2025 David R. Collins Writers Conference at Augustana College -- June 26 through 28 (pictured: Marguerite L. Harrold).
Thursday, June 26, through Saturday, June 28
Augustana College's Sorensen Hall, 639 38th Street, Rock Island IL
Authors of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and more will share their talents and help strengthen the talents of others during the Midwest Writing Center's 2025 David R. Collins Writers Conference at Augustana College's Sorensen Hall, a June 26 through 28 celebration of the written word boasting workshops, readings, book pitches, and more, with special events planned at several additional Quad Cities locales.
Four specific, three-day writing courses will be offered during the 2023 David R. Collins Writers' Conference:
Brett Biebel's "Writing Place: Geography in Short Fiction" (8:45 - 10:15 a.m.). This workshop will feature readings and prompts about the role of geography in short stories and offer ideas about how to better make the words on the page represent a layered and authentic reality, whether it be outer space or Jupiter, Florida. Biebel, who writes and teaches at Augustana, is the author of 48 Blitz (Split/Lip Press, 2020), A Companion to Thomas Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon (University of Georgia Press, 2023-2024), and Gridlock (Cornerstone Press, 2024). His short fiction has also been anthologized in Best Small Fictions and Best Microfiction, and featured in Wigleaf’s Top 50 Very Short Stories (2021).
Marguerite L. Harrold's "Writing For Your Life: Creative Nonfiction, Historical Narratives & Memoir" (10:30 a.m - noon). In this generative workshop, attendees will explore the concepts of lyrical prose and the practice of writing in both linear and hybrid forms, as well as engage actively with the processes of writing as living in the world and interacting with themselves and their communities. Harrold s a poet and writer from Chicago whose first book, Chicago House Music: Culture and Community (Belt/Arcadia, 2024), was short-listed for Best Non-Fiction Book of the Year, 2024 by Chicago Review of Books (CHIrby award) and was nominated for Outstanding Book on the History of Chicago 2025, by the Union League Club of Chicago. A PhD student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Harrold's work focuses on African American and African Diasporic poetry, ecology, folklore, culture, and social justice.
Skylar Alexander's "Beyond! Rethinking Form, Structure & the Limits of the Page – Poetry Workshop" (1:45 - 3:15 p.m.). In this workshop, burgeoning authors will study masters of breaking conventions and use them as guides as they push beyond the margins. Through a series of writing prompts and design experiments, students will generate new writing and reshape existing pieces. Online English teacher Alexander's debut collection, Searching for Petco, was published by Forklift Books in 2022, and she earned degrees in English and Entrepreneurial Management from the University of Iowa in 2015 and a Master’s in Secondary Education from NYU Steinhardt in 2022. She is also a part-time digital nomad, splitting her time between her native Midwest, the East Coast, and abroad.
Rebecca Entel's "Novel Workshop: Planning for the Long Haul" (3:30 - 5 p.m.). This workshop will provide a variety of strategies for writing through the fallow periods: approaches to getting started and plotting; writing prompts for any stage of the process; and short- and long-term planning tools. The course will also be generative with many opportunities to share work, allowing attendees to leave with new pages as well as valuable tools. Entel is the author of a novel, Fingerprints of Previous Owners; stories and essays in such journals as Guernica and Literary Hub; and flash in Jellyfish Review, Copper Nickel, and elsewhere. Additionally, she teaches creative writing, including a novel-writing course patterned after National Novel Writing Month; U.S. and Caribbean literature; and the literature of social justice at Cornell College.
Other scheduled events in the 2025 David R. Collins Writers Conference include: a 20th-anniversary celebration held on June 26, at 6 p.m. at Rock Island's Hauberg Estate (1300 24th Street); a Conference Faculty Reading and Participant Open Mic on June 27, beginning with a 6 p.m. social event, at Rock Island's Rozz-Tox (2108 Third Avenue); and a Concluding Luncheon in Augustana's Wilson Center (820 38th Street, Rock Island) on June 28 at noon - an event in which conference sponsors will be recognized and the faculty will reflect on their workshops over a catered lunch. Manuscript critiques and book pitches will also be scheduled throughout the weekend.
For more information on all of the events in this year's June 26 through 28 David R. Collins Writers' Conference, and to register for conference workshops, call the Midwest Writing Center at (309)732-7330 and visit MWCQC.org.
