13th Annual
Chesapeake Writers’ Conference
2026 Schedule
June 21-27
Subject to Change
Sunday, June 21, 2026 | ||
TIME | LOCATION | DESCRIPTION |
2:00 - 5:00 PM | Daugherty-Palmer Commons | Check-in |
6:00 - 7:00 PM | Daugherty-Palmer Commons | Welcome Dinner |
7:00 PM | Daugherty-Palmer Commons | Welcome, Crystal Oliver |
7:15 - 7:45 PM | Daugherty-Palmer Commons | Keynote Address |
8:00 - 10:00 PM | River Center | Social Time |
Monday, June 22 | ||
TIME | LOCATION | DESCRIPTION |
7:30 - 9:00 AM | Great Room | Breakfast |
8:30 - 9:20 AM | Anne Arundel Hall, N110 | Teachers’ Pedagogy Session |
9:30 - 10:20 AM | Anne Arundel Hall, Blackistone Room | Lecture: Crystal Oliver On Making an Artful Life We’ll begin the week considering the artful commitment to a writer’s life, exploring the power of curiosity, trusting your voice and vision, and cultivating a personal “algorithm’ for creative fulfillment. Find and focus on what inspires you, embrace your passions (even Stevie Nicks!), and prepare to make your time at this conference—and your writing—truly transformative. |
10:30 - 11:20 AM | Anne Arundel Hall, Blackistone Room | Craft Talk: Jerry Gabriel Plotting (and Over-Plotting) in the Drafting Stages Plot gives narratives momentum and force; what would drive the second half of Huckleberry Finn if Jim and Huck hadn’t missed Cairo in the fog? But plot is not always your ally in the early stages of a work. As we draft, probably feeling overly responsible to initial ideas of the story’s arc, we can ask too much of events to pull the narrative along. This impulse often results in predictable characters and stock situations—or worse, dead-ends. In this hour, we’ll talk about where the impulse comes from, as well as some ways it might be remedied. |
11:30 AM - 1:00 PM | Great Room | Lunch |
1:15 PM | VARIOUS LOCATIONS | All Workshops Begin |
1:15 - 4:15 PM | Anne Arundel Hall, | Fiction Workshop with Jerry Gabriel |
1:15 - 4:15 PM | Kent Hall, | Fiction Workshop with Matt Burgess |
1:15 - 4:15 PM | Kent Hall, | Creative Nonfiction Workshop with Randle Browning |
1:15 - 4:15 PM | Anne Arundel Hall, | Poetry Workshop with Kaia Sand |
1:15 - 4:15 PM | Anne Arundel Hall, | Youth Workshop with Miranda McLain |
5:00 - 6:30 PM | Great Room | Dinner |
7:30 - 8:30 PM | Anne Arundel Hall, Blackistone Room | Faculty Reading Natalie J. Graham |
8:30 - 10:00 PM | River Center | Social Time |
Tuesday, June 23 | ||
TIME | LOCATION | DESCRIPTION |
7:30 - 9:00 AM | Great Room | Breakfast |
8:30 - 9:20 AM | Anne Arundel Hall, N110 | Teachers’ Pedagogy Session |
9:30 - 10:20 AM | Anne Arundel Hall, Blackistone Room | Lecture: Randle Browning On Paying Attention In a world dominated by screens and short-form video, what is our attention worth? We’ll look at writing from some of nonfiction’s closest observers of their worlds and end with a generative writing exercise to help us access the power of our own focus and attention. |
10:30 - 11:20 AM | Anne Arundel Hall, Blackistone Room | Craft Talk: Kaia Sand The Fragrance of Cedars and Pines: Writing as Witness This craft talk will explore how particular conceits — metaphor, metonymy, and allegory — are deployed by writers who confront war, economic migration, authoritarianism, and inequality. How does a writer connect a reader to something they may have never experienced? The late journalist and memoirist Anthony Shadid “noticed the fragrance of cedars and pines” only to learn “the actual trees had been destroyed hours before” by a bomb. Such familiar details can connect a reader; in other instances, writers isolate images for their singularity or layer stories to create a literary event distant from dangerous immediacy. We’ll veer through poetry and memoir spanning the 20th century to contemporary literature. |
11:30 AM - 1:00 PM | Great Room | Lunch |
1:15 - 4:15 PM | VARIOUS LOCATIONS | All Workshops Continue |
River Center Conf. Room | Fiction with Jerry Gabriel | |
Kent Hall, 212 | Fiction with Matt Burgess | |
Kent Hall, 222 | Creative Nonfiction with Randle Browning | |
Anne Arundel Hall, N204 | Poetry with Kaia Sand | |
Anne Arundel Hall, N111 | Youth Workshop with Miranda McLain | |
5:00 - 6:30 PM | Great Room | Dinner |
7:30 - 8:30 PM | Anne Arundel Hall, Blackistone Room | Faculty Reading |
8:30 - 10:00 PM | River Center | Social Time |
Wednesday, June 24 | ||
TIME | LOCATION | DESCRIPTION |
7:30 - 9:00 AM | Great Room | Breakfast |
8:15 - 9:05 AM | Anne Arundel Hall, | Teachers’ Pedagogy Session |
9:15 AM - 12:15 PM | VARIOUS LOCATIONS | Genre Workshops Continue |
River Center Conf. Room | Fiction with Jerry Gabriel | |
Kent Hall, 212 | Fiction with Matt Burgess | |
Kent Hall, 222 | Creative Nonfiction with Randle Browning | |
Anne Arundel Hall, N204 | Poetry with Kaia Sand | |
11:30 AM - 1:00 PM | Great Room | Lunch |
1:15 - 4:15 PM | Anne Arundel Hall, N111 | Youth Workshop Continues |
1:00 - 5:00 PM | Free Time/Excursions | |
4:30 - 5:30 PM | Campus Store | Book Sale & Signing Event |
5:00 - 6:30 PM | Great Room | Dinner |
7:00 - 8:30 PM | Anne Arundel Hall, Blackistone Room | Participant Reading |
8:30 - 10:00 PM | River Center | Social Time |
Thursday, June 25 | ||
TIME | LOCATION | DESCRIPTION |
7:30 - 9:00 AM | Great Room | Breakfast |
8:45 -10:15 AM | Cole Cinema | Publishing Panel Discussion with Q&A |
10:30 AM - 12:30 PM | Aldoum Lounge | Individual Publishing Meetings |
11:00 AM - 11:50 PM | Anne Arundel Hall, N110 | Teachers’ Pedagogy Session |
11:30 AM - 1:00 PM | Great Room | Lunch |
1:15 - 4:15 PM | VARIOUS LOCATIONS | Workshops Continue |
River Center Conf. Room | Fiction with Jerry Gabriel | |
Kent Hall, 212 | Fiction with Matt Burgess | |
Kent Hall, 222 | Creative Nonfiction with Randle Browning | |
Anne Arundel Hall, N204 | Poetry with Kaia Sand | |
Anne Arundel Hall, N111 | Youth Workshop with Miranda McLain | |
5:00 - 6:30 PM | Great Room | Dinner |
7:30 - 8:30 PM | Anne Arundel Hall, Blackistone Room | Faculty Reading |
8:30 -10:00 PM | River Center | Social Time |
Friday, June 26 | ||
TIME | LOCATION | DESCRIPTION |
7:30 - 9:00 AM | Great Room | Breakfast |
8:30 - 9:20 AM | Anne Arundel Hall, N110 | Teachers’ Pedagogy Session |
9:30 - 10:20 AM | Anne Arundel Hall, Blackistone Room | Craft Talk: Matt Burgess How to Plot a Novel As a group, over the course of an hour, with much second-guessing and argument, we will plot an original novel from start to finish. |
10:30 - 11:20 AM | Anne Arundel Hall, Blackistone Room | Lecture: Natalie J. Graham Writing through the Canvas Writing in response to visual art makes visible a conversation between past and present, writer and inspiration. Albeit often speculative, this writing enlivens authentic connections across time and space, bringing us nearer to past images, people, and ideas, nourishing an artistic ecosystem and creating a figurative third space for artistic communities. This talk explores strategies for prose and poetry writers to engage the joys of ekphrastic production through relationship, reflection, and research. |
11:30 AM - 1:00 PM | Great Room | Lunch |
1:15 - 4:15 PM | VARIOUS LOCATIONS | Workshops Continue and Conclude |
River Center Conf. Room | Fiction with Jerry Gabriel | |
Kent Hall, 212 | Fiction with Matt Burgess | |
Kent Hall, 222 | Creative Nonfiction with Randle Browning | |
Anne Arundel Hall, N204 | Poetry with Kaia Sand | |
Anne Arundel Hall, N111 | Youth Workshop with Miranda McLain | |
4:45 - 5:30 PM | Anne Arundel Hall, Blackistone Room | Faculty Panel Discussion with Q&A Randle Browning |
5:00 - 6:30 PM | Great Room | Dinner |
7:00 - 9:00 PM | Lawn in front of | |
8:30 - 10:00 PM | River Center | Social Time |
Saturday, June 27 | ||
TIME | LOCATION | DESCRIPTION |
7:30 - 10:00 AM | Daugherty-Palmer Commons | Continental Breakfast |