Today’s guest is Clay Stafford, founder of The Killer Nashville International Writers’ Conference, which was created in 2006 in an effort to bring together forensic experts, writers, and fans of crime and thriller literature.
What has helped the conference to grow over the years?
Three things: content, word-of-mouth, and sincere focus on building a writing community. Because of my past history in publishing, filmmaking, and education, and my contacts in the industry, we have a reputation for thinking outside the box and creating fresh, engaging topics for our sessions each year, which continues to draw new crowds. For example, we were one of the first traditionally focused writers’ conferences to welcome and share how-to sessions on self-publishing in the vein of Upton Sinclair, Margaret Atwood, e.e. cummings, Mark Twain, and Stephen King, to name a few. We heralded the arrival of electronic publishing with enthusiasm while others lamented the sky-is-falling death of books. We follow the industry closely and gear Killer Nashville towards what is relevant now.
Our attendees, our driving force in terms of size, spirit, and content of the conference, have responded as a close-knit community of writers and creatives by becoming excellent emissaries of Killer Nashville over the years and have spread word of our conference far and wide. Our attendees come from the United States along with a fair number from Japan, Australia, Italy, South America, Canada, Great Britain, and other places around the globe. We’re thankful that so many have found a home within the Killer Nashville community and have invited others to share in that experience. I’d say those are the reasons, for example, that for the past two years, we have been the #1 voted conference in The Writer’s annual survey and Publisher’s Weekly says we give “fledgling writers a supportive environment in which to develop their talent,” saying further that Killer Nashville and myself play “an essential role in defining which books become bestsellers” throughout “the nation’s book culture.” Our focus is on one thing: our attendees. It is the road less traveled, and it truly has made all the difference.
Are mystery/suspense/thriller writers a unique breed from other types of writers?
In some ways, yes, though I think we’re all (all people included) more alike than different. Perhaps it’s unique to Killer Nashville, but the overwhelming majority of writers at our conference are really down-to-earth and approachable people. I don’t mean to say that other writers aren’t, but it seems to be the common denominator for those who attend our conference, presenters and audience members alike. They’re also unique in that they often work in the very fields (or adjacent fields) that they write about. Many are forensics professionals or members of law enforcement—the kind of people who have seen real mysteries up close. And I have to emphasize something that separates us: on the very first line of our website, we tell you we are the forum for all genres incorporating mystery, thriller, or suspense elements. This accounts for a huge diversity in our demographics. The incorporation of these elements indeed covers mystery, suspense, and thriller writers specifically, but it also includes many other genres, as well. Good writing and finding a publisher and growing an audience make up about ninety percent of all our sessions. These apply to writers of multiple types of genres.
What do you feel is unique to Killer Nashville vs. other writer conferences?
There are many writers’ conferences available these days and the question becomes what are you looking for? For us, it is about delivering the goods: getting authors connected, helping them in their career trajectory, providing fresh information that they need to thrive in our current publishing environment, and supporting it with samples of fifteen years of documented success stories related to our conference.
Due to our cap on attendees that keeps our conference relatively small, Killer Nashville has an intimate and personal feel that you don’t find at a lot of larger events. The connections made at Killer Nashville are lasting. Attendees become friends, family. There’s a palpable sense of excitement and homecoming throughout the weekend. Killer Nashville is also special because we encourage a culture of equality. Unpublished, beginning, and emerging authors from all backgrounds often eat at the same table as NYT bestsellers and their agents, swapping stories and making meaningful human connections. Everyone is expected to support one another, no matter the stage of their career. All egos are left at the door. Again, Killer Nashville has never been about our presenters; it is about each individual sitting in the audience. I think that is what makes us special.
For the past 15 years, when other conferences, publishers, and writers’ organizations were glossing over the subject, you have been stressing how important diversity is and how vital it is that each writer’s voice be heard. Talk about that a bit.
Diversity and discrimination come in many forms and, being a child raised in the sixties in the South, I have had a lifelong sensitivity to that, and it is a pillar of who we are as an organization. In the early years, we swam upstream championing those whose lives and points-of-view were different. I am adamantly against censorship of any kind, the banning of the publishing (or even the continued publishing) of any book by someone else. I am proud that Killer Nashville was the first mainstream conference to welcome authors of various points-of-view and lifestyles when other conferences would not. I am proud that Killer Nashville was one of the first mainstream conferences that had our book signing authors in alphabetical order rather than some other insane grouping. I’m proud that Killer Nashville has been a strong proponent of women writers. I am proud that Killer Nashville welcomes writers from all backgrounds, especially those who are marginalized and can’t afford to come to Killer Nashville.
We offer three such scholarships for those who cannot otherwise afford to attend: The Ellery Adams Cozy Scholarship, the Kris Calvin Scholarship, the Lisa Jackson Scholarship, and other unpublicized Killer Nashville Scholarships. Because of one’s view on life or one’s economic situation or lifestyle, there is no reason someone shouldn’t attend Killer Nashville. Everyone is welcome as long as they view others as welcome. Every voice is vital to who we are as humans.
I remember a session a few years ago (before diversity was the new “in” thing) when I sat in on a harmonious and warm panel talking about character development and it hit me who was on the panel: an Indian Muslim author, a Southern Christian author, an LGBTQ author, an African American female author, and a noir hardboiled male author. What kind of a mix was that? All in camaraderie and all talking about what makes a good character. Where else other than Killer Nashville would you see this? And where else other than Killer Nashville can you say that you’ve been seeing this for the past fifteen years? This harmony. This is humanity. These are real stories. It is incredible. I can’t emphasize it enough: our focus is genuine, and we believe in the specialness of every single author who walks in the door.
What is your favorite part about hosting the conference?