Santa Barbara Writers Conference: The Main Event

June is fast approaching and we are lining up a stellar group of speakers and workshops for our 33rd weeklong SBWC. Brochures and registration information will be mailed in January – plus, watch this space in coming weeks for online registration. Founders Barnaby and Mary Conrad and I invite you to indulge your writing passions: Put it on the calendar and send in your $100 deposit as soon as possible!

Cost for the entire week, including lodging and all meals, is $1,075 double-occupancy and $1,375 single occupancy. Day students (includes all workshops and speakers, opening and closing dinners and lunch each day) pay $425.

We will have new workshops next year in children’s literature and non-fiction writing, as well as all our other wonderful offerings, among them fiction (mystery, romance, thrillers, sci-fi), biography and memoir, screenwriting and poetry, and a third pirate workshop.

Confirmed speakers include our beloved Ray Bradbury, who has opened the conference since its inception, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jane Smiley (“A Thousand Acres,” Moo” and her latest, “Horse Heaven”); travel writer and essayist Pico Iyer (“Abandon” and “Sun After Dark: Flights into the Foreign”); inspirational writer and speaker Dr. Spencer Johnson (“Who Moved My Cheese?” and “The One-Minute Manager”); and our own Fannie Flagg, whose new book “The Redbird Christmas” is getting rave reviews.

In addition to our 4 p.m. panels and speakers, we'll have a day with the agents, allowing you the opportunity to spend some precious time with an agent – enough time to pitch your manuscript, get some valuable feedback, and possibly an agent to boot! The cost? Just $20 for 15 minutes.

So join us next summer on the lovely retreat-like campus of Westmont College in Montecito. We are looking forward to seeing you!

New! Santa Barbara Writers Conference del Mar -- Weekend Intensives by the Beach 2005

Take a weekend and get intensive with your writing!

Feb. 4-6 “Short Story: The Small Wonder of Fiction.” Explore the short story with USC writing professor and SBWC pirate workshop leader Shelly Lowenkopf.           

March 11-13  “Think, Write and Rewrite Funnier!” Humor is everywhere, but what do you do when you find it? Join award-winning humor columnist Ernie Witham for an in-depth look at capturing humor in everyday situations, developing it into a complete column or scene, finding your own voice, and reworking your humor to make it funnier and more saleable.

April 1-3 “Breathing Life into Your Fiction.” Learn what it takes to make your fiction come alive through a writing and refining process focused on making your prose active while engaging your reader in believable settings that foster the all-important “suspension of disbelief.”  Join Santa Barbara Writers Conference Phantastic Fiction workshop leader Matt Pallamary for a weekend of hands-on, in-depth analysis of works in progress geared toward resuscitating your prose and “Breathing Life into Your Fiction.”

April 22-24 “Shaping a Successful Script.” Acclaimed screenwriter and SBWC workshop leader Walter Dallenbach will guide you through an intensive designed to maximize the potential of your script. There’s no guru mumbo-jumbo here. The focus is on your work, utilizing lecture, film clips and constructive critique of your scenes. The emphasis is on the symbiotic dynamics between your story and your characters. 

Location -- Santa Barbara’s beautiful and intimate Villa Rosa Inn (www.villarosainnsb.com), just steps from the ocean off Cabrillo Boulevard in Santa Barbara. A discounted lodging rate for workshop participants is available, but reservations must be made 30 days before each workshop to ensure a room. Call (805) 966-0851 for reservations.

Workshop cost is $295 and includes a Friday evening reception, instruction

Saturday and Sunday, plus lunch both days. (Lodging is extra; see above.)

For more information or to register, email us at sbwritersconference@cox.net or call 805.964.0367.

Marcia Meier
Executive Director
Santa Barbara Writers Conference
sbwritersconference@cox.net
805.964.0367