Registration is open for Canyon Crest Academy’s 12th Annual CCA Writers’ Conference

Canyon Crest Academy’s Creative Writing Club has announced that high school registration is open for Canyon Crest Academy’s 12th Annual CCA Writers’ Conference.

Amy Spalding

(Robyn Von Swank)

Students can now register for the conference which will be held in person on Saturday, March 11, from 8:30 a.m. – 11:30 p.m., and the online conference will be held on March 18. This event is the only free writing conference for high school students in the country. Students can register on the conference website: ccacreativewriters2023.weebly.com

Matt Coyle, author of the bestselling Rick Cahill crime series, will present the keynote address. His books have won the Anthony, Shamus, Lefty, Authors on the Air Book of the Year, Ben Franklin Silver, Foreword Reviews Book of the Year Silver, and San Diego Book Awards as well as being nominated for many others, including the Barry Award.

Other authors include:

• Alonso Nunez, founder and executive director of Little Fish Comic Book Studio, a nonprofit comic art studio and advocacy group, will present: Into the Comic-Verse: A Comic Book Writing Workshop.

Greg van Eekhout

(Copyright of Greg van Eekhout)

• Greg van Eekhout, award-winning author of nine novels, including Weird Kid, COG, Voyage of the Dogs, and the California Bones trilogy, will present: Blasting Through Writers Block.

• Naz Kutub, young adult author of The Loophole (Bloomsbury 2022) and author of the short story The Hawk’s Reason as well as co-author of the anthology Magic Has No Borders, will present: How to Become an Idea Generator.

• Amy Spalding, award-winning author of several novels, including the bestselling We Used to Be Friends and The Summer of Jordi Perez (and the Best Burger in Los Angeles), will present: Taking the Tragedy out of LGBTQ Young Adult Fiction.

• Adam O’Davis, author of Index of Haunted Houses (Sarabande, 2020), winner of the Kathryn A. Morton Poetry Prize and a finalist for the Big Other Book Award for Poetry, will present: Writing With Ghosts: Supernatural Strategies for Writing Poems.

• Tammy Greenwood, author of 13 award-winning novels including Keeping Lucy, Rust & Stardust, Where I Lost Her and Bodies of Water, will present: The 6 Cs of Plotting Your Novel (“Concept, Character, Conflict, Crisis, Climax, Conclusion”).

Online on March 18: The CCA Writers’ Conference was started in 2012 by a student who attended the SDSU Writers Conference and wanted to bring the same inspirational and educational workshops to her peers. It has become an important institution in the San Diego area, regularly welcoming over 200 students from up to 40 high schools.

In order to continue to provide this free experience to high school students, the CCA Creative Writing Club is looking for individual and corporate sponsors. Individuals can “Sponsor a Student” for as little as $25, or become a Gold Sponsor for more. Sponsors can email ccawritersconference@gmail.com for more information on how to contribute.

Students interested in the conference should follow @ccawritersconf on Twitter, @ccacreativewriting on Instagram, or CCA Writers Conference on Facebook.

The conference will take place in the Educational Center, Canyon Crest Academy, 5951 Village Center Loop Road, San Diego, CA 92130. Registration is required.