Have you writ­ten a book that you’d like to have pub­lished? Do you have a sto­ry idea? Have you already been pub­lished and would like to net­work with oth­ers in your field? The 2026 Jew­ish Writ­ers’ Con­fer­ence, spon­sored by the Jew­ish Book Coun­cil, brings togeth­er agents, edi­tors, and authors for dis­cus­sions, work­shops, and pan­els dis­cussing Jew­ish book pub­lish­ing and writ­ing. It is also a meet­ing haven for authors of every kind, with pan­els from authors all around the world. Come to learn, net­work, and share – we can’t wait to see you there!

There are no refunds for this event. 

The 2026 con­fer­ence will be held vir­tu­al­ly on Sun­day, Novem­ber 8th. The ear­­ly-bird fee for the con­fer­ence is $240, full fee will be $265. The Early­bird rate will end on Sun­day, Octo­ber 18th.

This con­fer­ence will include:

• Indus­try pan­els with speak­ers from major and inde­pen­dent pub­lish­ers, who will pro­vide insight into the field and share advice and resources for authors to help guide them on their own pub­lish­ing journey
• Author-led pan­els which will dis­cuss spe­cif­ic gen­res and themes in the field, their writ­ing process, and their own per­son­al pub­lish­ing experiences
• Videos of all the pan­els will be avail­able for view­ing after the con­fer­ence, in case you miss any!
• A month-long, once-a-week writ­ing group that will occur after the con­fer­ence – opt-in

This year’s pan­elists and mod­er­a­tors include the following:

• A Keynote Con­ver­sa­tion with author Gabrielle Zevin, author of the incred­i­ble Tomor­row, and Tomor­row, and Tomorrow.

GABRIELLE ZEVIN​’s most recent nov­el, Tomor­row, and Tomor­row, and Tomor­row, spent over a year on the New York Times Best Sell­er List and was cho­sen a best book of the year by more than twen­ty-five pub­li­ca­tions, includ­ing the Atlantic, the Wash­ing­ton Post, Enter­tain­ment Week­ly, Time, the New York Times, Slate, the Hol­ly­wood Reporter, and Oprah Dai­ly. In 2024, Tomor­row was named to the New York Times list of the 100 Best Books of the 21st Cen­tu­ry. She is the author of sev­er­al crit­i­cal­ly acclaimed and best­selling nov­els, includ­ing The Sto­ried Life of A.J. Fikry, Young Jane Young, The Hole We’re In, and Else­where. Her books have been trans­lat­ed into over forty lan­guages. She lives in Los Angeles. 

Oth­er pan­els and work­shops include:

• Adult Edi­tors and Agents pan­el with Jamie Carr (The Book Group), Rena Ross­ner (Brad­ford Lit­er­ary Agency), Julie Grau (Spiegel & Grau), and more!
• How to Get Your Jew­ish Chil­dren’s Book Pub­lished: mod­er­at­ed by Leila Sales (Lern­er Pub­lish­ing), with pan­elists Caryn Wise­man (Andrea Brown Lit­er­ary Agency) and Joy Peskin (Far­rar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers)
• Ask Me Any­thing Round-Table with pub­lish­ing pro­fes­sion­als includ­ing Dena Neusner (Apples & Hon­ey Press), and more!
• Writer’s Work­shop with Emi­ly Stone: Writ­ing Dia­logue Tap­ping into the Core Wound
• Crash Course in Craft with Five Jew­ish Kidlit Authors: mod­er­at­ed by Lau­ra Segal Stegman, with pan­elists Emi­ly Barth Isler, Elly Swartz, Ruth Spiro, and Sta­cy Nockowitz
• Sholem aleykhem, Salu­dos, Shalom, Greet­ings: Trans­mit­ting the Rich Diver­si­ty of Jew­ish Cul­tures through Jew­ish Lan­guages: mod­er­at­ed by Miri­am Udel, with pan­elists Sarah Aroeste, Nan­cy Churnin, and Mar­cel­la Pixley
• Jew­ish Kidlit Author Pre­sen­ta­tions in a Post-Octo­ber 7 World: An hon­est and inti­mate pan­el dis­cus­sion about step­ping in front of an unknown audi­ence and turn­ing anx­ious feel­ings into a pos­i­tive expe­ri­ence for all: mod­er­at­ed by Erin Sil­ver, with pan­elists Joanne Levy, Heather Cam­lot, and Kathy Kacer
• Beyond the Men­sch: Writ­ing Jew­ish Anti­heroes: mod­er­at­ed by Dr. David Tuch, with pan­elists Mar­galit Fox and Adam Rovner
• The Jew­ish Kidlit Land­scape: Trends, Gaps, and Growth: mod­er­at­ed by Hei­di Rabi­nowitz, with pan­elists Susan Kusel, Dr. Melanie Koss, and Avi­va Rosenberg
• Writ­ing and Illus­trat­ing Mizrahi Voic­es, His­to­ry and Char­ac­ters with Authen­tic­i­ty: mod­er­at­ed by Dani­la Botha, with pan­elists Eri­ka Drei­fus, Ayelet Tsabari, and Aylin Sedighi Gabbaizadeh
• So you Want to Cre­ate a Graph­ic Nov­el: Top Tips for Writ­ing, Illus­trat­ing and Think­ing about this Excit­ing For­mat: mod­er­at­ed by Ann Dia­ment Koff­sky, with pan­elists Rob Kut­ner, Yeven­gia Nay­berg, and Mar­tin Lemmelman
• We Will Write Again: Four Authors of Recent Poet­ry Col­lec­tions about Octo­ber 7th Read and Dis­cuss Their Work: mod­er­at­ed by Lesléa New­man, with pan­elists Matthew Lipp­man, Owen Lewis, and Han­na Yerushlami
• New Lit­er­ary Ven­tures Post 10/7: Sup­port­ing the Jew­ish Lit­er­ary Ecosys­tem: mod­er­at­ed by Tali Rosen­blatt-Cohen, with pan­elists Eri­ka Drei­fus and William Kolbrenner
• Not Just a Shena Punim – How to Self-Pro­mote Like a Per­son of Val­or: mod­er­at­ed by Sara­gail Ben­jamin, with pan­elists Eri­ca S. Perl, Lau­ra Shovan, and Veera Hiranadani
• Sex, Sanc­ti­ty and the Jew­ish Bed­room: mod­er­at­ed by Simi Mon­heit, with pan­elists Jean Meltzer, Hei­di Sher­tok, and Dahlia Adler
• Jew­ish Lit­er­ary Orga­ni­za­tions and How They Can Help

More pan­els to be com­ing soon!