Pat Zietlow Miller, out of the slush pile. It published to four starred reviews and was named an Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Honor Book. Some recent projects include the middle grade novels My Brother’s Shadow and Not as We Know It, both by Tom Avery, and the picture book Jackrabbit McCabe and the Electric Telegraph by Lucy Margaret Rozier and illustrated by Leo Espinosa.

NICOLE RESCINITI

Nicole Resciniti has been listed by Publisher's Marketplace as a top dealmaker in the country and named ACFW's 2012 Agent of the She loves discovering new talent and helping established authors take their career to the next level. Do you have the next project to feed her book addiction? A smart, tight read she won’t be able to put down? A signature voice she’ll fight to represent?

HEA’s are a must for romance. Mainstream suspense, thrillers, mysteries, YA and inspirational novels are welcome. A consummate science geek and card-carrying Mensa member, Nicole would love to find the next great science fiction/fantasy novel or action/adventure masterpiece. Currently on her wish list: high concept middle grade, any kind of romance, and really fresh voices in YA.

JANE FRIEDMAN

Jane Friedman has 20 years of experience in the publishing industry, with expertise in digital media strategy for authors and publishers. She's the co-founder of The Hot Sheet, the essential publishing industry newsletter for authors, and is the former publisher of Writer's Digest. She has been interviewed and featured by NPR, PBS, The Washington Post, the National Press Club and many other outlets.

In addition to being a columnist with Publishers Weekly and a professor with The Great Courses, Jane's essays have been published in anthologies by Seal Press, Milkweed Editions, and McPherson & Co. She has a book forthcoming from the University of Chicago Press, The Business of Being a Writer (March 2018).

PAUL LUCAS

Paul started representing authors at Janklow & Nesbit Associates in 2011 after serving time in the legal department. He represents a broad swath of non fiction, including travel, nature, science, political, history and financial; as well as upmarket, science fiction & fantasy and thrillers on the fiction side. Clients include Robert Baer, Porter Fox, Brooke Borel, Phillipe Girard, R.A. Salvatore, Katherine Arden, James Islington and 3rd most famous Benjamin Schwartz on the internet. He loves when captivating writing and wonderful stories meet, especially when the combination appears in a blind query in his inbox. He likes snow and has mixed feelings about long walks on beaches.

CHERRY ADAIR

Always an adventurer in life as well as writing, best-selling author Cherry Adair moved halfway across the globe from Cape Town, South Africa to the United States. She settled in beautiful San Francisco, where she started what eventually became a thriving interior design business. "I loved being a designer because it was varied and creative, and I enjoyed working with the public." A voracious reader when she was able to carve out the time, Cherry found her brain crowded with characters and stories of her own. "Eventually," she says, "the stories demanded to be told."

Cherry writes five to seven hours a day, six days a week. When asked why she chooses to write romantic suspense, she says, "Who says you can't have adventure and a great love life? Of course if you’re talking about an adventurous love life, that's another thing altogether. Actually I write romantic suspense with adventure because I like to entertain and nothing keeps readers happier than a rapid pulse with a happy ending."

KRIS FARMEN

Kris Farmen is a surfer, writer, and historian. He was born in Alaska and grew up both in a house in Anchorage and in various wall tents and plywood shacks in the bush. He has lived most of his life in Alaska, except for a two year residence in Adelaide, South Australia. His writing has appeared in numerous publications, and his first novel, The Devil’s Share, is currently available from McRoy & Blackburn. His literary influences include Annie Proulx, Stephen King, Jim Harrison, Peter Carey, Ernest Hemingway, Richard Flanagan, Italo Calvino, Jack London, Peter Matthiessen, and Cormac McCarthy, among many others.

Kris travels a lot, but the closest thing he has to a permanent home is his homestead cabin on the lower Kenai Peninsula.

LIZBETH MEREDITH

Lizbeth Meredith is an Anchorage-based writer with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a master’s degree in psychology. She has worked as a domestic violence advocate and a child abuse investigator, and with at-risk teens as a juvenile probation supervisor.

Lizbeth published Pieces of Me: Rescuing My Kidnapped Daughters, a 2017 IPPY Award silver medalist for memoir/personal struggles. She published When Push Comes to Shove: How to Help When Someone You Love is Being Abused on Amazon and Nook, and is a contributor to A Girl’s Guide to Travelling Alone by Gemma Thompson.You can contact her at lameredith.com or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/lizbethmeredithfan or on Twitter at Lizbeth Meredith@LizbethMeredith.

JIM MISKO

James A. Misko was born and raised in Ord, Nebraska in the midst of the Great Depression. After WWII his family moved to Oregon where he graduated from Lewis & Clark College with a degree in Human Development and where he met and married his wife, Patti.

In 2003 he began full time writing. FOR WHAT HE COULD BECOME was his first novel. His second novel, THE MOST EXPENSIVE MISTRESS IN JEFFERSON COUNTY came out in 2007, THE CUT OF PRIDE, in 2011, AS ALL MY FATHERS WERE in 2014. And his latest novel, THE PATH OF THE WIND, was published in 2017. He is currently working on TOMORROW IS MY DAY, a novel about the first white settlers in the Coachella Valley, in California.

Jim and Patti live in Alaska during the summer and California during the winter.

WORKSHOPS

ALL ABOUT KIDLIT...From our Special SCBWI Guest Speaker:

Stephanie Pitts: Get to Know a Major Publishing House! G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers publishes some of today’s strongest voices in fiction, with fifty trade hardcover books a year from picture books and nonfiction, to Middle Grade and YA.

Stephanie Pitts: Once Upon a Time...The End; Picture Book Plots and structures for authors and author/illustrators. How do you tell an entire story in less than 1000 words? Discussion topics include key plot elements, common narrative structures, and picture book nonfiction.

For more Workshops---16 in all---CLICK HERE!

Intensives

On Friday, With STEPHANIE PITTS, Optional

YOUR CHANCE TO BE UP CLOSE AND PERONAL WITH AN EDITOR--LIMIT 20 PARTICIPANTS!

Writing Irresistible Picture Book Characters

For picture book authors and author/illustrators. What makes a new picture book character stand out to an editor? Topics to be discussed include creating memorable and unique character traits, using voice to establish character, writing character arcs, and writing characters for nonfiction. Includes writing and discussion prompts.

Raise Your Voice

For middle grade and young adult authors. What makes a voice distinctive and memorable? What is the relationship between character, point of view, and voice? Includes writing and discussion prompts.

Friday Roundtable (optional; must register; only 8 spaces with Stephanie Pitts available-ONLY 1 SPACE LEFT!)

Bring 2 pages of your manuscript to share with the group, and receive a critique from Stephanie Pitts. Added bonus of hearing the other eight crituqes and so learning eight times more than at a one-on-one critique. More information on registration page.

One-on-One Critiques in person and written--FULL--

These also sell out fast. Choose a 15-minute in-person or written critique with Stephanie Pitts. Other critiquers available to. Send in material by July 31st. More information on registration page.

REGISTER HERE NOW!

AND FOR MORE INFORMATION

CLICK HERE!

OR EMAIL: ALASKA-RA@SCBWI.ORG

PORTFOLIO AND ART SHOW

FREE TO ENTER AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

(Need not be registered for conference)

More information coming soon!

In the meantime, EMAIL: ALASKA-IC@SCBWI.ORG