It's not too early to think about spring lit events

 Information about spring literary events is piling up in my inbox. Most of these are in Texas, but I'm including at least one outside state borders because of an early deadline.

Now - March 10: New this year, Thrillerfest 2023 offers two writing scholarships, each with a $1,000 stipend and free pass to the Thrillerfest conference in New York. One scholarship goes to a BIPOC author writing a thriller manuscript featuring a BIPOC protagonist. The second goes to an unpublished author writing a mystery/thriller novel (80K to 100K words). This is a heads-up entry. See the Thrillerfest entry later in this post for the conference's dates, registration, and additional details.

February 15: Registration opens for the Historical Novel Society North America conference in-person, and in San Antonio, Texas. As far as I can tell, this is the first time the conference has been in our own state. OK, the conference actually runs June 8-10, but I'm hyping this early because, well, it's in Texas. See the site for ongoing details and lists of special guests, agents, and editors so far.

February 18: The Houston Writers Guild's Love Your Writing Seminar includes morning and afternoon sessions, 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. The morning session features poet/editor/essayist Sarah Cortez, with thriller writer Ronel Golden in the afternoon. In-person at Bayou City Press Offices, 10303 Scofield Lane, Houston, Texas. Full day and single session tickets ($40-$65) as well as HWG members available through the site.

February 25-November 25: The Writers' League of Texas offers its repeating, monthly 2023 WLT Agent Symposium. This virtual event features presentations, consultations, workshops and more with a variety of literary agents. All writers and genres welcome. Limited registration, with tickets $349 for members, $409 for nonmembers. See the site for full schedule, including a February 9 orientation meeting, and to register.

WLT decided to change its formerly annual conference to a bi-annual event, which return in-person in 2024. (Note: WLT still holds its manuscript contest, which opens this year March 15.)

March 2: Highland Park Lit Fest 7 p.m., at Highland Park High School, 4220 Everson Avenue, Dallas. Keynote speaker is Peter Heller, award-winning author of The River and other novels, as well as a number of nonfiction books. He is a contributing editor at Outside magazine, Men's Journal, and National Geographic. The event is free, but donations are appreciated. See the site for details.

Image: Jill Wellington from Pixabay

March 3-4: The North Texas Teen Book Festival has been inspiring middle-grade and young adult readers for years. In-person at the Irving Convention Center, 500 West Las Colinas Blvd., Irving, Texas. Nearly 70 authors are already signed to appear. The March 3 event is for educators -- see the site for registration details. March 4 is for everyone. Free, but parking is $10, or check the site for public transport options nearby.

May 10-14: The Writer's Garret announces its first Dallas is Lit! Literary Festival featuring readings, performances, workshops and a book fair. Multiple venues. See the site for upcoming details. 

May 30-June 3: Thrillerfest in-person at the Sheraton Times Square in New York City. That's a bit outside the borders of Texas, but I can't resist mentioning it because of the thrilling scholarships for BIPOC and unpublished authors. See the site for schedules, events, pricing, and more.

***

Next: Just because I didn't write much last year doesn't mean I didn't learn. Check out the upcoming post from the DFW Writers Conference
on how to reverse engineer a mystery tale!