Writers from Oceania, East Asia, and Southeast Asia discuss cyberpunk literature outside of the US, and the storytelling role the genre has in the region.
It’s your book, but it’s their world. How do you follow the rules of the literary universe and still contribute in a creatively fulfilling way? People hosting and writing in shared worlds talk about their experiences and give advice for those wanting to join an established property.
What happens when an idea forms between two (or more!) authors? How do you share ideas, build consensus, and manage drafts and revisions? Join us to explore how collaborative writing relationships work and how to build them.
Read more about Collaborative Writing: How to Share Your Brainspace
Worldbuilding is challenging for any writer, but building a new world in a small space is its own feat. This panel will include writers of short stories and short story collections to discuss how they accomplish quick and effective worldbuilding.
The second person is often regarded as difficult, complex, or experimental. But it doesn’t need to be! Explore how your work could benefit from this technique with authors who have intentionally and successfully written from this perspective.
Writing for kids comes with a lot of unwritten rules, beyond just to take out the swearing and the sex. This panel will go over some of the things authors were surprised to learn was different in writing for middle grade than writing for an adult or YA audience.
Read more about The Written and Unwritten Rules of Middle Grade
Flash fiction can be funny, quirky, and deeply moving, but it’s a challenging form that requires its own skill set. What makes flash different from longer short stories? In this panel, several flash writers will share their tools and tricks for creating stunning stories under 1000 words.
Latinx writers still write under the shadow of Magical Realism–and not even the original conception of it, but a kind of generic, watered-down, and frankly, appropriated version of it. But all of you write exciting, extra-real stories that blend blatant fantasy with characters and situations that speak to the Latinx experience in authentic and useful ways. How is that thing done?
Read more about Every Little Thing They Do Is Magic: Latinx Writers Talk Fantasy and Realism
Poets and multi-genre speculative authors discuss trends in style, inspiration, publication, and the role poetry plays in the SFF community.
Magic is often an important part of fantasy worlds, but magic can also play a pivotal part in the character development of those people who encounter it. In MG and YA fantasy, where character arcs often represent characters coming into their own, magic can be a useful tool to explore aspects of each characters’ identities and to help them along on their character arcs. In this panel, debut MG and YA authors discuss the role of magic in a young protagonist’s character arc, how they have intertwined their world’s magic in with their character’s journeys, and how other writers can do the same.
Read more about Growing up Magical: How Magic Can Be Used To Explore Identity in MG and YA