Upcoming Events

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Practical Advice on Writing

Arlington VA

2020

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AWP

San Antonio TX

2020

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PAST EVENTS

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Writing Day Workshops
Philadelphia PA

2019

Slice Lit Con

2016-2019

 

Overview: 

     Slice Lit Con is a two-day conference in Downtown Brooklyn hosted by the editors of Slice Magazine, Celia Blue Johnson and Maria Gagliano. The panels and workshops “cover topics from the craft of writing (plotting, dialogue, characterization, poetry, and more) to the business of writing (pitch letters, landing a book deal, and beyond)”. It is intended to “bridge the gap between emerging writers and the publishing world and, in the process, to spark conversations you might not otherwise hear.” This was my third year at Slice, and I think they are most definitely fulfilling their mission. 

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Day One:

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     I started off with a panel called “We’re Here to Lift Each Other Up.” As you’d expect, the panelists talked about ways that we as writers can encourage and help our fellow authors, from joining book groups, to tweeting about our latest read. Everyone passionately agreed that caring about your community means showing up: to readings, releases, etc., and they offered some great advice about guarding your time and picking your battles when it comes to negative online interactions. This was a perfect panel to start the day and gives a great sense of what Slice is all about. I also sat in on a variety of other panels including, “The Agent Author Relationship” and “Who teaches Editors to Edit”.

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     During lunch, which is one of my favorite parts of the conference because I always seem to make new friends (or in the case of one year, spend an hour arguing about cultural sensitivity in writing with two older women). I had a great discussion with my conference pal Erika Franz and two new people we picked up in the lunch line and it also gave us all an opportunity to casually pitch our projects to each other and talk about where we are in our careers. Lunch wrapped up with the Bridging the Gap awards for New Writers and a Keynote conversation with Alexander Chee and Porochista Khakpour. 

 

After the conference on Saturday Slice hosts a great party at PowerHouse arena that includes a live Exquisite Corpse with some of the conference authors. Think, authors doing improv while passing around a bottle of wine and you basically get the picture. It’s an event that’s free and open to the public and I can’t recommend it enough. 

 

Day Two:

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     On day two began with an interesting panel called “Writing for Tomorrow”, but for me the highlight of the morning was a breakaway session called “Staying on Track: How to Connect with Peers who will help you revise and finish your Manuscript” (picture a circle of writers perched awkwardly on a mishmash of university common room furniture). The discussion focused on ways we can create functional reading groups to share work and get critiqued. We talked about everything from ideal size, to composition, to being aware of what you bring to the group. It was a nice break from the Q&A format of the rest of the day and I deeply appreciated all the different perspectives on offer. While a number of people had found a group during their MFA, not all of them found the process easy.

     One writer mentioned that she wasn’t getting the right feedback from her grad class, so she went around the school finding people from different areas and programs to join her group of readers. Another writer stressed how important it is to have diversity in your group, both in perspective and in strength, and another chimed in saying that one of their best readers is a lawyer because they’re so ruthlessly good at cutting away the fat. I particularly appreciated the point that you shouldn’t dismiss the opinion of someone who doesn’t seem to “get it” because they represent a part of your readership. We had a great discussion about workshops and conferences and even websites that can connect writers. I’ve had wonderful writing groups in the past, and the session reminded me not only how much I miss the accountability and mental stimulation of it, but also gave me great tools to work towards that goal. 

 

     We had an even bigger lunch group on Sunday, not to mention cupcakes and a raffle. (I didn’t get anything this year, but Erika got a subscription to Slice, so I still feel like it was a team win). 

 

     In the afternoon I went to a panel discussing different MFA programs and how different people have used their MFA to help their career. I got some valuable insights into several grad programs in the city, and Yahdon Israel (a graduate of the New School currently teaching at City College) had some beautiful, hard hitting advice about making a career as a writer. The panelists stressed the importance of finding a program that provides community and mentorship and stressed the importance of knowing who will really be reading your work.  

 

    I ended the day with a panel on Writing Outside your Experiences and a quick debrief and pizza with my conference buddies. 

 

     There are so many reasons I keep coming back to Slice. I appreciate the opportunity to talk to people who work in all parts of the writing and publishing world and be reminded that care about the work we’re doing (and are often writers themselves), and I love talking shop with people who have shared struggles and learning curves and disappointments and have stayed passionate about what they do. There’s a wonderful feeling at this conference that we are a community and not combatants, and that in turn creates an amazing environment for exchange of ideas and difficult conversations. But I’ve also realized the other reason why I walk away from this conference every year feeling amazing (even when I’ve completely blown an agent interview): I get to immerse myself in the thing I love most for a full forty-eight hours. So often as writers (especially unpublished ones) we are snatching time from other things, juggling a work schedule and a writing schedule. Slice reminds me that just maybe if I work hard enough, I will eventually get to spend entire weeks when I am nothing but a writer, and that is most definitely something worth working for.