Friday, August 5th, 2022
3:00 p.m.–6:00 p.m.
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Registration
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Location: McNichols Building, Level 1
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6:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m.
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Opening Reception
Meet & Greet with keynote speakers and [margins.] attendees
Location: McNichols Building, Level 3
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7:00 p.m.–8:30 p.m.
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Keynote Conversation
K-Ming Chang & Nate Marshall in conversation with Nicole Counts
Location: McNichols Building, Level 3
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Keynote: K. Ming Chang & Nate Marshall in Conversation with Nicole Counts followed by a book signing. With special performances from poets Bobby LeFebre & Slam Nuba.
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8:30 p.m.–9:00 p.m.
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Book Signing
K-Ming Chang, Nate Marshall
Hosted by Townie Books
Location: McNichols Building, Level 3
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9:00 p.m.–11:00 p.m.
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Outdoor Film Screening of Moonlight
Hosted in partnership with Denver Film
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Location: McNichols Building Lawn
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Saturday, August 6th, 2022
8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
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Registration
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Location: McNichols Building, Level 1
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9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
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Book Fair
Location: McNichols Building, Level 2
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Book Signing
Location: McNichols Building, Level 3
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9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
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9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
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Quiet Space
Location: McNichols Building, Level 2.5
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9:00 a.m.–10:05 a.m.
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Community Track
Panel: Journalism & How to Fight for Your Stories - Location: McNichols Building, 3A
Moderated by: Viniyanka Prasad
Panelists: Elaine Tassy and Lisa Kennedy
Hosted in partnership with PEN America
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Brought to you in partnership with PEN America, this panel features local journalists sharing their stories and tips on fighting for the stories they want to tell in the newsroom.
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Business/Industry Track
Workshop: The Business of Writing - Location: McNichols Building, 3B
Hosted by: Sam Hiyate
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Today’s literary marketplace can be a mysterious minefield to writers. What’s hot? What’s over saturated? What’s literary? Does genre fiction have rules that can be broken? What are editors really looking for? Sam Hiyate, literary agent and founder of The Rights Factory in Toronto will examine the publishing world in Canada, the U.S. and international markets in this workshop.
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9:00 a.m.–10:05 a.m.
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9:00 a.m.–10:05 a.m.
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Writing Craft Track
Workshop: Speculative Poetics: Imagining out of Dystopia - Location: McNichols Building, 3C
Hosted by: M McDonough
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This workshop will outline the tenets of speculative writing and how these tools can be threaded into a poetic practice. Speculative writing can offer a window into an unimaginable future. Poetry as a mode of truth telling must offer a way to imagine out of structures and systems built to oppress. The first step in building a new world is to name it, to call it forth, to imagine it into reality.
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10:15 a.m.–11:20 a.m.
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Community Track
Workshop: It is Better to Speak: Authentic Voice in Workshops and Sensitivity Reading
Location: McNichols Building, 3A
Hosted by: Sydney Fowler & Joe Ponce
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“When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.” ― Audre Lorde Marginalized writers often struggle to find their voice in the workshop and their place in the publishing industry. We will use antiracist workshop theory, Critical Race Theory, and personal narratives to explore how lived experience provides a unique perspective in writing workshops. Participants will also leave with insights into how to use your voice to create more authentic and respectful portrayals of marginalized people in media as a sensitivity reader.
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Business/Industry Track
Workshop: Mind Your Business - Taxes & Bookkeeping Tips for Writers - Location: McNichols Building, 3B
Hosted by: Jonathan Rogers
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This workshop covers the basics of the business of writing: keeping records for taxes, tracking income and expenses, understanding profit/loss, and figuring out when to invest to grow your business, and when to keep your money.
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10:15 a.m.–11:20 a.m.
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Writing Craft Track
Workshop: Elemental Poetry - Location: McNichols Building, 3C
Hosted by: Angelique Palmer
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This workshop will help you to use your voice to translate your writing to performance and to use the elements (Earth, Fire, Air and Water) to search your drafts for vulnerability and performance viability.
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10:15 a.m.–11:20 a.m.
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Lunch sessions - cohort meetups, readings on the plaza, food trucks
Location: McNichols Building
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11:30 a.m.–12:45 p.m.
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Cohort Writing Group: Disabled Writers
Hosted by Twanna LaTrice Hill
Location: McNichols Building, Level 1
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Join to connect with fellow Disabled writers, to chat about your writing, commiserate, celebrate, inspire one another.
11:00 a.m.–11:50 a.m.
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Cohort Writing Group: Black Writers
Hosted by Hakeem Furious & Aerik Francis of Slam Nuba
Location: McNichols Building, Level 1
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Join to connect with fellow Black writers, to chat about your writing, commiserate, celebrate, inspire one another.
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12:00 p.m.–12:50 p.m.
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1:00 p.m.–2:05 p.m.
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Community Track
Panel: Movement Building & New Publishing Spaces - Location: McNichols Building, 3A
Moderated by: Viniyanka Prasad
Panelists: Lisa Willis and Deborah Taffa
On building the spaces and communities we need, this panel will feature a discussion from leaders in literary movement building and creating, maintaining new publishing and writing spaces.
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1:00 p.m.–2:05 p.m.
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Business/Industry Track
Planning Your Publicity: Book Tours - Location: McNichols Building, 3B
Panelists: Lara Phan & Michelle Malonzo
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Join us for a conversation with these industry experts on what you need to know about planning your publicity for a book tour.
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Writing Craft Track
Workshop: Linguistics & Form in Fiction - Location: McNichols Building, 3C
Hosted by: Steven Dunn
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From rappers and world-building to diction and dialect, author Steven Dunn will identify linguistic approaches in a variety of texts and lyrics and discuss possibilities to use those strategies in our own work, whether it’s fiction, poetry, hybrid, and anything else.
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1:00 p.m.–2:05 p.m.
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Community Track
Workshop: Building Community to Connect with Audiences - Location: McNichols Building, 3A
Hosted by: Alyssa-Reynoso Morris
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"Nobody but nobody can make it out here alone." - Maya Angelou. Join Author Alyssa Reynoso-Morris in this workshop on finding and creating community as a writer to help navigate these isolating times.
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2:15 p.m.–3:20 p.m.
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2:15 p.m.–3:20 p.m.
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Business/Industry Track
Panel: What You Need to Know About Working with Agents - Location: McNichols Building, 3B
Panelists: Sonali Chanchali, Sam Hiyate, Kat Kerr, Maria Heater, and Amanda Orozco
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A panel featuring agents who will discuss their thoughts on what to expect in your agent relationship, including query basics, as well as in-depth advice on how to decode common responses from agents, how to tell if an agent is the right match for you and your work, and how to advocate for yourself throughout the process.
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Writing Craft Track
Workshop: 14-word Manifestos - Location: McNichols Building, 3C
Hosted by: Rick Griffith
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Join graphic designer and master letterpress printer, Rick Griffith, as he guides us through creating our own manifestos in 14 words or less. His work is an erudite exploration of language, history, politics, science, music, and ethics—typographically-focused and relevant.
(LIMITED TO 10 PARTICIPANTS)
2:15 p.m.–4:40 p.m.
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3:30 p.m.–4:40 p.m.
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Community Track
Panel: Truth and Consequences - Location: McNichols Building, 3A
Panelists: Donna Bryson, Tina Griego, and Lisa Kennedy
Moderated by: William Johnson.
Hosted in partnership with PEN America
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Co-presented with PEN America, join us for this panel conversation featuring journalists who will share their experiences with and recommendations for managing the consequences of writing true stories.
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3:30 p.m.–4:40 p.m.
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Business/Industry Track
Discussion: Paths to Publication in Fiction - Location: McNichols Building, 3B
In-conversation: Nicole Counts & Kat Kerr
A conversation and Q&A session where authors will discuss their unique paths to publishing and offer their advice for writers to navigate moving forward.
3:30 p.m.–4:40 p.m.
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Writing Craft Track
Workshop: Writing Empowering Sex Scenes without Blushing - Location: McNichols Building, 3C
Hosted by: Lydia Rogue
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Erotica can be empowering, both for the reader and the writer, but sometimes it can be a struggle to put words to paper. A frank talk about language, translating reality to paper, and discussions of consent - both writing them and how to navigate the author/reader relationship.
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4:45 p.m.–6:15p.m.
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Dinner break - cohort meetups, readings on the plaza
Location: McNichols Building
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Cohort Writing Group: Mi Gente
Hosted by: Franklin Cruz & Bobby LeFebre
Location: McNichols Building, Level 1
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Join to connect with fellow Latine and Indigenous writers to chat about your writing, commiserate, celebrate, inspire one another.
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5:00 p.m.–6:00p.m.
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Awards Ceremony
Hosted by: The Word
Location: McNichols Building, Level 3
Let's gather to celebrate the 2022 recipients of the Alchemy Award, the Rasquache Award, and the Rishi Award!
6:30 p.m.–8:00 p.m.
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8:00 p.m.–9:30 p.m.
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Outdoor Film Screening of Persepolis
Hosted by: Denver Film
Location: McNichols Building Lawn
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9:30 p.m.–midnight
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Dance Party
Location: McNichols, Level 3
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Featuring DJ Mami Miami + Cash bar
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Sunday, August 7th, 2022
8:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
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Registration
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Location: McNichols Building, Level 1
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9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
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Book Fair
Location: McNichols Building, Level 2
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9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
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Book Signing
Hosted by: Townie Books
Location: McNichols Building, Level 3
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9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
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Quiet Space
Location: McNichols Building, Level 2.5
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9:00 a.m.–10:05 a.m.
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Community Track
Panel: The Value of Mentorship - Location: McNichols Building, 3A
Panelist: Alyssa Reynoso-Morris, Viniyanka Prasad, & Manuel Aragon
The book business is notoriously difficult to break into without the right relationships to help you navigate it, and having those relationships when you are a member of a historically excluded group can make it that much more challenging. Join us we share our approaches to finding and pairing mentors and mentees and how mentorship can help build careers.
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9:00 a.m.–10:05 a.m.
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Business/Industry Track
Panel: What You Need to Know about Residencies, Fellowships, and Retreats - Location: McNichols Building, 3B
Moderated by: Meca'Ayo Cole
Panelists: S. Juliette Lee, Andre Hoilette
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Join us for a lively discussion with poets and writers Andre Hoilette, Shamar Hill, and S. Juliette Lee as they share their insights and experiences with residencies, fellowships and retreats for writers.
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Writing Craft Track
Workshop: Identify Your Voice - Location: McNichols Building, 3C
Hosted by: Kat Kerr
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This intensive class covers the age-old question “What do agents mean when they talk about voice?” and all the different ways voice is interpreted and how our cultural background influence our unique perspective.
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9:00 a.m.–10:05 a.m.
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10:15 a.m.–11:20 a.m.
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Community Track
Panel: Indigenous Writers & representation in literature, publishing business - Location: McNichols Building, 3A
Panelists: Deborah Taffa, Manny Loley, Franklin Cruz, Crisosto Apache
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The publishing world has been particularly challenging for Indigenous writers have had stories stolen, mistold, and misrepresented, for centuries. Join this panel featuring writers, storytellers, professors, and waymakers as they discuss their approaches to creating pathways for Indigenous stories to be heard.
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10:15 a.m.–11:20 a.m.
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Business/Industry Track
Panel: Working with Bookstores - Location: McNichols Building, 3B
Panelists: Angela Maria Spring, Jeannine Cook, Arvin Ram, Rick Griffith
Moderated by: Michelle Malonzo
How can you work with bookstores to get your book in front of readers?Experienced booksellers are here to get you ready.
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10:15 a.m.–11:20 a.m.
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Writing Craft Track
Panel: Lessons Learned from the Best and Worst Experiments - Location: McNichols Building, 3C
Panelists: Olivia Chadha, Mathu Subramanian, Dylan Edwards
Moderated by Liza Bevams
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Join this vibrant group of writers for a discussion on the ways they have gotten experimental in their writing and creative projects, the lessons they've learned, and the process of discovery along the way.
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11:00 a.m.–11:50 a.m.
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Cohort Writing Group: Queer Writers
Hosted by Queer Asterisk & Queer Creatives
Location: McNichols Building, Level 1
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Join to connect with fellow Queer writers to chat about your writing, commiserate, celebrate, inspire one another.
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11:30 a.m.–12:45 p.m.
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Lunch sessions - cohort meetups, readings on the plaza, food trucks
Location: McNichols Building
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12:00 p.m.–12:50 p.m.
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Cohort Writing Group: Asian-American & Pacific Islander Writers
Hosted by Viniyanka Prasad & Jenna Nishimura
Location: McNichols Building
Join to connect with fellow Asian American & Pacific Islander writers to chat about your writing, commiserate, celebrate, inspire one another.
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1:00 p.m.–2:05 p.m.
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Community Track
Panel: Finding Your People - Location: McNichols Building, 3A
Panelists: Emilly Prado, Vogue M. Robinson, Steven Dunn
Moderated by: Alyssa Reynoso-Morris
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We've all heard the adage, "know your audience", but how do we find our people? In this panel, writers will discuss the ways they work in and with community, collectives, and collaborate to create and share their work with the world.
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1:00 p.m.–2:05 p.m.
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Business/Industry Track
Workshop: Let’s Look Again and Again and Again: Revision That Transforms - Location: McNichols Building, 3B
Hosted by: Valerie Bolling
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Revision is an integral part of the writing process. Whether you love it or despise it, as a writer, you need to revise to make your story the best it can be. In this workshop, participants will learn numerous effective revision strategies. These strategies will transform writing into stories that beg to be read again and again.
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1:00 p.m.–2:05 p.m.
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Writing Craft Track
Workshop: Mining the Heart - How to Emotionally Connect With Readers - Location: McNichols Building, 3C
Hosted by: Kaitlyn Wells
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Every bestseller emotionally resonates with readers. But how can you transform your manuscript into a book everyone is talking about? Use Heart. That once unteachable writing skill is broken into digestible parts in this interactive session. During this session, you’ll examine works by picture book authors like Derrick Barnes, Beth Ferry, Meg Medina, and more. Why picture books? You can’t succeed at writing about emotions until you understand how to speak to the inner child in us all. Only then, can you transform your work into a visceral experience for all writing forms. You’ll learn how to identify the emotional core of a story and how to ensure it beats alive on every page using the tried-and-true heart mapping method. Come prepared to use the entire emotional toolkit. And learn how to write so your work stays with readers long after that last page is turned. Tissues are encouraged.
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2:15 p.m.–3:20 p.m.
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Community Track
Panel: Limbo and Movement: Community as Spark, Craft as Finding - Location: McNichols Building, 3A
Panelists: Jason Masino, Andre Hoilette, and Meca’Ayo Cole
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How do we use language to move us through spaces of hibernation, shadow and grief? How does the experiential process of writing lend itself toward alchemical transformation both on the page and within the body? Is it possible to achieve reconciliation, surrender, or acceptance through writing? What role does community play in these processes, and how have we made ways to find it and create it? Join three Mile-High MFA in Creative Writing alum Jason Masino, Andre Hoilette, and Meca’Ayo Cole, as they discuss their current poetic projects and share their work, as well as discuss their pandemic practices with the Anthology Poetry Collective, Covid Chronicles Coffee Chat, and 10 Questions with J | M.
2:15 p.m.–3:20 p.m.
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Business/Industry Track
Panel: Paths to Publication in Poetry - Location: McNichols Building, 3B
Panelists: Sueyeun Juliette Lee, Crisosto Apache, Angelique Palmer. Moderated by Bobby LeFebre
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A conversation and Q&A session where authors will discuss their unique paths to publishing and offer their advice for writers to navigate moving forward. Join these panelists for a conversation on how poems make their way into the world. From creating a collection, submitting poems, building community, booking readings, and all of the paths our poems take.
2:15 p.m.–3:20 p.m.
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Writing Craft Track
Panel: Literary Journalism & Creative Nonfiction - Location: McNichols Building, 3C
Panelists: Adrian Miller, Elaine Tassy, and Josiah Hesse
Let's explore the different ways we narrate to tell nonfiction, from the personality of voice to blending truth and imagination.
3:30 p.m.–4:00 p.m.
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Closing Ceremony
Location: McNichols Building, Level 3
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Closing ceremony for conference registrants where we talk about next steps, staying in touch, and say our farewells.
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