2011 Retreat

2011 Fall Retreat

SCBWI Western Washington invites you to apply for its Fall 2011 Retreat for Writers and Writer-Illustrators of Children’s Books, WEEKEND ON THE WATER, taking place Friday, November 4, to Sunday, November 6, 2011, at the luxurious Alderbrook Resort & Spa, nestled on the scenic shores of Hood Canal less than two hours west of Seattle.

Pull out your work in progress and get ready to dig in with two shining stars in our industry: Arthur Levine, author, publisher of Arthur A. Levine Books, and a vice-president at Scholastic Inc., and Newbery Medal award-winning author Linda Sue Park. This intimate, craft-focused retreat will give you the opportunity to focus on a current work-in-progress with the guidance and expert insight of our two retreat leaders, as well as to connect with a network of talented local authors, which will include exchanging manuscript pages with several peers.

Selected writers will spend the weekend alternating between sessions with Arthur and Linda Sue, including a small-group intensive with Arthur in which he will share his reactions, as an editor and an important first reader, to the first few pages of every participants’ work. Our focus will be on examining works in process to identify opportunities to make characters more engaging, plots more compelling, descriptions more evocative, and themes more clear and universal. Arthur will provide direct feedback on that all-important first impression that your manuscript makes, while Linda Sue will share techniques for making use of that feedback and putting it to work to improve the whole manuscript. For novelists, she will focus on the first few chapters, which you’ll need to bring with you in draft form, but you’ll be able to take the concepts and practical lessons she shares home with you and put them to work to make your entire manuscript sparkle. The weekend will include time built in for individual writing, peer group critiques, walks, kayaking, swimming, resting, and networking.

The application period is now closed for 2011.