2024 Jewish Writers’ Conference
Virtual
Please make sure to register at the link above, then click here to make the payment.
Have you written a book that you’d like to have published? Do you have a story idea? Have you already been published and would like to network with others in your field? The 2024 Jewish Writers’ Conference, sponsored by the Jewish Book Council, brings together agents, editors, and authors for discussions, workshops, and panels discussing Jewish book publishing and writing. Please note that the conference combines our annual Jewish Children’s Writers Seminar and our Jewish Adult Writers Seminar. There are no refunds for this event.
The 2024 conference will be held virtually on Sunday, November 17. Additional author-led panels will be held on additional dates. The fee for the conference is $250.
This conference will include:
- Industry panels with speakers from major and independent publishers, who will provide insight into the field and share advice and resources for authors to help guide them on their own publishing journey
- Author-led panels which will discuss specific genres and themes in the field, their writing process, and their own personal publishing experiences.
- Videos of all the panels will be available for viewing after the conference, in case you miss one!
- A month-long, once-a-week writing group that will occur after the conference – opt-in!
This year’s panelists and moderators include the following:
Keynote: What My Life in Publishing Taught Me; a Conversation with Altie Karper and Joni Sussman. Join us for a conversation between Altie Karper, the former managing editor for Pantheon and Schocken and editorial director of Schocken, (Penguin Random House), and Joni Sussman, the publisher at Kar-Ben Publishing. Both were in their roles for over twenty years and helped shape the landscape for Jewish literature today.
- Children’s editorial panel with Dena Neusner, Executive Editor at Behrman House, Inc., Apples & Honey Press, Talia Benamy, editor and backlist manager at Philomel, Penguin Random House, and Aimee Friedman, Editorial Director, Scholastic Inc., moderated by Heidi Rabinowitz, Library Director at Feldman Children’s Library of Congregation B’nai Israel, host of The Book of Life: A Podcast About Jewish Kidlit (Mostly), and founded the popular Jewish Kidlit Mavens group on Facebook
- Children’s agent panel with Elana Roth Parker, literary agent at Laura Dail Literary Agency, Karen Grencik, co-founder and literary agent at Red Fox Literary, LLC, and Alyssa Eisner Henkin, founder and literary agent for Birch Path Literary
- Adult editorial panel with Ben Hyman, Editorial Director Schocken, Penguin Random House, Lia Ronnen, Editorial Director Workman’s Publishing, Hachette, Lauren Wein, Vice President and Editorial Director, Avid Reader Press (Simon & Schuster), and Julie Grau, Co-CEO, Spiegel & Grau, moderated by Erika Dreifus, who is a Jewish author, Jewish literary consultant and advocate
- Adult agent panel with Rebecca Shaevitz, literary agent at Verve Talent & Literary, Rena Rossner, literary agent at Deborah Harris Agency, and David Forrer, literary agent at Inwell Management
- Accidental Activists — Artists Against Antisemitism Panel
- Top Tips for Jewish Author Visits: How to Create Fun and Inviting Book Presentations for Kids with authors Ann Koffsky, Paul Crichton, and Jacqueline Jules
- Beyond the Holidays: Writing Jewish Children’s Books with authors Richard Michelson, Jane Yolen, and Lesléa Newman
- Promoting Jewish Books in the Attention Economy with authors Leigh Stein, Betsy Lerner, Gila Pfeffer, and Jessica Saunders
- Jewish Literary Organizations and How They Can Help with Jewish Book Council, PJ Library, and AJL
- New Jewish Voices with authors Danny Goodman, Sasha Vasilyuk, Sarah Marian Seltzer, Zachary C. Solomon, and Rachel Somerstein
- Goodbye, Sophie Portnoy: A New Vision of Jewish Motherhood; Jewish Takes on Pregnancy, Motherhood, and Carework with Elissa Strauss, Rachel Somerstein, Elisa Albert, and Yael Goldstein-Love
- Genre Fluidity: How Rethinking Your Category Can Turn Rejection into Triumph with Laura Zam, Samatha Wekstein, Kenan Trebincevic, Robert Markowitz, and Amy Klein, moderated by Sue Shapiro
- Listening in to Tough Love: A Critique Group at Work with authors Elka Weber, Anna Levine, Sherri Mandel, Chava Pinchuck, and Yael Levy
- Bearing Witness with the National Library of Israel Global Documentation Initiative
Additional author panels:
Monday, November 18th, 12 PM ET: Writing While Israeli: Hebrew Literature Home and Abroad, after October 7th with authors Maya Arad, Ruby Namdar, and Noa Yedlin, moderated by Sandee Brawarsky
Tuesday, November 19, 12 PM ET: How to Write about the Holocaust and be a Jewish Writer after October 7th, with authors Judy Batalion, Lisa Barr, Dina Kraft, and Keren Blankfeld, moderated by Amy Klein
Wednesday, November 20th, 12 PM ET: Why is This War Different from All Other Wars: Writing About Israel After October 7th, with Deborah Harris, Julie Zuckerman, and Galina Vromen, moderated by Miryam Sivan