Writers conference expands to two days
By Steffanie Costigan - Lethbridge Herald Local Journalism Initiative Reporter on March 2, 2024.
Local organization WordBridge will host its sixth annual writers’ conference at CASA on April 13 and 14.The conference will run from 9:15 a.m. until 9 p.m. on the 13th and 10:15 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. on the 14th.
WordBridge seeks to connect local writers within the community and Southern Alberta together for learning and growing opportunities, WordBridge chair Jenna Greene said Friday.
“WordBridge is a writers conference that we do right here in Lethbridge. It used to be February every year but now we moved it to April this year. And it’s also for the first time a two-day conference. . .it’s to bring together authors, illustrators, editors, publicists and help people learn about the writing process and the writing industry,” said Greene.
Greene said catch a sneak peek of this years conference will be staged Friday, March 8 from 7 to 9 p.m. at Analog Books.
“A poet named Chris Bice will be speaking and so will I to give people a little taste of what they will see at the actual event,” noted Greene.
Greene said although most of the authors are local there are others coming from Calgary and as far as Saskatchewan.
“They can expect to have a mixture of panels and presentations. They can go and learn about a specific topic, whether that be about editing, whether that be about short stories, whether that be about how to do a book signing.
“Or they can go to a panel and listen to four or five experts in that field. . . . maybe it’s a romance panel, and we’ll have four or five romance authors come and talk about their genre of literature, the writing process and answer questions,” she said.
Tickets for the writers’ conference are $40 at the door or can be purchased until April 12 for$30 at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/wordbridge-lethbridge-writers-conference-tickets-744537320167?aff=oddtdtcreator.
Greene noted there are even opportunities for aspiring authors and writers to sit down with a professional editor for 15 to 20 minutes and have them look over their work.
She said the conference will give authors and writers an opportunity to learn about their craft.
“It’s great if (you) need to know this information. (You) could just look it up. But maybe you don’t know that you need that information. And you learn far more from listening to people that are writers and talking to them than you ever will on a website. Coming in person and talking to people that share your interests, your passion and your work is really beneficial.” 2
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