After much discussion, we have decided not to present the Roanoke Writers Conference in 2025.
There are a great number of factors going into this decision. Foremost, our budget is a lot tighter than in the past, and based on much of the feedback we received last year, we have determined that if we can’t do it all the way right, we’re not going to do it at all.
Our ultimate goal is to grow our community and foster writing as a passion, practice, and craft. In order to do that, we need to make sure that we can present all the supporting elements effectively: the vendors, the workshops, the authors, the classes, and so forth are a big part of it, but we also want to offer more one-on-one and small-group opportunities, among other things.
As we looked over our resources, we realized that we weren’t in a position to offer even half of the glorious event that you deserve.
So, the big RWC is not going to happen this year.
We’re working on building up things for hosting something amazing next year, but things being what they are, we can make no promises.
Could we have done something online? Maybe, but our experience has been that in-person conferences just work better for the kind of writing that we all like to do.
We have a lot of cool ideas that we might be able to pull off on smaller scales throughout the year, but, again, there are multiple issues to overcome for those to manifest. Make sure that you’ve signed up for the newsletter so that you can get the scoop when we do have something fun to brew.
And thanks so much for your ongoing support and love. You’re the reason we do it, and, again, you deserve the best.
