Writers’ Conference

July 29th-August 2nd

Price: $1,550

Member Price: $1,475

Application Fee: $20

About the Conference

This summer, One Story will be hosting our Writers’ Conference in-person at Poets House in Manhattan. Over the course of five days, writers will take part in workshops, attend craft lectures and panel discussions, give readings, and build community with one another against a backdrop of the scenic Manhattan waterfront. The conference is designed for fiction writers who are working towards completing a publishable manuscript.

 

What We Offer

Writing Workshops: At the start of each day, writers will participate in intensive workshop sessions with their instructor and nine other enthusiastic writers. Each session is an opportunity for writers to not only gain actionable feedback on their work in progress, but learn valuable craft lessons by analyzing the work of fellow students.

Craft Lectures: Our roster of craft lectures are led by established authors and explore fiction’s most important elements. This year’s craft lecturers are Allison Amend, Jennifer Baker, Jai Chakrabarti, Denne Michele Norris, and Jeanne Thornton.

Panels: At our agent and editor panels, writers will learn the best practices for submitting their work to agents and literary magazines from industry professionals and ask questions about the process.

Featured Author Reading: Each year, one of our editors joins a One Story author who has recently published a book for an intimate conversation about the writing process. This event will be held at a local independent bookstore and will be open to conference students and the public.

Student Readings: Student readings are a chance for conference attendees in different workshop groups to connect and hear each other’s work in a low-pressure, supportive environment. Readings are open to workshop participants and One Story staff. 

Conference Instructors

Manuel Gonzales

Contributing Editor

Manuel Gonzales is the author of the collection, The Miniature Wife and other stories, as well as the novel, The Regional Office is Under Attack! He currently serves as the fiction editor for The Bennington Review and as a contributing editor for American Short Fiction and One Story magazine. He lives in New England where he teaches literature and creative writing at Bennington College and serves as a faculty member for the Bennington Writing Seminars.

Saïd Sayrafiezadeh

Saïd Sayrafiezadeh is the author of, most recently, the story collection, American Estrangement, a finalist for the L.A. Times Book Prize. His memoir, When Skateboards Will Be Free, was selected as one of the 10 best books of the year by Dwight Garner of The New York Times, and his story collection, Brief Encounters With the Enemy, was a finalist for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Fiction Prize. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Atlantic, The Best American Short Stories, Granta, and McSweeney’s, among other publications. He is the recipient of a Whiting Writers’ Award for nonfiction and a Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers’ fiction fellowship. He leads the Creative Nonfiction track in Hunter’s MFA program, and teaches undergraduate writing at NYU, where he received an outstanding teaching award. Photo: Beowulf Sheehan

Hannah Tinti

Co-Founder & Executive Editor

Hannah Tinti is the co-founder and executive editor of One Story magazine. She is the author of the bestselling novel The Good Thief, which won The Center for Fiction’s first novel prize, and the story collection Animal Crackers, a runner-up for the PEN/Hemingway Award. Her most recent novel, The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley, is a national bestseller and is in development for television. She co-founded the Sirenland Writers Conference in Italy and has taught writing at New York University’s Graduate Creative Writing Program, Columbia University’s MFA program, CUNY, and at the Museum of Natural History in New York City.  For more information please visit hannahtinti.com.

Craft Lecturers

Allison Amend

Allison Amend is a graduate of Stanford University and the Iowa Writer’s Workshop. She is the author of the award-winning short story collection Things That Pass for Love and the novels A Nearly Perfect Copy and Stations West, which was a finalist for the 2011 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature and the Oklahoma Book Award. Her most recent book, Enchanted Islands, was on the longlist for the International Dublin Award. Allison teaches creative writing at Lehman College CUNY in New York City where in 2012 she completed a project in which she visited every single museum in the city (all 115 of them!).

Jennifer Baker

Jennifer Baker is an author/editor, the creator & host of the Minorities in Publishing podcast, and on faculty at Bay Path University’s MFA program in creative nonfiction. In 2017, she received a NYSCA/NYFA grant and Queens Council on the Arts grant in Nonfiction. She is the editor of the short story anthology Everyday People: The Color of Life (2018) and the author of Forgive Me Not (2023), a finalist for the 2023 Los Angeles Times Book Prize, an NYPL 2023 Best Book for Teens and 2023 Best of the Best by the BCALA. Her website is: jennifernbaker.com. (Photo: Gabby Deimeke)

Jai Chakrabarti

Jai Chakrabarti is the author of the novel A Play for the End of the World, which won the National Jewish Book Award for debut fiction, was the Association of Jewish Libraries Honor Book, was short-listed for the Tagore Prize, and was long-listed for the PEN/Faulkner Award. He is also the author of the story collection A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness, one of The New Yorker’s Best Books of 2023. His short fiction has been anthologized in The O. Henry Prize Stories, The Best American Short Stories, and awarded a Pushcart Prize.

Denne Michele Norris

Denne Michele Norris is the editor-in-chief of Electric Literature, winner of the 2022 Whiting Literary Magazine Prize, where she is the first Black, openly trans woman to helm a major literary publication. A 2021 Out100 Honoree, her writing has been supported by MacDowell, Tin House, and the Kimbilio Center for African American Fiction, and appears in McSweeney’sAmerican Short Fiction, and ZORA. She is co-host of the critically-acclaimed podcast Food 4 Thot, and her debut novel, When The Harvest Comes, will be published by Random House in Spring, 2025.

Jeanne Thornton

Jeanne Thornton is the author of Summer Fun, winner of the Lambda Literary Award, A/S/L (forthcoming), The Dream of Doctor Bantam, and The Black Emerald. She’s the coeditor, with Tara Madison Avery, of We’re Still Here: An All-Trans Comics Anthology, as well as the copublisher of Instar Books. Her work has appeared at n+1, Wired, Harper’s Bazaar, and other places. She lives in Brooklyn, and more information is available at jeannethornton.com.

"It's a very transformative and educational experience, not to mention inspirational! It has validated me as a writer, but also has changed my views of the publishing industry and the writing process, and for the better." Mark Ranchez, Summer Writers' Conference, 2022
"This was a grounded, practical, and energizing week of intensive focus on craft in a very human, accessible way." Naveen Rao, Summer Writers’ Conference, 2021
The One Story Summer Writers’ Conference fostered a tremendous sense of community and propelled the writers in my workshop to new levels of enthusiasm and confidence about their work. Jules Chung, Summer Writers’ Conference, 2021
“It felt that every moment I was at the conference, I was continually affirmed as a writer.” Hannah Gregory, Summer Writers’ Conference, 2021

Poets House

Poets House is a nonprofit poetry library and community center located in Battery Park City on the Manhattan waterfront with a mission “to document the wealth and diversity of modern poetry, to stimulate dialogue on issues of poetry in culture, and to cultivate a wider audience for the art.” While the One Story conference is fiction-focused, summer conference students are welcome to explore and utilize the newly remodeled space and browse their extensive poetry library and collection of literary magazines. 

Application Guidelines:

EXTENDED DEADLINE: March 24, 2024, 11:59PM ET

There is a $20 nonrefundable application fee. All applications must be sent through Submittable. All applicants will be notified of acceptance by mid-May 2024.

We are seeking applicants who are excited to be part of a literary community and ready for a fun and productive conference. Applicants should submit a 5000 word writing sample along with a personal statement. Complete application guidelines are available on the application.

Applicants will be chosen based on the strength of their writing sample and their personal statement.

Please note that you will need to create a Submittable account in order to complete the application.

Fees:

Application Fee: $20 (non-refundable)
Conference Fee: $1,550 (Member Price: $1,475)

The cost of the conference includes:

  • Workshops (no more than 10 people) where you’ll receive focused feedback on your work
  • Craft lectures by visiting authors and instructors to improve your skills.
  • Panels of publishing professionals to connect you with the business side of writing
  • A fifteen-minute private conference with your workshop instructor
  • Morning coffee and tea service and evening wine and cheese mingles
  • A welcome breakfast on Monday morning at the conference’s start
  • A farewell dinner at the conclusion on Friday evening. 

The cost of the conference does not include:

  • travel
  • meals (except those listed above)
  • lodging

Sample Conference Schedule:

(All times are in ET. Times are tentative. The schedule will vary from day to day, but this is an idea of what an average conference day looks like.)

9:45am

Coffee, tea, & light snacks

10:00am – 12:30pm

Workshop

2:00pm – 3:15pm

Craft lecture

4:00pm – 5:15pm

Student Reading

6:30pm – 8:00pm

Industry Panel

8:00pm – 9:00pm

Reception

F.A.Q

Do you offer financial aid or scholarships for this conference?

One Story will be offering two reduced-fee scholarships for NYC area-based BIPOC writers (applicants should live in one of the five boroughs). If you would like to be considered for one of these scholarships, please fill out the Scholarship Application when applying for the conference. 

*All writers applying for scholarships will also be considered for general admission to the conference. If you will not be able to attend the conference without financial aid, please let us know in your application.

Is it possible to waive the application fee?

Yes. If the application fee for the conference is too much of a financial burden, please email edu.support@one-story.com and we will waive the fee.

Is the conference accessible?

Yes. Poets House is equipped with an elevator and is wheelchair-accessible.