Presentation
Room Three
11:00am- 50 minutes
Between social media, busy schedules, and the constant pull of everyday life, staying focused on writing can feel harder than ever. In this open and honest panel discussion, writers share practical strategies for protecting creative time, overcoming distractions, and maintaining momentum. The session includes audience participation and open discussion, giving attendees a chance to share challenges, ask questions, and discover that every writer struggles with distractions—and none of us are facing them alone.
Presentation
Room 4
10:00am- 50 minutes
Presentation on the real effects of trauma and injury, not the Hollywood version. Discussion of head injury, penetrating trauma, falls, motor vehicle crashes and why people don't bounce back by the end of the episode.
Presentation
Room Four
10:00am- 50 minutes
Marketing- one of the hardest tasks indie authors face. Erica shares a number of tips and tricks to help you in your book marketing journey. Erica's been a part of the marketing industry for over thirty years now. Her expertise is in helping others create a brand that runs through all of their marketing to psychologically resonate with their audience and drive word of mouth advertising. She is the author of two books.
Presentation
Room Three
10:00am- 50 minutes
Writing as a Humanitarian Act: Anthology Series is dedicated to transforming personal experience and voice into collective art.
This workshop invites participants to write with empathy, urgency, and awareness using language as a bridge.
Panel will include an outline of this Anthology starting through the first literary center at the Phoenix Center of the Arts, through the founder, author and educator Lourdes Leiner.
Panel will end with community writing activity.
Panel
Room Five
9:00am- 50 minutes
Good writing is not inspired. The best writers work every day. Certainly, some days are better than others. But most successful writers look at their craft as a job, and like every job, it’s important to show up to work. This is true for both fiction and nonfiction.
Tips on how to revise your work.
Panel
Room Four
9:00am- 50 minutes
Discover the history of author Edgar Rice Burroughs and his vast influence on today’s popular culture. How did Burroughs’ 1912 stories influence the exploration of space? What are the Burroughs’ connections to Arizona? Learn how the creator of Tarzan of the Apes and John Carter of Mars became one of the most important authors in history.
Presentation
Room Three
9:00am- 50 minutes
Being an independent author means you wear ALL the hats. Get in this panel and chat with Patti and your peers about strategies that make that work easier, more effective and ultimately, generate more book sales.
Presentation
Room One
4:00pm- 50 minutes
A cliffhanger chapter ending can add impact to a dramatic scene and leave the reader desperate to find out what happens next. Learn how to identify your best cliffhanger moments and make them even more dramatic through pacing and paragraphing. Even when you have to end at a quieter moment, you can drive the story forward by leaving your character—and the reader—with a sense of anticipation or worry.
Panel
Room Two
4:00pm- 50 minutes
Anna Dalhaimer Bartkowski, Margaret C. Morse
Could cozy and humorous elements help engage your readers' personal emotions? Can murder be humorous ... a way to lighten the mood in a mystery?
A review of cliche overuse, cozy tropes, and humor with an analysis of how these can warm up other genres or help you write in the cozy and/or humorous genres. Attendees will have the opportunity to write down cozy and/or humorous elements that could enhance their stories.
- Short Stories and Anthologies: Do’s, Don’ts, and What to Expect
- Plotting Practices - Tips, Practices, and Warnings
- Haunted by History and Mystery: Writing the Past from Family Secrets, Memory, and Dreams
- How to Write the Paranormal: Choosing a Paranormal Character and World Building: A Vampire Moved in Next Door, Margaret Morse
- Critiquing, Self-editing, and What Professional Editors Look For
Subcategories
2026 Panel List
Welcome to the 2026 Sonoran Writers Conference Panels Schedule. Below is a complete list of all the panels being offered this year. A long list, but you can also break it down into smaller lists.
Lists by Room
SWC this year utilizes FIVE rooms of programming, all producing great opportunities to improve your writing. Visit the Panels listed by room:
ROOM ONE | ROOM TWO | ROOM THREE | ROOM FOUR | ROOM FIVE
Lists by Time
Get the smaller lists of the panels that are staring at a given time. This make planning much easier.
- 9:00AM Start
- 10:00AM Start
- 11:00AM Start
- 12:00PM Start
- 1:00PM Start
- 2:00PM Start
- 3:00PM Start
- 4:00PM Start
Lists by Presenter
Coming Soon
