Join the 2025 GCWS Organizing Committee for our thanks and appreciation as we look ahead to next year's Symposium and create a space for your suggestions.
Meet the 2025 Writers Symposium Organizing Committee and join us for an introduction to this year's event, our special guests, and some important announcements. We hope to see you there!
It is hard to write if the world is crashing down around you. Whether your crisis is global or personal, you can salvage a space for creating. Learn how to write in the midst of everything else.
Learn tips and tricks for writing flash fiction (stories under 1000 words). We cover elements of flash fiction, do some drafting, and discuss markets. All skill levels.
Description:
This workshop will include elements of flash fiction, interactive practice, fast drafting time, discussion of markets for sci-fi/fantasy flash, and if time permits, some example feedback on volunteer participant work. Appropriate for beginners and experienced writers. Bring pen and paper or a charged device. Instructor is Kelli Fitzpatrick, a sci-fi author, game-writer, and tie-in writer for Star Trek and Marvel.
When times are bad, people often take refuge in horror entertainment. Why? What's the rationale for doing so, and how can it help us deal with harsh realities?
Description:
Featuring: James A. Hunter, Jennifer Brozek, Lark Morgan Lu, Richard Dansky, Stephen Kozeniewski
Join 2025 Worldcon Poet Laureate Brandon O'Brien as you learn what speculative poetry is, what it can do differently than other forms of verse, and even how you can write your own!
Vampires, shifters, and ghosts, oh my. Come to this panel to learn how to write compelling urban fantasy that keeps the readers' suspension of disbelief going.
Description:
Featuring: Brady McReynolds, J.B. Garner, Katherine Monasterio, Richard Lee Byers
Want to write inclusive fiction with diverse characters but worry you'll get it wrong? Join panelists as they discuss how they write outside their own identities and life experiences.
Description:
Featuring: David A. Rodriguez, J.B. Garner, Khaldoun Khelil, Monica Valentinelli, Rob Cameron