Join us at the Landmark Resort in Egg Harbor for the 2024 Writing On The Door conference: Your Writing Life. How can you make writing a regular part of your life? If you are working full-time, raising kids, taking care of elderly parents, how can you find time to write? If you have been writing for a while, how do you find the support, encouragement, and inspiration to keep going?

Our celebrated faculty will help you answer these and other questions. Whether you are brand-new to writing or have been writing for years, Your Writing Life has plenty to offer you. Our keynote speaker is Amy Quan Barry, an accomplished writer of novels, poetry, essays, plays, and more. Faculty includes Abayomi Animashaun, Patrick Baird, Virginia Bell, Chris Bower, Paula Carter, Valerie Clarizio, Sally Collins, Dan Crissman, Albert DeGenova, Holly Erskine, Kat Falls, Kristine Hansen, Claire Harris, Juan Martinez, David Mathews, Dana Maya, Rebecca Meacham, Erika Nelson, Rita Mae Reese, Kim Suhr, Heather Swan, and Tori Grant Welhouse.

Track A is intended for beginning writers but is open to all.

Track B is focused on prose writing.

Track C focuses on poetry.

Track D addresses the business side of writing.

Registration for individual sessions is not required. Participants may select from different tracks. It is fine to attend a Track B session in the morning and a Track D session in the afternoon, for instance.

Please scroll down to view the conference schedule and descriptions of the breakout sessions.

HOUSING

The Landmark Resort has a block of rooms for conference attendees. For online reservation bookings- go to the Landmark website- www.thelandmarkresort.com click on the BOOK NOW button (top right) on the main page, enter your arrival and departure dates and then under the calendar enter the Group Code of    WriteOn5255   The Group Code is case sensitive and should be typed exactly as is with no spaces.  Click on the check availability button and that will populate the rooms and rates that are available in the group block.  Select the room type you want and follow-thru the required steps to make your reservation.  Any reservations needing extra days before or after the group dates of 11/08-11/10/24, will have to call and book that in person- 1- 800-273-7877.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8

9:00 – 10:15 AM: PANEL DISCUSSION: OUR WRITING LIVES

How do others manage a regular writing practice while balancing full-time work, raising children, and other obligations? Hear from Paula Carter, Albert DeGenova, Kristine Hansen, Juan Martinez, and Dana Maya on how they balance their lives and their writing.

10:30 AM – NOON: BREAKOUT SESSIONS please see below for descriptions

Track A: Developing a Writing Habit with Juan Martinez

Track B: Flash Prose with Rebecca Meacham

Track C: The Haibun: Celebrating One’s Journey with David Mathews

Track D: Freelancing with Kristine Hansen

1:30 – 2:45 PM: PANEL DISCUSSION: THE IMPACT OF AI ON WRITING

How does Artificial Intelligence impact writing and other creative arts? What are the positives and negatives of using AI in your creative endeavors? Hear from Abayomi Animashaun, Chris Bower, Dan Crissman, and David Mathews.

3 – 4:30 PM: BREAKOUT SESSIONS please see below for descriptions

Track A: Spontaneous Writing with Dana Maya

Track B: The Hermit Crab Essay with Paula Carter

Track C: Renegotiating Your Poetry Deal with Rita Mae Reese

Track D: What We Learned/What We Wished We Knew with Patrick Baird, Valerie Clarizio, Sally Colllins, and Erika Nelson.

4:45 – 6:00 PM: WELCOME RECEPTION

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9

9:00 – 10:15 AM: KEYNOTE TALK WITH AMY QUAN BARRY

10:30 AM – NOON: BREAKOUT SESSIONS please see below for descriptions

Track A: Structuring a Novel 101 with Sally Collins

Track B: Manuscript CPR with Kat Falls

Track C: Poetry with Abayomi Animashaun

Track D: Creating a Business Plan for Writers with Valerie Clarizo

1:30 – 2:45: PANEL DISCUSSION WITH EDITORS AND AGENTS

Join Virginia Bell, Dan Crissman, Claire Harris, and Rebecca Meacham to hear what editors and agents are looking for, and what they are not looking for.

3:00 – 4:30 PM: BREAKOUT SESSIONS please see below for descriptions

Track A: Story Origins with Kat Falls

Track B: Prose with Kim Suhr

Track C: Poetry with Heather Swan

Track D: Marketing Your Book with Tori Grant Welhouse

4:45 – 6:00 PM: PANEL DISCUSSION: KEEP GOING!

Community-based writing programs, writing groups, residency programs, and more can support and encourage your writing practice. Holly Erskine, Rita Mae Reese, Jerod Santek, and Kim Suhr will share their experiences and provide insight into opportunities to keep you going.

BREAKOUT SESSION DESCRIPTIONS

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 10:30 AM – NOON

TRACK A: No Wrong Groove: Seven Practical Steps to Develop and Sustain a Writing Habit with Juan Martinez

Writing shouldn’t be all that hard: we do it all the time, for all sorts of reasons, and yet when we sit down and try to write our novel—or even a short story or anything at all remotely creative—we freeze up. We realize we don’t have time. We do, of course. Even if we have jobs and families and obligations, we can make time for our creative work, and we don’t have to stress about it too much. In this session, we’ll go over seven practical steps to animate, sustain, and deepen our creative practice, all of which have been derived from years of experience in writing and publishing and mentoring.

TRACK B: Manuscript CPR: Reviving Dead Work with Kat Falls

In this interactive session, we’ll go over how to see your manuscript with fresh eyes, get to the heart of what’s not working, and come up with strategies to fix it. Topics covered include how to maximize your story premise, big picture revision techniques, and reading between the lines on feedback. We’ll also discuss reader expectations, pacing, character arc, set-piece scenes, and image systems to enhance your story’s impact. These tools, combined with your voice and imagination, will transform your story into one that is better told, fresh, and uniquely yours. This workshop is for anyone struggling with a messy draft or looking to revive an abandoned project. 

TRACK C: The Haibun: Celebrating One’s Journey with David Mathews

David Mathews will provide a session for beginners and experienced writers alike that explores the accessible haibun poetry form. The session will include an overview of the form, examples the group will read and discuss, best practices for writing one, and time to write and share. Everyone who participates in the session will leave with a haibun poem of their own creation. 

TRACK D:  Getting Paid to Tell Your Stories with Kristine Hansen

In this session, Kristine Hansen will draw on her nearly twenty years of experience as a freelance writer to help others get paid to tell their stories. Genres could include travel writing, art criticism, parenting, history and outdoor adventure, just to name a few. Topics that will be covered include: What makes a compelling story: why tell it now and why are you the person to write it?; Researching markets; Writing an effective query or pitch letter; When to submit on spec and when to pitch; What to expect for payment; Developing long-term relationships.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 3:00 – 4:30 PM

TRACK A: Freewriting/Writing to Be Free with Dana Maya

Freewriting is a method and means of including and welcoming the unknown, the mysterious, and the nonlinear into our poems and prose. In this workshop, the animal, plant, and other beings in our immediate environment will offer prompts and portals into a radical practice of inclusive writing. Using on-the-spot exercises, “echo feedback”, and selected readings, we will cultivate our perception of what is in front of us but hidden-in-plain-sight. Finally, we will ask how loosening our reins on, and reign over, our words(freewriting) might relate to the writer’s imperative to notice and empower what is marginalized in both our consciousness and the worlds of which we are part.

TRACK B: The Crab Walk: Playing with Form and Using it to Guide Our Writing with Paula Carter

According to Brenda Miller, “Hermit crab essays adopt already existing forms as the container for the writing at hand, such as the essay in the form of a ‘to-do’ list, or a field guide, or a recipe.” By adopting the form of an online dating profile, a rejection letter, or operating instructions—to name a few—that thing you just couldn’t get a handle on suddenly has a built in structure. And some whimsy. Join us in this workshop where we’ll read examples of writers playing with form, examine craft techniques used in these essays, discover how co-opting a common form can help when your writing is stuck, and, most importantly, try our hand at writing a few hermit crab essays.

TRACK C: Renegotiating Your Poetry Deal with Rita Mae Reese

Writing poetry can be frustrating, and publishing it even more so. Sometimes we are all bound to wonder why we do this and if time might not be better spent on learning a new skill, or volunteering somewhere. In her poem, “The Poetry Deal,” Diane di Prima writes about the deal she made with poetry. We’ll use her work and other sources to examine the deals each of us have made, and renew not only the terms of the deal, but the wellspring of inspiration and pleasure that made us commit in the first place. Practical advice on holding up your end of the deal is included.

TRACK D: What We Learned/What We Wished We Knew with Patrick Baird, Valerie Clarizio, Sally Collins, and Erika Nelson

In this session, members of the Door County Published Authors Collective will share their experiences of bringing their books to life. They will share what they learned as they went through both traditional and self-publishing, how they market their books, and much more.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 10:30 AM – NOON

TRACK A:  Structuring a Novel 101 with Sally Collins

During the session, participants will learn about familiar author’s varied approaches and advice for crafting novels. I will also speak about my own journey in novel writing, how I wrote my first novel in fits and starts for a few years until finally mapping out the whole book and completing the manuscript in a few months. We will then discuss character development and plotting before working on scene templates and writing exercises to help participants find a process and method that works for them to get that first draft completed.

TRACK B: Flash Prose with Rebecca Meacham

This craft workshop is for emerging to intermediate writers and focuses on writing historical flash prose, in either fiction or nonfiction. The workshop will include reading, drafting, workshopping, refining, and revising one or two flash pieces. The goals of this workshop are to introduce students to the historical prose form; generate writing through a prompt or two; revise for sound, image, form, and economy; and, ideally, have students end up with at least one near-finished piece.

TRACK C: On Duende: Writing Poetry with Reverence & Irreverence, Wonder & Play with Aboyami Animashaun

Frederico Garcia Lorca in the “Theory and Play of The Duende” calls the duende a spirit, a force, which has no map. Yet, for the artist, “the aid of the duende is required to drive home the nail of artistic truth.” In this craft talk and workshop, participants will be introduced to Lorca’s idea of duende along with hands-on strategies that can be utilized to discover the poem’s core, its true subject, and its animating force.

TRACK D: Creating a Business Plan for Writers with Valerie Clarizio

If you want to turn your passion for writing into a business, you’ll need a strategic business plan in place. Business plans are valuable documents to assist writers in setting, tracking, and learning from goals. It is a reference document used to measure outcomes and, in a sense, is a living and breathing document as goals and objectives evolve with time. Now is the time to get started, to get the most out of  your writing career. You’ll learn how to create a plan and use that plan to develop your writing business. You’ll also learn how to measure the results and adjust the plan as you go.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 3:00 – 4:30 PM

TRACK A: Story Origins: A Generative Writing Workshop with Kat Falls

 In this interactive workshop, we’ll discuss techniques for accessing this material and examine the importance of non-linear approaches in generating fresh work that showcases your unique imagination and experiences. We’ll look at how writers grow these sparks of inspiration into compelling narratives and different approaches to getting them onto the page. Finally, we’ll talk about why an exciting idea can lose its sizzle and what to do if that happens. Working closely with your own writing, either ongoing or created using prompts in the workshop, we will explore the extraordinary possibilities offered when we delve more deeply. Whether you’re a first-timer or an experienced writer, you’ll leave this class with fresh story ideas and the tools to breathe life into them. 

TRACK B: First Pages: Get ’em at Hello with Kim Suhr

All writers know the importance of the first sentence, paragraph, and page of their manuscript, but how can you tell when the first page is doing its job? In this breakout, we’ll begin with a brief overview of the “absolutely must haves” for The First Page and examine some examples from published work. Participants are encouraged to bring the first page of their manuscript (250 words maximum) for feedback.

TRACK C: Writing Your Nature with Heather Swan

How can we speak for the more-than-human world and what does that say about ourselves? Come write into these questions in a welcoming, generative workshop for writers of all levels.

TRACK D: Leap Into Book Marketing with Tori Grant Welhouse

Learn a handy framework for organizing your book promotion, engaging readers, and getting your book out in the world. After this seminar, you will leave with concrete ideas for creating awareness and community building such as enhancing your website content, publicity, social media sharing, and swag. Takeaways will include a marketing plan template as well as a news release template and reading resources.

PRESENTER BIOS

Abayomi Animashaun is the author of three poetry collections and editor of three anthologies. He is a poetry editor at The Comstock Review and the Series and Founding editor of the Immigrant Writers on Immigrant Writing Series through Black Lawrence Press. A winner of the Hudson Prize and recipient of a grant from the International Center for Writing and Translation, Animashaun is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh.

Patrick Baird is a Navy veteran, former repo man and newspaper reporter in love with storytelling. He is the author of Darkness at Death’s Door, a Door County crime novel, and publisher of the Beatnik Spy crime blog on Substack.

Born in Saigon and raised on Boston’s north shore, Quan Barry is the Lorraine Hansberry Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she has directed both the MFA program in Creative Writing and the Wisconsin Institute of Creative Writing. Barry is the author of eight books of fiction and poetry, including the novel We Ride Upon Sticks, which O: Oprah Magazine describes as “spellbinding, wickedly fun.” The New York Times named her poetry collection, Auction, one of the five best poetry books of 2023. Barry is also one of a select group of writers to receive NEA fellowships in both poetry and fiction. In 2021, she was awarded the American Library Association’s Alex Award. Her first play, The Mytilenian Debate, was staged by Forward Theater in spring 2022 and her fourth novel, The Unveiling, set in Antarctica, will be published in the fall of 2025.

Author of the forthcoming poetry collection Lifting Child from the Ground, Turning Around (Glass Lyre Press 2024) and From the Belly (Sibling Rivalry Press 2012), Virginia Bell won NELLE Magazine’s  Nonfiction Prize in 2020 for the personal essay, “Chicken,” and her poetry won Honorable Mention in the 2019 RiverSedge Poetry Prize, judged by José Antonio Rodríguez.  Her work has appeared in New City Magazine, Five Points, Denver Quarterly, SWWIM, EAP: The Magazine, Hypertext,The Night Heron Barks, Kettle Blue Review,Fifth Wednesday Journal, Rogue Agent, Gargoyle, Cider Press Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, Poet Lore, The Nervous Breakdown, The Keats Letters Project, Blue Fifth Review, Voltage Poetry, and other journals and anthologies.  Bell is Co-Editor of RHINO Poetry and teaches at Loyola University Chicago and DePaul University.

Chris Bower is a Chicago-based teacher, playwright, and the author of the short story collection Little Boy Needs Ride (Curbside Splendor) and the novella “The Family Dogs”, which was part of the My Very End of the Universe novella collection published by Rose Metal Press. He is the curator and host of The Ray’s Tap Reading Series and an ensemble member of Curious Theatre Branch. His latest theatrical production, The Ship and the Sea, a play inspired by the sinking of the Swedish warship VASA, was at the Facility Theater in Chicago in Fall 2024.

Paula Carter is the author of the flash memoir No Relation. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times, USA Today, Christian Science Monitor, Kenyon Review, The Southern Review, Creative Nonfiction, and elsewhere. Based in Chicago, she is a part of the live lit community and is a company member with the storytelling group 2nd Story. She was the inaugural writer-in-residence on Washington Island, Wisconsin, in fall 2018. She holds an M.F.A. from Indiana University, Bloomington and is currently teaching creative nonfiction at Northwestern University.

Valerie Clarizio is a USA Today best-selling author and creator of The Nick Spinelli Mystery series, A Door County Romance series, the Crime and Passion Stalk City Hall series, and The Preserver & Protector series, as well as several stand-alone mystery and romance novels. She has a bachelor’s degree in accounting and a master’s degree in business and works as the Finance Director for the City of Sturgeon Bay.

For over a decade, Sally Collins’ work has appeared regularly in the Peninsula Pulse newspaper and Door County Living magazine. She recently published her debut novel, Muddled Cherries, a coming-of-age story set primarily in Door County, inspired by her many years working in the restaurant industry. A semifinalist for the 2024 Wisconsin People & Ideas short fiction contest, she’s also the author of the children’s board book Door County Animals and a librarian at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College. Learn more at sallycollinswrites.com.

Dan Crissman is Editor-in-Chief at the University of Wisconsin Press. He has worked in book publishing for nearly two decades, previously serving in editorial roles at W.W. Norton; Farrar, Strauss & Giroux; Belt Publishing; and, most recently, Indiana University Press. He is the author of two books, Cleveland in 50 Maps and Brewing Everything. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English from the College of William and Mary and a master’s in U.S. history from Indiana University.

Albert DeGenova is an award-winning poet, publisher, and teacher, as well as the Executive Director of Write On, Door County. He is the author of five books of poetry and two chapbooks. DeGenova is the founder of After Hours Press and editor of After Hours magazine, a journal of Chicago writing and art which launched in June of 2000.  He received his MFA from Spalding University in Louisville. He is also a blues saxophonist.

Holly Phaneuf Erskine has a PhD in medicinal chemistry from the University of Utah. With her husband, she wrote, filmed, and produced The Emissary, an award-winning movie on which her solarpunk sci-fi trilogy is based. She co-facilitates a virtual writing group and participates in an in-person writing critique group.

Award-winning author Kat Falls writes science fiction thrillers for tweens and teens. In her Dark Life series (Scholastic), Kat takes middle grade readers on action-packed adventures under the sea. The series has been translated into 18 languages and optioned for film by Disney. Kat appeared on The Today Show when Al Roker featured Dark Life on “Al’s Book Club for Kids.” Her young adult series, Inhuman (Scholastic), is a dystopian romance set after the outbreak of a mutagenic virus. Inhuman received glowing reviews from Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, VOYA, a starred review from Kirkus, and made the Tome It List for “clean” teen reads. Kat teaches writing at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL and presents at schools and writing conferences across the country.

Kristine Hansen is a journalist who has written for outlets that include Vogue.com, TIME and ArchitecturalDigest.com. She’s also the author of three non-fiction books about Wisconsin: Wisconsin Cheese Cookbook: Creamy, Cheesy, Sweet and Savory Recipes from the State’s Best Creameries; Wisconsin Farms and Farmers Markets: Tours, Trails and Attractions; and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Wisconsin: How America’s Most Famous Architect Found Inspiration in His Home State. She’s currently working on a novel.

Claire Harris is a literary agent at P.S. Literary agency representing a wide range of fiction and non-fiction for adults. She seeks projects that shine a spotlight on people, places, and events that are often overlooked or not given the attention they deserve. Claire loves complex and well-developed characters, unique voices, and twisty plots. One of her favorite parts of being an agent is the creative process of working with authors and collaborating closely with them throughout all stages of their careers. You can see her clients’ books on a variety of bestseller lists, including The New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, and the ABA Indie list, among others. When she’s not reading, Claire loves taking long walks, drinking too much iced tea, and exploring parks of all shapes and sizes. You can find her online at @claire_m_harris on all platforms.

Juan Martinez is the author of the novel Extended Stay (Camino del Sol/University of Arizona Press, 2023) and the story collection Best Worst American (Small Beer Press, 2017). He lives near Chicago and is an associate professor at Northwestern University. His work has appeared most recently in Ploughshares, The Chicago Quarterly Review, The Sunday Morning Transport, Huizache, Ecotone, NIGHTMARE, McSweeney’s, NPR’s Selected Shorts, Small Odysseys, Shenandoah, TriQuarterly, Sudden Fiction Latino, Flash Fiction America, and elsewhere. 

David Mathews’ work has been nominated for Best of the Net, a Pushcart, and he was a two-time finalist in the Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Awards. Recent publications include Midwestern Gothic, Eclectica Magazine, Belt Magazine’s Rust Belt Chicago: An Anthology, and Open Heart Chicago: An Anthology of Chicago Writing. David lives in his hometown of Chicago, where he works as a Creative Writing Instructor at the Chicago High School for the Arts (ChiArts).

Rebecca Meacham’s short story collection, Let’s Do, won UNT Press’s Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Fiction, and her flash fiction collection, Morbid Curiosities, won the New Delta Review chapbook prize. Her work has appeared most recently in Best Microfiction 2021, Wigleaf, Had, and Gigantic Sequins, and her prose has been set to music, translated into Polish, and carved into woodblocks and letter-pressed by steamroller. She is a professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, where she directs The Teaching Press and chairs the BFA in Writing and Applied Arts program. Her chapbook, Feather Rousing, is published this spring by Black Lawrence Press.

Erika Nelson is a mental health counselor with a focus on healing trauma and PTSD. Her nonfiction books, including Brave Love 365, address healing from narcissistic abuse and toxic relationships.

Rita Mae Reese (she/her) is the author of The Book of Hulga. Her work has won numerous awards, including a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award, a Stegner Fellowship, and a “Discovery”/The Nation award. She designs Lesbian Poet Trading Cards for Headmistress Press, is in the bluegrass band Coulee Creek, and serves as the Co-Director at Arts + Literature Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin.

Jerod Santek is the Founding and Artistic Director of Write On, Door County. He has worked in literary arts administration, creating programs that support and encourage writers at all levels, for more than 30 years. In 2024, he was presented with the George Garrett Award for Outstanding Community Service in Literature by the Association of Writers and Writing Programs.

Kim Suhr is author of the story collections Close Call and Nothing to Lose (Cornerstone Press). She holds an MFA in fiction from the Solstice Program where she was the Dennis Lehane Fellow in Fiction. Her writing has won awards and appeared in various publications. Kim is Director of Red Oak Writing leading Writers’ Roundtable critique groups, providing manuscript critiques and one-on-one coaching. When she isn’t writing, Kim enjoys hiking, knitting, gardening, and being a fan-girl for her grown children in their various pursuits. Learn more at kimsuhr.com

Heather Swan is a poet and nonfiction writer. Her poems have appeared in such journals as The Hopper, One Art, Terrain, Poet Lore, The Raleigh Review, and elsewhere. Her most recent collection, Dandelion, as released from Terrapin Books in 2023. Her first book, A Kinship with Ash, was a finalist for both the ASLE Book Award and the Julie Suk Award. Her nonfiction book, Where Honeybees Thrive (Penn State Press) won the Sigrud F. Olson Nature Writing Award. A companion book, Where the Grass Still Sings: Stories of Insects and Interconnection, was released in May of 2024. She has been the recipient of the August Derleth Poetry Award, the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets Best Chapbook Award, the Wisconsin Center for the Book Bookmark Award, the Martha Meyer Renk Fellowship in Poetry at UW Madison, and an Illinois Arts Council Poetry Fellowship Award. She teaches environmental literature and writing at UW Madison.

Tori Grant Welhouse is a poet and novelist from Green Bay with an award-winning poetry chapbook, Vaginas Need Air, and a prize-winning YA paranormal novel The Fergus. Her poems have appeared most recently in Silver Birch Press, Half Mystic, and The Woolf. She earned an honorable mention in the 2021 Hal Prize and was a runner-up in the 2020 Princemere Prize. She is currently a Marketing Manager at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, supporting the Division of Continuing Education and Community Engagement on programs, events, training, and initiatives that help fulfill the university’s deep commitment to civic engagement, community partnerships, and accessible education. She has worked in advertising and media for more than 20 years.