From Pen to Published
Learn about the world of publishing from the people that are in it.
Virtual Conference (on Zoom)
June 12 - 14, 2020
Join The Soap Box and Coach House Books for an online publishing fair filled with
keynote speakers, workshops, and the launch of our newest chapbook!
Hear from published authors and industry professionals
Conference Schedule
Friday June 12
Opening Panel: The Future of the Literary Landscape
With Amanda Leduc, Ian Williams, Leigh Nash, and moderated by Ann Y.K. Choi
6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Saturday June 13
Keynote Speakers:
Funding Opportunities with the OAC with Jack Illingworth;
Literary Citizenship with Alana Wilcox
12:00 PM - 12:45 PM
Introduction to Publishing (for Writers) with Monica Kidd
1:00 PM - 1:45 PM
Introduction to Publishing (for the Publishing Industry) with Jen Knoch
3:00 PM - 3:45 PM
How to Write a Better Grant Application with Moez Surani
4:00 PM - 4:45 PM
Sunday June 14
Keynote Speakers:
Building a Career as a Writer with Danila Botha;
Building a Career in Publishing with James Lindsay
12:00 PM - 12:45 PM
Starting an Indie Press with Kirby
1:00 PM - 1:45 PM
Being Your Own Editor - and Working with One with Stuart Ross
3:00 PM - 3:45 PM
Writing and Wellness with Kathryn Mockler
4:00 PM - 4:45 PM
Chapbook Launch: Throat on Fire with Nichole Acosta*
6:00 PM - 7:00 PM
*The Launch for Throat on Fire is a separate event that can be registered for here.
Attendees do not need to attend From Pen to Published to attend the launch.
Tickets
Regular Tickets are $20 and Student Tickets are $15. A ticket provides access to all conference events.
Spots are limited so register here.
Please note that all attendees who purchase student tickets will be required to use their student email, otherwise a refund will be issued.
If the ticket cost poses a barrier to your attendance, please reach out to contact@thesoapboxwrites.com and we will help with accommodations.
Our Speakers
Leigh Nash
Leigh Nash is the head book maker at Invisible Publishing, a small, scrappy, and seriously good publisher of mostly Canadian books. She currently serves on the board of directors for the Association of Canadian Publishers and eBOUND Canada. A lapsed poet, she has an MFA in creative writing from the University of Guelph, and is the author of Goodbye, Ukulele.
Ann Y.K. Choi
Ann Y.K. Choi’s novel, Kay’s Lucky Coin Variety, was a Toronto Book Awards finalist and One of CBC Books 12 Best Canadian Debut Novels of 2016. She is the co-founder of The Authors’ Book Club, an initiative that connects readers with authors across Canada. Her children’s book, Once Upon An Hour, will be released in fall 2020. Her new novel will be out in 2021. She lives in Toronto.
Jen Knoch
Jen Knoch is senior editor at ECW Press, where she has worked since 2008. She has edited fiction and non-fiction by authors such as late Rush drummer Neil Peart, memoirist Catherine Gildiner, and essayist Anne T. Donahue. As Liv Spencer, she is the co-author of bestselling non-fiction for young people.
Moez Surani
Moez Surani is the author of three poetry books: Reticent Bodies, Floating Life, and Operations, which is comprised of the names of military operations, and reveals a globe-spanning inventory of the contemporary rhetoric of violence. A new collection of poetry, Are the Rivers in Your Poems Real was published in fall 2019. His visual and performance works have been shown in Toronto at Theatre Passe Muraille, Nuit Blanche, Videofag, Red Head Gallery and YYZ Artists' Outlet (forthcoming), and internationally at the Cross Gallery in Taipei, the New Zero Arts Space in Yangon, Palazzolo Acreide’s city hall in Italy and he is a member of the artist-run centre Gallery 44 in Toronto.
Danila Botha
Danila Botha is the author of two short story collections, Got No Secrets, and For All the Men (and Some of the Women I’ve Known) which was a finalist for the Trillium Book Award, The Vine Awards and The ReLit Award. She is also the author of the novel Too Much on the Inside, which won a Book Excellence Award and was short listed for a ReLit Award. Danila teaches Creative Writing at University of Toronto and mentors writers at Humber School for Writers. She’s currently working on a new collection of short stories, and finishing a new novel.
James Lindsay
James Lindsay is the sales and marketing coordinator at Coach House Books. Before joining Coach House he worked as a bookseller in Toronto for eleven years at Type Books and Book City. He is the co-owner of Pleasence records, a record label specializing in vinyl, cassette, and digital releases. He is also the author of two collections of poetry, Our Inland Sea, and Double Self-Portrait and a chapbook Ekphrasis! Ekphrasis!.
Kirby
KIRBY’s earlier chapbooks include Cock & Soul, Bob’s boy, The World is Fucked and Sometimes Beautiful, She’s Having A Doris Day (KFB, 2017) and forthcoming, What Do You Want To Be Called? (Anstruther, 2020). Their full-length debut, This Is Where I Get Off is now in its second printing (Permanent Sleep, 2019) and currently being adapted for the stage. Kirby is the owner and publisher of knife | fork | book.
Kathryn Mockler
Kathryn Mockler is the author of four books of poetry and several short films and experimental videos. She is the Founder and Editor of Watch Your Head and the Canada Editor of Joyland Magazine. She has a poetry chapbook written in collaboration with Gary Barwin forthcoming from Knife | Fork | Book (2020) and her debut collection of stories forthcoming from Book*hug (2022).
Nichole Acosta
Nichole Acosta is a Brooklyn-based poet, performer, and carb counter.
Her work has featured in “The Americas Poetry Festival of New York”, “Diabetics Doing Things” and “This Is Not What I Ordered” podcast series and “Connect. Politic. Ditto.” and “Light” anthologies. She enjoys bridging the gaps, between page and stage, identity and perception.
Stuart Ross
Stuart Ross is the winner of the 2019 Harbourfront Festival Prize for his contributions to Canadian literature. His 20 books of fiction, poetry, and essays include Motel of the Opposable Thumbs (Anvil Press, 2019), A Sparrow Came Down Resplendent (Wolsak and Wynn, 2016), and Snowball, Dragonfly, Jew (ECW Press, 2011). Stuart was the 2010 Writer in Residence at Queen’s University. Through his imprints at Mansfield Press (2007–2017) and Anvil Press (2018–present), he has mentored many first-time authors and worked with dozens of mid-career and senior authors. He has edited in-house and freelance for three decades. Stuart lives in Cobourg, Ontario.
Monica Kidd
Monica Kidd is Acquisitions Editor for Pedlar Press and is the author of seven books of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction.
Ian Williams
Ian Williams is the author of Reproduction, winner of the 2019 Scotiabank Giller Prize, finalist for the Amazon Canada First Novel Award, and the Toronto Book Award. His poetry collection, Word Problems, is forthcoming this fall from Coach House Books. He is a professor of poetry in the Creative Writing program at the University of British Columbia.
Jack Illingworth
Jack Illingworth has been the Literature Officer at the Ontario Arts Council since 2013. Before joining OAC, he worked in the Canadian-owned publishing sector in a number of capacities, most recently as Executive Director of the Literary Press Group of Canada. He lives in Toronto but considers the forests and waters of Neebing, Ontario to be his home.
Alana Wilcox
Alana Wilcox is the Editorial Director of Coach House Books, an independent literary press in Toronto. There, she co-founded the uTOpia series of anthologies and has edited many award-winning books. She is also the author of a long-out-of-print novel, A Grammar of Endings.
Amanda Leduc
Amanda Leduc's essays and stories have appeared in publications across Canada, the US, and the UK. She is the author of the novels The Miracles of Ordinary Men and the forthcoming The Centaur's Wife . She has cerebral palsy and lives in Hamilton, Ontario, where she works as the Communications Coordinator for the Festival of Literary Diversity (FOLD), Canada's first festival for diverse authors and stories.
