“Southern Christian Writers Conference to be held July 24-25 online with ESPN reporter Lauren Sisler and bestselling author Debora Coty headlining”
This year’s Southern Christian Writers Conference will take place as a virtual event on July 24-25 and features ESPN and SEC Network reporter Lauren Sisler and bestselling author Debora Coty as keynote speakers.
The Southern Christian Writers Conference (SCWC) is an annual event that has taken place since 1991 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. This year’s conference has moved to a virtual experience due to the coronavirus pandemic. The conference will take place in a private Facebook group and will feature 15 virtual workshops, panel discussions, awards ceremony and one-on-one pitch sessions with agents and publishers in addition to the keynote speakers.
Sisler is an Emmy Award-winning reporter for ESPN, the SEC Network, and AL.com who has a powerful story related to the loss of her parents to drug addiction while a student athlete at Rutgers. Her keynote session is titled “Falling in Love with Your Story.” Coty is the author of the “Too Blessed to Be Stressed book series, which has sold over a million copies, and a popular humorist and inspirational speaker. Her keynote address is titled “Too Blessed to be a Stressed Writer.”
According to SCWC Coordinator Cheryl Wray, the move to a virtual conference this year was necessary. But, she said, it opens up the potential for more participants than ever to be involved.
“We had to make the difficult decision to move the SCWC online, but it was necessary for the health and safety of our attendees,” Wray said. “We hope that this will provide us with new opportunities for more writers to have this experience.”
The SCWC was founded with the mission of informing and inspiring Christian writers who were both aspiring and already published. It has regularly attracted around 200 attendees each year and has featured authors, publishers, editors, and other media members as keynote speakers and workshop leaders.
Workshops at this year’s virtual conference cover such topics as fiction writing, podcasting, self publishing, social media, songwriting, working with an agent, writing for a Chritian publisher, and much more. Attendees will be able to watch five workshops live, then access all 15 workshops after the conference is over.
The conference will also feature an awards ceremony for the winners of the 2020 SCWC Writing Awards, which recognizes published works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, blogs, and letters to the editor.
Full details about the workshops, workshop leaders, schedule, writing awards, registration, and more can be found at the SCWC website (www.southernchristianwriters.com).
