Why Attend BWRC

ReShonda Tate Billingsley, 10-year BWRC veteran, journalist, executive producer, bestselling and award-winning author of 18 books, shares how the Black Writers Reunion & Conference helped her get started.

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Vincent Alexandria, 10-year BWRC veteran, author, producer, director, screenwriter, poet, and founder of the Brother 2 Brother Literary Symposium, speaks on Black Writers Reunion & Conference from Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino, June 18, 2009.

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In June 2008, I attended the Black Writer’s Reunion & Conference in Tampa, Florida. Paying for the entire conference and participating in the 50-Author Showcase was a career-defining experience for me. The various workshops offered for aspiring, new and even seasoned authors brought with each presentation a wealth of valuable information that not all writers’ [...]

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Outside, the sky was covered with an unfriendly darkness; its companions clamoring of kettle drums and pellets of cold water hitting the windows. It might have been that way outside, but inside the Sheraton Hotel was hot with hundreds of creative minds churning out new stories. I was appreciative to be able to spend one-on-one time with Jewell Parker Rhodes reviewing and discussing my untitled romance novel. After our lengthy discussion I came away with renewed emotion of accomplishment and that I was indeed on the right track and my manuscript is a worthy story fit to be shared with the reading public. I’m glad I decided to attend the Black Writers Reunion & Conference. I came away with a renewed inspiration and a goal to achieve in my professional writing.

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by Lauren Brown Jarvis Black Writers Reunion & Conference has changed my life. At present there is no information out about next year’s conference which is scheduled to be held in Las Vegas, however, I plan to be super-involved. I went to the conference after finding out about it from my longtime friend Detra Hicks. [...]

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This is a great event to see Black writers, and soon-to-be writers, getting together to commence and relate to whatever struggles and adversities that may fall their way. It is so important to have a forum like this to really test our flight in bringing the goal at hand to reality. Taking that trip, and being open to an uplifting and educating experience, is the first step in removing that shell and allowing greatness to open up. The comfort of BWRC is indeed a great step to becoming optimistic and becoming the best that you can be. {Click title to read full article}

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To date, I don’t think I’ve attended a conference that could hold a candle to the BWRC. It was well planned and organized. Everything that was on the agenda to take place did. We walked away with an abundance of information. I still have handouts from the conference that I refer to, to this day. I don’t care how long a writer has been in the literary game, you can never stop learning and you can always enhance what you’ve already learned. {Click title to read full article}

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I learned so much that I was able to self-publish Snake Walkers in 2005. Since then I’ve obtained an agent. Snake Walkers has won four first place awards and received the Bronze award in General Fiction from ForeWord Magazine. If you are serious about writing, you need to be around others that are just as serious. BWRC is a well run conference that has something for everybody from the neophyte to the published writer. I learned something at every workshop I attended and with almost every conversation I had with the participants. It is definitely a worthwhile event. {Click title to read full article}

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BWRC has helped me to accomplish a number of writing goals. I have self published two books since then and have been on the road a lot this year promoting my Christian fiction novel, Brotherly Love and Betrayal. I also published a collection of humorous stories about motherhood, Momisms- Mama Never Told Me There Would Be Days Like This. As I tell my MySpace buddies who are aspiring authors, the BWRC is the place to go to jumpstart your writing career. {Click title to read full article}

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Growth and networking are two of the conferences’ greatest strengths. Two years after attending my first BWRC conference I signed a major publishing deal with Kensington/Dafina Books. I’ve been with Kensington/Dafina since that time. {Click title to read full article}

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One of the most memorable moments at the conference was the frank discussion I had with Tananarive Due. The sincerity with which she listened to my writing concerns and the advice she relayed to me was invaluable. Many writers and self-publishers suffer from “conference overload” having attended so many conferences—the good and not so good, professional ones, as well as those that wasted their time and money. BRWC is none of these. I continue to return to find new folks to meet, new information to help me improve my craft, new publishing and marketing ideas, and more folks to network with. {Click title to read full article}