We are thrilled to announce that registration for the 2015 Chapter One Young Writers Conference is now open!
The conference will take place Saturday, August 8, 2015 in Arlington Heights, IL (a suburb of Chicago) and will include writing workshops, a panel, and all kinds of good stuff. Register early (now through the end of May) to get the special early bird registration price of $39.99! Register at www.chapteroneconference.com/register.
Next up: We’ve got speakers!
We have an amazing lineup for you this year! While we’re still finalizing things with a couple speakers, we have three locked in. So, drum roll please…
Keynote Address: Kat Zhang
That’s right! Our 2015 keynote speaker will be Kat Zhang, author of the Young Adult Dystopian series The Hybrid Chronicles (HarperCollins). She started writing the first (seriously fantastic) book in the series, What’s Left of Me, the winter of her senior year of high school and sold the trilogy when she was nineteen.
When she isn’t writing books, Kat also contributes to Pub(lishing) Crawl and recently graduated from Vanderbilt University with a major in English. Her writing is represented by literary agent Emmanuelle Morgen of Stonesong.
Kat’s Books
What’s Left of Me (2012) / Once We Were (2013) / Echoes of Us (2014)
Find Kat Online
Website / Twitter / Tumblr / Facebook
Workshop Leader: Taryn Albright
The 2015 conference will include two writing workshops, one of which Taryn Albright will lead! Taryn is a writer and incredible freelance editor. Over fifty of her clients have gone on to sign with literary agents and dozens have signed deals with major publishing houses, including Penguin, Candlewick, Scholastic, Harlequin, HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster.
Taryn has worked at several literary agencies, as an acquiring editor at a small publishing house, and as an assistant to best-selling author Gennifer Albin. She has a degree in Creative Writing and currently works for Walt Disney Creative Entertainment. (Basically: living the dream.) Her Young Adult and Middle Grade fiction is represented by Molly Ker Hawn of The Bent Agency.
Find Taryn Online
Website / Editing Services / Twitter
Speaker: Ava Jae
Ava Jae will be leading one of our two lecture-style sessions! Ava is a Young Adult and New Adult author whose debut Beyond the Red will be released in March, 2016 by Sky Pony Press. She also is an assistant editor at Entangled Publishing, blogs about writing and publishing at Writability (which recently celebrated one million hits!), and vlogs at bookishpixie. Oh, and on top of all of that, she’s a college student. As if she isn’t already doing enough.
Her writing is represented by Louise Fury at The Bent Agency. Speaking of which: As a special treat, Louise (who is currently closed to queries) has offered to consider query letters from conference attendees for up to ten days after the conference. (!!!)
Ava’s Book
Beyond the Red (2016)
Find Ava Online
Website / Twitter / Youtube / Tumblr / Facebook
We are so excited for Ch1Con 2015. (And hope you are too!)
There are only thirty slots open to attend the conference, so make sure to register before they’re gone! We’ll make sure to announce the last two speakers and what topics everyone will be speaking on soon.
See you in August!
– The Ch1Con Team
Chapter One Conference 