A Publishing Speakers’ Series Returns in Winter 2024
A Publishing Speakers’ Series returns in Winter 2024 with three events that feature authors and industry professionals passing on their experience in the world of publishing.
Now in its second year, the PSS aims to provide students with a sense of the big issues at play in the publishing industry, drawing on the specific expertise of publishers, editors, and agents as well as authors themselves.
The series is organized by Lindsay Wong, Professor of Creative Writing here at the University of Winnipeg, whose told us a little bit about the conception of the series, and the range of speakers that it has featured:
“Publishing a book is often a complicated, long-term process, which can cause frustration for first-time authors. The series aims to demystify mainstream publishing, so we have invited a diverse group of guest speakers, all of whom are successful in the publishing industry, to speak to our students, faculty, staff and alumni at the University of Winnipeg.
There is not a lot of accurate information about traditional book publishing on the Internet, so we wanted to cover topics like the steps necessary to query a literary agent, how an editor acquires a manuscript for a publisher, writing a successful nonfiction proposal, book to television/film adaptations, curating a platform as a new writer, and publishing op-eds and short stories to build a portfolio as an emerging creative writer.
As a creative writing professor, I think a lot about professionalization for my students, and I want them to leave my classroom with the practical knowledge to become successful in writing and publishing.”
Learn more about the Winter 2024 PSS line-up below and register for each of the events via the Zoom links provided.
A Q&A with Literary Agent DongWon Song (Howard Morhaim Literary Agency)
DongWon Song is an agent at Howard Morhaim Literary Agency representing science fiction and fantasy for adults, young adult, and middle grade readers as well as select non-fiction. They were formerly an editor at Orbit, a product manager for an ebook startup, and has taught at institutions including Portland State University and New York University. They have a newsletter about the business at publishingishard.com. DongWon is Korean-American, trans, and nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns.
Website: https://www.dongwonsong.com/about
Date: Friday, January 12, 2024
Time: 2:30-3:30 PM CT
Link to register:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYoduurqjwvHt24rC1eIk3UY0mv4buNoBQQ#/registration
A Virtual Reading and Q&A with Award-Winning Author Shashi Bhat
Shashi Bhat is the author of the forthcoming story collection Death by a Thousand Cuts, and the novels The Most Precious Substance on Earth, a finalist for the 2022 Governor General's Award for fiction, and The Family Took Shape, a finalist for the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award. Her fiction has won the Writers’ Trust/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize and been shortlisted for a National Magazine Award and the RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers, and appeared in such publications as The Fiddlehead, The Malahat Review, Best Canadian Stories, and The Journey Prize Stories. Shashi holds an MFA from the Johns Hopkins University and a BA from Cornell University. She lives in New Westminster, B.C., where she is the editor-in-chief of EVENT magazine and teaches creative writing at Douglas College.
Date: Friday, January 26, 2024
Time: 2:30-3:30 PM CT
Link to register:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMvduqoqT4oH9z2Ddm7wrQgo4C63LIJdfD2#/registration
A Virtual Reading and Q&A with Acclaimed Author Christine Lai
Named a “writer to watch” by Publishers Weekly and the CBC, Christine is a novelist and essayist who writes primarily on art and images. Landscapes is published by Doubleday Canada, and by indie press Two Dollar Radio in the United States, where it has been highlighted on several “most anticipated” lists, and selected as an Indie Next Pick by the American Booksellers Association. An earlier manuscript version was shortlisted for the 2020 Novel Prize, offered by New Directions, Fitzcarraldo Editions, and Giramondo to reward innovative novels that expand the possibilities of the form. Christine holds a PhD in English literature from University College London.
Date: Friday, February 2, 2024
Time: 2:30-3:30 PM CT
Link to register:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIpdO-hrzopHd3K8QQUK4YUcLvSiGi8_w_A#/registration
The Publishing Speakers’ Series is supported by a UWinnipeg Research Workshop and Conference Grant and the Department of English.