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Hi! You may or may not have heard that @MCWConf 2020 will be FULLY ONLINE. Although we're sad not to be able to gather in person in beautiful Mendocino this year, I am also excited about this pivot, because it will make our conference more accessible. Allow me to explain #thread
Maybe you've heard of or been to Mendocino County in northern California. In my experience, most people haven't. I was blown away when I drove through town in 2011 & sought a way to return, which led me to @MCWConf. I received a scholarship to attend in 2012, during my PhD.
I loved everything about @MCWConf: its kind matriarchy, the surreally beautiful small towns, the excellent writers I met who became friends, including @KaraVernor. I was so excited when @Karen_K_Lewis invited me to return as faculty in 2015. Here's some pictures from that trip.
I was having a great time, I promise, I was just Very Cool. I was also Very Broke. On top of the scholarship that made it possible for me to attend, I won that year's short story competition. I deposited my check at the bank in Fort Bragg Chase, into an account that had $7 in it.
The tuition we charge @MCWConf is lower than any writing program of similar caliber I know of, but attendance means traveling to the Mendocino Coast & finding a place to stay, unless you are a local: at least a drive and at most a plane ticket and a rental car, plus lodging.
(A perk of attending as faculty was that on top of getting paid, I received a place to stay, a beautiful cottage with a hexagonal window over the bathtub where a family of deer would peer at me while I bathed in the misty mornings.)
My experience as faculty @MCWConf was even more amazing and connected me to even more friends. It changed my life. So I was honored to be invited to become Executive Director in 2018, especially because it meant I could live on the coast and teach @MendocinoEagles.
When I accepted my (other) dream job @antiochmfa this year, I was so relieved when @VChangPoet told me that the program wanted me to continue my position @MCWConf, because this work is meaningful to me, and this conference is where it all started.
I also know that it is precisely my experience with the conference that made me attractive to Antioch. @MCWConf impacts lives in a deep and meaningful way, with ripple effects we can't predict when we start our journey with the conference.
Because @MCWConf must go online this year, we've been able to lower tuition to $475, less than I paid back in 2012. And because we are now fully online, there is no cost to travel and lodge in lovely Mendocino County. Participants will attend from the comfort of your home.
My dream is that this new, online iteration of the conference will welcome many new writerly voices this year. All of the elements that make @MCWConf great are fully present: workshops taught by world-class writers; readings & opportunities to meet with publishing industry pros.
Do you know a writer who dreams of studying speculative fiction w Kij Johnson or historical fiction w @susanstinson? An essayist who would swoon to work w @RahawaHaile or @xtinehlee? A fiction writer who wants to polish their craft with @AnitaFelicelli or @gabehabash?
Maybe your writer friend is a poet or a writer of literature for young people, drawn to the workshops taught by @kerrymadden and @pennyzola. Or maybe your writer would like to try a bit of everything w the inimitable @tomas_moniz.
Maybe you are this writer. Maybe you've never attended a writers' conference before, and you don't know if it's for you, if you're welcome, if you can make it work. I cordially invite you to @MCWConf. The honor is truly all mine. You can email me at [email protected] any time.
@MCWConf is for everyone. We are just waiting to meet you and to welcome you into our community. Try us out in 2020, this time of great loneliness and separation. Take a chance on some new friends and new stories. Who knows where your Mendocino experience will lead you?
