Centered on you — the writer — the writers workshop 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 delight and refresh your imagination.

Our vision is to bring together and disciple a community of writers in the spirit of C.S. Lewis and the Inklings, whose works continue to inspire and influence thousands. Our mission is to actively recapture the essence of community Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien and their fellow writers enjoyed and create it afresh in our current culture.

Come join us for our lectures, workshops, 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 — and perhaps published — product requires self-discipline and dogged perseverance, as well 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 rainy-day hobby. Writers of all expertise levels are welcome to come celebrate the creative life — and the privilege of working in community.

Track Leaders

• Dr. Diana Pavlac Glyer, Professor of English and author of The Company They Keep: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community
• Richard Platt, author of As One Devil to Another

• Melanie Stiles, author and Christian Life Coach, 2006 Inspirational Writers Alive! Writer of the Year

Track Descriptions

Diana Glyer

Are you Lewissian, Tolkienian, or Somewhere In-between? PART ONE

The best way to improve your written product is to tweak your writing process. A look at the sharp contrasts between C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, and a handy guide to help you experience the best of both worlds. Part One will focus on cultivating motivation, developing disciplines, and preparing to write.

Are you Lewissian, Tolkienian, or Somewhere In-between? PART TWO

The best way to improve your written product is to tweak your writing process. A look at the sharp contrasts between C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, and a handy guide to help you experience the best of both worlds. Part Two will focus on how to produce truly terrible rough drafts and then *gulp* what to do about it.

Doing What the Inklings Did – (Saturday breakout session)

In The Company They Keep, Diana Glyer explained how Lewis and Tolkien encouraged, corrected, and challenged one another. In this interactive lecture, she will share 5 principles to help modern-day Inklings do the same.

Richard Platt

Writing as an Apostolate – A Personal Journey

The author will discuss his journey from reader to writer, the state of the publishing industry and the challenges of writing with a Christian orientation in a secular world, and conclude with thoughts on the foundations of the greatness of C. S. Lewis’s narrative art and the interplay of the spiritual and the worldly in literary craft.

Melanie Stiles

Sprinklings –  Small groups for sharing and feedback for prose writers and poets.

The Sprinklings will offer a feedback session for writers who are serious about improving their work. This is an atmosphere for overwhelming support, encouragement and motivation to continue your writing journey.  You can enjoy conversations with published authors regarding the craft and business of writing.  And most importantly a chance to form many lasting relationships with others of similar gifts and passions.

For more information on the Sprinklings visit here.

Thank you to our sponsors!