Events

Miami Book Fair 2016 Noir at the Bar readers, l to r: M.J. Fievre, Alex Segura, Neliza Drew, Vicki Hendricks, Lynne Barrett, Fabienne Josaphat, Mike Creeden, Joe Clifford, and Les Standiford. Photo via Alex Segura.

Sign at the Southwest Harbor Public Library

Southwest Harbor Public Library

Books & Books, Coral Gables

Odyssey Bookshop, South Hadley

Porter Square Books, Cambridge

This video gives you a small sampling of what the Sanibel Island Writers Conference was like: workshops, readings, music. Lynne reads one line from her story "Links."

Photo by Sara DiVello from Muse & the Marketplace 2017.

Events

Magpies on display at Books & Books, Camana Bay, Grand Cayman

2025 events

2024 events

The 2024 Sanibel Island Writers Conference was held Nov. 8-9 on the Florida Gulf Coast University campus. I taught a workshop on Writing Mystery & Suspense, with examples, prompts, and sharing, which drew an involved and collaborative audience. The attendees filled a room made from removing dividers between two classrooms in the Student Union building.

2023 Events

I'm happy to say that I was among those presenting at Florida Gulf Coast University's "Sanibel On Campus Writers Conference," which took place in person at the Fort Myers campus Friday evening, Nov. 3 and all day Saturday Nov. 4, 2023. All the presenters (who you see on the flyer at left) are Floridians, and the conference drew FGCU students and others interested in writing from the area and across the state. Mine was a three hour generative workshop on "Plot, Story, and Structure."

After Hurricane Ian blew away plans for the conference to return to the island in early November 2022, the conference offered online panels about writing craft and publishing (see below), which are still accessible for free on the conference schedule page. I met by phone with each of four conference registrants who'd submitted manuscripts for in-person-one-on-ones, and their resilience and determination to learn and carry on is also the spirit of the conference organizers. The 2023 conference was a big step towards rebuilding.

I taught a manuscript-based advanced fiction seminar at the International Women's Writing Guild Conference in Philadelphia, July 20-24, 2023. The theme was "Writing for Equity and Inclusion," and workshops, readings, and other activities took take place on the campus of Chestnut Hill College. Information and registration here.

On May 19, 2023, I had the pleasure of teaching at the Miami Dade College Student Writers Conference, which took place at the Padrón Campus, after having been online in recent years. It was set up so that those who wished to could attend classes and the keynote address by Jennifer Maritza McCauley remotely.

2022 Events

On Facebook you can still view, free, the live streamed SIWC panels from the past three (remote) SIWC's, including: "Lynne Barrett, Joe Clifford, and M.J. Fievre on Anthologies," & "Lynne Barrett, Ron Cooper, Tod Goldberg (moderated by Hank Phillippi Ryan): The Secrets of Suspense: Whether You Write Crime Fiction or Not!" (both 2022), "Will They Believe You: Speaking the Unspeakable" (2021) and "Plot" (2020), along with many others. Check them out at the SIWC Facebook Page.

      When the much-anticipated return to Sanibel for the 2022 FGCU Sanibel Island Writers Conference was thwarted by a hurricane, Florida Gulf Coast University replanned and offered a free one-day conference online, appealing to donors to contribute to storm relief funds.
       I was on two panels:
      "The Secrets of Suspense, Whether You Write Crime Fiction or Not," with Lynne Barrett, Ron Cooper, and Todd Goldberg, hosted by Hank Phillippi Ryan, covered a lot of ground..
    And editors Lynne Barrett, Joe Clifford, and M. J.Fievre presented a panel on the many facets of the process of creating, editing, and publishing anthologies, including editorial vision and aesthetic decisions; collaboration with contributors, editors, and publishers from various regions and cultural backgrounds; sales, marketing, and distribution, including readings, social media engagement, and classroom adoptions; and unexpected legal, ethical, and practical issues to be aware of.
        Both of these panels can be viewed, free, on the Sanibel Island Conference Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/sanibelislandwritersconferenc

My Advanced Seminar in Fiction Writing was just one of a wide range of offerings at the International Women’s Writing Guild Conference: “Reconnect and Reimagine,” Endicott College, Beverly, MA, July 22-28, 2022.

For the Miami Dade College Student Writing Conference, May 20, 2022 (online), I taught a workshop on "Branching Paths: Where Writing Can Take You," about the many careers in publishing, editing, teaching, PR, reporting, and much more that draw on the skills learned in studying creative writing. On May 13, 2022, I was among the presenters at the third annual Miami Dade College Student Writers Conference. My session, "Branching Paths: Where Writing Can Take You," focused on the connections between skills learned in writing classes (including collaboration, revision, understanding audience, dramatic storytelling vs. exposition, and more) and real world work of many kinds that writers can do, including reporting, editing, publishing, teaching, public relations, events management,and much more. The 2023 Student Writers Conference is in the works.

2021 events

The Miami Book Fair presented “In Conversation: Wyman and the Florida Knights,” video discussion/interview with LarryBaker and Lynne Barrett on Baker’s novel set in fictional Knightsville, FL in Nov. 2021, available online here
https://www.miamibookfaironline.com/event/in-conversation-on-wyman-and-the-florida-knights/

November 4, 2021, I taught a workshop on story development and structure at Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers, FL, to FGCU students in person, and that evening M.J. Fievre and I did a public reading and answered questions on the FGCU campus.

I also presented at the FGCU virtual online Sanibel Writers Conference on Nov. 6th, 2021 where I was on two panels: “Will They Believe You? Speaking the Unspeakable,” with reading and discussion, with Lynne Barrett, Denise Duhamel, and Beth Ann Fennelly, and “Storytelling Plot and Structure: With Lynne Barrett, Joe Clifford, and Steve Womack.” The presentations from that day are still hosted on the Sanibel Island Wrters Conference Facebook page.

I presented “Capturing Character in a Flash,” an online workshop, as part of the Miami Dade College Student Writers Conference, May 21, 2021.

I taught “Disentangling Time,” online generative craft workshop, Feb. 6, 2021, for the Flatiron Writers, Asheville, NC.

The Cream Literary Alliance, based in West Palm Beach, FL, hosted “Character in a Flash,” an online generative writing presentation, on Jan. 16, 2021.

2020 events

The Sanibel Island Writers Conference took place in a virtual format. On Oct. 25, 2020, I was part of the panel presentation “Plot: With Lynne Barrett, Joe Clifford, and Steve Womack,” which can be viewed still on the Sanibel Island Wrters Conference Facebook page. (I've been told it keeps getting a lot of views.)

I taught an online workshop: “Haunted: 21st Century Ghosts and the Uses of the Uncanny,” for International Women’s Writing Guild, Oct. 24, 2020. There were participants from Alaska to Geneva, Switzerland.

National Independent Bookstores Day, originally April 27, 2020, was rescheduled for August 29, 2020.

Making Good Time,which was scheduled to be part of the festivities at Books and Books in Coral Gables, instead became a Books and Books Crowdcast event, with contributors Chantel Acevedo, Fabienne Josaphat, Sammy Mack, Thomas Swick, and Ana Veciana-Suarez reading from and discussing their stories about how we do, and don't, get around in South Florida, in the past, now, and in the future, along with the anthology's editor Lynne Barrett as emcee.
You can now view the event on the Books and Books website.

I offered an online presentation about What Editors Want for the IWWG, part of their summer series on "The Business of Writing," on Monday, June 29, 2020. See the top of this home page for more information.

The International Women's Writing Guild summer conference, which had been scheduled for late July at Misselwood at Endicott College in Beverly, MA was able to return in person in 2022.

On June 29, 2020 I taught an online workshop on "What Editors Want" as part of the International Women's Writing Guild's Summer 2020 WRITING AS BUSINESS series on Monday evenings at 7, June 15th through August 24. The IWWG was able to offe, this series and the full set of summer presentations, the IWWG Summer Picnic for Writers. There was also an opportunity to reserve an appointment with an agent. Full information is here on the IWWG website.

These IWWG events replaced the planned-for IWWG Summer Conference at Endicott College, where I would have been teaching a Fiction Intensive, as well as doing a talk on What Editors Want. The Conference was able to return, in person at Endicott, in July 2022.

Illustrator: Anuj Shrestha / Topos Graphics / Publisher Jai Alai Books

Writing your own Making Good Time story:

The Miami Book Fair offered Making Good Time: Story and the Map of Opportunity, a generative workshop for writers of both fiction and nonfiction that I taught February 8, 2020 at Books & Books in Coral Gables, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

At Books and Books (itself a crossroads), we looked at how writers use place, movement, territory, obstacles, access, boundary crossing, departures, returns, and other aspects of spatial movement to construct, shape, and give meaning to stories, whether true or invented. Short examples from published work focused on South Florida, while participants can draw on locations anywhere, real, imagined, or somewhere in between, for what you’ll write. You can get going on new writing or find a new angle on work in progress. Suitable for those interested in writing memoir, personal essay, narrative nonfiction, and fiction, from flash length to longer projects. LEARN MORE ABOUT MIAMI BOOK FAIR'S OFFERINGS: Full info. and registration via Miami Book Fair.

2019 Events

LtoR:MDT-TV host Stephanie Saint Come, Lynne Barrett Jan Becker, and Louis K. Lowy

Along with Jan Becker and Louis K. Lowy, I was interviewed about Making Good Time by MDC-TV in a Sept. 2019 feature. The program can be viewed online.

Because the Big Arts Conference Center on Sanibel was under reconstruction in Fall 2019, Florida Gulf Coast University hosted two on campus sets of presentations. M.J. Fievre and I each taught craft classes and then read from our work and answered questions for the assumbled audience that evening.

On April 13th, 2019 I taught an intensive class in revision for fiction and narrative nonfiction at the second annual Writers Craft Conference of the Florida Keys, held in Marathon, FL. Learn more here.

I presented at Grub Street's Muse and the Marketplace Conference 2019, April 5-7 at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel. The Muse was recently listed as #1 among the Top Ten Writing Conferences in North America by The Writer magazine. I taught workshops on "Disentangling Time" and the art of using place "Crossing Paths: The Map of Opportunity in Stories" in fiction.

2018 Appearances

Thursday, Nov.15th at 7 p.m., I was part of Miami Book Fair's Noir at the Bar reading, along with Alex Segura (who is emceeing), Joe Clifford, Mike Creeden, Hector Duarte Jr., Jon McGoran, and Lauren Doyle Owens. We served up slices of crime fiction, and Gold Dust Lounge provided live (definitely lounge noir) music, at MBFI's The Porch, behind Building One of Miami- Dade College's Wolfson Campus in Downtown Miami. This was the third annual MBFI Noir at the Bar, and we're hoping there will be another.

,

I taught two classes ont plot and structure at the FGCU Sanibel Island Writer's Conference, Nov. 8-11, 2018 In addition, I was part of an Agents & Editors Panel, and read from my recent short story in Mystery Tribune.

This is a great, relaxed, friendly conference.

Learn more about it and check out that line-up of presenters.

I was among those teaching at the International Women's Writing Guild annual conference at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA, July 6-13. I presented a generative fiction workshop: "Spinning Straw into Gold: Exploring Fiction’s Many Forms."

Check out the Guild's many offerings here: https://www.iwwg.org/in-person-conferences/

I presented at Grub Street's Muse and the Marketplace Conference 2018, April 6-8 at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel. The Muse was recently listed as #1 among the Top Ten Writing Conferences in North America by The Writer magazine. I taught workshops on "Productive Revision" and the art of handling "Secrets and Lies" to create mystery and suspense in fiction.

At the Associated Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) Conference, March 8-10, 2018 in Tampa, I was on two panels:

"Gulf Coast Noir: Dark Sweltering Justice," where I moderated and presented along with Mary Anna Evans, Vicki Hendricks, Jeff Newberry, and Alex Segura. Thursday, March 9, 10:30-11:45 AM.
&
"The Shadow of the Mouse: How Florida Fiction Can Escape Theme Park Culture," with Chris Eder (Moderator), Regina Sakalarios Rogers, Jeff Newberry, Patrick Ryan, Lynne Barrett). Saturday, March 11, 9-10:15 AM.

I also did a book signing (left) at the International Women's Writing Guild table at the conference Expo.

At the Associated Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) Conference, March 8-10, 2018 in Tampa, I was on two panels:

"Gulf Coast Noir: Dark Sweltering Justice," where I was moderator and presenting along with Mary Anna Evans, Vicki Hendricks, and Jeff Newberry,
&
"The Shadow of the Mouse: How Florida Fiction Can Escape Theme Park Culture," with Chris Eder (Moderator), Regina Sakalarios Rogers, Jeff Newberry, Patrick Ryan, Lynne Barrett).

I also did a signing at the International Women's Writing Guild table at the conference Expo.

2017 Events

Miami Book Fair 2-17:

I led a First Draft writing session the evening of Thursday, Nov. 16, at The Porch, where I provided prompts with the theme "Noir Country."

And then immediately afterward, I was in the line-up of readers for Noir at the Bar, which also featured murder ballads by Wilson and the Slayers. Raders: Hector Duarte Jr., Mike Creeden, Lynne Barrett, Alex Segura, Fabienne Josaphat, Vicki Hendricks, and Joe Clifford.

I was among the presenters at the Sanibel Island Writers Conference, November 2-5, 2017. My workshops centered on plot and structure, and I was on an agent and editors panel. I am happy to say I'll be at this conference again next year—it's a great one.

On October 14th, I was a Visiting Writer at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. In addition to visiting a class on women's crime writing, I did a craft talk and a reading.

I taught a six-day workshop, "Plot, Structure, and the Map of Opportunity," as part of the International Women's Writing Guild Summer Conference at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA, July 7-14, 2017.

I was among those presenting at Grub Street's Muse & the Marketplace in May 2017. You can see the schedule for 2018 on their website.

I taught What Editors Want workshop on submitting your work to literary and other magazines, sponsored by The Cream Literary Alliance, at the Palm Springs (FL) Library on the morning of Saturday, April 22nd.

At the Expo of the AWP Conference in Washington, DC, I signed copies What Editors Want at the FIU MFA program table and the table of the International Women's Writing Guild.

2016 Events

Check out the poster for the first-ever NOIR AT THE BAR MIAMI, where ten of us offered shots of noir fiction at Miami Book Fair' s The Porch.

In Nov. 2016, I was among those presenting at the Sanibel Island Writers Conference.

Sept. 17th, I taught a Miami Book Fair workshop on "What Editors Want: Understanding the Process of Submitting to Literary Magazines" at the Wolfson Campus in downtown Miami, helping attendees sort out their questions, fears, hopes, and ambitions. Details and registration here.

At International Women's Writing Guild Summer Conference in July 2016 at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA, I taught a three-day workshop in using mystery and suspense in both literary and crime fiction.

In late June I had the pleasure of visiting a creative writing class, part of the Boston College Experience summer program for high school students.

I was among the presenters at Grub Street's Muse and the Marketplace Conference in Boston, May 1 & 2, 2016.

March 11 & 12th I took part in the Gulf Coast Association of Creative Writing Teachers annual conference, held at Faulkner State College in Fairhope, AL. James May and I did presentations on "Mapping Your Story: Using Maps, Images, and Sketches to Imagine and Develop Your Fiction," and on a different panel I read from new fiction and nonfiction.

Downtown Fairhope, AL

Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016, The International Women's Writing Guild's Florida in February Salon was held in Tampa, with I taught a workshop on "Very Short Forms: Exploring Micro-Literature" and Judith Huge presented on "The Page Waits: From Personal to Public(ation)."

Saturday, February 20 I gave a presentation on writing flash forms at the Mandell Library of West Palm Beach, FL.

2015

On November 11, 2015, the wonderful poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil and I read as part of "Writers in Camden," the Camden-Rutgers MFA Reading Series.

Nov. 4-9, 2015 I was among those presenting at the Tenth Annual Sanibel Island Writers Conference. You can see next year's schedule here. Read about the conference in Florida Weekly.

Thursday, Oct. 29, I led the Center for Literature and Writing at MDC's "First Draft" happy hour plus writing prompts event from 6:30 to 8:30 at Broken Shaker at Freehand Miami, on Miami Beach. The theme was "Haunts." You can see the upcoming First Draft schedule here.

On Monday evening, Oct. 26, I gave a talk on Plot & Structure at Broward College's South Campus, sponsored by BC Student Life.

Along with Vicki Hendricks, I discussed what it's like to write in and about Florida at a plenary session of the 2015 Florida College English Association conference Oct. 8 in St. Petersburg.

And the following day, a panel of critics and teachers discussed my work, building upon the chapter on Magpies in Women of Florida Fiction.

The conference theme was
"Turn Back the Page: Discovering Florida's History through Texts"

Sept. 25th, 8 PM, I read, along with others, at The Cream Reading Series, at Aoli Pub in West Palm Beach.

And the next day, 10-1, I taught a workshop: "What Shapes a Short Story" for The Cream Literary Alliance.

July 2015

July 24-31,
I taught Plot & Structure at the International Women's Writing Guild Summer Conference in Litchfield, CT.

Spring 2015

Saturday, June 27th, I taught a one-day class for Grub Street in Boston, Crossing the Line: Using Crime to Construct Strong Stories. Learn more about their classes here.

I taught "Crossing Paths: Plot & Structure," a 3 day workshop, for the Miami Writers Institute, May 6-9, sponsored by the Florida Center for Literature and Writing at Miami Dade College.

I taught two workshops at the Grub Street Muse & the Marketplace Conference, May 1-3, in Boston, MA.

I spoke at the AWP Conference in Minneapolis, MN, April 9-11, on two panels:

A Thread Through the Labyrinth: Learning and Teaching Plot

&

Rock and Prose: Musician/Fiction Writers Reflect at the Crossroads

On January 19th, I was among those reading from and discussing the project at Books & Books in Coral Gables, FL. You can still see and hear the event, featuring editor Jaquira Diaz and contributors John Dufresne, M.J. Fievre, M. Evelina Galang, Geoffrey Philp, and me, via the Books & Books website.

January 7, 2015, I was a guest speaker at the Carlow University Low-Residency MFA Program, in Pittsburgh.

2014

Broadsheet, "The Tree Man," Lynne Barrett & Pip Brandt

At Miami Book Fair International, I was part of a reading & broadsheet giveaway to celebrate Sweat II, a collaborative project pairing South Florida writers and artists. I contributed to two of the pieces, "The Princess of Sweat" with artist Sara Stites and "The Tree Man" with artist Pip Brandt.

The reading took place on Saturday, Nov. 22. in "The Swamp" a Knight Foundation-sponsored site for all things Florida within the Book Fair. More about the project, and the venue, here.

Nov. 16-23, I led The Florida Book Review live-blog of Miami Book Fair International.

And I was part of a reading, celebration, and broadsheet giveaway Saturday Nov. 22 at 12:30 in The Swamp, Miami Book Fair's new pop-up venue at the Street fair.

Read more about the event and The Sweat Broadsheet Artist & Writers Collaborative project in this piece in the Miami New Times.

I taught Plot & Structure at the FGCU Sanibel Island Writers Conference Nov. 6-9, 2014.

July 27th, along with poet Weslea Sidon, I taught a writing workshop on Mount Desert Island, at the Bass Harbor Memorial Library, Bernard, ME

That evening Sidon & I read from our work at the library, with a reception and signing.

Using the overall theme of "Islands," the workshop drew upon topics including history, memory, myth, nature, community, isolation, boundaries and journeys. More info here.

Photo, Robert Morison

In May 2014, I taught two workshops, "Crossing Paths: The Map of Opportunity in Story" and "The Measure of Change: The Short Story," at the Grub Street Muse & the Marketplace Conference in Boston, MA. Information here.

March 28 & 29th I read fiction and took part in a panel on Place and Crime Writing (with Vicki Hendricks and Mary Anna Evans) at the Gulf Coast Association of Creative Writing Teachers Conference in Fairhope, AL.

On March 22nd, along with Margaret Cardillo and Jim Gustafson, I taught at the 2014 Florida Gulf Coast University Creative Writing Club MiniCon.

My workshop was on "Using Fairy Tales and Myths to Develop and Deepen Stories."

Image: John Bauer illustration for Svenhamnen (The Swan Maiden)

The Art of Eating:
M.F.K. Fisher, Pioneering Food Writer and Memoirist
March 18th, 2014 I spoke about M.F.K. Fisher, ground-breaking food writer and memoirist, at the Miami Culinary Institute as part of Miami Dade College's their celebration of Women's History Month. The talk
was accompanied by a tasting of some of Fisher's dishes, prepared by the students of the MDC Culinary Institute.

I talked about "Masquerade Plots," gave a reading, and took part in a panel on submitting your work to magazines and contests at the Hands On Literary Festival in New Orleans (which included a masquerade ball), Dec. 30, 2013-Jan. 1, 2014. Write ups on my talk and the conference here and here.

Lots more on my Scrapbook page.

At the 2013 AWP Conference & Bookfair in Boston, I signed copies Magpies at the Carnegie Mellon University Press table.

Photo: Sen. Bob Graham signs, while poet Stephen Kampa and I take a break, after the Miami Book Fair International Florida Book Awards panel, 2012.

Answering audience questions after reading at Bookstore1Sarasota, an independent bookstore that lives up to its motto, "Joie de livres."

An article by Necee Regis about The Odyssey Bookshop, published in the Boston Globe travel section on Jan. 1, 2012, included this photo from my reading there. I happened to be the writer whose event kicked-off the store's $5 event fee (with credit towards purchase given). Nobody complained.

To see more pictures and learn about past events, check out the Scrapbook.