Welcome to the Creative Conferences. Our workshops are taught by writers, photographers, magazine editors, photo editors, authors, and publishers who are at the top of their industry. Learn from the best in a relaxed, accessible, and beautiful venue at the Chautauqua Community House beneath the Boulder, Colorado Flatirons mountains.
SATURDAY, MAY 12, 2012: 8:30am – 8:00pm
MAGAZINE AND WEB WRITING WORKSHOP: GET PUBLISHED IN 2012!!
Say it with me: “I am a writer!” Yes. This is the year you will send out compelling queries guaranteed to make editors stand up in their chairs and shout things like: “Where has this writer been hiding? How did she come up with such a fantastic story idea?” You will build up your writing clips, your reader base, and your confidence. In this workshop, magazine writers and editors will tell you their secrets on unearthing the best article angles. They’ll give you concrete examples of great query writing and evaluate and help you revise your own queries in small group break-out sessions. You will leave with a list of editor emails and the resources to find the right person to pitch at the magazine or web site of your choice. Plus, we’ll dig into all the things you need to know to write a fantastic article once you’ve landed the assignment.
As if that weren’t enough, we’ll cap the day off with a keynote address from SARAH GOLD, a veteran travel writer whose work appears in New York Magazine, National Geographic Traveler, and The New York Times. Sarah’s print and online resume includes editorial posts at Fodor’s Travel Guides, Conde Nast Traveler, and Travel+Leisure.
OTHER SPEAKERS AND TEACHERS AT THIS MAGAZINE/WEB CONFERENCE:
JAYME MOYE, managing editor at Elevation Outdoors, is an award-winning journalist whose freelance work has appeared in Men’s Journal, Outside, Sunset, Runner’s World, and Women’s Health. In 2010, Jayme went from working in the world of finance to accomplishing her dream to make her living as a writer. She will be presenting the query-writing session to demonstrate the ins and outs of capturing an editor’s attention and landing the assignment.
JENNIFER WILSON has spent fifteen years writing for magazines including Esquire, National Geographic Traveler, Better Homes & Gardens, Parents, and Gourmet. Her travel memoir Running Away to Home (St. Martin’s Press, 2012) takes readers on a different journey, one she embarked on after the crash of 2008 wiped out half of her family’s investments. The Iowa native and her husband packed up their home and headed to Croatia to examine the roots of her family and live a simple and more connected life.
MICHELLE THEALL started Women’s Adventure magazine in 2003 after working with a host of niche magazines including VeloNews, Inside Triathlon, Recording, and Women’s Sports + Fitness. Her freelance work has appeared in Health Magazine and 5280 Magazine. In addition, Theall authored two health and fitness books, wrote a weekly column McClatchy Tribune and was a senior editor for Alternative Medicine magazine. She has won two North American Travel Journalist awards and two Folio awards for editorial excellence and was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award in 2011.
PLUS, ENTER OUR CONTEST FOR MAGAZINE PUBLICATION: All attendees have the opportunity to enter our Women’s Adventure essay contest for a chance at publication. Submissions must be no longer than 350 words and must be emailed as a word document to michelle@creativeconferences.com on or before midnight on May 4 to be eligible for consideration. The winner will be announced at the conference. Go to www.womensadventuremagazine.com to review digital issues to ensure that your essay is targeted to the Women’s Adventure reader.
SPACE FOR THIS EVENT IS LIMITED. SIGN UP TODAY TO RESERVE YOUR SPOT. AND, CONSIDER MAKING A WEEKEND OF IT BY ADDING THE SUNDAY, MAY 13 SESSION ON WRITING YOUR NON-FICTION BOOK (see below).
SUNDAY, MAY 13, 2012 (8:00am – 6:00pm)
WRITE THAT BOOK! A Hands-On Workshop for Memoir and Non-Fiction Writers
This is the year you will write that book. You know the one. It wakes you from sleep. It gnaws at you in idle moments. But…no more! Join us on May 13 as published authors and writing coaches guide you from idea to proposal, proposal to agent, and agent to book deal. As an added bonus, all attendees may submit the first ten pages of their book proposal, synopsis, or sample chapters for professional evaluation and critique by writing coach Rachel Weaver (see below for her bio).
We’ll start the day by developing and practicing your “elevator pitch” for your book. Then we’ll move into the components you’ll need to craft a knockout book proposal. After that, we’ll break into smaller groups (each headed up by a published author/writing coach) to examine individual ideas and proposal elements. You’ll learn how to get an agent and what it’s like to work with one. Our moderated panel will tackle your questions and wax poetic about the trials and tribulations of birthing their books. We’ll talk about book advances, self-publishing, submissions and rejections, as well as tried and true ways to make your writing SHINE.
TAKE A LOOK AT OUR STAFF FOR THIS YEAR’S EVENT:
FLORENCE WILLIAMS is a contributing writer for Outside magazine and a freelance writer for The New York Times, the New York Times Magazine, Mother Jones, and National Geographic Traveler. As a Scripps Environmental Journalism Fellow, her work often focuses on the environment, health, and science. Her new book, Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History debuts this month from W.W. Norton.
BUZZY JACKSON is a book critic for the Boston Globe and the author of three books. Her first non-fiction release was A Bad Woman Feeling Good: Blues and the Women Who Sing Them (W.W. Norton). Her second was the critically-acclaimed memoir, Shaking the Family Tree: Blue Bloods, Black Sheep, and Other Obsessions of an Accidental Geneologist (Touchstone). Her third Effie Perine is Jackson’s first novel.
Writer LISA JONES went to Wyoming for a four-day magazine assignment and came home four years later with a new life. The memoir that resulted, Broken: A Love Story (Scribner), entwines the story of Stanford Addison, a Northern Arapaho healer and horse gentler living on the Wind River Indian Reservation, with her own. Jones work as a journalist for the last 25 years has appeared in the New York Times Magazine and Smithsonian. She also helps other writers through her editing and coaching.
HANNAH NORDHAUS is the author of The Beekeeper’s Lament: How One Man and Half a Billion Honey Bees Help Feed America (Harper Perennial). Also an award-winning journalist, Hannah’s work has appeared in Outside Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, Ski, Bicycling, and The Village Voice.
RACHEL WEAVER will be reviewing attendees’ 10-page submissions prior to the conference to provide professional feedback on their work in progress or book idea. Weaver is a writer and editor who just landed representation at Don Congdon & Associates (with the agent who represented the national bestseller, The Help). She has an MFA and teaches and coaches writers through her company Sandstone Editing and at Naropa University and other institutions. Excerpts from her novels appear in Harcourt Brace Best New Voices in American Fiction, and her work has been published in The Ontario Review, Gettysburg Review, Inside Passages, Blue Mesa Review, and Alaska Women Speak.
MICHELLE THEALL started her career in publishing seventeen years ago and is the author of two health books and a former McClatchy Tribune columnist. She garnered two Folio Awards for editorial excellence as the founding editor of Women’s Adventure magazine, and more recently, landed a GLAAD Media Award nomination for her 6,000 word feature essay, a miniature version of her memoir, in 5280 Magazine. Theall will share with attendees the book proposal that grew from that essay and landed her an agent at ICM, as well as two other offers of representation within just a few weeks.
Don’t wait. This is the year your writing dreams take flight…
SPACE FOR THIS EVENT IS LIMITED. SIGN UP TODAY TO RESERVE YOUR SPOT. AND, CONSIDER MAKING A WEEKEND OF IT BY ADDING THE SATURDAY, MAY 12 SESSION ON MAGAZINE AND WEB WRITING (see above).
WEEKEND COST: Attend both sessions for just $350 or select one for $200. Fee includes access to workshop sessions, materials, and continental breakfast and coffee.
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