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Every writer needs time to step away from the page.

Time to learn something new. To hear fresh ideas. To ask questions. To meet people who understand both the excitement and the uncertainty that come with a writing life.

That's why the Chicago Writers Association created the Let's Just Write! Chicago Writers Association Conference.

Each year, writers from across the region come together for a day of inspiring conversations, practical learning, and genuine community. Whether you're just beginning your first manuscript or adding another book to your bibliography, you'll leave with new ideas, new connections, and renewed momentum.

A day dedicated to writers and the work they love.

“The 7th annual Let’s Just Write! conference is a wrap, and it was a tremendous success. I’m deeply grateful to my outstanding presenters, our sold-out audience, my fellow CWA board members, our generous sponsors and agents, The Book Cellar for selling all our books, and the wonderful staff at Steppenwolf Theatre for helping make the day so memorable. ”
— Samantha Hoffman, Executive Director, Let's Just Write! Chicago Writers Association Conference
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2026 Conference Schedule

  • Registration/Continental Breakfast

  • Welcome - Samantha Hoffman, Conference Director

  • Keynote with Junot Díaz

    Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Díaz reflects on the difficult years after his first novel when he stopped writing for nearly six years and wondered if he would ever return to the page. With candor and hard-earned insight, Díaz shares how he rediscovered his voice and renewed his commitment to storytelling. His journey offers an honest look at doubt, persistence, and creative recovery, reminding writers at every stage that even the longest silence can give way to new work, new purpose, and the courage to begin again.

  • Lessons in Publicity with Julia Borcherts

    Whether it’s your first book or your twenty-first; a Big 5 release or an indie-published labor of love; fiction, nonfiction or memoir, promotion responsibilities are shifting from the publisher to the author. Publicist Julia Borcherts will share tips for successfully navigating the ever-changing landscape of traditional publicity, marketing and social media—and ways you can reach your target audience and grow your fan base organically. She will show you how to compete for readers’ attention in the vast sea of new releases.

  • Lunch

  • At Least It’s Not Coal Mining: On Work Ethic and Joy for Writers with Rebecca Makkai

    As we all know, writing is sometimes joyful (almost effortless!) but often it’ s harder and takes longer than most people could possibly imagine—especially when we ’ re aiming at publication. Writers who understand how hard they have to work often find great success. Pulitzer finalist Rebecca Makkai will talk both as an author and as a longtime writing instructor about what‘ s required: research, legwork, patience, revision, and professionalism. She will help you discover where you are in the journey, and how work ethic and creativity can walk hand in hand.

  • Now Comes the Hard Part: Rewriting with Alexis Pride

    The first draft is written. Now what? Often, writers struggle to identify what’ s needed to improve their completed manuscript. Be it a short story, a novel, or nonfiction, the challenges can be similar. In this session with fiction author and creative writing professor, Alexis Pride, methods of revision will be discussed that are applicable to any genre.

  • In Conversation with Stuart Dybek and Alex Kotlowitz

    You won ’t want to miss this conversation between two Chicago literary titans and longtime friends: Alex Kotlowitz and Stuart Dybek. We’re skipping the formalities to talk about the real-deal writing life; how they’ve navigated decades in the trenches and what it really takes to turn an idea into a masterpiece. If you’ve ever wanted to be a fly on the wall while two legends talk craft, this is your moment.

  • Cocktail Party (Separate registration required) and Live Lit

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Meet Our 2026 Presenters

  • A smiling woman with blonde hair and blue eyes, wearing a black top and silver necklace, in an indoor setting near a window.

    Julia Borcherts

    Julia Borcherts is the founder of Julia Publicity, a literary PR and marketing agency, and a 12-year industry veteran. She has led successful campaigns for New York Times bestselling authors and debut authors alike, as well as for titles and catalogues with Big Five, independent and university publishing houses.

    Julia earned her M.F.A in Creative Writing and her M.A. in The Teaching of Writing from Columbia College Chicago, during which time she worked for ten years as a daily columnist for several Chicago Tribune publications and as a frequent contributor to Time Out Chicago, Windy City Times and other media outlets. She teaches at DePaul University and regularly speaks at literary conferences and events on the topics of publicity, marketing, social media and author branding. 

  • A smiling man with a bald head, glasses, and a light beard, wearing a blue t-shirt with white text and graphics, sitting indoors near a window.

    Junot Díaz

    Junot Díaz was born in the Dominican Republic and raised in New Jersey. He is the author of Drown and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize and This Is How You Lose Her. Díaz has been awarded a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation, a Lila Acheson Wallace Reader's Digest Award, the 2002 PEN/Malamud Award and the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. A professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Díaz is a MacArthur fellow and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.   

  • A middle-aged man with dark, slightly wavy hair and blue eyes, smiling gently, wearing a black leather jacket, standing outside against a gray stone wall.

    Stuart Dybek

    Stuart Dybek is the author of two books of poetry and six books of fiction. His work, which has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper’s, The Paris Review, and Poetry is frequently anthologized and has been translated into several languages. Literary awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers Award, a Lannan Award, two NEA’s, an Academy Institute Award from the American Academy of Arts, and a fellowship from the MacArthur Foundation. His collection of stories, The Coast of Chicago, was a One Book, One Chicago selection. Dybek has taught at Princeton, Stanford, the Iowa’s Writers Workshop, and was the Distinguished Writer in Residence at Northwestern University.
     

  • A middle-aged man with glasses and a blue button-up shirt standing outdoors with arms crossed, leaning against a wall, with a blurred background of a dark wooden structure and green foliage.

    Alex Kotlowitz

    For forty years, Alex Kotlowitz has been telling stories from the heart of America, deeply intimate tales of struggle and perseverance. He is the author of four books, including his most recent, An American Summer: Love and Death in Chicago which received the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize. His other books include the national bestseller There Are No Children Here, which the New York Public Library selected as one of the 150 most important books of the twentieth century. It received the Helen B. Bernstein Award and was adapted as a television movie produced by and starring Oprah Winfrey. It was selected by The New York Times as a Notable Book of the Year along with his second book, The Other Side of the River which also received The Chicago Tribune’s Heartland Prize for Nonfiction. Alex is a professor at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism.

  • A woman with long, dark red hair, wearing large hoop earrings, a navy blue top with a deep neckline, and a delicate gold necklace, standing outdoors against a background of green leaves.

    Rebecca Makkai

    Rebecca Makkai is the author of the New York Times bestselling I Have Some Questions For You as well as four other works of fiction. Her last novel, The Great Believers, one of the New York Times’ Best Books of the 21st Century, was a finalist for both the 2019 Pulitzer Prize and the 2018 National Book Award, and was the winner of the ALA Carnegie Medal and the LA Times Book Prize among other honors. A 2022 Guggenheim Fellow, Rebecca teaches graduate fiction writing at Middlebury College, Northwestern University, and the Bennington Writing Seminars, and she is Artistic Director of StoryStudio Chicago.

  • A woman with long, curly, blonde hair and medium skin tone wearing a black collared shirt, standing against a plain white background.

    Alexis Pride

    Alexis Pride is a professor of creative writing in the School of Communication and Culture at Columbia College Chicago. Pride also works as a contracted writer for Level 4 Press, Inc., where she co-authors novels that are optimized for film/television adaptation. Among her works are All I Want for Christmas (2022, Level 4 Press), which hit #1 for new releases on Amazon during its first week, and Satchel Paige, with an anticipated release date in 2026 (Level 4 Press). Her other publications include Where the River Ends (Tanksley-Simpson Publishing), and short stories in TriQuarterly, F Magazine, and elsewhere. Pride is the Fiction Editor for Allium, A Journal of Poetry & Prose, the award-winning multi-genre literary magazine published by Columbia College Chicago.

Pitch Sessions

Pitch your book to literary agents and/or traditional publishers. 

Pitch session registration for 2027 will be posted when registration for the conference is available.

Pitch sessions will be available on the day of the conference. There is no limit to how many sessions you may register for. Sessions are $30 each (subject to change per year). Please review the agents/publishers prior to registering. Keep in mind that each agent/publisher has particular genres/topics they represent.  

You must be registered for the conference to sign up for pitches.

Each session lasts a total of five minutes. Time will be closely monitored. Come prepared with a two- or three-minute description of your finished manuscript.

  • Pitch sessions will be 5 MINUTES and will be strictly timed. That may not seem like a lot of time but you’ll be surprised. You will use about two minutes of that time for the description of your book. That will leave the agent/publisher with the remaining time to ask questions and give feedback on your pitch and/or your book project. If a participating agent or publisher finds your pitch compelling, he or she may ask to see your manuscript.

    • You should have a completed, polished manuscript or nonfiction book proposal.

    • Prepare a two- or three-sentence synopsis of your story (Aps for how to do that are below). Keep in mind that it takes about 200 words to fill one spoken minute.

    • That will give the agent/publisher enough time to ask questions and to give you feedback. Voila! Five minutes. On to the next.

    NOTE: If someone asks for a sample or manuscript (yay!) and gives you submission instructions, use the pad/pen in your conference bag to write them down.

    • Don’t fill the first minutes apologizing for being nervous.

    • Don’t ramble about what you know about them to prove you did your homework. They expect that you did that.

    • Don’t wing it. Be ultra-prepared.

    • Agents/publishers are just people. They know how you feel. They are looking for a project they can love and sell, and they hope yours is it.

    • All writers feel nervous. Expect that and plan for it by overpreparing. The agent/publisher will not count nerves against you.

    • Don’t get discouraged no matter what happens. If materials are requested, great! If not, it might not be their kind of project. And you may get meaningful feedback to help you the next time. It’s good experience.

  • Fiction Writers: You must have a completed novel manuscript. You are not there to pitch ideas, you are there to pitch a book. 

    Nonfiction Writers: Have a completed book proposal, including a brief overview of the book, chapter outline, author statement/platform and potential market. You do not have to have a completed manuscript but you should have several chapters written. 

    Memoir Writers: A completed memoir would be best, along with a book proposal. Be prepared to talk about your hook and why you are writing this story.

2026 Agents and Publishers

  • A woman with long dark hair, smiling gently, with her hand resting on her chin, sitting on outdoor steps with a brick building in the background, wearing a colorful floral patterned dress.

    Jessica Berg, Rosecliff Literary

    Jessica Berg founded Rosecliff Literary, a boutique agency dedicated to discovering and nurturing exceptional talent. With a Master’s in Fiction from Spalding University and over a decade of developmental editing experience, Jessica offers a collaborative and informed approach to navigating the publishing landscape. She fosters long-term success with her authors, focusing on helping each author achieve their full potential.

    Jessica's interests:
    Currently seeking both fiction and nonfiction projects with strong voice, emotional resonance, and something subversive at their core. In fiction, she is drawn to genre-blending work that confidently sits in one lane with an eye out for romantic suspense, speculative, gothic, and contemporary historical novels. She is particularly excited by horror across all subgenres, dark and spicy romance. As always, she’d love to see more upmarket book club fiction with big feelings and big hooks. She’s always looking for stories from queer, trans, and BIPOC authors, especially those exploring identity, longing, ambition, or survival.

    In nonfiction, she’s looking for narrative projects with a wide reach: untold histories, true crime, pop culture, women’s health, wellness and career books for women, and smart self-help or personal development. She is especially drawn to military nonfiction and stories by women working in traditionally male-dominated spaces.

    Across all genres, she prioritizes platformed authors, distinctive voice, and aprojects that feel urgent, resonant, and unafraid to challenge the status quo.

  • A bald man in a dark jacket and white shirt stands against a red wooden wall, looking at the camera with a slight smile.

    Eloy Bliefuss Prados, Neon Literary

    My name is Eloy and I am a literary agent at Neon Literary. After studying journalism, my first job in publishing was at Simon & Schuster editorial. I switched to the agency side of the business when I joined Janklow & Nesbit Associates in 2019. In April 2024, I moved to Neon Literary where I am building a list of fiction and non-fiction clients. 

    I’m a fan of writing that is dark, strange, and funny. I love writers who are genre-agnostic and have a strong point of view. 

    Eloy's interests:
    Fiction:
    Queer narratives, past and present, in the U.S. or abroad.

    Gothic/Horror novels that are both chilling and emotionally grounded.
    Voice-driven mysteries or thrillers that are literary in style and soaked in atmosphere.

    Fantasy novels—either epic or cozy in scope—which manage to blend character-driven storytelling with finely-crafted prose and inventive world-building.

    Non-fiction:
    Science and nature writing, cultural histories and criticism, politics, economics, and current events, history

  • A woman with red hair and earrings, standing outdoors in front of a brick wall, smiling at the camera.

    Tina P. Schwartz, The Purcell Agency

    Tina P. Schwartz is the founder and literary agent at The Purcell Agency, LLC, near Chicago. She has written 10 traditionally published nonfiction books for children and teens. Tina started The Purcell Agency in 2012. 

    Fun fact: Tina signed Michelle (Elle) Baade after a pitch session at Let's Just Write! a year or two ago. She just sold her debut novel to Lake Union Publishing (Amazon). 

    Tina has signed four authors from previous Let's Just Write! conferences.

    Tina's interests:
    Women's Fiction, Memoir, Narrative Nonfiction, LGBTQ, Contemporary fiction for Middle Grade and Young Adult (No Fantasy). 

Thank you to our 2026 sponsors for their generous support!

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Become a Sponsor for our next conference

The Chicago Writers Association invites businesses, organizations, and individuals to sponsor the annual Let’s Just Write! Conference.

This full-day gathering brings together writers, authors, publishing professionals, and literary enthusiasts for craft-focused learning, meaningful connection, and professional development.

Sponsorship offers an opportunity to:

  • Reach an engaged audience of writers and publishing enthusiasts.

  • Demonstrate your commitment to literacy and the creative arts.

  • Increase your organization’s visibility within the literary community.

  • Support education, networking, and career development for writers.

Availability for sponsorship in 2027 will be posted when available.

Sponsorship opportunities and benefits may vary by conference year and are subject to availability. The Chicago Writers Association is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Contributions may be tax-deductible; please consult a qualified tax professional.

    • Sponsor table at the conference, subject to availability.

    • Logo placement in the conference program.

    • Linked logo recognition in CWA’s newsletter, website, and social media.

    • Company materials included in conference attendee bags.

    • Logo placement in the conference program.

    • Linked logo recognition in CWA’s newsletter, website, and social media.

    • Company brochure or printed promotional item included in conference attendee bags.

    • Logo placement in the conference program.

    • Linked logo recognition on the CWA website.

  • Choose an amount that works for you and receive acknowledgment in the conference program.

Questions about sponsorship opportunities? Contact the CWA.

Scholarships

A limited number of full scholarships are available for the conference each year.

Scholarship deadline for 2027 will be posted when available.

Congratulations to the following winners of our 2026 scholarships

Nicole Jourdain

Genea Tafesse

Janisa Hicks

There is no fee to apply, but applicants must be current Chicago Writers Association members. Not a member? Join CWA.

    • Submit an essay explaining how attending the conference would support your writing goals.

    • Limit your essay to 600 words.

    • Format it as a double-spaced Word document or PDF using 12-point Times New Roman.

    • Do not include your name or other identifying information in the document. Essays are reviewed anonymously.

    • Email your application materials to [scholarship email] with the subject line Scholarship Application.

  • The scholarship submission period and deadline for 2027 will be posted when available.

  • The award notification date will be posted when the scholarship period opens.

Already registered for the conference? You may still apply. Scholarship recipients who have already paid their registration fee will receive a refund.