Major Fundraiser: Please Spread the Word!

It’s October, and in normal circumstances, we’d be gathering right now at SiWC, online and in person, to build community, learn, pitch books, fill the well, and gather inspiration and writing energy to carry us through the dark months of winter.

We’re missing being surrounded by writers in the joyful, supportive atmosphere of SiWC and know many of you are, too.

We’re posting to ask for your help to promote our major fundraiser to protect the conference for the future.

As you likely know, in August we were forced to cancel this year’s SiWC because of a (still unresolved) labour dispute at our conference hotel. Having to cancel at such a late date was heartbreaking for all of us, and it was also incredibly expensive for our not-for-profit society. Covering non-refundable costs already paid for this year put a huge dent in our contingency fund.

In order to keep SiWC going for years to come, we’re asking for your help to bolster our contingency fund and set us up to keep providing the best professional development for writers we possibly can year after year. Our goal is to cover the lost money from this year and restore our contingency fund to pre-pandemic levels. The costs of running the conference have approximately doubled since 2019, so it’s especially important for us to have a healthy contingency as we look to the future.

To facilitate fundraising, we’re running a GoFundMe campaign.

We’d be deeply grateful if you’d spread the word on your social media, to writers and other writing industry folks you know who’ve benefitted from, or are eager to attend, SiWC, and to anyone who values books and the people who put them out in the world. If you’re able to make a donation of your own, that would mean the world to us, too. Thank you!

We have always said that we couldn’t do SiWC without all the amazing people who attend, present, volunteer, donate, or dream of attending someday, and that’s true now, too. Thank you for anything you can do to support this fundraising effort. We appreciate you.