Do you want the chance to earn a contract directly with a publishing acquisitions editor or with a literary agent who will represent you to publishers?
Do you want editors and agents to tell you what you’re doing wrong and doing right in your manuscript, synopsis, and query letter?
Would you like to discuss your writing project with editors and agents to see if there’s any interest in the marketplace?
Do you want to learn more about the publishing industry and the business and craft of writing?
Do you want to build your network of industry professionals and writing colleagues?
If you answer, “Yes,” to any or all of these questions, then the Atlanta Writers Club (AWC) has designed a conference for you:
On Friday, May 1 and Saturday, May 2, 2026, the Atlanta Writers Club will present its 34th Atlanta Writers Conference, in-person at the Westin Atlanta Airport Hotel, with 20 top publishing acquisitions editors and literary agents on hand as well as another 8 of them participating virtually in a new pitch slam we call lightning pitches.
We offer a virtual option for meetings with the agents and publishers—manuscript sample critiques, query letter critiques, query letter pitches, and lightning pitches—a lightning pitch critique by an author panel to help you practice for this new event, and author coaching. Due to the ever-increasing expense of the audio-visual equipment and personnel involved and the dwindling number of virtual participants, these are the only activities we can accommodate online.
The goals of this conference are to offer you access to a total of 28 top publishing acquisitions editors and literary agents actively seeking new clients (see their profiles on our Editors and Agents page), help you get your work ready for them with pre-conference editing assistance, give you a chance to ask a successful, traditionally published author your top 5 burning questions about the craft and business of writing in our Author Coaching activity, and educate you with a workshop and talks by experienced authors and other industry professionals. The Conference Activities page details each activity you can register for: select them all, only one, or some number in between–it’s entirely up to you, so you can craft the conference experience that will be best for your growth, interests, and budget.
When registering for the conference, you will indicate whether you will participate in-person at the conference hotel or prefer a virtual experience via Zoom, which is only available for critique and pitch meetings and author coaching. If you choose the latter, online links for the agent/editor/coach meetings will be sent with your personalized schedule about two weeks before the conference.
During the conference, you might be asked by agents and editors to send an entire fiction manuscript or nonfiction proposal for review. Following that review, you could be offered a contract based on the materials you’ve submitted: after nearly every conference some AWC members sign with conference guests and realize their dream of publication (see Testimonials page). You certainly will know more about how your work is perceived by industry professionals, and you’ll gain valuable experience interacting one-on-one with them.
Our Friday workshop will be “Avoiding Unforced Errors: Mistakes Writers Don’t Need to Make,” presented by Amy L. Bernstein, author most recently of Wrangling the Doubt Monster: Fighting Fears, Finding Inspiration, an inspirational book for self-doubting creatives of all ages, selected as best book on self-help and inspiration by BookFest 2025.
We also will present separate Q&A panels by the 10 in-person guest publishers and 10 in-person literary agents, two days of
educational talks, our Friday-night mixer, and our award ceremony with giveaway drawings, where each in-person acquisitions editor and agent will select participants for the best manuscript sample submitted for critique and for the best query letter pitch, and hand out award certificates to the winning individuals. Most testimonial providers were awarded a certificate and you can see how it helped to change their lives!
Our guest editors and agents love the Conference as much as the participants. Previous Conference guest
Jade Wong-Baxter at Frances Goldin Literary Agency raved, “The Atlanta Writers Conference was the best organized conference I’ve ever attended – I was grateful for how well it was run and for the range of extraordinary authors and publishing professionals I was able to meet. It’s a wonderful opportunity for writers at all levels to learn more about the craft and business of writing, and I highly recommend it to those looking to expand their literary community.”
Nicole Fischer, William Morrow/Avon Romance at HarperCollins Publishers offered, “The Atlanta Writers Conference was, hands down, the best conference I have ever been to. The amount of time and consideration that went into each element of the conference was obvious, and I highly recommend it!”
READ ALL CONFERENCE DETAILS BEFORE YOU REGISTER!
Please click the tabs at the top of the screen to read the descriptions on each of the accompanying pages and decide which activities you want to register for. If you want to meet in-person or have online Zoom meetings with one or more agents and/or editors, please read the descriptions they provided on the Editors and Agents page to identify the individual(s) who are a good match for your writing project(s). Likewise, the Pre-Conference Edit freelancers have provided their bios and areas of expertise so you can get your work ready for the manuscript sample critique and pitch activities. You’ll see the award-winning authors’ bios for the Author Coaching activity so you can choose the best fit for you and ask them your top 5 burning questions about the craft and business of writing and the writer’s life.
When you have decided on what you want to participate in and, if applicable, the agents and/or editors who are a good fit for you, go to the Registration tab to read the instructions there, enter the registration system, and make your selections and payment.
NOTE: You must be a 2026 Atlanta Writers Club (AWC) member to participate in the conference (i.e., your dues need to be current through May 2, 2026). If you are not a current member or need to renew your membership, the registration process will add $60 in nonrefundable annual dues for the Atlanta Writers Club (AWC)—with membership valid for 365 days—to the total amount for the conference activities you select. The membership period of 365 days grants you access to two annual traditional conferences, an annual self-publishing conference, monthly AWC meetings, free workshops, critique groups both online and in-person, and an annual writing contest with cash prizes. If you are not interested in the benefits of AWC membership, consider the $60 to be a nonrefundable conference registration fee.
You will submit your payment at the end of the registration process. Payment via credit card, debit card, or PayPal is required to complete your registration (checks are not accepted and payment cannot be delayed). Simply follow the prompts to finish this transaction.
Please complete this registration and payment process within 60 minutes of starting it.
If you have any questions after reviewing all of the pages on this website, please contact Atlanta Writers Conference Director George Weinstein at awconference@gmail.com.
I’m thrilled and proud to be a part of the Atlanta Writers Club. This conference is so unique in that it offers us writers an opportunity to have our work critiqued by an agent and to pitch an agent. I have attended two of these conferences and have found the experience to be incredibly educational and inspiring. I highly recommend it!
I went to my first conference in November 2017, met with several agents, and received positive and helpful feedback. At a round table discussion, every agent recommended conferences as an excellent way to meet agents one-on-one. It’s time well spent!
Still the most awesome conference! It gets better by the year!