MFA in Writing Publishing Panel: Strategies for Securing a Book Deal

So, you got your MFA, you wrote a book, and now you want to get it published?

If you’re ready to get your work into the hands of eager readers, you won’t want to miss this conversation with esteemed VCFA MFA in Writing alumnx Jehanne Dubrow (W ’22), Cynthia Newberry Martin (W ’12), and Michelle Otero (W ’06), and moderated by Annelise Schoups (W ’24).

These successful authors will come together to share their unique paths to securing a book contract and offer their advice for all the steps along the way, giving you insight into their best tricks for writing query letters, summaries, and proposals, pitching agents, submitting to journals, building an audience and fostering relationships, and much more!

We’ll leave time at the end for discussion, so bring your burning questions!

Register  here or at the link below. 

About the Panelists and Moderator:

Jehanne Dubrow is the author of three books of nonfiction and ten poetry collections, including most recently Civilians (Louisiana State University Press, 2025). A craft book, The Wounded Line: A Guide to Writing Poems of Trauma, will be published by University of New Mexico Press in fall 2025. Her writing has appeared in New England Review, Southern Review, and Ploughshares. She is a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of North Texas.

Cynthia Newberry Martin is the author of three novels, The Art of Her Life, Love Like This, and Tidal Flats, which won the Gold Medal in Literary Fiction at the 2020 Independent Publisher Book Awards and the 14th Annual National Indie Excellence Award for Fiction. Her website features the How We Spend Our Days series, over a decade of essays by writers on their lives. She grew up in Atlanta and now lives in Columbus, Georgia, with her husband, and in Provincetown, Massachusetts, in a little house by the water.

Michelle Otero is the author of Vessels: A Memoir of Borders, Bosque: Poems and the essay collection Malinche’s Daughter. She served as Albuquerque Poet Laureate from 2018-2020 and co-edited the New Mexico Poetry Anthology 2023 and 22 Poems and a Prayer for El Paso, a tribute to victims of the 2019 El Paso shooting and winner of a New Mexico-Arizona Book Award. She is a member of the Macondo Writers Workshop.

Annelise Schoups is a multinational poet who laughs at her own jokes and writes about things that are mostly not funny. Her work appears in the San Diego Poetry Annual, Silly Goose Press, and december. You can find her playing NYTGames with her partner, Justin, or on Instagram @anneliseschoups.

Learn more about MFA in Writing.