Track Description
Centered on you — the writer — the writers track will build your relationships with other writers and professionals in the writing community while you learn practical tips and techniques to improve your writing and its reception. This will be an experience to stimulate your intellect, enlighten your spirit, and refresh your imagination.
Come join us for our lectures and interactive group sessions for the jump-start, dusting off, or home-stretch encouragement you’ve needed to move forward with your writing. We all know that writing well is, in part, a talent. But moving from God-given gift to a finished product requires self-discipline and dogged perseverance, as well as the encouragement and feedback of others.
We offer an affirming atmosphere for learning from respected authors, reading and commenting on one another’s work, and discussing specifics for creating a writing life that is more than a hobby. Writers of all levels of experience (or none) are welcome to come celebrate the creative life and the privilege of working in community.
- Writers Track Session 1: “The Word, and the words: Christ and the writer’s vocation”
- Writers Track 2: “C.H.A.N.G.E. and Every Writer”
- Writers Track Session 3: “Finding your form – finding your freedom; how form and craft can liberate your writing”
- Sprinklings Writing Feedback Groups
- Breakout: “Marks of a Christian Writer”
- Breakout: “The Baron Journals – A Collaboration of Art and Poetry Rooted in Faith”
Track Leaders
Malcolm Guite
Have you wished you could join the Inklings or, perhaps, attended a Tolkien or Lewis lecture? Malcolm Guite is the next best thing! This renowned author, poet, songwriter, and authority on Lewis and Tolkien was chosen to speak at the symposium prior to the dedication of a memorial stone in C.S. Lewis’s honor in Westminster Abby this November. You won’t want to miss this opportunity to learn from his vast experience and knowledge. Malcolm’s sessions will explore the role of faith in the writer’s vocation and calling and the importance of poetic techniques in all writing genres.
Melanie Stiles
Christian Life Coach and author, Melanie Stiles, is invested in moving writers to the next level on their respective journey. Join her for a session of self-discovery encompassing your own community, habits, attitudes, new routines, God-centered activities, and the extension of your writing vision. Walk away with an action plan that leads to progress!
The Sprinklings – An Invitation
Writers need community. Tolkien was a notorious non-finisher who needed the presence of others to keep writing. We encourage you to bring samplings of your projects to our “Sprinklings” sessions where we will gather in earnest one-on-one time to help each other. Your attendance to Sprinklings will net the following:
- A fresh perspective on your work.
- A safe place to try out your ideas.
- Conversations that will foster completing your project.
- Positive feedback.
Allow a Sprinkling session to be part of your CS Lewis Conference experience. E-mail Melanie Stiles for further details about what to bring to the conference. mstiles@cslewis.org
Please Note: the Writers Track begins on Friday morning, November 8th, and takes place before the main conference begins that evening.
It runs concurrent with the other Early Arrival Track Sessions – the Inklings 101 Track and the Academic Roundtable.
There is a separate registration package for attending the Early Arrival Track Sessions that includes tuition for the Main Conference. For more details, see our Registration page.