40 | The Writer • October 2019
CONFERENCE INSIDER
BY MELISSA HART
F
or 26 years, Gotham Writers
Workshop has empowered
students in person and online
with creative writing classes
and public lectures. In October 2019, it’s
launching a writers’ conference held at
the Ace Hotel in mid-town Manhattan.
Director of Conferences and Con-
tests Josh Sippie has attended numer-
ous writers’ conferences. He longed to
break away from the traditional model
in which writers meet literary agents to
pitch a project in a 10-minute forced
conversation – a model he says many
agents would like to eliminate as well.
Instead, Gotham welcomes anyone
to attend the first day of the confer-
ence, which will be filled with
presentations about authors’ journeys
from rejection to publication. The sec-
ond day will be devoted to agent
roundtable presentations and discus-
sions by invitation only, based on an
application and writing sample.
“This fits with the Gotham philoso-
phy,” Sippie explains. “We don’t want to
take your money if you’re not ready for
something. We want to see your query
and pages first, to make sure you under-
stand what you have. We don’t want to
waste your time or the agents’ time.”What you’ll learn
The first day of the conference begins
with a panel of authors talking about
how they’ve written and published abook, moderated by novelist and edi-
tor Joe Okonkwo. Memoirist and fic-Gotham Writers Conference
Spend two days talking craft and networking with agents at this NYC conference
hosted by one of the country’s most well-known writing centers.CONFERENCE:
Gotham Writers Conference
DATES:
October 25-26, 2019
COST:
$245-$595
LOCATION:
New York City
CONTACT:
Conference Director Josh Sippie,
[email protected],
writingclasses.com/
writers-conference/indexIM_photo/Shutterstock