Write on the Sound (WOTS) Writers’ Conference, one of the premier conferences in the Pacific Northwest, today announced its presenter’s slate for its 2016 conference.

Presented the first weekend in October each year, WOTS offers a unique and affordable opportunity for writers of all levels to build on their knowledge of the craft, learn about a new genre, and explore the writing industry. Its limited size makes the conference an intimate experience, perfect for sparking creativity, sharing ideas and networking with other writers.

The keynoter for this year’s conference is author and media personality John Moe speaking on the topic, “Better Writing Through Making Yourself Miserable”.

Moe observes, “Your life as a writer may be filled with editors, publishers, clients, readers, who can improve your work by being tough on you. Problem is, they don’t know you inside and out like you do. Besides, you can always run away from people like that. But there’s no getting away from you. You have the capacity to be the meanest, most passionate, most intense drill sergeant in the world and, along the way, producing your best work.”

He is the author of three books: “Dear Luke, We Need To Talk, Darth,” “The Deleted Emails Of Hillary Clinton,” and “Conservatize Me.” Moe’s writing has appeared in numerous humor anthologies as well as The New York Times Magazine, The Seattle Times, Seattle Weekly, and many more publications. He has hosted nationally distributed public radio programs such as Wits, Weekend America, and Marketplace Tech Report and his radio work has been featured on All Things Considered and Morning Edition.

WOTS is a program of the City of Edmonds Arts Commission celebrating its 31^st year with over 30 sessions on craft, marketing, publishing and specialty writing topics.

Each year conference organizers offer a pre-conference full day or one of three half-day sessions held on Friday of the conference weekend. This year’s “pre-Friday” options will include editor Margie Lawson on “Deep editing power and writing fresh body language”; Philip Athans on “Living dialog”; Corbin Lewars on “Crafting your personal essay”; and William Kenower on the topic, “Craft and Confidence.”

Online registration for the 2016 conference opens Monday, July 18 at 9 a.m. with updates available at https://www.writeonthesound.com/conference-information/registration.