The Writers’ Conference, now at Hunter College, is widely considered one of the finest fiction and non-fiction conferences.  In addition to keynote speakers Carol Higgins Clark, Mary Higgins Clark, and Colson Whitehead, the Writers’ Conference will feature twelve panels with distinguished writers, editors, publicists and literary agents. Steve Berry, Adam Ross, Daphne Merkin and Katharine Sands will be conducting intensive workshops in the days leading up to the conference.

Click the image to download the complete conference brochure.

2012 Writers' Conference Fee Schedule

Writing Intensives

Wednesday, June 6 - Friday, June 8, 2012
6:00-9:00pm

Intensive Instructors:

Fiction 1 – Adam Ross is the author of Ladies and Gentlemen and Mr. Peanut. His non­fic­tion has been pub­lished in The New York Times Book Review, The Daily Beast, The Wall Street Jour­nal, The Nashville Scene, NFo­cus, P.O.V., and Jun­gle Law. His fic­tion has appeared in The Car­olina Quar­terly and FiveChap­ters.

Fiction 2 – Steve Berry is the New York Times bestselling author of the Cotton Malone series including The Jefferson Key and The Emperors Tomb. He has 12 million books in print, which have been translated into 40 languages and sold in 51 countries. He's also an accomplished instructor, having taught writing to audiences across the globe.

Memoir – Daphne Merkin is a writer for The New York Times Magazine. She has also had her own cultural column at The New Yorker and is the author of Dreaming of Hitler and Enchantment.

Literary Agents – Katharine Sands is a literary agent with the Sarah Jane Freymann Literary Agency in New York. She is the editor of Making the Perfect Pitch: How to Catch a Literary Agent's Eye and has been a guest expert on writing and publishing for Poets and Writers, The American Society of Journalists and Authors, New York University, and the New York State Council on the Arts.

Writers' Conference 

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Check-in and Breakfast: 8:30am-9:00am

Session I: 9:00 am – 10:00 am

Editors Panel

Moderator, Ed Brown- Publisher, Laptop Magazine

Panelists:
Tyler Cabot- Senior Editor, Esquire Magazine
Allen Houston- Executive Editor, Manhattan Media
Beena Kamlani- Senior Editor, Penguin Group USA
Yona Zeldis McDonough- Fiction Editor, Lilith Magazine
Marianne Rohrlich- Design Journalist

The New World of Publishing

Moderator, Bernard Starr- Author, Columnist, Radio Show Host

Panelists:
Rebecca Albani – Publisher Relations Manager, RR Bowker
Perry Crowe – Indie Editor, Kirkus Reviews
Jon Fine – Director of Author and Publisher Relations, Amazon.com
Elyssa Goodman – Social Media Consultant, Writer, and Instructor at the Hunter College Writing Center
Tanya Wright – Author, Butterfly Rising and Star of HBO’s “True Blood”

Fiction I

Moderator, Richard Peck- Author, The Grandma Dowdel Trilogy

Panelists:
Barbara Taylor Bradford- Author, Letter from a Stranger and A Woman of Substance
Elizabeth Nunez – Author, Boundaries and Prospero's Daughter
Helen Schulman- Author, This Beautiful Life and A Day at the Beach
Mingmei Yip- Author, Skeleton Women and Song of the Silk Road

Keynote Speaker: 10:15 am – 11:00am

Colson Whitehead is the author of Sag Harbor, a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner award, and Zone One. Whitehead's reviews, essays, and fiction have appeared in a number of publications, such as the New York Times, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Harper's and Granta. He has received a MacArthur Fellowship, a Whiting Writers Award, and a fellowship at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers.

Session II: 11:15 am – 12:15 pm

Suspense Panel  

Moderator, Steve Berry- Author, The Columbus Affair and The Jefferson Key

Panelists:

Lee Child- Author, Worth Dying For and Killing Floor
Harlan Coben- Author, Stay Close and Tell No One
Joseph Finder- Author, Buried Secrets and Vanished
Andrew Gross- Author, Eyes Wide Open and 15 Seconds

Non-Fiction Panel

Moderator, Barbara Goldsmith- Author, Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie

Panelists:
Eileen Daspin- Author, The Manhattan Diet
Sidney Offit- Author, Friends, Writers and Other Countrymen
John Simon- Author, Critic
Patricia Volk- Author, White Light and Stuffed: Adventures of A Restaurant Family

Self Publishing Panel

Moderator, Betty Sargent- Founder, BookWorks.com

Panelists:
Dan Blank- Founder, WeGrowMedia.com
Karen Mender- Co-founder, Self-Publishing Book Expo
Eric Rayman- Attorney, Miller, Korzenik and Sommers
David Wilk- Founder, Booktrix.com

Keynote Speakers and Lunch: 12:30 pm – 1:45 pm

Mary Higgins Clark is the author of thirty-one suspense novels. In the U.S. alone, her books have sold over one hundred million copies. Mary Higgins Clark was chosen by Mystery Writers of America as Grand Master of the 2000 Edgar Awards. Simon & Schuster has sponsored an award in her name to be given to authors of suspense fiction writing.
Carol Higgins Clark is the author of fourteen bestselling Regan Reilly mysteries. She is coauthor, along with her mother, Mary Higgins Clark, of a bestselling holiday mystery series. She received AudioFile's Earphones Award of Excellence for her reading of Jinxed.

Session III: 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm

Publicity Panel

Moderator, Ben Frank- Author, The Scattered Tribe

Panelists:
Mary Bisbee-Beek- Owner & Director, Beeksbee Books
Talia Carner- Author, Jerusalem Maiden and China Doll
Elyssa Goodman- Writer, Photographer, and Social Media Consultant, Miss Manhattan
Meryl Moss- Founder, Meryl L. Moss Media Relations, Inc.

Small Press Panel

Moderator, Susan Tepper- Author, From The Umberplatzen and What May Have Been

Panelists:
Terry Richard Bazes- Author, Lizard World
Gloria Mindock- Editor and Publisher, Cervena Barva Press
Mark Pawlak- Poet, Jefferson’s New Image Salon
Jim Schuette- Publisher, Marion Street Press

Humor Panel

Moderator, Lewis Burke Frumkes- Author, How to Raise Your IQ By Eating Gifted Children; Radio Show Host

Panelists:
Benjamin Cheever- Author, Strides: Running Through History With An Unlikely Athlete
Suzanne Gannon- Freelance Writer
Nancy Kelton- Author, Writing from Personal Experience: How to Turn Your Life Into Salable Prose
Patricia Marx- Staff Writer, The New Yorker; Author, Starting From Happy

Session IV: 3:15 pm – 4:15 pm

Fiction II

Moderator, Adam Ross- Author, Ladies and Gentlemen and Mr. Peanut

Panelists:
Cristina Alger- Author, The Darlings
Francine du Plessix Gray- Author, The Queen’s Lover
William Giraldi- Author, Busy Monsters
Julia Glass- Author, The Widower’s Tale and Three Junes
Susan Isaacs- Author, As Husbands Go and Compromising Positions

Memoir and Biography Panel

Moderator, Malachy McCourt- Author, Singing My Him Song and Danny Boy

Panelists:
Deirdre Capone- Author, Uncle Al Capone
Bruce Jay Friedman- Author, Lucky Bruce
Daphne Merkin- Author, Enchantment
Sacha Z. Scoblic- Author, Unwasted

Literary Agent Panel

Moderator, Katharine Sands- Literary Agent, Sarah Jane Freyman Literary Agency

Panelists:
Carol Bruckner- Senior Vice President, Greater Talent Network Speakers Bureau
Adam Chromy- Founder, Artists and Artisans Inc.
Ellen Geiger- Vice President and Senior Agent, Frances Goldin Literary Agency
Helen Zimmermann- Founder, Helen Zimmermann Literary Agency

To register:

Online: ceweb.hunter.cuny.edu/cers/cers.aspx - Select Browse Courses, Summer 2012; Search under The Writing Center
Phone: 212-772-4292 or 212-650-3850