Dear Writers, There have been a few changes to our list of attending agents. Michael Larsen and Elizabeth Pomada of Larsen-Pomada Literary Agents are no longer able to attend this year's conference.
However, we have two new agents who will be participating in Advance Submission, as well as on the Agent/Editor Panels: Kristyn Keene of ICM Partners and Margaret Bail from Inklings Literary Agency. Their full bios are on the website.
If you have not already registered for Advance Submission, this is a great opportunity to get one-on-one feedback from a publishing insider. The deadline for Advance Submission manuscripts to be received is May 2. Visit www.sbwriters.com for more information and registration.
Finally, we're excited to profile the panelists on this year's First Book Panel. We have THREE SBWC alumni on the panel this year! Read their full bios below.
Don't forget to register!
Write On! SBWC Team “Every secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind, is written large in his works.”?—Virginia Woolf If you haven't booked a hotel room yet, there are still available rooms at the Hyatt. Call 888-421-1442, or visit the reservation link to book your room. The last day for the SBWC group rate is May 6.
For alternative places to stay, visit: http://www.sbwriters.
Be sure to “like” our official Facebook page, which is the best place for conference updates. You can also join our new Facebook group for fun postings from SBWC workshop leaders and students.
First Book Panelists:
Ara Grigorian is a technology executive in the entertainment industry. He earned his Masters in Business Administration from University of Southern California where he specialized in marketing and entrepreneurship. Ara writes about choices, relationships, and second chances. Always a sucker for a hopeful ending, he writes contemporary romance stories targeted to adult and new adult readers. His debut novel, Game of Love, will be published in May by Curiosity Quills Press.
Trey Dowell brought the first twenty pages of a sci-fi/thriller novel called Aphrodite Way to the SBWC in 2011. A year later, he brought the completed manuscript to SBWC and won a prize in the fiction category. The following year, Simon & Schuster bought that manuscript to be part of a new imprint: Simon451—a speculative fiction imprint named in honor of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. Dowell’s debut novel, retitled The Protectors, was one of four titles that officially launched the Simon451 line in October of 2014.
Liz Maccie has had two movies produced, The Thirst and Black and Blue. She went on to work at The Disney Channel until she found a home as a writer at the ABC Family show Make it or Break it. Lessons is Maccie's debut novel. She currently splits time between the east and west coasts with her husband, Stephen Chbosky, author of Perks of Being a Wallflower.
Sameer Pandya was born in India and came to California when he was eight. His fiction has appeared, among other places, in Narrative, Other Voices, and Faultline. His first collection, The Blind Writer: Stories and a Novella, follows the lives of first-and second-generation Indian Americans living in contemporary California. The characters share a similar sensibility: a sense that immigration is a distant memory, yet an experience that continues to shape the decisions they make in subtle and surprising ways as they go about the complicated business of everyday living. Pandya currently teaches literature and creative writing in the Department of Asian American Studies at UC Santa Barbara.
News, Announcements & Happenings from SBWC Workshop Leaders, Students & Speakers
T.C. Boyle will be signing copies of his newest novel The Harder They Come at Chaucer’s Books on April 27 at 7pm.
Denise Duhamel and poet/activist Paul Fericano will read their poetry to wrap up the 6thseason of the Mission Poetry Series on Saturday, April 18 at 1pm at Antioch University. Chaucer’s Books will offer works by each poet. Long-time SBWC attendee/volunteer and author Melinda Palacio is curating the series.
Selections of Svetlana Meritt’s new travelogue, Meet Me in the Underworld: How 77 Sacred Sites, 770 Cappuccinos, and 26,000 Miles Led Me to My Soul was featured in Moon Magazine. Meritt will be reading her travel stories at Chaucer’s Books on April 9 at 7pm.
Joseph Suste’s first book, Sharp Obsidian, was recently published by Joshua Tree Publishing/Centaur Books, Chicago.
***If you would like your news to be included in the next SBWC e-Newsletter, please send in an email to info@sbwriters.com with the subject line NEWSLETTER.***
