Presentations
The 2024 A&E Conference will include presentations by notable authors and industry professionals. Our pre-conference virtual presentation on Tuesday, June 11 will help registrants prepare for pitching their work. Over the conference weekend, we’ll have a variety of in-person presentations on both craft of writing and business of publishing topics.
Tuesday, June 11 (Virtual)
All 2024 A&E Conference registrants are invited to join us for a special program on Tuesday, June 11, at 7:00 PM CDT on Zoom. We’ll start with a “Practice Makes Pitch Perfect” presentation aimed at helping you refine your pitch so that you have a concise and compelling response to “Tell me about your project” during the big weekend. Our presenters will go over the ABCs (really, the 4Cs) of pitching. From what to include in a short “elevator” pitch (tip: don’t really pitch in the elevator) to the additional talking points you’ll want to have at the ready, plus dos and don’ts and plenty of time for answers to your burning questions.
After the presentation, we’ll move into the Pitch Lab – small breakout group opportunities to practice your pitch with other registrants (which means you’ll also have the chance to meet some fellow attendees ahead of the big weekend).
All conference registrants have access to this session (a link to join the webinar will be sent the week of June 3). And if you can’t make the live event, don’t worry! The “Practice Makes Pitch Perfect” presentation will be recorded and a link to the recording will be shared with you the day after the event takes place.
Our presenters for the “Practice Makes Pitch Perfect” presentation are WLT Executive Director (and former literary agent) Becka Oliver and Penguin Random House Audio executive Lance Fitzgerald.
Conference Weekend (In-person)
Presenters
Jennifer Chen Tran is a literary agent at Glass Literary Management. With over a dozen years of experience in the publishing industry, Jennifer is passionate about nurturing and championing the creative lives of the authors and artists she is honored to represent. She works with a wide range of award-winning talent, including entrepreneurs, journalists, physicians, thought leaders, James Beard nominated chefs, and graphic novelists, among others. Jennifer is an editorial agent who believes in the art and magic of collaboration. She works with her authors from concept to publication, helping to polish each creator’s work so that it can best shine in a competitive marketplace.
Prior to joining Glass Literary Management, Jennifer was a literary agent at Folio Literary Management and Idea Architects and served as Of Counsel at The New Press. She obtained her Juris Doctor from Northeastern School of Law and a Bachelors in English Literature from Washington University in St. Louis. She is an attorney in good standing in California and New York, a member of the Authors Guild, and a member of the Association of American Literary Agents.
As a person of color and daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, Jennifer is deeply committed to amplifying voices from persons with disabilities, BIPOC, LGBTQ, underrepresented, marginalized, and neurodiverse communities. Her ultimate goal is to work in concert with authors to create books that will have a lasting positive social impact on the world—books that inform, entertain, and inspire.
In her free time, you can find Jennifer relaxing with a good book, trying to complete a recipe with too many ingredients, or exploring the Lone Star State with her family.
Jennifer will be presenting on Sunday at 11:30 a.m. on “The Nonfiction Book Proposal.”
Amy Collins, agent with Talcott Notch Literary Services, has over 30 years’ experience matching books with readers. As a former book buyer, publisher, and sales director for one of the largest non-fiction publishers in the US, Amy has been focused on market and sales potential research for authors for over ten years. As an agent, she represents many authors who have signed deals with major publishers for non-fiction projects such as The Unseen Photos of Sesame Street (Abrams), Sex and the City (Globe Pequoit), and You’re Going to Die Alone and Other Good News (Blackstone). Amy is the author of several non-fiction books ranging from self-help (It’s The LittleThings, (Simon & Schuster/Adams Media) to books on Publishing and working toward becoming a successful author. She is currently traveling the country with her two dogs meeting with editors and authors and can be found on Twitter at @askamycollins and online at www.amysadvice.com.
Amy will be presenting on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. on “Writing a Plot Synopsis without Losing Your Mind.”
Natalie Edwards joined Trellis at its founding, after starting her career at Curtis Brown, Ltd. and Janklow & Nesbit. She is actively seeking upmarket and literary fiction, as well as narrative nonfiction and memoir. She enjoys stories of queerness and diaspora, hidden histories, and explorations of subcultures, as well as speculative novels and workplace sendups. She loves hybrid memoirs that combine in-depth research and reportage with a personal throughline, and she can’t resist a good scam. Some of Natalie’s clients include Emma Specter, Jessie Ren Marshall, Adam Morgan, Mathew Rodriguez, Aram Mrjoian, and Alysia Li Ying Sawchyn.
Natalie will be presenting on Saturday at 3:45 p.m. on“The Do’s & Don’ts of Querying.”
Chaitali will be presenting on Saturday at 11:30 a.m. on
“Layering: A Strategic Approach to Revision.”
Amy Gentry is the internationally bestselling author of the psychological thrillers Good as Gone, Last Woman Standing, and Bad Habits. Her work has been featured in the Chicago Tribune, Paris Review, Texas Monthly, Austin Chronicle, Los Angeles Review of Books, Salon, and other venues. She holds a PhD in English and teaches writing classes in Austin, Texas.
Amy will be presenting on Saturday at 10:15 a.m. on “Plotting Your Novel in Three Acts.”
Chaitali Sen is the author of the novel The Pathless Sky and the story collection A New Race of Men from Heaven, chosen by Danielle Evans as the winner of the 2021 Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction. Her stories and essays have been published by American Short Fiction, Boulevard, Catapult, Colorado Review, Ecotone, Electric Literature, Los Angeles Review of Books, New England Review, and many other publications. She holds an MFA from Hunter College – City University of New York, and currently lives in Central Texas.
Chaitali will be presenting on Saturday at 11:30 a.m. on “Layering: A Strategic Approach to Revision.”
Alex Temblador is the Mixed Latine award-winning author of Half Outlaw, Secrets of the Casa Rosada, and Writing an Identity Not Your Own: A Guide for Creative Writers, forthcoming from St. Martin’s Essentials on August 13. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Central Oklahoma and was a contributor to Living Beyond Borders: Growing Up Mexican in America and Speculative Fiction for Dreamers: A Latinx Anthology. Her creative work has appeared in Colorado Review, PALABRITAS, D Magazine, among others. Based in Dallas, Alex is the executive director of Write Here DFW and the moderator and founder of the LitTalk series.
Alex will be presenting on Sunday at 10:15 a.m. on “Writing an Identity Not Your Own.”
Roanna Flowers is a writer based in Austin, Texas. Her short story “The Bitches of Eastwick” was recently published in the anthology Mixed Bag of Tricks. She is the writer of three award-winning short films, one of which played in over 30 festivals worldwide including the Cannes Short Film Corner. Roanna is a former magazine editor, where she interviewed Ann Richards, General Colin Powell, and composer Paul Williams. Her claim to fame was asking a question that made Ann Richards speechless. She holds aB.A. in English Literature and is writing her second novel while querying her first.
Britta Jensen’s novel, Eloia Born, won the 2019 Writer’s League of Texas YA Discovery Prize and was long-listed for the Exeter Novel Prize. Subsequent publications include a sequel, Hirana’s War, as well as Ghosts of Yokosuka, Why Not Ophelia in the Castle Anthology of Horror– Femme Fatales, and Noise in the Woods in Mixed Bag of Tricks. Her stories explore themes of persevering through disability, found family, and the intersection of love and various cultures on new worlds. For the past twenty-one years she has taught creative writing and edited books. Friends often refer to her as a polyglot—which is a product of living twenty-two years overseas in Japan, South Korea, and Germany before settling in Austin, Texas with her awesome capoerista husband. She loves coaching authors and editing books with The Writing Consultancy and Yellowbird Editors.
E.A. Williams is a graduate of the University of North Texas where she studied film and playwriting, E.A. Williams often imbues her stories with the diverse and challenging landscape of her home state. From her thrilling debut series, The Line of Tepes, to her short stories featured in publications like Mixed Bag of Tricks and Femme Fairytales, no matter how fantastical, Williams brings a unique Texan voice to her writing. Williams learned just how invaluable a writing community could be while helping run a writer’s collective during university. Whether she is working on her own writing or helping to coordinate events with her international writers’ group, Williams is always looking for ways to connect with the arts community.
Roanna Flowers, Britta Jensen, and E.A. Williams are authors based in Texas. They work in a cross-section of genres, from YA science fiction to dark urban fantasy and upmarket humor. Their presentation will touch on their collaborative work together running a writing group of over 20 authors who work in a variety of genres, including their recent project, Mixed Bag of Tricks, a short story anthology inspired by a series of writing prompts, published in late 2023.
Roanna, Britta, and E.A. will be presenting on Sunday at 9:00 a.m. on “Collaboration & Craft: A Case Study.”
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.