WRITERS’ STRIKE DISCOUNT & MORE!

REGISTRATION CLOSES JUNE 30

Only a few spots left! To ensure you reserve your seat in the morning workshop of your choice, use the link below to register today!

ALREADY REGISTERED?

Get ready for the conference and order your merch now! Whether you need a bag for your books for faculty book signing or a sweatshirt for Fogust, check out our goods!

Photo by Mimi Carroll

WRITERS’ STRIKE DISCOUNT - 50% OFF

We want to acknowledge the Writers’ Strike currently taking place and in solidarity, we are offering a 50% discount on the conference tuition with enrollment in the Screenwriting Workshop with discount code: WGASTRONG. 

Screenwriting Workshop: Beyond the Page

This hands-on studio session led by Q. Terah Jackson invites you to step back from the screenplay page for a 3-day exploration into your creative writing process. Whether this is your first short or fifth feature, this is a chance to reflect, retool, and rethink with other creative minds on how we approach developing a screenplay through a mixture of lecture, in-class exercises and workshopping of participants' material. Each participant will have an opportunity to apply techniques used by Hollywood professionals to their cinematic ideas and sharpen their artistry and craft.

LOCAL STUDENT DISCOUNT - 50% OFF

The Mendocino Coast Writers’ Conference is committed to continuous learning and community building. To demonstrate our commitment to these values, from June 15-30, as long as spots are available, MCWC will offer a 50% off Local Student Discount to our 2023 conference! 

Currently enrolled high school, college, and graduate students in Mendocino, Humboldt, Lake, Sonoma, Marin, and Napa Counties are eligible.

Register now to seize this unique opportunity to attend MCWC using the discount code that corresponds to the desired workshop: LOCALEMERGING, LOCALSPECULATIVE, LOCALNONFICTION, LOCALNOVEL, LOCALMEMOIR, LOCALSCREENWRITING, LOCALPOETRY, LOCALMYSTERY, LOCALMGYA.

Local Student Discount registrants will be asked to provide documentation of their student status following their registration and are responsible for their travel and lodging. Payment plans are available; please write to info@mcwc.org for more information.

LAST CALL - MCWC CONTEST CLOSING SOON!

All conference registrants are encouraged to submit to our writing contest which will be open for submissions until June 30, 2023. There is no entry fee. However, the contest is only open to registered participants of the full three-day conference. Winners will have the opportunity to read their work at the conference, receive credit to the conference bookstore, and winning entries are considered for publication in The Noyo Review. 

MISSED OUR SPRING SEMINARS? 

MCWC hosted five online seminars this spring. Each one was recorded and they are now available for purchase. Each recording includes a two hour seminar as well as resources.

Purchase them individually for $15 each or buy all five for $65. Below is a list of recordings:

Q&A WITH MCWC 2023 SCREENWRITING FACULTY, Q. TERAH JACKSON

We caught up with Q. Terah Jackson who will be leading the 2023 Screenwriting Workshop. You can find more about his work via his website.

Q. Terah Jackson is a LA-based screenwriter, playwright, director, and alum of AFI and Howard University. His work centers marginalized communities, found families, and historic figures’ trials and triumphs to create justice and belonging in the United States. His screenplay on Bayard Rustin’s mentorship of Martin Luther King, Jr. received awards and recognition from AFI, the WGAW, Film Independent, and The Academy Nicholl Fellowships. He wrote Counter, which screened nationally via PBS and the NAACP's 2020 Virtual Convention. He revised American Anthem, a biopic about legendary contralto Marian Anderson, for Autopilot Entertainment. He was a Lincoln Center’s Directors Lab participant and dramaturg for the All For One Theater’s off-Broadway presentation of Anu Yadav’s Meena’s Dream, which he subsequently directed as a video presentation. He has taught at Sundance Collab, Chapman University, CSU Long Beach, and New York Film Academy, advising students, filmmakers, and competitions on writing for the screen and stage.  He is currently developing a limited television series based Storming Caesars Palace and the US Welfare Rights movement with Deniese Davis’s Reform Media Group.

What drew you to begin writing in your genre?

  • I was born, bred and fed in Washington, DC, as they say. Everyone talks politics. So I grew up curious about how we got here in society and where we were going. My imagination just gravitated to historical dramas and science fiction to explore these great society questions.

What patterns, rituals or routines are crucial to your writing practice?

  • Research, journaling, freewriting time away from my computer, naps, and "sleep writing". I'm being a little fancy here, but I do a lot of heady, analytical stuff then periodically hand off the work to my subconscious mind.

 Who/what are your key influences and sources of inspiration?

  • Aesop, Shakespeare, and Akira Kurasowa tend to be my most consistent influences as I grew from listening to my mother professionally telling stories to studying theater and film. Most of my inspiration comes from life itself - bits of conversations, topics in the news, moments lived, and dreams.

What do you love most about teaching writing?

  • Seeing people wrestle with their own ideas, find a way in then get ticked by their own self discovery. There is marvelous kinetic energy in the creative process that is a joy to foster and witness.

What are you hoping participants of your MCWC workshop will get out of the time they spend with you?

  • Some humor, some craft lesson, and a few reflections on life.