Western Reserve Writers Conference 2025
Introduction
I attended the 40th annual Western Reserve Writers Conference 2025 on March 22, 2025. They held the Conference at the South Euclid-Lyndhurst branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library at the William N. Skirball Writer’s Center at the branch. It was a one-day event with an introduction, a keynote speaker, three breakout sessions, and one first-page critique panel.
This is the link to the Cuyahoga County Library.
https://www.cuyahogalibrary.org
This is the link to the writer’s center at the library branch.
https://www.cuyahogalibrary.org/Services/William-N-Skirball-Writers-Center.aspx
Summary
Saturday, March 22nd at 9:30 AM
Welcome and Conference Overview
Deanna R. Adams is the conference coordinator and Laurie Kincer is the librarian in charge of the writer’s center.
Laurie explained how they set up the library, where the three meeting rooms were located, and about the door prizes available at 4 PM. Deanna introduced the keynote speaker, justin a. reynolds.
They held the welcome and conference overview in the meeting room A/B/C with about 100 attendees.
Saturday, March 22nd at 9:45 AM
Keynote Speaker: The Long and Twisty Road.
The keynote speaker was justin a. reynolds, the 2025 Cuyahoga County Public Library Writer in Residence. He writes YA novels and graphic novels.
His mother was a librarian, and he spent much of his youth in the library. He was always a reader and wanted to write. justin remembered moving the books in the literary section where his books would go that he wrote in the future. He says that if you write, you are a writer. His biggest key to success is perseverance. He enjoys giving back by teaching at the Interlochen Writing Camp in Interlochen, Michigan. His best advice is to show up to the page and just write. Give yourself permission to fail and trust your voice.
They held the talk in the meeting room A/B/C with about 130 attendees.
Saturday, March 22nd at 10:30 AM
Breakout Session: Inside the Industry.
The presenter was J. Thorn. He is a self-published author.
The talk’s subtitle was: A Q and A with Veteran and Independent Author, J. Thorn.
This was the theme of his talk. It’s never been a better time to be a writer than now, just don’t expect to get paid for your work. You need to find out what you want out of writing and go for that satisfaction. He talked about the differences between writing non-fiction and fiction. He talked about the differences in publishing traditionally and independently. The threat of AI to the writing community came up in the Q and A session. Readers may want to read a human writing for humans instead of AI.
You can find J. Thorn on the following websites.
(Jthorn.net) and (theauthorlife.com)
They held the talk in the writer’s center meeting room with about 24 attendees.
Recommendation – Conclusion
I enjoyed attending the Western Reserve Writers Conference 2024. I also attended the conference in 2019, 2022, 2023 (they canceled the conference in 2020 and 2021 because of COVID-19), and 2024. My Star of the Con was J. Thorn. He had some brilliant advice for beginning writers.
Links
This is my Recap for the Western Reserve Writers Conference on March 23, 2024, where I attended the introduction, the keynote speaker presentation, and a breakout session. The Cuyahoga County Public Library held the conference at the South Euclid-Lyndhurst branch.
This is my Recap for the Western Reserve Writers Conference on March 26, 2022, where I attended the introduction, a keynote speaker, and two breakout sessions. The Cuyahoga County Public Library held the conference at the South Euclid-Lyndhurst branch.
I attended the 36th annual Western Reserve Writers Conference on April 27, 2019. They held the Conference at the South Euclid-Lyndhurst branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library at the William N. Skirball Writer’s Center at the branch. It was a one-day event with an introduction, a keynote speaker, three breakout sessions, and one first-page critique panel. I attended the introduction, a keynote speaker, and two breakout sessions. I thought The Western Reserve Writers Conference was well run, diverse in the presentations offered, and informative. My Star of the Con was Bree Barton. Her presentation was fun, the exercises were useful, and I liked her personality.
I attended the 34th annual Western Reserve Writers Conference on September 23, 2017. I could not attend last year. This is a link to my review of the 2017 conference.