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Ruth will discuss what it's really like to go on submission with a debut (literary fiction) novel. Tea will be spilled about her experience selling her novel this spring, what to expect on calls with book editors, what writers can do to pique editors' interests, and how to stay sane while on sub. Questions will be answered and resources will be shared! The conversation will focus on the part that happens after you've signed with an agent, but the demystification of this shadowy process may be helpful to novelists in all stages.

Ruth Madievsky is the author of a debut novel, ALL-NIGHT PHARMACY (forthcoming from Catapult in 2023) and a poetry collection, EMERGENCY BRAKE (Tavern Books, 2016). Her work appears in Harper's Bazaar, Lit Hub, Guernica, Tin House, Kenyon Review, and elsewhere. When she's not writing, she works as an HIV and primary care clinical pharmacist. You can find her @ruthmadievsky or at www.ruthmadievsky.com

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I submitted an essay to The New York Times Modern Love column in early 2020. I knew it wouldn’t be published, but that was the point. As a way of encouraging my students to get out of their comfort zones and take risks, I asked them to collect rejection slips over the winter break. Since I practice what I preach, I wrote a piece for a notoriously selective editor to retrieve a rejection note I could share. I tell my students to write toward what makes them uncomfortable, so I wrote and submitted an essay about a relationship that felt unresolved and shameful. As I unraveled why I had loved someone who couldn’t love me, I was taken back to the mountain of my youth. The man in question was a replacement for the home I couldn’t go back to. A week later, Dan Jones called me. A week after that, my essay appeared in The New York Times. A week after that, agents began emailing me. I chose one, drafted a proposal and it sold in September, 2020. Forager will be released in Fall, 2022 with Algonquin. This workshop will talk about the process of publication, but also about committing to a writing practice and what it means to take a risk.

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Regardless of genre, writing at the intersection of multiple identities creates specific challenges in terms of navigating not only one's relationship to the normative or mainstream, but mediating between rhetorics and experiences across communities. In this workshop we'll take a look at some of the strategies intersectional writers have employed to express their ideas and aesthetics, and discuss possible directions writers can take to approach their work from an intersectional perspective.

Meredith Talusan (she/they) is the author of the critically-acclaimed memoir Fairest from Viking/Penguin Random House, a Lambda Literary Award Finalist. She is also an award-winning journalist who has written for The Guardian, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Nation, WIRED, SELF, and Condé Nast Traveler, among many other publications, and has contributed to several collections of essays and fiction. She has received awards from GLAAD, The Society of Professional Journalists, and the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. She is also the founding executive editor of them, Condé Nast’s LGBTQ+ digital platform, where she is currently contributing editor.