Pennwriters Celebrates 40 Years! Our 2027 Conference Is One You Won't Want to Miss!
Forty years of bringing writers together, sharing knowledge, building friendships, and celebrating the writing journey! In May 2027, Pennwriters will mark its 40th Annual Conference, and we're looking forward to making this milestone year something special!
Whether you're a longtime member or someone considering attending your first Pennwriters conference, there's a lot to be excited about.
Join us May 21–23, 2027, at the DoubleTree by Hilton Pittsburgh-Green Tree as we celebrate four decades of Pennwriters and the writers who make this organization what it is.
Meet Our Keynote Speakers!
We're thrilled to welcome two outstanding authors as our keynote speakers this year.
Friday Evening Keynote: Wendy Corsi Staub
We're excited to welcome New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Wendy Corsi Staub as our Friday evening keynote speaker. Wendy is an award-winning author of more than 90 novels, best known for her psychological suspense, thrillers, and mystery series. Her work includes The Fourth Girl, Windfall, The Other Family, and the popular Lily Dale mysteries. She has also written women's fiction under the pseudonym Wendy Markham.
Throughout her career, Wendy has been recognized with numerous honors, including an RWA RITA Award, an RT Award for Career Achievement in Suspense, and the Golden Apple Award for Lifetime Achievement. She has also been a three-time finalist for the Simon & Schuster Mary Higgins Clark Award.
We're delighted to have an author with such an accomplished and diverse publishing career join us for this special anniversary celebration.
Learn more at wendycorsistaub.com.
Saturday Luncheon Keynote: Kathleen Shoop, PhD
Joining us Saturday is bestselling, award-winning author Kathleen Shoop, PhD. Kathleen writes historical fiction, women's fiction, and romance, including six holiday novellas and novels that bring seasonal magic to readers while introducing them to her other work.
Her writing has earned recognition from the Eric Hoffer Book Awards, Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY), Next Generation Indie Book Awards, and Readers' Favorite. Her work has also been featured in USA Today, Writer's Digest, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, among other publications.
In addition to her writing, Kathleen co-coordinates 23 Mindful Writers Retreats, co-coordinated the 2023 Pennwriters Conference, and regularly presents at writing conferences and in classrooms. We're pleased to welcome her as part of our 40th anniversary celebration.
Learn more at kshoop.com.
Meet Our 2027 Conference Influencer: Julia Baird!
We're excited to have Julia Baird joining us as the official influencer for our 2027 40th Anniversary Conference! Julia brings a combination of writing experience, marketing knowledge, and social media expertise to the role. A Pittsburgh-based fantasy and horror young adult writer, Julia has a background in Communication Studies and English Writing from the University of Pittsburgh and an MBA from Louisiana Tech University.
With her experience in marketing, social media, and fundraising, Julia will help us spread the word about our milestone celebration and share the excitement surrounding this year's conference. Keep an eye out for Julia as we get closer to May. We look forward to having her help showcase what makes the Pennwriters community so special!
Start Your Conference Experience on Thursday!
Why wait until Friday to get started? We're excited to offer a special Thursday intensive:
Stop Winging It: The Author Success Intensive
Facilitated by Jessica Barna, founder of Author Achievement, this intensive is designed for ambitious fiction authors who want to bridge the gap between writing great books and building successful, sustainable author businesses.
With an Executive MBA and more than 15 years of experience in business coaching and consulting, Jessica brings a practical, strategic approach to author success. She helps writers cut through the overwhelming demands of the business side of publishing, identify what matters most at their current stage, and turn ambitious goals into clear priorities, actionable plans, and measurable progress.
Jessica believes that writing books and building an author business require two very different skill sets. Her work focuses on the often-overlooked business side of authorship, including strategy, decision-making, self-management, productivity, and accountability. She helps authors develop the skills, knowledge, and confidence to lead their author careers like CEOs without sacrificing the creativity and joy that inspired them to write in the first place.
Whether you're just beginning to build your author platform or looking to take an established writing career to the next level, this intensive promises to offer valuable insight into approaching your writing as both a creative pursuit and a business.
Learn more about Jessica and Author Achievement at www.authorachievement.com.
Additional registration and pricing details for the intensive will be available as we finalize the conference budget.
A Special Year, With Some Special Challenges
Celebrating 40 years is exciting, but planning a conference of this size also comes with some challenges. Hosting our event in the Pittsburgh market brings higher operating expenses, particularly when it comes to audiovisual services and equipment. These costs are considerably higher than what we have encountered at some of our previous conference locations.
We're working carefully through the budget to balance providing an excellent conference experience with keeping registration as reasonable as possible. We anticipate that registration will be more expensive than in previous years due to the higher costs associated with hosting an event in the Pittsburgh market.
Final pricing and registration information will be shared once the budget process is complete. In the meantime, we want to give everyone an opportunity to start planning for this milestone event.
Can You Help Us Make This Conference Even Better?
One way we hope to offset some of these expenses is through sponsorships and community partnerships. We would love to connect with businesses, colleges and universities, publishers, literary agents, editors, and other organizations that might be interested in supporting Pennwriters and our 40th anniversary conference.
Do you have an inside contact at an organization that might be willing to sponsor an event, contribute funding, or explore a partnership? We'd appreciate your help! Please reach out to me directly.
Every connection and sponsorship opportunity could make a difference in helping us manage conference expenses while maintaining the quality of the experience our attendees have come to expect.
Forty Years of Writers Growing Together
Pennwriters has always been about more than a weekend of workshops and presentations. It's about the people who make this organization what it is: writers supporting writers, sharing what they've learned, encouraging one another, and building a community that lasts well beyond the conference weekend.
That's what we're celebrating in 2027.
Forty years is a milestone worth celebrating, and we want you to be part of it! Whether you're returning for another year or joining us for the first time, this is a conference you won't want to miss.
Start making your plans, watch for upcoming announcements, and get ready to celebrate 40 years of Pennwriters!
Here's to 40 years of writing, learning, friendship, and growing together!