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 The second goes to an unpublished author writing a mystery/thriller novel (80K to 100K words).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!

Get hopping: nothing hare-brained about April lit events

I’ve been writing about North Texas spring literary events at this blog since – February! What a sprig it’s been. It’s one of my favorite seasons, and the happenings (hoppenings?) just keep coming. Here’s the latest:

April 1: After the hallelujahs and chocolate bunnies, buckle down and polish your best 500 words for the last chance to enter WRiTE CLUB’s 2018 contest! It’s free, the prizes are great, but perhaps best is the chance to get immediate feedback from real live readers. See the site for details.

April 7: Dallas Book Festival, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., at the Dallas Library’s Central Branch, 1515 Young St., Dallas. It features more than 100 local, regional and national authors, including bestselling Jesse Andrews (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl), Hillary Jordan (Mudbound), Lisa Wingate (Before We Were Yours), and lots, lots more. 

Additional events at the festival include writing workshops, children’s activities, and music and dance performances. Free, but of course there will be books for sale! 

The book festival is again being held in conjunction with the Dallas Festival of Ideas. This year’s theme is “The Connected City.” It’s also free, but with limited space, so please register for either morning or afternoon sessions. Can’t make it in person? Tune in to Facebook to watch the main events live.

image: pixabay

April 7: North Texas Book Festival is a chance to hang out with, and sample books by favorite Texas authors, 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. at the Patterson-Appleton Art Center, 400 E. Hickory St., in Denton, Texas. Or stretch the fun with an 8 a.m. chuck wagon breakfast with North Texas children’s book author/illustrator duo Janet Sever Hull and Vicki Killion Guess. See the site for details and registration.

April 15: The deadline for discounted registration for Writers in the Field, a hands-on research experience for writers this coming October 13-14, featuring 13 acres of demonstrations, exhibits and displays in Mansfield, Texas. See the Writers in the Field site for prices and details. Use code “WORDfestBFF” by April 15 and save 10 percent. (You say you’ll be too busy doing income tax to register for this deal? Good news – when Tax Day falls on a Saturday, Sunday or holiday – like this year – you have until the next business day to file!)

April 20-21: North Texas Teen Book Festival, Irving Convention Center, 500 W. Las Colinas Blvd., Irving, Texas. Wait – did I miswrite that date? Isn’t the convention only a single day? No! The all-day (and free!) blast is April 21. But this year, teens can also opt for lunch with four favorite YA authors on April 20.

The lunch event is $50, which includes meal, Q&A session and book signings. Then hang on for the 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Saturday, April 21, event. As always, books available for sale and signing, lunch concessions on site – or bring your own to eat outside. See the site  for details. 

April 28: The Writers Guild of Texas spring workshop features Bram Stoker Award-nominated author Annie Neugebauer to walk us through using our query pitches to troubleshoot problems in our novels. At the Richardson Civic Center, 411 W. Arapaho Rd., Richardson, Texas.

I blogged last summer about Neugebauer’s query pitch genius at last year’s DFW Writer’s Conference. Here’s another chance to spend a whole morning with her. See the WGT site for registration and additional details. Cost is $25 for members, $35 for nonmembers registering by April 25. The cost goes up $5 for registration at the door – if seating is available.

April 30-May 6: This year, the Houston Writers’ Guild joins Writespace for its Writefest mega literary festival. OK, so Houston isn’t exactly a northerly outpost. But with a week’s worth of writing workshops, agent meet-and-greets (and more than 20 agents and publishers to pitch to), and more – it’s worth the trek south.

Get the full week, including lunch with keynote speaker Justin Cronin (The Passage trilogy) for $525 through April 29 ($595 at the door), a three-day weekend pass for $250 through May 3 ($375 at the door), or single-day Friday or Saturday sessions (May 4-5). Pitch sessions available at all options for additional $50. See the Writefest site for details and registration.