WHAT A WEEK: Two events for writers, readers, book lovers alike

Shannon Rae Gentry
Oct 30, 2025
5 min read

*Note registration for the Fall Conference closes Monday, Nov. 3.

Next week, UNCW Writers Week (Nov. 3-7) and North Carolina Writers’ Network Fall Conference (Nov. 7-9) overlap to offer writers and enthusiasts spaces to learn, grow, and enjoy literary storytelling in all forms. One celebrates the art and imagination of published works and the other helps writers (or aspiring writers) find their voice—or maybe, “kill their darlings.”

And for anyone who’s ever thought, maybe I have a story in me, our coastal community might be the time and place to find out.

Return to the Start

The North Carolina Writers’ Network celebrates its 40th anniversary this year with a return to Wrightsville Beach. The conference features keynote speaker Ben Fountain (“Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk,” “Devil Makes Three”) and looks a lot like a UNCW writers reunion. Alongside Fountain, the lineup includes a local writers showcase like Clyde Edgerton, Michael Ramos, David Gessner, Mary Lambeth Moore, Emily Louise Smith, John Jeremiah Sullivan, and Jason Frye, among others.

Between manuscript consultations, master classes, and the first-ever “Writingest Square Dance” with author Anna Lena Phillips Bell, the weekend promises a community of conversation, craft, and the shared love of story. Clyde Edgerton, now retired from UNCW’s Department of Creative Writing, will guide attendees through conversations in fiction works.

“I used to be more prescriptive,” Edgerton says of his teaching style. “Now, instead of beginning with what I know, I open things up to the problems writers are having. It leads to more useful conversations.”

For him, fiction always comes down to relationships—not just between characters, but between writers and readers, teachers and students, and even within the writing community itself. “Readers want to eavesdrop on human moments,” he says. “Good fiction is about relationships.”

That ethos echoes throughout the conference, as attendees can connect with authors, literary agents, editors, and publishers. Writers come not just to polish manuscripts but to connect and find their people, as Edgerton once did. He recalls paying $25 for a one-on-one session with the late Chapel Hill author Doris Betts, who told him simply, “I liked your story.”

“It was one of the happiest moments of my life,” he says. “Sometimes all it takes is a word from someone you respect.”

Into the Multiverse

Up the road at UNCW, Writers’ Week 2025 adopts the theme “Multiverse” for writers and readers alike to explore the “boundless possibilities of words,” from genre-bending to hybrid forms of storytelling that can push readers outside of their comfort zones or writers out of ruts.

“This isn’t just for writers with books in progress,” says Emily Louise Smith, director of UNCW’s Publishing Lab and a speaker at both conferences this year. “Writers’ Week attracts students, of course, but also Wilmington community members, often people with full-time jobs who are simply writer-curious, or readers who want to hear great work.”

Her colleague KaToya Ellis Fleming, who is directing this year’s Writers’ Week and teaches publishing and creative writing, agrees. "Often, people who aren't writers at all attend Writers' Week because they want to hear from the terrific authors we invite,” she says. “It attracts both writers and general readers who just enjoy learning about the creative process.”

In a time when even self-identified “avid readers” struggle to escape the scroll, both women see Writers’ Week as a kind of antidote; a space to rediscover the pleasures of focus, of being fully present with a book or a voice.

“When I grew up in rural South Carolina, there were only three TV channels we watched,” Smith says, as reading was the natural escape. “Now, you have to consciously tune out the noise. These events help people do that, to reconnect with reading as an act of curiosity and imagination.”

The intentionality of reading, listening and connecting, Fleming says, makes Writers’ Week more than a literary showcase. It’s a reminder that literature is everywhere and equally important to all—not just writers and scholars.

Bridge the Divide

If Writers’ Week invites participants to explore the multiverse of imagination, then NC Writers’ Network Conference helps folks turn ideas into story, and story into something lasting.

Edgerton distills that process into three words: clarity, conciseness, accuracy. Values Hemingway once used as a writer for the Kansas City Star. “Clarity might be the most important,” Edgerton says. “It’s hard to achieve, but it matters more than anything.”

That clarity doesn’t just apply to sentences—it applies to purpose. For new writers, clarity means understanding why they write, what their story is about, and who it’s for.

For the broader public, those who still might hesitate to call themselves “writers” (like me for about 10 years) clarity might just mean recognizing that these writers conferences aren’t closed circles, but more like open doors.

“You don’t have to have a book in progress,” Smith insists. “You can come to listen and learn, to be part of the conversation.”

In fact, many treat Writers’ Week like a kind of literary adult story hour, mornings, afternoons, and nights filled with readings by national and local voices. As well, Morning Pages sessions with Jason Mott (Nov. 3), Jill Gerard (Nov. 4), and others will lead attendees in writing together for new works. Carmen Maria Machado, who blends surrealism, fantasy, and horror, will speak on “Exploring the Possibilities of Creative Nonfiction” on November 6. Also featured, Bernardo Wade, whose debut collection of poetry “A Love Tap” launches through Lookout Books during Writers’ Week at Azalea Station on November 7. There are countless faces from all sides and perspectives of storytelling, including photography and podcasting.

“The North Carolina Writers’ Network Conference likewise brings together emerging writers—students currently studying in writing programs or writers across the state who are just beginning to publish articles or poems—with more seasoned authors working on book projects,” Smith expands. “There's a great session with Jason Frye about pitching editors and building a career as a freelancer. There are many, many craft based sessions [and] even one on podcasting.”

“You might walk into a session because the title sounds interesting,” Fleming says of Writers’ Week, “and walk out obsessed with a writer you’d never heard of. That discovery, or spark, is what keeps literature alive.”

A Shared Future

Aside from the panels, craft talks, and readings—how do we (writers, readers, advocates) keep literary ecosystems alive—especially in rural America. With less funding, shorter attention spans, siloed algorithms, fewer book reviewers, and even fewer dedicated book editors, next week’s respective events place books in a larger conversation.

“Being a good writer also means being an informed literary citizen,” Fleming says. “You can’t just write in a vacuum; in our program we teach industry awareness, the realities of funding, and we fight for the stories that need to be told.”

In the end, what unites these two events isn’t just geography or timing—it’s a kind of faith in the power of literature in all forms. From UNCW’s Multiverse! to NC Writers’ Network Fall Conference, the week will draw hundreds of writers, readers, and the curious to share in the power and love of storytelling.