Project Grant

Our primary outcome is to increase participant access to professional writers while providing practical knowledge relating to participants' particular areas of writing. Another outcome is the ability to attract professional writers who can connect with participants of all skill levels to serve as presenters. A third outcome is to continue to attract writers of all ages and abilities from central Minnesota to attend the conference. These main outcomes will be measured from the participant feedback forms that we gather at the end of the conference day. Perhaps the best evidence that points to our achieved outcomes is the fact that we have sponsored this conference each year since 1990, attracting 70-100 writers per year. Many of the participants have attended more than one conference. We receive requests from professional writers to be speakers at our conferences. We have succeeded in attracting the best of Minnesota writers to be speakers, including Robert Bly, Bill Holm, Jon Hassler, Will Weaver, Douglas Wood, Gary Paulsen, Kevin Kling, Frederick Manfred, Leif Enger, Faith Sullivan, Joyce Sutphen, James Bradley and many more. These key outcomes all provide evidence that the Sinclair Lewis Writers Conference meets a need and achieves its outcome goals. ; The Sinclair Lewis 2023 Writers Conference is one of the longest-running, most respected writers conferences in the Midwest, offering all writers a chance to hone their craft and to form networks. We measure our outcomes by asking each participant and presenter to provide written feedback concerning their conference experience. The feedback form is included in each participant's and presenter's registration folder that they receive at the start of the day. We gather the completed feedback forms at the end of the day and collate the responses. Many of our presenters, in fact, have been suggested by participants in this manner. One way to measure our outcomes is by the percentage of returning participants that we attract each year. The Sinclair Lewis Writers Conference enjoys a high degree of loyalty among both participants and presenters, many of whom ask to return as speakers for future conferences.; We will provide a written feedback form to each participant for them to rate their experience regarding writing skills learned and networks formed.