Mendocino Coast Writers' Conference

07/29/2026

Join us this week in Mendocino!

Join us this summer for the 36th Mendocino Coast Writers’ Conference, a vibrant gathering celebrating creativity across ten genres! From July 30th to August 1st, immerse yourself in morning workshops, craft seminars, and one-on-one consultations led by esteemed faculty. Experience the camaraderie ...

06/26/2026

Don't miss the literary fun this summer! Registration for this year's Mendocino Coast Writers’ Conference (MCWC) closes next Tuesday, June 30.

We have a stellar faculty lineup including Master Class Instructor / Keynote Speaker Jeanne Thornton, MG/YA Instructor Emily Lloyd-Jones, Memoir Instructor Lauren Markham, Poetry Instructor MJ Jones, Short Fiction Instructor Laura Warrell, Speculative Fiction Instructor Tara Sim, Non-Fiction Instructor Roberto Lovato, Novel Instructor Susanna Kwan, Hybrid Instructor Syr Beker, Multi-Genre Prose Instructor Lisa Lee, as well as editor Dan López and agent Anna Ghosh.

We hope to see you on the coast!

Registration includes access to:
- Morning Workshops
- Afternoon craft seminars, panels, one-on-one consultations, and open mics
- Evening readings and events

The 2026 Conference will be held from July 30 - August 1, 2026. Learn more and register at www.mcwc.org.

06/17/2026

Can't make the full conference this year but still want to participate? Purchase an afternoon pass!

Experience the Mendocino Coast Writers’ Conference with an Afternoon Seminar Pass that grants you access to all afternoon events for the entire three-day conference at MCWC 2026. For $175, you can attend all afternoon seminars. Single day passes also available for $75.

Visit https://mcwc.org/afternoonpass for details.

06/16/2026

We're excited to welcome our faculty and participants to MCWC 2026!

There are still openings in the morning workshops for short fiction, hybrid genre, prose, speculative fiction, nonfiction, and MG/YA!

Registration closes on June 30th. Visit https://mcwc.org/2026-general-registration to learn more and register.

05/27/2026

2026 MCWC Workshop Spotlight: "A Plot To Be Desired" with illustrious author and MCWC Board Member, Emily Lloyd-Jones!

There is nothing more daunting than a blank page. When should you begin a story? What ideas can you include and which ones do you leave out? How do you introduce characters? And how do you hook a young reader? In this workshop, participants will study how to craft an emotionally resonant narrative for middle graders and young adults. Learn how to take your ideas and turn them into a whole story, from a gripping first paragraph to a satisfying conclusion.

Register for Emily's workshop today at https://mcwc.org/2026-general-registration.

*Also, a limited number of scholarships for Mendocino County high school students are available. Learn more and apply on our website!

05/22/2026

2026 MCWC Workshop Spotlight: "Building Strong Worlds" with Tara Sim

Whether you're writing fantasy, science fiction, or even contemporary, worldbuilding is an integral part of telling a story. A world is so much more than where your characters live; it's what they interact with on a daily basis, what forms their perceptions and opinions, what gives them food and clothing, etc. While the process of worldbuilding may seem daunting, this workshop will break down the most fundamental elements, such as society, economy, and culture, to provide you with the necessary questions to ask when building a world from the ground up.

Learn more and register at https://mcwc.org/2026-general-registration

05/19/2026

The Mendocino Coast Writers’ Conference is seeking new volunteer board members! We hope to recruit 1-2 more board members local to Mendocino or Fort Bragg. We are also in need of a board member willing to serve as Treasurer. Contact [email protected] to learn more.

05/18/2026

2026 MCWC Workshop Spotlight: "It’s Alive! - Finding the Spark In Your Work" with writer and experience creator Syr Beker

What is the magic that makes a piece of writing or art feel so uniquely, irresistibly alive, and how do we connect to that aliveness in our practice? What if a better word for craft was inspiration?

In this workshop, we will focus on image, structure, worldbuilding, characters, and endings to ask: what makes this feel alive. We will borrow methods across genre and art forms, including theater, architecture, and visual art, and we will listen deeply to what draws us. The goal is to discover, beyond sometimes limiting notions of craft, the practices and concepts that give you, specifically you, access to that current of electricity that makes your writing come roaring to life.

Learn more and register at https://mcwc.org/2026-general-registration!

05/15/2026

2026 MCWC Workshop Spotlight: "(Don’t) Spare Me the Details: A Fiction Workshop" with Laura Warrell

The unsung hero of storytelling is, in large part, detail, what writer Francine Prose calls “the building blocks with which a story is put together” and “the clues to something deeper.”

Precise, perhaps even unexpected, details make plots riveting, characters compelling, and sentences elegant. In this fiction workshop, we will examine the multitude of ways authors incorporate details into their work and explore techniques for finding the perfect detail to make a story come alive on the page. We will workshop submitted manuscripts, paying close attention to the author’s use of detail. Generative work will hopefully reveal the untapped magic of our stories.

Save your seat at https://mcwc.org/2026-general-registration!

05/03/2026

Great news: we're extending our early bird discount through the weekend! Register for this year’s conference by Sunday, May 3 and get $25 off your registration fee. Spots are filling fast. Visit our website at www.mcwc.org to learn more & register today!