July 23rd-30th
$20
$1,200
$1,125
About the Conference
This summer, One Story will offer our annual conference for fiction writers online. Thirty-two conference participants will be divided into four intimate eight-student workshop cohorts, each of which will be led by one of our workshop instructors. Over the course of eight days, conference attendees will:
- Take part in four intensive writing workshop sessions
- Participate in and attend student readings
- Meet for a half-hour, one-on-one conference with their workshop instructor
- Attend craft lectures led by established writers and editors, exploring fiction’s most important elements
- Learn the ins and outs of the publishing industry at interactive panel discussions with agents, editors, and industry professionals
- Connect with peers and have exclusive access to resources on our online learning platform
- Work toward completing a publishable manuscript, create new work, and build long-lasting ties with the literary community and with each other
Read what previous conference attendees have said about the Summer Writers’ Conference:
"It's a very transformative and educational experience, not to mention inspirational! It has validated me as a writer, but also has changed my views of the publishing industry and the writing process, and for the better."
"This was a grounded, practical, and energizing week of intensive focus on craft in a very human, accessible way."
The One Story Summer Writers’ Conference fostered a tremendous sense of community and propelled the writers in my workshop to new levels of enthusiasm and confidence about their work.
“It felt that every moment I was at the conference, I was continually affirmed as a writer.”
Conference Instructors
Jai Chakrabarti
Jai Chakrabarti is the author of the novel A Play for the End of the World (Knopf), which won the National Jewish Book Award for debut fiction, was the Association of Jewish Libraries Honor Book, was short-listed for the Tagore Prize, and was long-listed for the PEN/Faulkner Award. He is also the author of the story collection A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness (Knopf, Feb 2023). His short fiction has appeared in One Story, Electric Literature, A Public Space, Conjunctions, Gulf Coast, Michigan Quarterly Review, and elsewhere and has been anthologized in The O. Henry Prize Stories, The Best American Short Stories, and awarded a Pushcart Prize and also performed on Selected Shorts by Symphony Space. His nonfiction has been published in The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Writer’s Digest, Berfrois, and LitHub. He was an Emerging Writer Fellow with A Public Space and received an MFA in Creative Writing from Brooklyn College and is a trained computer scientist. Born in Kolkata, India, he now lives in New York with his family.
Rachel Lyon
Rachel Lyon is author of the novels Self Portrait with Boy, a finalist for the Center for Fiction’s 2018 First Novel Prize, and Fruit of the Dead, forthcoming from Scribner in 2024. Her short work has appeared in One Story, The Rumpus, Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading, and other publications. Rachel has taught creative writing at various institutions, most recently Bennington College. She lives in Western Massachusetts with her husband and two young children.
Manuel Gonzales
Contributing Editor
Manuel Gonzales is the author of The Miniature Wife and Other Stories (Riverhead, 2012), winner of the Sue Kaufmann Prize for First Fiction and the John Gardner Prize for Fiction, and the novel, The Regional Office is Under Attack! (Riverhead, 2016), winner of an Alex Award from the YALSA, and he remembers with great excitement, even fourteen years later, the day Hannah Tinti reached out to tell him the editors at One Story would like to publish his story. He currently teaches creative writing and literature at Bennington College and is a core faculty member of the Bennington Writing Seminars.
Hannah Tinti
Co-Founder & Executive Editor
Hannah Tinti is the co-founder and executive editor of One Story magazine. She is the author of the bestselling novel The Good Thief, which won The Center for Fiction’s first novel prize, and the story collection Animal Crackers, a runner-up for the PEN/Hemingway Award. Her most recent novel, The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley, is a national bestseller and is in development for television. She co-founded the Sirenland Writers Conference in Italy and has taught writing at New York University’s Graduate Creative Writing Program, Columbia University’s MFA program, CUNY, and at the Museum of Natural History in New York City. For more information please visit hannahtinti.com.
Application Guidelines:
The One Story Summer Writers Conference is open to fiction writers 21 years of age and older.
The deadline to apply for the conference is 11:59pm ET April 12th. There is a $20 nonrefundable application fee. All applications must be sent through Submittable. All applicants will be notified of acceptance by late May 2023.
We are seeking applicants who are excited about a career in fiction writing and ready for a fun and productive conference. Applicants will be chosen based on the strength of their writing sample and their personal statement.
Complete application guidelines are available on the application. Please note that you will need to create a Submittable account in order to complete the application.
Fees:
Application Fee: $20 (non-refundable)
Conference Fee: $1,200 (Member Price: $1,125)
The cost of the conference includes:
- Workshops (no more than 8 people) where you’ll receive focused feedback on your work
- Craft lectures by visiting authors and instructors to improve your skills
- Panels of publishing professionals to connect you with the business side of writing
- A thirty-minute private conference with your workshop instructor
- Exclusive access to recordings of craft lectures and panels for a year after the conference concludes
- Opportunities to connect with peers, share work, and access resources on One Story’s online learning platform
Sample Conference Schedule:
(All times are in ET. Times are tentative. The schedule will vary from day to day, but this is an idea of what an average conference day looks like.)
9:30am – 10:30am
Generative Writing Session:
Start the day with a guided generative writing session.
11:00am – 1:30pm
Workshop
Jai Chakrabarti, Manuel Gonzales, Rachel Lyon, and Hannah Tinti will each lead an eight-person workshop focused on constructive feedback and teaching students how to make good writing great.
2:45pm – 4:00pm
Craft lecture
Craft lectures will be given by guest authors and editors. Past craft lecturers have included Rakesh Satyal, Lillian Li, Dantiel W. Moniz, Myla Goldberg, Victor LaValle, and Julie Buntin.
5:00pm – 6:00pm
Student Reading
Student readings are a chance for conference attendees in different workshop groups to connect and hear each other’s work in a low-pressure, supportive environment.
6:30pm – 7:45pm
Industry Panel
A chance for conference attendees to meet editors and agents in the book publishing industry and ask them questions.