The 2022 Women Writing the West Conference will be an in-person event,
held October 20-22, 2022, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
The 28th Annual Conference was Women Writing the West’s first-ever conference in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Oklahoma comes from two Choctaw words: okla, meaning people; humma, meaning red. The land of the red people. This year’s conference is entitled Red Earth Voices: We All Have a Story to Tell. We will focus on the connective power of storying.
To uplift. To empower. To inspire.
Members
Due to technical problems, the Zoom link to the General Membership Meeting was incorrect, but the meeting was recorded.
Click Here to Listen to the General Membership Meeting
Passcode: W^Lui2g*
Quick Links
Hotel Reservations | Information | Conference Speakers | Sponsorships | Brochure & Schedule
Conference Recap
The Women Writing the West Conference 2022 held true to our theme of “Red Earth Voices: We All Have a Story to Tell” with a focus on “the connective power of storytelling. To uplift. To empower. To inspire.” The conference opened with District Seven Junior Miss Choctaw, Mia Reich, who performed The Lord’s Prayer in Sign Language and introduced herself, her tribe, and the district she represents in Choctaw. Featured Speaker Jeanetta Calhoun Mish gave the opening plenary, sharing the poetry and writings of Josie Craig Barry.
The members of the Agents and Editors Panel, convened by Elizabeth Trupin-Pulli, shared their expertise around successful pitching, editing, and publishing. Scheduled pitches and meetings with agents and editors occurred throughout the conference.
The LAURA Short Fiction Award and The DOWNING Journalism Award Luncheon highlighted the Winners and Finalists of these awards. Featured speaker Laura Pritchett spoke of how the underlying dynamics of land acknowledgements informs and enriches the authentic voice and responsibilities of a writer.
The WILLA Finalist Luncheon recognized the Finalists with final judges’ comments, and The WILLA Literary Award Banquet honored the Winners in the same fashion. Featured speaker Amy Irvine closed the conference speaking to the wisdom of the natural world and the connective power of sharing the stories of multiple voices.
Here’s one of the many comments made by conference attendees:
“I enjoyed journeying to Oklahoma City and attending the conference. Congratulations and thank you to your committee for all your work in providing us the opportunity to gather in such a thoughtful way. It was so renewing and heartwarming to be among all those wonderful women.”
Submitted by Dawn Wink, Conference Chair
Current Schedule updated 10/4/2022
Come prepared to smile!
A great headshot makes a world of difference. We have brought in an accomplished photographer to provide each of you a fabulous new headshot. For only $50 ($65 at the event) you’ll receive; a fun and unique photo session, online proofing for you to pick your favorite, and an edited and released digital photo.
Book your photo session HERE or scan the QRC below.
Get to know the photographer HERE, and see some of his headshot samples HERE.
If you have any questions or need additional information, please reach out to Creel at creel@limerickstudio.com.
Special Discount for advance appointments!
Bookstore
Full Circle Bookstore of Oklahoma City will be hosting the bookstore during the conference.
Deadline for participating in the Bookstore has closed.
Volunteers!
Our WWW Conferences depend on volunteers. Please contact Volunteer Coordinator, Jeannine Kammann at jwritespieces@gmail.com for more information.
Auction
Once again, an Auction to benefit The WILLA Literary Award Fund is planned. To donate, or if you have questions, contact Auction Coordinator, Liz Crawford at lcrawford1948@hotmail.com.
Meet Our 2022 Conference Speakers
Laura Pritchett is the author of five literary novels. Her first book, Hell’s Bottom, Colorado, won the PEN USA Award for Fiction and the Milkweed National Fiction Prize. This was followed by the novels Sky Bridge, Stars Go Blue, Red Lightning, and The Blue Hour, which garnered other awards including the WILLA, the High Plains Book Award, and several Colorado Book Awards. Stars Go Blue has been optioned for TV rights. She’s also written two nonfiction books, Great Colorado Bear Stories and Making Friends with Death: A Field Guide to Your Impending Last Breath. Environmental issues are close to her heart, and she’s editor of three anthologies about conservation. She directs the MFA in Nature Writing at Western Colorado University and teaches around the country.
www.laurapritchett.com
Jeanetta Calhoun Mish’s most recent books are What I Learned at the War, a poetry collection (West End Press, 2016) and Oklahomeland: Essays (Lamar University Press, 2015). Her 2009 poetry collection, Work Is Love Made Visible (West End Press) won an Oklahoma Book Award, a Wrangler Award, and the WILLA Award from Women Writing the West. Her first collection, a chapbook entitled Tongue Tied Woman, won the 2001 Edda Poetry Chapbook for Women Competition.
Anthology publications include poems in Returning the Gift, The Colour of Resistance and The Eloquent Poem; she has published poetry in many magazine and journals such as About Place and Yellow Medicine Review. Jeanetta was named Oklahoma State Poet Laureate in 2017 and, in 2019, she was awarded a Poets Laureate Fellowship from the Academy of American Poets.
Mish is editor of Mongrel Empire Press, which was recognized as 2012 Publisher of the Year by the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers. She has served as contributing editor for World Literature Today and Sugar Mule: A Literary Journal; she is currently a contributing editor for Oklahoma Today. She is a member of ACES: The Society for Editing and of the Editorial Freelancers Association.
Dr. Mish is a faculty mentor for The Red Earth Creative Writing MFA at Oklahoma City University where she teaches criticism and theory, poetics, poetry craft, and research for writer. jeanettacalhounmish.com/
Amy Irvine is a sixth-generation Utahn and descendant of notorious Mormons. Her memoir, Trespass: Living at the Edge of the Promised Land, received the Orion Book Award, Ellen Meloy Desert Writers Award and the Colorado Book Award. Desert Cabal: A New Season in the Wilderness, is a feminist response to western wilderness icon Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire, and was included in Orion Magazine’s 25 Most-Read Stories of the Decade, Outside’s Adventure Canon and Backpacker’s New Wilderness Classics. Her second memoir, Almost Animal, is forthcoming by Spiegel & Grau. Irvine lives and writes off-grid, on a remote mesa in southwest Colorado.
www.amyirvine.com/
Conference Brochure
Hotel Reservations
Sheraton Oklahoma City Downtown Hotel
1-800-325-3535
Contact
2022 Conference Chair,
Dawn Wink, WWWConference2022@gmail.com
CONFERENCE PRIVACY POLICY
Women Writing the West is committed to providing conference attendees with the best possible service while preserving your privacy. WWW will not release your name or other personal information about you to any other parties unless consent is obtained. Conference registration information is collected and used for that conference only.
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