As part of the Community of Writers Summer Writing Conference, FESTIVAL DAY is an All Day series of craft talks and readings open to the public on a donation basis. My craft talk, Writing With the Senses, about the importance of the senses in creating fiction a reader can inhabit, kicks off the day.

Following me, there are readings by Karen Joy Fowler, Gail Tsukyama. and Martin Smith, then a panel on literary nonprofits with Tom Lutz (LARB), Oscar Villalon (Zyzzyva), David Ulin (Alta), Jared Jackson (PEN),. David Kipen (Libros Schmibros), and David Hayes (Kimbilio/Fiction), moderated by Alex Espinoza; Leslie Daniels on Gil Dennis’s “Finding the Story” workshop; Screenwriting techniques to finding the story; Michelle Latoilais on “The Tyranny of Realism”; Conversation between Martin Smith and Julia Flynn Siler on what the fiction writer can learn from nonfiction, moderated by Sands Hall; “Deep Dive into a Short story” with Dana Johnson, Peter Orner and Krys Lee, moderated by Tom Barbash—the story is “Omakase” by Weike Wang (link to story on Community of Writers website)’ Readings by Peter Orrner, Kirstin Valdes Quade, Tom Luts and Andrew Tonkovich; Conversation with Amy Tan and Anna Devere Smith; reading by poet Robert Hass; and closing comments by Dana Johnson. For more information and link to Community of Writers’ Festival Day, go to https://communityofwriters.org/events/event/festival-day/