IN-PERSON | WriteAngles: A Straw Dog Writers Guild Conference 2024

In 2022 the WriteAngles, Inc Board decided to disband and transfer the conference to Straw Dog Writers Guild. A group of volunteers drawn from over a dozen regional literary organizations has been meeting since July 2022 to brainstorm ideas and plan a writers’ gathering that is both old and new.

Some elements of the old conference will be carried over:

• The small size (100-150 participants).
• A combination of workshops and panel discussions.
• A strong emphasis on celebrating western Massachusetts writers and writing organizations
• Opportunities for networking.
• Agent meetings and a literary fair.

Some elements of the 2024 conference will be new:

• The Daisy Matthias Scholarship will be awarded annually to a graduating high school senior pursuing creative writing.
• The Abel Meeropol Social Justice Writing Award will be presented to the keynote speaker.
• Sponsorship and partnerships with local arts and businesses will help keep the conference affordable and pay presenters for their work.

The organizers hope to expand the reach of the conference to the far corners of Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin, and Berkshire counties. We hope to attract writers who are curious and committed; who are interested in either/both classic and hybrid forms; who love language and are open to all the ways it can inspire and teach.

We are committed to writing that illuminates our broken world, that strives to make change, that seeks to break our hearts and stitch them back together.

We are committed to continuing the legacy of being a conference by writers, for writers.