The 2024 Women Submitting Conference is an all-day event on August 10, 2024 that aims to support women, female-identifying, and non-binary writers. (Courtesy of Women Who Present)
Sometimes the hardest part of writing is just getting started.
Fortunately, help is available.
The 2024 Women Presenting Presentation ConferenceEntitled Beyond Writing: Building Community, Advocacy, and Literary Careers, the all-day event on Saturday, August 10 aims to help female-identifying and non-binary writers achieve their goals.
“A conference like this is such a great opportunity to build and strengthen the community,” he says Louisette RestoPoet, teacher and Women who submit Board member – one of several who spent months planning the event. “It’s a great opportunity for someone just starting out … to really connect with other writers.”
Connecting with fellow writers should actually be even easier this year.
“This is the first time it will be in person,” says Resto, who explained that the 2020 and 2022 conferences were virtual because of the pandemic. “So there’s a lot of excitement.”
The one-day conference, which still has seats, is free Women who submit. The group does not charge a fee to join, but requires new members to attend an orientation meeting (this will be during the first programming block for new members). Tickets for non-members It’s $25 and pay-what-you-can get it down to $1.
Run from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM LA’s Plaza de la Raza (Registration begins at 8:30 a.m.), the event will feature panels, workshops, and readings designed to nurture emerging writers and the community. There are authors participating in the panels Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilera, Diane Marie Brown, Lizbeth Koeman, Traci Kato-Kiriyama, Kate Maruyama, Mimi Reiner, Desiree Zamorano and more.
“It’s going to be really nice to be together for about eight hours and feel a genuine support for each other’s art and creativity without ego or judgement,” says Resto.
Vendors include Tia Chucha Cultural Center, which will sell the panelists’ books in conjunction with WriteGirl, Lunch Ticket Literary Magazine, and other literary organizations. There will also be vendors selling food, coffee, mugs and even massages.
The tattoo artist also creates special designs for the event, although the work will not be done on the day.
“I’m getting one, that’s for sure,” says Resto (who, FYI, will be one of the poets reading Mike SonsenS LA Stories: Music Is History event at LA’s Grand Performances tonight, July 26th).
Although it is women who present the event, Resto says men are welcome to attend.
“The focus of the conference is women writers—female-identified, non-binary writers—that’s really the focus. But that doesn’t mean men or allies can’t attend,” Resto says. “Allies are welcome, but male voices, you know, are not at the center of the conversation.”
“Alliances, real alliances, are what’s welcome,” Resto says.
For those who can’t attend but want to support the nonprofit, Resto offers to check out web page, Social media accounts and Make a donation.
It promises to be a good day, he says. “When I read the program … and I see the famous panelists and workshop facilitators and what we’re offering,” Resto says, “I’m very, very proud of this work. Because we know that’s what people are asking for and that’s what they need to move forward or advance in their art.”
“And if we can help just one writer,” he says. “I think our business is done for the day.”
Dan Slater’s search for century-old documents ‘incorruptible’
Dan Slater, author of The Wolf Boys and other books, has written for publications including the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, The Atlantic, GQ and The New Yorker online. his new book, “The Immortals: The True Story of Kingpins, Crimebusters, and the Birth of the American Underworld” Published this month.
Q: Please tell readers about your new book.
“The Immortals” tells the story of the underworld of the Lower East Side in the years before the First World War and a secret vice crusade to cleanse these streets of vice and crime.
Q. Can you tell us a little about your research? How did you learn about “horse poisoners” and other unusual-sounding crimes from the past?
During seven years of research, I was fortunate to uncover material that had never been seen or only sparingly cited in previous books—from unpublished memoirs to incriminating files and vintage photographs that had been in storage for over a century. One of the richest resources was the archive of trial records of the Manhattan criminal courts of the early 1900s. I found the saga of the horse poisoners—known as the Yiddish Kamorah, or the Yiddish Black Hand—detailed in several of these trials.
Q. Is there a book or books you always recommend to other readers?
Adam Foulds’s The Accelerated Labyrinth is a really great novel. Catherine Bue’s Beautiful Forever showed writers in my niche—narrative nonfiction—what can be achieved with a true story when the reporting is so deep that the writer almost disappears behind her characters.
Q. What are you reading now?
“Demon Copperhead” by Barbara Kingsolver and “H is for Hawk” by Helen McDonald.
Q. Do you remember the first book that influenced you?
“Mickey,” by Mickey Mantle (with Herb Gluck), which I read when I was seven or eight years old. It was amazing to discover that baseball players were ordinary people.
Q. Can you remember a book that felt like it was written in your mind?
John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, which I read when I was 16, spoke to me more directly than any book I read as a child.
Q. Do you listen to audio books? If so, are there any titles or narrators you recommend?
Jonathan Todd Ross, who reads The Immortals, is one of those rare storytellers who hits the sweet spot between angst and grit. His genuine enthusiasm for the material made me wonder what would happen in the next book I wrote myself. And then there’s Charlie Thurston’s take on Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Brass, a performance that just leaves me speechless.
What’s in your book that no one else knows?
I think most people don’t know that the old Christian prohibition against money-lending – which Christians, based on Aristotle, considered a sin – was probably the first anti-vice law that maneuvered the Jews into a legal gray area.
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Next on “Bookish”.
The next event is scheduled for Aug. 16 at 5 p.m. Catherine Michon discusses her illustrated book, I’m Still Here, for bereaved pet owners, and journalist Carol Mathers talks about Rethinking Survival: The Dog Lady and American History. Forgotten people and pets. ” Register now for free.
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