My Adventures in Jackson Hole ...
Just got back from the Jackson Hole Writers’ Conference, and a nine-day, two-conference travel tour. The second stop was Wyoming, and I was instructing at the JHWC and also critiquing work from writers. I got to kick off the entire conference taking Q&A about magazine craft and business with People staffer Allison Adato.
On Friday night, I gave my longest speech of all time—two and a half hours straight. It took three speeches to fill the time, but the attendees seemed pleased and I got a nice little ovation at the end. If I live to be 100 years old, I may never give a speech that long again.
Before my mega-presentation on Friday
night, I played some piano as attendees
gathered. (You can see the writers
massing and sitting down in the reflection
behind me.)
Jackson Hole is at the northwest corner of Wyoming, and is an amazingly beautiful little city that sits at the base of the Grand Teton Mountains. When not instructing, I did get out to see a good deal of the area. I hiked around Jenny Lake and Taggart Lake. I got to raft down the Snake River. Animals on display included Moose, bald eagles and elk. I talked to some people who came across bears, but I saw no bears myself (thank God). I’ve heard that bears hate to be startled, so I basically sang to myself the entire three-hour hike trip.
All presenters at the event are treated
to a spectacular treat: a hot air balloon
ride up above the city and mountains.
This picture above of two balloons was
taken by me from a third balloon while
up in the air.
The conference happens every year around the end of June and includes having 15 pages of your work read by three different presenters. Agents are present, too. It’s a pretty good deal in an amazing location, so think about heading there in 2010.
A view of the Tetons’ tallest peaks
while hiking around Taggart Lake.
(By the way, that's not me in the shirt.
I took the pic.)
Check Out These Great Upcoming Writers Conferences:
- Feb. 11, 2017: Writers Conference of Minnesota (St. Paul, MN)
- Feb. 16–19, 2017: San Francisco Writers Conference (San Francisco, CA)
- Feb. 24, 2017: The Alabama Writers Conference (Birmingham, AL)
- Feb. 25, 2017: Atlanta Writing Workshop (Atlanta, GA)
- March 25, 2017: Michigan Writers Conference (Detroit, MI)
- March 25, 2017: Kansas City Writing Workshop (Kansas City, MO)
- April 8, 2017: Philadelphia Writing Workshop (Philadelphia, PA)
- April 22, 2017: Get Published in Kentucky Conference (Louisville, KY)
- April 22, 2017: New Orleans Writers Conference (New Orleans, LA)
- May 6, 2017: Seattle Writers Conference (Seattle, WA)
- May 19–21, 2017: PennWriters Conference (Pittsburgh, PA)
- June 24, 2017: The Writing Workshop of Chicago (Chicago, IL)
- Aug. 18–20, 2017: Writer's Digest Conference (New York, NY)
