RWR 2025 Tickets on Sale Now!
Third Annual Rockaway Writers Rendezvous
April 25-27, 2025 Rockaway Beach, Oregon
Schedule
FRIDAY April 25, 2025
Open Mic Performance at Tie Breaker, doors open at 6 pm
SATURDAY April 26, 2025
Keynote and Workshops at Rockaway Community Church Event Space from 9 am - 6 pm. Please note that we will not have the final schedule for all workshops until about two weeks prior to the event. There will be two large workshop spaces running concurrently, we are doing our best to schedule them logically. We also may be using the Lion’s Club for a third space depending on demand. Bottom line is you will get a very big event for just $25!!
Open Mic Performance at Tie Breaker, doors open at 6 pm
SUNDAY April 27, 2025
Awards Breakfast and Networking at the Lion’s Club, doors open at 9 am, event ends at noon.
Contest Results
The 2025 Anthology Contests for Writing and Art have concluded! We are excited to announce our finalists, who will all be published in the 2025 Anthology which will be full color and with both hard and soft cover options.
Placements will be announced at the Awards Breakfast on Sunday April 27th! Tap the button to see all the finalists.
2025 KEYNOTE
We are excited to announce that Nicholas Kristof will be delivering this year’s Keynote!
ABOUT NICHOLAS
Nicholas Kristof is a columnist at The New York Times and a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize. He grew up on a farm in Oregon, graduated from Harvard, earned a First in law at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and then studied Arabic in Cairo.
He was a foreign correspondent for The New York Times in Hong Kong, Beijing and Tokyo, then covered presidential elections and served as editor of The Sunday New York Times. After 9/11, he became an op-ed columnist.
Aside from his Pulitzers, he has won an Emmy and several humanitarian prizes. He has written six books, including the No. 1 best-seller “Half the Sky” and the memoir “Chasing Hope,” and has made several television documentaries.
Kristof, who has lived on four continents and traveled to more than 160 countries, was The New York Times’s first blogger, first video maker and first Snapchat contributor.
Chasing Hope: A Reporter’s Life
From New York Times columnist, Pulitzer Prize winner, and best-selling author Nicholas D. Kristof, an intimate and gripping memoir about a life in journalism
“Nick Kristof takes us behind the scenes as he risks his life to shine a light on the world’s most pressing problems and blaze a trail to a better future. In a time when trust in journalism is in jeopardy, his honesty, humility, and humanity are rays of hope.”
—Adam Grant, author of Hidden Potential
2025 Special Presentation
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2025 Special Presentation 〰️
Duncan Birmingham
presents:
“Packing for Your Screenplay Journey”
What’s all this?
We are very excited to announce a new feature this year, in addition to our keynote we have added a “special presentation” workshop to our roster. Thanks to grants and a generous anonymous donor, we are able to bring in a lot of talent from afar this year. But don’t worry, many of your favorites from last year are coming back as well!
Meet Duncan Birmingham!
Duncan is coming to us from the great land of Hollywood, traveling by rowboat as our grant doesn’t cover airfare. Thank you to ViVi Henriette for making the connection!
Presentation Overview
Duncan teaches a regular workshop called “Prewriting Your Screenplay”.
He is reinventing it so that it will be engaging and useful for anyone wherever they are in their writing journey. Whether you have written 100 screenplays or none, you will come out the other end knowing more than you did before!
This workshop will be a 2-hour event with plenty of time for Q&A.
About Duncan
I’m originally from Boston but have been based in Los Angeles since 2000 where I write TV, screenplays and fiction as well as direct and sometimes teach.
I started my writing career working in newspapers before moving to Los Angeles and breaking into the business as a writers’ assistant who made terrible coffee. Since then I’ve worked steadily as a screenwriter and TV writer selling a variety of spec scripts and pitches including the romantic comedy feature “Swingles” to Paramount. I developed, wrote on and produced a TV show with the comedian Marc Maron (called, shockingly, “Maron”). I also wrote and produced the Starz comedy “Blunt Talk” developed by Jonathan Ames and starring Patrick Stewart (he’s even cooler in person).
Short films I’ve written and directed have premiered at various festivals including Sundance and my feature directorial debut "Who Invited Them" was named one of the best horror films of the year by The Hollywood Reporter. Check it out — it’s now streaming everywhere.
I’ve taught a wide variety of students from Emerson College (where I did my MFA) undergraduates to incarcerated youth. My favorite subject to teach is screenwriting because so many of the core concepts can be applied to other forms of writing. And because I love any excuse to talk about movies.
Testimonials from workshop attendees
“Duncan is a fantastic teacher and I loved his class. It’s fun, easy-going, and super helpful. I picked up some great tools, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking to sharpen their screenwriting skills.”
“Duncan’s screenwriting class was amazing! It gave me a new focus and strategy for developing and refining my screen and fiction writing. Highly recommended!”
“Attending Duncan’s screenwriting class was an absolute delight! His wealth of knowledge was evident from the get-go, and his ability to simplify issues you’ll run into as you write your story made the learning experience incredibly enjoyable. As someone who is in the industry, has read many scriptwriting books and taken several classes on the topic, I still learned a ton and got so much out of it as a storyteller. Highly recommend this class to anyone looking to dive into screenwriting!”
Latest Book
Duncan’s most recent book is a collection of short stories entitled “The Cult in My Garage”
“An office worker hopes a new drug will remedy her toxic personal life... A food blogger moonlights as a detective to give meaning to his gluttony… A rehabbed addict proselytizes with an increasingly bizarre methodology… Lovesick strangers try to heal through a dating app that promises a unique form of catharsis... A quarantined man starts having vivid dreams he’s convinced aren't his own... At a party where everyone’s "somebody" the crowd grows feverishly reverential of one guest's anonymity...In the prescient world of 'The Cult in My Garage', the characters are desperate for meaning and hungry for connection. Time and again, their attempts at betterment snowball into disaster or backfire spectacularly. And yet they still find ways to dust themselves off and salvage meaning.”
2025 Special Presentation #2!
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2025 Special Presentation #2! 〰️
Nik Xander Wolf
presents:
“Tapping the Source: Turning Your Passions Into Great Stories”
A second special presentation?!?
That’s right! This year will be bigger, bolder, and bookier, per the poster we used to advertise this event. We intend to deliver. Have you gotten your ticket yet?
We reached out to Nik Xandir Wolf as he is part of something we all care about here in Rockaway Beach, and that’s clean beaches and clean oceans. It also helps that he is a talented author who has a unique world he is bringing to us, are you ready for Surf Noir?
Meet Nik Xander Wolf!
Nik Xandir Wolf is a writer, lyricist, filmmaker, and poet. He is a graduate of Stanford’s OWC program in novel writing and holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of California, Riverside Palm Desert.
He has published books of poetry, a novel, multiple anthologies, and various work in literary journals and magazines. He
is at work on a crime novel series and a linked collection of short stories.
He resides on California's central coast where he surfs regularly, and helps keep the ocean clean as a board member of Surfrider Foundation's Monterey Chapter.
About Nik’s Presentation
Every great story begins with passion. Whether it’s a personal experience, a deep curiosity, or an idea that won’t let go, the best writing comes from what truly moves us.
In this dynamic workshop, we’ll explore how to tap into your passions and transform them into compelling narratives. Through guided exercises, discussions, and hands-on writing, you’ll learn how to harness your unique voice, develop engaging characters, and structure your ideas into stories that resonate.
Whether you’re working on fiction, memoir, or creative nonfiction, this workshop will give you the tools and inspiration to bring your stories to life.
Find Nik Online
INSTAGRAM | TIKTOK | SOUNDCLOUD | WEBSITE
Latest Book
“Shadow Valley”
A young couple deeply and tragically in love witness a devastating tragedy at the hands of a crooked, small-town sheriff. In this tale of love-at-all-costs and vigilante justice, the couple goes on the run, for now. Until they return to face their demons head-on in a battle of grit and determination that leaves audiences the world over breathless and deeply satisfied.
It’s 1988 and Heath Walker, who spent most of his life in group homes, bartends and sells weed to keep the lights on for his ailing foster mom.
When Heath meets and quickly falls for the brazen and beautiful Rori Burke at his bar, he kicks off a series of events that leave both his mother and a cop dead, and Rori’s father—a crooked small-town police chief—on their trail.
As the young couple tears away on their journey from Santa Cruz communes to cartel territory in Baja, Heath carries with him a ring that may hold the answers to what he’s been searching for his whole life: the identity of his real parents: a retired Mercenary and AWOL CIA Agent.
As Heath and Rori’s journey grows ever more perilous, Heath not only has to stay one step ahead of Burke and the cartel, but begins to question why he is so surprisingly good at hurting the dangerous people who cross his path, and whether he is really any different than the men hunting him.
Finally, south of the border, all of Heath and Rori’s past and present demons converge, bringing Heath closer than he’ll ever know to the Angel of Death who wears his same ring.
"Move over Don Winslow, there is a new king of surf noir, and his name is Nik Xandir Wolf."
-The Cranky Consumer
"The story is a page-turner, engaging and raw...it is consistently fast-paced and wildly entertaining,"
-Kirkus Reviews
"Shadow Valley is a perfect noir, violent, gritty, and rooted in place...a masterwork."
- Tod Goldberg, NY Times Bestselling Author
"Shadow Valley is one of the best rides I've taken in a long while. Fast, smart, and mesmerizing--this both introduces and establishes Wolf as a powerful new voice."
- Rob Roberge, Author of Liar, and Cost of Living
"Get ready to hold on to your seat belt...Shadow Valley is definitely a fast-paced crime thriller story with lots and lots of plot twists that you will not see coming! I enjoyed this book and can't wait to read more by Nik Xandir Wolf."
-Goodreads Reviewer
"That vital blend of connection, passion, brutality, and poetry powers the novel...with a pared-down lyricism finding beauty in life without overstating it."
-Publishers Weekly
Nik is also part of an amazing Noir Series with short stories by legendary authors Joyce Carol Oates, Lawrence Block, and of course, Nik Xander Wolf. Grab yourself a signed first edition at the link below, only a few remain!
Writing for Joy
HOLLY BRICKLEY
ABOUT THIS WORKSHOP
Writing for Joy
Writing can be enormously satisfying, but it can also be a slog. It can feel better to have written than to actually write. In this workshop, Holly Brickley will share the story of how, 20 years after getting her MFA, she finally discovered how to make the act of writing feel joyful -- which turned out to be the unlock she needed to write a debut novel that connected with agents and publishers. Together, we will ask: Are we writing what we'd most enjoy reading? What parts of the process truly excite us, whether it's broad-strokes plotting or tinkering with words? How can we leverage our love of writing to become better writers?
Deep Cuts is set in the music world and has direct references to 30+ songs. Listen to the songs from the book on this Spotify playlist. You don’t need a paid account to enjoy, but there might be an ad or two!
ABOUT THE PRESENTER
Holly Brickley
Hello! I’m a writer, mostly of fiction. My novel DEEP CUTS is out now!
I was born and raised in Hope, British Columbia, a tiny town surrounded by mountains (they filmed the first Rambo movie there). At 18 I moved to the States, studying English at UC Berkeley and then getting an MFA in Fiction at Columbia University. Instead of putting this education to any sort of literary use, I spent the next decade running around San Francisco and New York, working in trend research and branding, and basically making a career of going out. I now live with my husband and two daughters in a creaky old house in Portland, Oregon, where I prefer to stay in, and write.
The Art of Symbols
LYNNEE JACKS
ABOUT THIS WORKSHOP
The Art of Symbols
All of human communication starts with symbols— it is the universal language of a collective subconscious.
How do our dreams guide our storytelling? How does the language we use shape the way our stories unfold?
This workshop will be an exercise in personal meaning-making. We will explore the symbols that hold weight in our lives, the ones that surface repeatedly in our thoughts, dreams, and creative work.
Through guided prompts and interactive exercises, we will engage in a dialogue with these symbols, uncovering the deeper meaning they carry and how they shape our storytelling.
Whether you're developing a creative project, crafting a brand identity, or seeking to deepen your personal journaling practice, this workshop will help you tap into a rich symbolic language.
By recognizing and working with the symbols that resonate with you, you’ll create stories and messages that feel layered, intentional, and deeply rooted in meaning.
ABOUT THE PRESENTER
Lynnee Jacks
Lynnee Jacks is a writer with over a decade of experience in storytelling. Through her business, Sandstone Stories, she helps amplify the voices of people making big impacts in small communities.
Beyond business writing, Lynnee is drawn to the world of myth and symbol. She drafts scripts, poetry, and prose, and her work has been featured in multiple publications including Roam Media and For the Wild. When she’s not writing, you can find her practicing martial arts, surfing, or exploring in the mountains.
Discover more about Lynnee through her writing in the Sandstone Journal, tap the button to learn more!
Poetry Poker with Ms. Clifton
DAVID PICKERING
ABOUT THIS WORKSHOP
Poetry Poker with Ms. Clifton
This fun and easy workshop will be focused on generating new work. Your writing will be informed by four cards dealt to you face-down from a deck that features lines of poetry by Lucille Clifton. You will start by turning over your first card, reading the line and beginning your poem. Then, at timed intervals, you will be asked to reveal each additional card as you write. This should inspire your work to take several unexpected turns. We all have unexpected lines in us that can move, surprise, and delight. So, come to this workshop and find a few of them by playing poetry cards with your friends. The only way to lose this game is by not playing!
ABOUT THE PRESENTER
David Pickering
David J.S. Pickering is a native Oregonian, having grown up and lived much of his life in the working-class culture of the North Oregon Coast. His first poetry collection, Jesus Comes to Me as Judy Garland, received the Airlie Prize in 2020. His poetry has also recently won the Neah-Kah-Nie Mountain Poetry Prize. David's work is published (or forthcoming) in a variety of journals including Relief: A Journal of Art and Faith, Passager, Tar River Poetry, Mantis, Fireweed, Lips, Reed Magazine, and Gertrude. Recognized by the GLAPN as a Pacific Northwest Queer Hero, David lives with his husband in Portland Oregon where, even as you read this, he is likely drinking too much coffee.
Editor note: Hey David, this time we have plenty of bathrooms, drink up!
Snapshot Writing
CHERYL WANNER
ABOUT THIS WORKSHOP
Snapshot Writing
Ever wonder why some writing evokes such powerful imagery and emotional impact it’s like you’re IN the story rather than observing it?
The secret lies in the words chosen and how they’re crafted.
To this end, I use a technique I call Snapshot Writing. Anchored in Show-Don’t-Tell and powered by strong verbs, Snapshot Writing is vivid and directed, grabbing mileage out of words while creating highly visual images with all the feels. The beauty of the technique is its simplicity and how it can be applied to all forms of writing from expository to epic novels.
This workshop will explore examples as well as techniques to help you find the right words and phrasings—along with key details—to make your writing pop and suck readers into the action!
LATEST BOOK
See Me As I Am
by Cheryl Wanner
Being blind doesn't stop seventeen-year-old Jenny Ryan from going after what she wants. Journalism byline? Horse sports? Rock climbing? No problem. Meet Liam O'Shannon, frontman for hard-rocking Irish band (also named) O'Shannon? Jenny's got a plan for that, too.
She's already landed a backstage pass for the Portland tour stop where she hopes to interview her idol for a write up in her school paper. Instead, she finds herself in an unexpected convo with the band's junior publicist, Jamie Conway. Not exactly her dream. But Jamie is sweet and thoughtful and later offers to arrange an interview for her with Liam.
Throughout O'Shannon's tour, Jamie and Jenny stay in touch, and their long-distance friendship deepens into something that challenges Liam's place in her heart. But Jamie is keeping a secret; one that will shatter the growing trust between them and force her to question everything she knows about him-and what it truly means to love someone.
ABOUT THE PRESENTER
Cheryl Wanner
INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK | TWIXTER
I'm a Young Adult author, amateur photographer, and long-time contributor to Oregon Coast Magazine. Originally from California, I relocated to Oregon in my late teens where I met and married the love of my life, raised two kids, hosted numerous exchange students, and assisted in running a business.
As a novelist, I create stories with deep emotional heart and voicey narratives that bring characters and settings to life. To do this, I utilize a technique I call Snapshot Writing which does for writing what a photo does for images.
My debut novel, SEE ME AS I AM, a YA contemporary romance about a blind girl and a rock star, released from Immortal Works Press in 2023. My current work-in-progress is a YA murder mystery/romance set in Tillamook County.
I live in the mountains above McMinnville, Oregon, but dream of someday living on the Oregon Coast!
The Power and Value of Vulnerability in Your Writing
ADAM SAWYER
ABOUT THIS WORKSHOP
The Power and Value of Vulnerability in Your Writing
We all strive to create a deep sense of connection with our readers. There might be no better way to foster authentic connectivity than through our own vulnerability. In this workshop, we will discuss the power of vulnerability in our writing and some methods for developing and employing it. We’ll also touch on things to keep in mind or consider when telling stories and conveying emotions from such personal places.
ABOUT THE PRESENTER
Adam Sawyer
Adam Sawyer is an outdoor and travel writer, photographer, published author, guide, and public speaker based in Tillamook. He has written stories for local and national outlets, including the Oregonian, Willamette Week, Portland Monthly, AAA Via and Journey, Northwest Travel & Life, and Backpacker.
He is the author of the guidebooks Hiking Waterfalls in Oregon, Best Outdoor Adventures Near Portland, 25 Hikes on Oregon’s Tillamook Coast, Unique Eats and Eateries: Portland, Oregon, Best Easy Day Hikes Salem and Eugene, and Urban Hikes Oregon. Adam also co-authored the guidebook Hiking Waterfalls in Washington.
As an essayist, he covers a broad set of topics, including grief, addiction and recovery, love, loss, travel, and the healing powers of nature, in his weekly Substack newsletter, Collecting Sunsets.
Self Publishing
LOUISA PECK
ABOUT THIS WORKSHOP
Self Publishing - You Can Do It!
Today, little old YOU can publish and market your own writing on Amazon, not just in Kindle format but as beautiful paperback and hardcover books! If the first version you put up has flaws, you can upload again and again until you get everything perfect – and all for FREE! The first half our time will be devoted to an in-depth how-to presentation, with the second half opening up extensive Q & A to address all your questions.
Kindle: This is the easiest form, because Amazon KDP now accepts MS Word docs and performs much of the layout work for you, provided your spacing is formatted right. I’ll show you step by step how to create a table of contents, format spacing, upload, preview, and revise your manuscript for Kindle.
Paperback & Hardback: These are trickier! You’ll need to format your text within the correct margins to fit KDP required guidelines. Though KDP can accept Word docs for printed books, the formatting and pagination inevitably get all messed up (technical term!) unless you “freeze” them by converting your file to a PDF before uploading. I’ll show you how.
Create a Cover: Amazon offers a cover generator with which you can create a professional-looking cover – if you know some basic graphic design principles. Alternately, you can design your own cover image as I did, using Gimp or Photoshop.
LATEST BOOK
Die-Hard Atheist
by Louisa Peck
Louisa was raised to view God as nothing more than a human concept and spiritualism as a form of superstition. Then, in 1982 at a Manhattan nightclub, she suffered a cardiac arrest brought on by lidocaine poisoning, shot out of her body, and experienced an other-worldly journey to her god source - the Sun.
Returned to her body, she dismissed her experience as a hypoxic hallucination. She'd never heard of a Near-Death Experience, and even if she had, she'd have considered the idea of crossing over to be ludicrous.
But WEIRD THINGS began happening for her, inexplicable events that wouldn't stop! She tried to shut her mind against seeing a ghost, knowing the future, and reading people's sometimes embarrassing thoughts, until she came to understand that leaving her body had damaged whatever filter blocked out spirit energies. As a spirit voice continued to coach her in how to live wisely, Louisa accepted two facts: 1) the spirit realm is real and 2) visiting it had gifted her with new perceptions. As a full-fledged woo-woo, Louisa found community among fellow Near-Death experiencers and became willing to share her story.
Few accounts of NDEs brilliantly and hilariously describe the difficulties and challenges of integration over 4 decades. This author has allowed us a personal glimpse of her struggles and insights that ultimately confirm the deeper reality experienced during her NDE. Skeptics can try to deny this, but the evidence is just too overwhelming. So many engaging and deeply moving stories make this book a treasure. Highly, highly recommended for those who know there's a spiritual side to life that truly exists.
This was a fascinating read that I couldn't put down. It won't convince the skeptics but thank goodness people like Louisa are "coming out" of the spiritual closet and sharing their experiences, so that others who have had similar experiences don't have to feel alone (or crazy!). There's a lot of ridicule that can come with sharing experiences that aren't universal and can't yet be proven. The book is entertaining, heart-warming and life-affirming, and best of all, filled with love and good intentions--not to mention, well-written.
On sale locally at Cloud & Leaf Bookstore and Manzanita News & Espresso or online at Amazon.
ABOUT THE PRESENTER
Louisa Peck
Long ago in a time called the ‘80s, I completed an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Washington and, over the next 15 years, published 12 short stories, one of which won the Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction, and all of which were fueled by my alcoholism. Once I got sober, my muse – sloshed melancholy – skipped town. But that’s okay! I taught Creative Writing at three Seattle area community colleges and Evergreen State University before becoming Director of the University of Washington’s English Department Writing Center in 2004. There, in addition to training tutors, leading workshops all over campus, and composing answers for the “Ask Betty” grammar website, I taught upper-level courses in Writing Pedagogy and Literature.
Since leaving UW in 2009, I’ve taught hundreds of clients one-to-one how to strengthen and refine their voice by understanding syntax and led memoir-writing courses at Women’s University Club, Seattle, Mirabella, and other retirement settings.
What about self-publishing? In 2011, I finished revising A Spiritual Evolution, a hybrid addiction memoir that weaves together my recovery story with 14 baffling paranormal aftereffects from my 1982 Near-Death Experience (NDE) – events that convinced me the spirit world is real. After many months of failing to find a publisher, I took the plunge and self-published on Amazon. In 2023, I self-published a second, shorter memoir focused exclusively on my NDE and its ongoing paranormal/spiritualist aftereffects. Die-Hard Atheist: from NDE-Denier to Full-on Woo-Woo – Against my Will was honored as a 2024 finalist by the International Book Awards. On Amazon alone, readers of both books have purchased 1,052 copies and read 105,713 KENP online pages.
Stay tuned! Full program coming soon.
Make your plans now, we can help!
The many Rockaway Writers Rendezvous events will be held throughout the City of Rockaway Beach at venues easily walkable from one to the other. The full schedule—available soon!—will indicate locations for each event.
Some of the many writers workshops will be held simultaneously in different rooms or locations; others will gather everyone together in one venue (open mic evenings, keynote speakers).
Visitors will want make a full weekend of the fabulous RWR and take advantage of Rockaway’s seven miles of beach to explore and enjoy spectacular scenery of the Oregon coast! Do you need help finding lodging? Contact us!