The Literary Legacy Lives On

For those of us who love playing with words, going to the Santa Barbara Writers Conference can be an uplifting experience like no other. “One of the things that I love about doing the conference,” said director Grace Rachow, “is that it’s just a wholly good thing. In a world that’s kind of a little hard right now for everybody, and not everyone has the writing career they’re hoping for … but the conference is hope and it’s connection, genuine connection with people. Instead of fighting with people, you’re connecting and agreeing. It’s like, yeah, let’s do this. This is good.”

She smiles. Rachow and I have done interviews about the Writers Conference many times, and community is definitely one of the themes that emerges year after year. “A lot of times people find family or their circle of friends. It’s like writing is too weird, and being around other people who are doing that, and then care about where should I start this scene? … It’s finding your tribe.”

As longtime workshop leader Matthew Pallamary put it, according to Rachow, “Do you sometimes talk to yourself and write it down? Come to the Writers Conference. Your family awaits.”

“I have been involved with the conference since I think Lincoln was president,” Rachow laughs. Her actual start date, originally as a volunteer, was in 1992, and she’s been there for every conference since. She took the helm as director in 2016. 

So, what’s new for this year? 

“One of the things we’re trying is something that we haven’t tried; we’ve always sold what I thought were inexpensive tickets to our evening speakers and our panels — at $15, I figured, who can’t afford $15? But then I thought, ‘Well, if I’m going to a book signing, I’d rather put my $15 toward the books,’” she said. “So, this year we’re opening all of those for free.”

She continued, “I don’t know if we’ll get more people. I hope we do, but the friction of having to buy a ticket and park and pay and all of that is over. All they have to do is show up, find a way to show up, and they get the show … I think it’ll really give people who aren’t overly familiar with the conference a chance to kind of see what the conference is without having to get their wallet out at all.”

Among the free evening events are a special opening night presentation by Fannie Flagg on Sunday, June 21, at 7 p.m. For those who haven’t heard the legend, Flagg’s literary origin story is very intertwined with SBWC, where she was a writing contest winner after a successful career as an actress and a writer in television, films, and the theater. She’s now the best-selling author of 12 titles, including Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man and Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café. In addition, she is the winner of the Harper Lee Prize for distinguished writer of the year, and her script for the movie Fried Green Tomatoes was nominated for an Academy Award and the Writers Guild of America Award and won the highly regarded Scripter Award for best screenplay of the year. 

Literary fiction author Kerri Schlottman (Tell Me One Thing, which earned numerous accolades, including the 2024 PenCraft Literary Fiction Award) will speak on Monday, June 22, at 7 p.m. Her 2026 novel, Daytime Moon, follows a young woman returning to the California desert to confront her past and reunite with her fractured family on a memorable journey through hidden stories, the depths of women’s secrets, and the shimmering fluidity of memory.

Jess Walter, whose best-selling novels include The Cold Millions and Beautiful Ruins, was a National Book Award finalist for The Zero. His latest book, So Far Gone, digs into What’s Happening Now in the (uppercase) World, and Walter wrote that he imagined sticking his head out the passenger window and describing what it’s like as the car goes off the road. “I’m not talking about who wins elections,” he said. “I’m talking about the devaluing of logic and science and intellect; the cynical, self-serving villanization of institutions like government and law enforcement and media.” His talk will be on Tuesday, June 23, at 7 p.m.

Wednesday, June 24, at 7 p.m. is Rachel Howzell Hall, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal,and U.S.A. Today best-selling author of 16 novels, including the thriller Fog and Fury, and the Good Morning America Book Club selection, The Last One. Her 2025 book is The Cruel Dawn, the explosive second book in her Vallendor series, a sweeping fantasy romance (romantasy) where gods bleed, realms fall, and one woman stands between salvation and ruin.

New York Times best-selling writer Adriana Trigiani, the author of 21 fiction and nonfiction titles, including The View from Lake Como (2025), The Good Left Undone, The Shoemaker’s Wife, and Don’t Sing at the Table: Life Lessons from My Grandmothers, will speak on Thursday, June 2,5 at 7 p.m. Trigiani, who weaves family, food, traditions, and the Italian-American experience into her novels, was knighted by Italy for promoting Italian culture.

There are also nine writing workshops every morning and nine more every afternoon of the conference, in a variety of genres and subjects — everything from Phantastic Fiction and Getting Naked: Editing Stripped Down, to memoir, poetry, Finding Your Secret Story, Hooking Readers, Magical Realist Fiction, and more — as well as the evening “pirate workshops,” which are more freeform sessions that go deep into the night. The workshops are all five days (10 morning workshops and 10 in the afternoon) and they are designed, Rachow said, to build on themselves but also stand alone in case a writer wants to dip in and out of different genres and subjects every day. 

The panels, which are open to the public and free as space allows, run June 21-26 from 4-5 p.m. daily, with topics that include a Poets Laureate Panel, Fiction: Five Genres Panel, Agents Panel, Novel Panel, Nonfiction Panel, and an Author Platform Panel.

All events take place June 21-26 at the Mar Monte Hotel (1111 Cabrillo Blvd.). See sbwriters.com for details and registration.