The Santa Barbara Writers Conference
June 21-26
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This year’s program [pdf].
Over 100 Writing Workshops, Seminars, Panels, Consultants, Evening Speakers, and Agents.
All SBWC events are open to all registered attendees.
$899 for the week
or register for a partial week of 1-5 days
Santa Barbara Writers Conference
June 21-26, 2026
For over five decades, writers from around the world have gathered at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference to rub elbows with fellow writers, well-known authors, and publishing professionals. Join us this summer for our 52nd year and become a part of this ongoing literary legacy.
You’ll participate in a magical week of intensive work, focused on craft, marketing and networking.
Evening Speakers are author keynotes followed by Q&A and a book signing..
Panels are 6 groups of poets & authors discussing their newly released books, writing advice, and publishing & marketing experiences.
Workshops are 80 2.5-hour sessions on the craft of writing, a mix of lecture, generative, and read & critique. Fiction, nonfiction and poetry are well covered.
Seminars are 2.5-hour sessions focused on publishing & marketing topics.
Consultants are available for one-on-one appointments for everything from manuscript editing to publishing and marketing advice. Signup sheets for each consultant are available in the Fireside room next to the Info Desk. Be sure to book your appointment early in the conference.
Agent pitch appointments are available for a fee of $50 each.
The Fireside room is open to the public where one can find books for sale as well as tickets for speakers, panels and individual workshop and seminar tickets, if you are not registered as an SBWC attendee.
There will be book signings throughout the week, information about the conference, and networking.
The Opening and Closing Banquets and Poolside Reception allow for socializing with fellow writers in a gorgeous beachside location.
All of this is included in your weeklong registration.
If you cannot attend the whole conference, build a custom schedule that fits your budget and schedule. A la carte options are possible for all aspects of the conference. Tickets are available for panels and evening programs, and single workshops and seminars.
If you have questions about registering:
Contact us at info@sbwriters.com
Some of the usual suspects….
What’s In It for You?
Improve Your Craft: The Santa Barbara Writers Conference is known for its supportive environment where fellow writers help one another hone their writing. Whatever genre you’re working in, you’ll find workshops led by experienced professional writers.
Find Your Tribe: Writers attending for the first time discover that suddenly they’re among others who care about story and wordsmithing as much as they do. What a rush it is to discover fellow humans who also see the world through the lens of storytelling. Writers who’ve attended SBWC keep coming back because this conference feels like going home.
Make Lifelong Connections: Friendships and professional connections made at SBWC tend to last. Why? Because this conference, from its first magical week in 1973, emphasized interaction between successful authors and brand-new writers. We keep going into the wee hours for the most hearty. There’s something about being a little sleep deprived that breaks down barriers and creates enduring friendships.
Build a conference plan that fits your schedule. We’ve added easy options for partial week attendees.
Bring a friend! Both of you will qualify for a group rate discount of $100 off each. Email info@sbwriters.com to get the discount promo code.
If you have questions about registering:
Contact us at info@sbwriters.com
See you in June,
Grace Rachow,
SBWC Director
Entrance to the Mar Monte Hotel, home of the Santa Barbara Writers conference, 1111 Cabrillo Blvd on the beachfront in Santa Barbara.
SBWC’s Literary Legacy
Fannie Flagg
"You can't imagine what this conference meant to me. If it had not been for this conference, I'd probably still be sitting on a rerun of The Dating Game somewhere."
- Fannie Flagg, author of Fried Green Tomatoes
52nd Year June 21-26, 2026
SBWC likes to brag about our successful alumni — Fannie Flagg, Spencer Johnson, Gayle Lynds, Monte Schulz, Gillian Roberts, Matt Pallamary, Catherine Ryan Hyde, and Christopher Moore to name just a
A Letter from Monte
From Monte Schulz to Santa Barbara's community of writers, and all those who travel to this beautiful oceanside city to celebrate the world of letters:
“Writing may well be a solitary art, but there is a society of writers whose enthusiastic embrace of each other is irreplaceable. Having been part of the Santa Barbara Writers Conference since 1975, I've come to see that this has been the true reason for our gathering in June all these years.
We read and listen and share our support for that ongoing enterprise. We applaud each other’s accomplishments, offer consolation during droughts of rejections, and remind one another that putting words on a page is not supposed to be easy or necessarily rewarding to our bank accounts, so much as it is a gift to our soul. We write because we have to, or because it makes us smile, or brings comfort on gray days, or allows us to communicate with our reader that simplest of ideas that we, too, are alive in the world and this is what we think of being here, and what it feels like to be human. We are the messengers and entertainers, the philosophers and sometimes even the bearers of great notions.
I am welcoming anyone who loves books and writing of any kind, who feels he or she has a novel or a play or a screenplay, a poem, an essay, or a memoir who wants to be part of this community of writing to join us in June.”
