Grab your notebooks (paper or otherwise), charge your audio recorders, buy some fresh highlighters, and get ready to learn! 

Our conference heads to the lovely campus of Sheridan College this June. Sessions on craft, a great keynote speaker, and much more will be awaiting you there!

Check back on this page as more information becomes available.

Keynote Speaker:  Craig Johnson

Craig Johnson is the New York Times bestselling author of the Walt Longmire mystery novels, which are the basis for Longmire, the hit Netflix original drama. The books have won multiple awards: Le Prix du Polar Nouvel Observateur/Bibliobs, the Wyoming Historical Association’s Book of the Year, Le Prix 813, the Western Writers of America’s Spur Award, the Mountains & Plains Book of the Year, the SNCF Prix de Polar, Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year, The Watson Award, Library Journal's Best Mystery of the Year, the Rocky, and the Will Rogers Award for Fiction.  Spirit of Steamboat was selected by the Wyoming State Library as the inaugural One Book Wyoming.Johnson lives in Ucross, Wyoming, population twenty-five.

Vi Khi Nao

Vi Khi Nao earned her B.A. in Art & Spanish from Central College and an M.F.A from Brown University. She is the author of six poetry collections: Fish Carcass (Black Sun Lit, 2022) A Bell Curve Is A Pregnant Straight Line (Press 11:11, 2021), Human Tetris (11:11 Press, 2019) Sheep Machine (Black Sun Lit, 2018), Umbilical Hospital (Press 1913, 2017), The Old Philosopher (winner of the Nightboat Prize for 2014), & of the short stories collection, A Brief Alphabet of Torture (winner of the 2016 FC2's Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Prize), the novel, Fish in Exile (Coffee House Press, 2016). She is an interdisciplinary artist who works in multiple and interchangeable mediums. Her drawings have appeared in literary journals such as NOON and The Adirondack Review. Her video, digital, and literary installations have been exhibited at the Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts in Providence in Rhode Island and in the largest exhibition halls for contemporary art in Europe, Malmö Konsthall, in Sweden. Her work includes poetry, fiction, nonfiction, performance, film and cross-genre collaboration. She was the Fall 2019 fellow at the Black Mountain Institute. 

William Missouri Downs

William Missouri Downs started as a script secretary on the NBC show Moonlighting (Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd) and worked his way up to staff writer on the NBC sitcom My Two Dads (Paul Reiser). He also sold episodes of Amen (Sherman Hemsley) and Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air (Will Smith). In addition, he sold a movie to Ron Howard’s Imagine Films and optioned a TV pilot to Hollywood producer Meryl Poster. William is also a playwright - Orlando Shakespeare, San Diego Rep, The Kennedy Center, and Berkeley Rep are a few of the over 300 theatres in the US that have produced his plays. He has had international productions in Spain, Canada, South Africa, Russia, Singapore, Switzerland, UAE, Austria, Israel, India, and South Korea. He’s won numerous playwriting awards, including rolling premieres from the National New Play Network and he’s twice been a finalist at the Eugene O’Neill. In addition, he’s published 12 plays and four books, including The Art Of Theatre (Cengage), Screenplay: Writing the Picture (Silman James), and Naked Playwriting (Silman James). He has two MFAs, one in screenwriting from UCLA and one in acting from the University of Illinois. He’s directed over forty plays and acted in twenty-five.

Caroline George

Caroline George is the multi-award-winning author of Dearest Josephine, The Summer We Forgot, and other YA fiction titles. She graduated from Belmont University with a degree in publishing and public relations, and now travels the country, speaking at conferences and writing full-time.

Before signing a three-book deal with HarperCollins, Caroline worked various jobs within publishing, including positions with Cyle Young Literary Elite, HarperCollins, BookGrabbr, and Hillsong Publishing. Although she enjoyed her time with the companies, she considers herself truly blessed to write for a living and loves helping authors take their next steps.

When she’s not glued to her laptop, Caroline can be found hiking, traveling the globe, or sipping a lavender latte. She hopes to backpack Europe later this year while she edits her Southern Gothic YA book titled Curses & Other Buried Things, releasing in 2023.

*Accepting pitches

Henry Real Bird

HENRY REAL BIRD is a rancher and educator who raises bucking horses on Yellow Leggins Creek in the Wolf Teeth Mountains of Montana. He was born and raised on the Crow Indian Reservation in the tradition of the Crow by his grandparents, Mark and Florence Real Bird, and obtained a Master’s degree in general education. Real Bird has punched cows, worked in rodeos and taught school from kindergarten to college level. He speaks Crow as his primary language, and he feels that has helped his writing. In 2010, while serving as Poet Laureate of Montana, Real Bird rode horseback halfway across the state handing out books of poetry along the way.

Jessica Kristie

Patricia Landy

Ms. Landy has extensive experience as an educator and editor. She owns Crystal Publishing, LLC which publishes a variety of fiction: MG, YA, NA, and A. She served as writer and researcher for the British linguist and historian Andrew Dalby, Language in Danger; wrote reviews for Scholastic; is the author of an interactive textbook, Latin Lives Today (NSSP), and the editor for Biblical Archaeology, volumes 1 & 2 (Chicago UP).

Ms. Landy is a member of the International Association of Women, RMFW, CIPA, My Word Publishing, NOCO Writers Group, and the NOCO Authors and Narrators Workshop. She is a Master Distance Educator (Wyoming Distance Education Consortium), twice-appointed VIP Woman of the Year, and licensed editor. She has cultivated an international clientele and sales in all English-speaking countries. One novel and one series have movie contracts pending.

In her spare time, Ms. Landy enjoys bicycling, gardening, clogging, reading, and writing. She is a Wyoming native and graduate of the University of Wyoming and member of the Alumni Association.

*Accepting pitches