Friday, November 20
5:30PM CST via Zoom
Register
Join us to hear from publishing professionals, Dennis Lloyd of UW Press and Alisa Plant of LSU Press, as well as professional writers and writing teachers, Susanna Daniel & Michelle Wildgen of Madison Writers’ Studio, Steven Wright of Creative Writing & the Law School at UW-Madison, and Porter Shreve of Creative Writing at UW-Madison, about their publishing experiences and expertise! Topics that may be discussed include the publishing process from start to finish, how to prepare your manuscript to be well-received, how to cultivate contacts and identify the right publisher, and what all writers should know. All are welcome to attend this culminating event for our celebration of NaNoWriMo and AcWriMo during the month of November.
Susanna Daniel is a co-founder of the Madison Writers’ Studio with author Michelle Wildgen. Daniel is a novelist and a writing instructor; at the Madison Writers’ Studio, she brings MFA-level instruction to small group workshops about writing books and creativity. Daniel’s debut novel, Stiltsville, was awarded the 2011 PEN/Bingham Award for best debut fiction, and was named an Amazon Best Debut of 2010, a Huffington Post Best Book of 2010, and an Oprah.com summer read. Her second novel, Sea Creatures, was the Target Book Club selection for September 2014. Daniel’s writing has been published in Newsweek, Slate, One Story, Epoch, and among others. Learn more about Susanna Daniel here.
Dennis Lloyd is Director of the University of Wisconsin Press. A native of North Carolina, he attended graduate school in Illinois before beginning his publishing career. For more than two decades, he worked worked mostly in sales and marketing at the university presses of Illinois, Kentucky, Pittsburgh, Alabama, and Florida. He has been active in developing new digital initiatives, including an OER textbook program. In addition to overseeing the Press, he currently acquires fiction and film studies. He has spoken at the prestigious SXSW.edu conference and has participated in a number of Association of University Presses panels over the years. He recently completed a term on the AUPresses Board of Directors and currently is a member of the Project MUSE Advisory Board. He still occasionally loses sleep over missed questions during his third-place finish on Jeopardy! Including incorrectly naming the “Biggest retailer: This company based in Washington State.”
Alisa Plant has been director of LSU Press and publisher of The Southern Review since March 2019. Prior to that, she was editor-in-chief at the University of Nebraska Press and acquisitions editor and senior editor at LSU Press, where she acquired books in history, media studies, and foodways. She holds a BA in English from the University of Kansas, an MA in Medieval Studies from Yale University, and a PhD in history, also from Yale. As director of LSU Press, she is responsible for all aspects of Press’s operations: managing a staff of seventeen, budgeting and financial planning, fundraising, strategic planning, and overall vision. As publisher of TSR, she oversees the staff, finances, and publication of the journal. She enjoys cooking, long walks, and, of course, reading.
Porter Shreve is the author of four novels: The Obituary Writer, Drives Like a Dream, When the White House Was Ours and The End of the Book. His books have been on best of the year lists in many newspapers and magazines including the Chicago Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the New York Times. He is Professor of English and Director of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Michelle Wildgen is the author of the novels Bread and Butter, But Not For Long, and You’re Not You, which was made into a film starring Hilary Swank and Emmy Rossum. She was a longtime executive editor at Tin House Magazine and cofounded the Madison Writers’ Studio with Susanna Daniel in 2013. Her work has appeared in Modern Love, the NYT Book Review, O, the Oprah Magazine, Best Food Writing, and RealSimple.com, as well as various literary journals and anthologies.
Steven Wright teaches both law and creative writing at the University of Wisconsin of Madison, where he is also director of the Wisconsin Innocence Project. His debut novel, the Coyotes of Carthage, was released in April, receiving advanced praise from John Grisham, who heralded Steve as “a major new voice in the world of political thrillers.” Wright also optioned the movie rights of the novel to Calvary Media, the Netflix production partner responsible for such political dramas as House of Cards. In August, USA Today included Wright on the list of The 100 Black novelists you should read. Find him on Twitter @StevenhWright.