Guess what? The San Francisco Writers Conference has turned 18 years old! But given the current global insanity, we’ve reluctantly decided for everyone’s safety to take a “gap year” in 2021. This means there will be no physical conference at the Hyatt in mid-February next year like we’d all planned. I know this is sad news, but it will be all the sweeter when we do finally get to reconvene over President’s Day weekend in 2022.
We hope you’re enjoying the extra time at home writing, because the publishing industry is moving full steam ahead to supply all the people enjoying their quarantine time at home reading great books. Hopefully one of those will be yours!
We’re already making plans to celebrate the gathering of our community in person in a big way at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco on the Embarcadero on Presidents’ Day weekend in 2022. And between now and then, we’ll be cooking up some fun and surprising treats to keep you entertained, educated, and motivated.
For starters, here is a free gift to get you inspired. On September 13th we completed the first online version of the Writing for Change conference: Writing for Change: Worldwide. It was an unqualified success! Before the 2-day craft conference featuring some of the best writing teachers the Bay area has to offer, we had a series of free evening Inspiration Conversations. Now you can view them here https://www.crowdcast.io/e/writing-for-change to be inspired to write about the change needed in this world from the personal to the planetary. Whether you are seeing these for the first time or revisiting them, I think you will agree it was phenomenal. I decided to stop binge watching so many Netflix shows and get back to reading and writing! I hope you are equally motivated once you’ve viewed a conversation or two.
Now on to good news for the future.
The San Francisco Writers Conference is a celebration of craft, commerce, and community. Throughout the pandemic, we’ve made classes available to help you cultivate your writing craft. Click this link https://www.sfwriters.org/online-classes-with-mechanics-institute-and-sfwc/ to see the classes we have available right now and through December. We may do more of these online classes before we meet again in person.
If you’ve pre-paid your registration fee (including free speed dating) for the 2021 San Francisco Writers Conference, and would like us to apply it to our 2022 SFWC, you don’t need to do anything. We thank you for your faith in us and we look forward to seeing you February 17-20, 2022. If you’d like a refund, just let us know by emailing [email protected]. We’ll be opening up our 2022 early bird registration in early 2021. We won’t begin to invite speakers or schedule them until late summer 2021, but you know that we’ll have amazing presenters and keynote speakers. We hope you’ll join us.
We will continue to host informative blog posts or podcasts on our website each Friday with bestselling authors, publishing professionals and others who have advice to help you on your journey to improve your writing. Just visit us at http://sfwriters.org/blog/ to view all of them. And please interact with us and the whole SFWC community on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
We’ll be in touch. Enjoy the creative spark of writing as much as you can. And practice self-care until we enter a new normal that is not so disruptive.
All the best,
Laurie McLean, Director
San Francisco Writers Conference/San Francisco Writers Foundation/Writing for Change: Worldwide
(And all the organizers of your favorite nonprofit writing and literacy organization!)