Building Your Literary Community
Mare Swallow, founder of the Chicago Writers Conference, explains how authors can use Chicago’s thriving Live Lit Scene to build your own literary community in your own back yard, and work with local venues such as bars, restaurants, libraries, and bookstores to get the support you need, and a space for you and your audience. We’ll discuss hosting feedback loops and live readings or storytelling shows, as well as best practices for creating or joining a writers or critique group.
Mare Swallow is the Founder of the Chicago Writers Conference and author of 21 Ways to Engage Your Audience. Her writing has appeared in Story Club magazine. By day, she is a professional speaker and MFA student. She writes creative non fiction, and tells her stories on the Live Lit Circuit, at events such as That’s All She Wrote, FlickLit, Story Lab, Story Club, Is This A Thing? and Tuesday Funk. She has been named to New City’s Lit 50 list twice. She lives in Chicago and is a complete Gin Snob.
