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Have you writ­ten a book that you’d like to have pub­lished? Do you have a sto­ry idea? Have you already been pub­lished and would like to net­work with oth­ers in your field? The 2024 Jew­ish Writ­ers’ Con­fer­ence, spon­sored by the Jew­ish Book Coun­cil, brings togeth­er agents, edi­tors, and authors for dis­cus­sions, work­shops, and pan­els dis­cussing Jew­ish book pub­lish­ing and writ­ing. Please note that the con­fer­ence com­bines our annu­al Jew­ish Chil­dren’s Writ­ers Sem­i­nar and our Jew­ish Adult Writ­ers Sem­i­nar. There are no refunds for this event. 

The 2024 con­fer­ence will be held vir­tu­al­ly on Sun­day, Novem­ber 17. Addi­tion­al author-led pan­els will be held on addi­tion­al dates. The fee for the con­fer­ence is $250.

This con­fer­ence will include:

• Indus­try pan­els with speak­ers from major and inde­pen­dent pub­lish­ers, who will pro­vide insight into the field and share advice and resources for authors to help guide them on their own pub­lish­ing journey
• Author-led pan­els which will dis­cuss spe­cif­ic gen­res and themes in the field, their writ­ing process, and their own per­son­al pub­lish­ing experiences
• Videos of all the pan­els will be avail­able for view­ing after the con­fer­ence, in case you miss one
• A month-long, once-a-week writ­ing group that will occur after the con­fer­ence – opt-in
• Meet one-on-one with some of our pan­elists to dis­cuss your works-in-progress (requires an addi­tion­al fee and is closed for 2024)

This year’s pan­elists and mod­er­a­tors include the following:

Keynote: What My Life in Pub­lish­ing Taught Me; a Con­ver­sa­tion with Altie Karp­er and Joni Suss­man. Join us for a con­ver­sa­tion between Altie Karp­er, the for­mer man­ag­ing edi­tor for Pan­theon and Schock­en and edi­to­r­i­al direc­tor of Schock­en, (Pen­guin Ran­dom House), and Joni Suss­man, the pub­lish­er at Kar-Ben Pub­lish­ing. Both were in their roles for over twen­ty years and helped shape the land­scape for Jew­ish lit­er­a­ture today.

• Chil­dren’s edi­to­r­i­al pan­el with Dena Neusner, Exec­u­tive Edi­tor at Behrman House, Inc., Apples & Hon­ey Press, Talia Benamy, edi­tor and back­list man­ag­er at Philomel, Pen­guin Ran­dom House, and Aimee Fried­man, Edi­to­r­i­al Direc­tor, Scholas­tic Inc., mod­er­at­ed by Hei­di Rabi­nowitz, Library Direc­tor at Feld­man Chil­dren’s Library of Con­gre­ga­tion B’nai Israel, host of The Book of Life: A Pod­cast About Jew­ish Kidlit (Most­ly), and found­ed the pop­u­lar Jew­ish Kidlit Mavens group on Facebook
• Chil­dren’s agent pan­el with Elana Roth Park­er, lit­er­ary agent at Lau­ra Dail Lit­er­ary Agency, Karen Gren­cik, co-founder and lit­er­ary agent at Red Fox Lit­er­ary, LLC, and Alyssa Eis­ner Henkin, founder and lit­er­ary agent for Birch Path Literary
• Adult edi­to­r­i­al pan­el with Ben Hyman, Edi­to­r­i­al Direc­tor Schock­en, Pen­guin Ran­dom House, Lia Ron­nen, Edi­to­r­i­al Direc­tor Work­man’s Pub­lish­ing, Hachette, Lau­ren Wein, Vice Pres­i­dent and Edi­to­r­i­al Direc­tor, Avid Read­er Press (Simon & Schus­ter), and Julie Grau, Co-CEO, Spiegel & Grau, mod­er­at­ed by Eri­ka Drei­fus, who is a Jew­ish author, Jew­ish lit­er­ary con­sul­tant and advocate
• Adult agent pan­el with Rebec­ca Shae­vitz, lit­er­ary agent at Verve Tal­ent & Lit­er­ary, Rena Ross­ner, lit­er­ary agent at Deb­o­rah Har­ris Agency, and David For­rer, lit­er­ary agent at Inwell Management
• Acci­den­tal Activists — The Artists Against Anti­semitism Pan­el, with Alli­son Ham­mer, Aliza Licht, Saman­tha Ettus, and Jill San­topo­lo, mod­er­at­ed by Zib­by Owens
• Top Tips for Jew­ish Author Vis­its: How to Cre­ate Fun and Invit­ing Book Pre­sen­ta­tions for Kids with authors Ann Koff­sky, Paul Crich­ton, and Jacque­line Jules
• Beyond the Hol­i­days: Writ­ing Jew­ish Chil­dren’s Books with authors Richard Michel­son, Jane Yolen, and Lesléa Newman
• Pro­mot­ing Jew­ish Books in the Atten­tion Econ­o­my with authors Leigh Stein, Bet­sy Lern­er, Gila Pfef­fer, and Jes­si­ca Saunders
• Jew­ish Lit­er­ary Orga­ni­za­tions and How They Can Help with Jew­ish Book Coun­cil, PJ Library, and AJL
• New Jew­ish Voic­es with authors Dan­ny Good­man, Sasha Vasi­lyuk, Sarah Mar­i­an Seltzer, and Zachary C. Solomon
• Good­bye, Sophie Port­noy: A New Vision of Jew­ish Moth­er­hood; Jew­ish Takes on Preg­nan­cy, Moth­er­hood, and Care­work with Elis­sa Strauss, Rachel Somer­stein, Elisa Albert, and Yael Goldstein-Love
• Genre Flu­id­i­ty: How Rethink­ing Your Cat­e­go­ry Can Turn Rejec­tion into Tri­umph with Lau­ra Zam, Samatha Wek­stein, Kenan Tre­bince­vic, Robert Markowitz, and Amy Klein, mod­er­at­ed by Sue Shapiro
• Lis­ten­ing in to Tough Love: A Cri­tique Group at Work with authors Elka Weber, Anna Levine, Sher­ri Man­del, Cha­va Pinchuck, and Yael Levy
• Bear­ing Wit­ness with the Nation­al Library of Israel Glob­al Doc­u­men­ta­tion Initiative

Addi­tion­al author panels:

Mon­day, Novem­ber 18th, 12 PM ET: Writ­ing While Israeli: Hebrew Lit­er­a­ture Home and Abroad, after Octo­ber 7th with authors Maya Arad, Ruby Nam­dar, and Noa Yedlin, mod­er­at­ed by Sandee Brawarsky

Tues­day, Novem­ber 19, 12 PM ET: How to Write about the Holo­caust and be a Jew­ish Writer after Octo­ber 7th, with authors Judy Batal­ion, Lisa Barr, Dina Kraft, and Keren Blank­feld, mod­er­at­ed by Amy Klein

Wednes­day, Novem­ber 20th, 12 PM ET: Why is This War Dif­fer­ent from All Oth­er Wars: Writ­ing About Israel After Octo­ber 7th, with Deb­o­rah Har­ris, Julie Zuck­er­man, and Gali­na Vromen, mod­er­at­ed by Miryam Sivan