Here at the Writers’ League of Texas, we love highlighting Texas literary organizations doing great work to support our community. Now in its 9th year, the Boldface Conference takes place May 22-May 26 in Houston and is dedicated to emerging writers. The conference is hosted by Glass Mountain, the University of Houston’s undergraduate literary magazine. This gives the conference’s organizers unique insights into the needs and issues facing emerging writers in today’s challenging literary environment.
To learn more about this conference, we spoke with Erika Jo Brown, Graduate Advisor at Glass Mountain. Registration is still available! Click here for more info.
Scribe: What makes the Boldface conference unique?
Erika Jo Brown: Boldface is truly a unique experience. First of all, we are devoted to emerging writers, which we define as those who have not yet published a book or enrolled in an MFA or PhD program in Creative Writing. We’re also entirely student-run; the conference is an initiative and a labor of love for the editors of Glass Mountain, UH’s undergraduate magazine.
From May 22-26, the conference itinerary is filled with writing workshops, craft talks, professional panels, readings, evening events around the city, and private manuscript consultations. Some participants are local and some are flying in from Oregon, Indiana, and more! We’re thrilled to host three visiting writing luminaries in each genre, Bill Broun (Night of The Animals) in fiction, Leah Lax (Uncovered) in nonfiction, and Hayan Charara in (Something Sinister, The Sadness of Others, The Alchemist’s Diary) in poetry. Plus, for breakfast and lunch, we scour the city for local, delectable meals.
Scribe: Why is it so important to support emerging writers?
EJB: The writing world is tough, and we’re delighted to provide guidance and, most importantly, community for our fellow scribblers. On Friday, we’re pleased to expand on a “community” day founded last year. We’re assembled terrific panels with local literary figures on topics such as applying to grad school, submission bombing, pointers on performing work in public, literary citizenship, self publishing, and literary translation. Plus, we’ll have tables of publishers, book artists, magazines, and more. Together, we all rise!
Feel free to email boldfaceconference@gmail.com if you’re inspired to register for our Houston conference.
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Thanks, Erika!
To find out more about Boldface and Glass Mountain Mag, visit the Boldface Conference website.
