Latest News and Updates

Fundraiser, Zach's Corner

From Zach’s Corner: An Opportunity to Help

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We’re nearly five years into Broadleaf’s existence, and as our organization continues to grow, new opportunities to assist and support writers grow with it. Among my primary desires in creating Broadleaf was to extend that effort to young writers, to offer programs and initiatives that open doors for them–both as writers and as future professionals. It’s a level of support and opportunity I wish I had as a young writer. This year, I hope to begin the process of creating and expanding those opportunities. And to do so, I am asking for your help.

Broadleaf Writers is pleased to introduce a new initiative, with the aim of granting students of writing programs a cost-free experience at our upcoming annual conference.  This initiative would give students from Georgia State, Oglethorpe University, and Kennesaw State University the tremendous opportunity to connect with industry professionals, enrich their education, and become active members of Atlanta’s writing community. The benefits of their attendance can carry them well beyond a quest for publication. Gaining a firm grasp of writing, of storytelling, and forming fruitful connections, can enrich their professional lives as they advance into the world beyond college.

To fund approximately 25-30 students, we are launching a fundraiser to raise $5,000 to cover fees for both days of our conference, an annual membership into the organization, lunch, and full access to the conference and organizational tools.

Every dollar helps us grant these students this great opprtunity, as well as create hope and momentum to expand this program in the future. For $200 you can sponsor a student’s conference experience, though every donation–no matter how small–moves us closer to our goal. Please follow this link to our donate page. All donations are tax-deductible.

I thank you in advance for your interest, for your support, and for helping me in my efforts to expand opportunities and education for students.

Zachary Steele
Founder & Executiver Director
Broadleaf Writers Association
broadleafwriters@gmail.com

BWA Conference

Announcing the 2019 Broadleaf Writers Sweepstakes!

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We’re nearing one month until the 4th Annual Broadleaf Writers Conference is here, and we’re adding a new wrinkle! In addition to New York Times bestselling and award-winning authors, representatives from literary agencies and publishing houses, sessions and workshops packed with information to help improve your writing, and a growing community of writers like you, there’s one more reason to register!

We’re pleased to announce that every attendee for our 4th Annual conference will be entered into a drawing to win a free (FREE IS GOOD!) copy of either Scrivener or Final Draft 11! SIX lucky winners will be chosen during this year’s conference and will receive one of three copies of Scrivener or one of three copies of Final Draft 11! Both are excellent programs designed to simplify and assist in the writing process, whether you’re writing a manuscript or a screenplay! And with your registration, you could have one for free!

That’s right! Not only can you chat with our speakers, hobnob with agents, learn from professional writers, and make new friends who absolutely understand your struggle, but you could leave with a free writing program!

So, register today for your chance to win!

To read through our rules and regulations, Click here.

Programming, Self-Publishing Seminar, Zach's Corner

Ramblings From Zach’s Corner: Who Knew?

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This is new. I have a corner.

I just thought you should know.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Recently, I encountered a writer who informed me that, before finally coming to one our programs, they thought we were a scam. Not a malicious, out-to-ruin-all-things, kind of scam, but rather one of those nonprofits that seek to prey on people in need. It stumped me, to be honest. I’d never even considered that perception a possibility, as my brain doesn’t work that way. I’m more “free the spider to the outside world” than the “crush it into a thousand pieces and embrace the darkness of pain” type.

Yet, in review, I get it. The world can be a nasty, spiteful, self-absorbed place and one must be vigilant. There are nonprofits taking advantage of people trying to find their way. Offer a hand for help and people might pull you up so they can better pick your pocket. But that’s not who I am. That’s not what Broadleaf is.

Broadleaf is, and ever will be, a dream. An opportunity. An idea of community, education, inspiration, and connection. I’m a writer myself, after all. I have needs. I long to talk writing, to share work, to be J.K. Rowling or Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett (wait, why do I not live in the U.K. again?). I want to spin a web of writers and proclaim them Terrific and Radiant. And it would be absolutely good and well if I found others who could do the same for me.

Being a writer is a lonely, solitary, profession. We need to remember there’s a world outside our head, even if we don’t like it nearly as much.

Hence, Broadleaf.

Hence, programs like Write Now or the annual conference.

Or, coming very soon to a Ballroom (B) near you (specifically at the Cobb Galleria, whether near or far from you I’d rather not guess), our Self-Publishing Seminar. I don’t personally want to self-publish, nor is it “learning the craft of writing” per se, but it’s important to a large segment of writers and I want to make sure they have the tools to do it right. After all, we can all do this no problem. What we can’t all do, is do it right. So, if you’re in the camp of “should I self-publish”, keeping warm by the fire of indecision and doubt (with every single one of us crowded around), then invest in yourself and your work, register today, and come learn with us. Our speakers have done it, had success, made mistakes they can’t wait to share, and want—as I do as well—to ensure you do this right.

Like every program we put together, this one is for you. For the community of writers we seek to build. And if you want to find me and let me know what you need as a writer, what you’d like to see us as an organization do to better serve your needs, I promise we will take your hand, lift you up, and do our best to pad your pockets rather than pick them.

Programming

Join us for a Poetry Workshop at The Arts Exchange!

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In celebration of National Poetry Month, The Arts Exchange and Broadleaf Writers Association are pleased to present a one-day Poetry Workshop, to be held Saturday, April 6th from 10-4 at the Arts Exchange! With three workshops and a Q&A panel to address your questions, poets Theresa Davis, Andrea Jurjević and Collin Kelley will guide you through various styles and techniques! Be ready to write, ready to take notes, and ready to review poems you’ve brought with you! This program is free and open to the public, so don’t miss this opportunity to learn the art of poetry from three talented and prolific poets.

Workshops will include:
Giving Voice, led by Collin Kelley: This generative workshop will explore persona and ekphrastic poems. You’ll be giving voice to a narrator other than yourself, or perhaps a different version of yourself, and providing context or backstory to a work of art. Bring your pen and notebook and write poems to be shared with the group.

Andrea Jurjević will lead a workshop that explores passion and authenticity in poetry. Bring two of your strongest poems of 40 lines or less, paper, pen, and a sense of humor.

Random Facts and Musing, led by Theresa Davis, will incorporate random facts about the writer, random facts about a favorite subject or topic, and a the answers to a few questions. Mix it all together and a poem will be born. This is experimental poetry. Be brave.

We’ll conclude the day with a panel discussion, answering questions you may have about the craft, or the process of putting your work into a collection for publication!

Find the poems you’d like to share, bring a pen and paper or a latop to write, and join us for day devoted to poetry!

Programming, Write Now

Join us for our first Write Now program of 2019!

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In the beginning, you stared at a blank screen. This may have lasted a while. You may or may not have deleted your first line a few times. You made some coffee. You came back. The dog stared at you. You typed away, determined to keep the cat off the keyboard this time. Eventually you found a groove. You wrote some lines, which became paragraphs, which became a page.

Then a story happened. The pages flew by. You really like it (except when you hate it). You’ve developed feelings about it.

But the first page continues to call to you. After all, it’s what will get you in the door with an agent or editor. It’s what a potential reader may use to decide whether to buy your book. You think it needs something. But what? What if it’s okay to adequate already? What if you change something you shouldn’t change? How do you even know when it’s right?

First, take a breath. It’ll be all right.

We have a program just for you.

For our first Write Now program of 2019, we’re going to talk you through your first page. With the help of authors Emily Carpenter and Roger Johns, we’ll gather and chat, hold an informal discussion on the craft of writing a first page, then chat some more. Bring your page with you if you’d like. Time permitting, you may be able to read it aloud and we’ll offer our thoughts. We want you to leave feeling confident about writing the first page. Not only for your work-in-progress, but for all the first pages in your future.

Join us at Fox Tale Book Shoppe on Saturday, February 16th, 2019 at 2:00 p.m.!

Emily Carpenter is the critically acclaimed, bestselling author of suspense novels, Burying the Honeysuckle Girls, The Weight of Lies, and Every Single Secret. After graduating from Auburn with a Bachelor of Arts in Speech Communication, she moved to New York City. She’s worked as an actor, producer, screenwriter, and behind-the-scenes soap opera assistant for the CBS shows, As the World Turns and Guiding Light. Born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, she now lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her family. You can visit Emily at emilycarpenterauthor.com and on Facebook and Twitter.

ROGER JOHNS is a former corporate lawyer and retired college professor, and the author of the Wallace Hartman Mysteries from St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books: Dark River Rising (2017) and River of Secrets (2018). He is the 2018 Georgia Author of the Year (Detective ▪ Mystery Category), a 2018 Killer Nashville Readers’ Choice Award nominee, and a finalist for the 2018 Silver Falchion Award for best police procedural. His articles and interviews on writing and the writing life have appeared in Career Author, Criminal Element, Killer Nashville Articles, and the Southern Literary Review. Roger belongs to the Atlanta Writers Club, Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and International Thriller Writers, where he is one of The Fearless Bloggers, and a mentor in the Big Writer program. Along with four other crime fiction writers, he co-authors the MurderBooks blog at www.murder-books.com. Visit him at www.rogerjohnsbooks.com and you can find him on Twitter at @rogerjohns10.

 

Programming, Writer's Night

Writer’s Night: Act Two coming March 31st!

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Writer’s Night is coming to Eagle Eye Book Shop for Act Two!

Join featured authors and 2018 Townsend Prize for Fiction Finalists, Stacia Pelletier and Daren Wang for an informal discussion on the craft of writing Act Two of your manuscript!

Spend some real-world time with writers like you, browse Eagle Eye’s great selection of books (Stacia and Daren’s books will be available for purchase!) have some food and drink, and chat with our featured authors! Find your inspiration! Join us!

This program is free and open to the public!

Stacia Pelletier is the author of Accidents of Providence and The Half-Wives, both short-listed for the Townsend Prize in Fiction. She earned graduate degrees in religion and historical theology from Emory University in Atlanta. A two-time fellow of the Hambidge Center, located in the mountains of North Georgia, she currently lives in Decatur, Georgia, and works at Emory University’s School of Medicine.

 

Daren Wang is the Founding Executive Director of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Decatur Book Festival, the largest independent book festival in the country. Before launching the festival, he had a twenty-year career in public radio, both national and local, with a particular focus on books and authors. Wang has written for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Paste magazine, and Five Points magazine, among others. The Hidden Light of Northern Fires is his first novel.

2018 Writer's High Retreat, Partners, Uncategorized

The 2018 Writer’s High Retreat is March 9-11!

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Family. That’s what you will find, first and foremost, at the The Writer’s High Retreat 2018. As a writer, you’re looking for your tribe, for a community that will not only accept you, but embrace your dreams, encourage you forward. You want to learn, to grow as a writer, to achieve on the page that which fills the scope of your imagination.

At the Writer’s High, it all begins with the Mari Ann Stefanelli Perusek, the creative mind behind this retreat. You will not meet a more genuine, enthusiastic, and supportive person, and her energy and drive to offer writers the best haven for creativity is truly unparalleled. The connections you make over a weekend of writing, learning, and fun, will carry on beyond the retreat. You will leave a better writer than you arrived.

We are thrilled to be a sponsor of this amazing retreat. Be there. You won’t regret it.

Patti Callahan Henry, the New York Times best-selling author of 12 novels, is the keynote speaker for the fourth annual Writer’s High Retreat® March 9–11 at Amicalola Falls Lodge in Dawsonville, Georgia. Ms. Henry’s latest book is The Bookshop at Water’s End, which was released in July. Her work has received numerous awards, including a Townsend Prize for Fiction finalist, an Indie Next Pick, an OKRA pick, and a multiple nominee for the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) Novel of the Year.

Joining Ms. Henry is Nick Chiles, a New York Times bestselling author, Pulitzer Prize-winning former journalist, and literary agent. Mr. Chiles’ extensive body of work includes the New York Times bestselling memoir Every Little Step: My Story, which he co-authored with Bobby Brown in 2016, and Justice While Black: Helping African-American Families Navigate and Survive the Criminal Justice System, which he co-authored with attorney Robbin Shipp in 2014. The book was an NAACP Image Awards finalist in 2015. Mr. Chiles is also a literary agent with Aevitas Creative Management.

The featured speakers are accomplished authors, well versed in fiction, narrative nonfiction, and memoir––and recognized for their warm, engaging personalities and willingness to share their wisdom with others.

The Writer’s High Retreat® at Amicalola Falls Lodge package includes two nights’ accommodations, all retreat presentations, workshops, and events; meals included are Friday and Saturday dinner buffet, lunch buffet Saturday, and breakfast buffet Saturday and Sunday (cost includes coffee, tea, and iced tea). Rates are $733/single and $579/double (per person). Prices include all tips, taxes, and gratuities. This is a small, intimate retreat, and space is very limited. To register or for more information, visit the retreat website at www.thewritershighretreat.com.

Programming, Writer's Night

Writer’s Night: Act One kicks off our 2018 Schedule!

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You’ve fleshed out a story, created a world, outlined, fretted, written, edited, edited some more, worried, and spent hour upon hour confusing friends and family by talking to yourself about your project when you thought they weren’t listening. Now you’ve developed feelings about it. You need to talk it out with someone who understands. Someone who gets you. Someone like you. Someone with thoughts and ideas about the craft of writing, about your writing, about any writing!

Your opportunity has arrived! Come and spend some real-world time (in a bookstore no less!) with writers, form new connections, chat with our featured authors, sit in on an informal conversation about writing Act One! Find your inspiration and inspire others! Join us! We’ll bring the food and drinks!

Our featured authors for this gathering will be Kimberly Brock and Ricki Schultz!

Kimberly Brock is the author of the award-winning modern gothic novel, The River Witch, and founder of the Tinderbox Writer’s Workshop, a transformative creative experience for women in the arts. She is a member of the Tall Poppy Writers, the only author-driven marketing cooperative in the U.S. that is exclusive to female authors who publish in a variety of genres. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in Psychology Today and Writer Unboxed, among other publications, and Kimberly is a bi-monthly contributor to the popular online writers site, Writers in the Storm, where she writes about the writer’s life.

Ricki Schultz is the author of Mr. Right Swipe, published June 2017 by Grand Central Press, and the forthcoming follow-up, Switch and Bait, due June 2018. A teacher, speaker, editor and writer, Ricki earned a B.A. in English and an M.Ed. in Secondary Education from John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio.

Join us for a fun time with the fine folks at FoxTale Book Shoppe!

Programming

Join Us for a Screenwriting Seminar December 2nd!

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The film industry in Georgia is producing movies, shows and commercials at an increasing rate, creating a need for writers and fresh material for future projects. Yet, the opportunities to learn the craft of writing screenplays, and the process of selling a script, are few and far between.

But that’s about to change.

The Broadleaf Writers Association, in partnership with the DeKalb Entertainment Commission, is pleased to offer a seminar on the craft of writing screenplays, and the business of selling a screenplay, featuring two industry professionals.

In separate sessions, screenwriter Mike Buchanan, and producer Mickey Dunbrow, will conduct workshops on the craft, offer a presentation on current industry expectations and methods to improve your script, and answer any questions you may have. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to improve your writing and your script, and further your understanding of a rising industry in Georgia.

This program is free and open to the public. No reservation or ticket is required.

Mickey Dubrow has been an award winning television promotions and marketing writer/producer for major cable networks for over twenty-five years. His clients have included Cartoon Network, Cartoon Network Latin America, TNT Latin America, HGTV, CNN, and McGraw Hill. His essays have appeared in Full Grown People, The Good Man Project, Prime Number Magazine, and McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. For more information, visit http://mickeydubrow.com.

Michael Buchanan is the creator of the award winning feature The Fat Boy Chronicles which has been seen by millions on Netflix, at REDBOX, and used in schools nationwide; Last Bullet and Boxes, award winning shorts; feature-length documentary Spiral Bound; and feature documentary Nature Matters.

Uncategorized

Introducing 2017 Broadleaf Writers Conference Keynote Literary Agent Peter Miller

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Each year, Broadleaf Writers strives to bring the best and most talented writers and agents to our conference, in order to best serve you in your quest to become the best writer you can become. This year, we are expanding our list to include an additional Keynote to our schedule. Though learning the craft of writing is paramount to your quest to join the ranks of published writers, a full understanding of the inner workings of the world of literary agents can be a crucial tool in setting you on the proper path.

Thus, we are pleased to announce the addition of Peter Miller as 2017 Broadleaf Writers Conference Keynote Literary Agent! In addition to sessions with our attendees and participation on panels, Peter will deliver a rousing keynote to begin our second day of programming! Don’t miss out on this opportunity!

Peter Miller has been a literary and film manager for several decades and is President and CEO of Global Lion Intellectual Property Management, Inc.(previously PMA Literary & Film Management Inc. of New York). He has represented more than 1,500 books, including twenty three New York Timesbestsellers. In addition, his company has had twenty three movies produced that he either managed, developed or executive produced, and currently has many film and television projects in development. Three of those films produced have been nominated for Emmy Awards: Goodbye, Miss Fourth of July; A Gift of Love; and Helter Skelter. In addition, Peter Miller has a number of film and television projects currently in active development, with some nearing production, in association with Warner Bros. Features and Paramount/DreamWorks and other producers and production companies.

Known in both the publishing world and Hollywood as the “Literary Lion”, Peter Miller regularly attends colleges, universities, writing conferences, Book Expo America, the London International Book Fair, and the Frankfurt Book Fair. Peter Miller has established contacts nationally and internationally with publishers, writers, writers’ groups and the media. For more information, view Peter’s numerous videos on You Tube.