10:00AM-11:00AM
Coming of Age, Coming Into Voice
Growing up Dominican is not a simple story- it is identity forming and fracturing, belonging, negotiating, family expectation navigating, all at once. Join Dominican authors for a conversation on the craft of writing adolescence with the complexity it deserves- how to build teen voices that are specific, layered, and true without sacrificing the emotional depth young readers are hungry for.
Panelist: Vincent Tirado, Francesca Padilla, Camille Gomera Tavarez and Barbara Perez Marquez
Moderator: Leiry Santos
11:15AM-12:15PM
Inheritance & Intuition: Writing Dominican Women
Dominican women carry generations inside them- memory, silence, fracture, and an instinct for survival that gets named. In Family Lore, National Award-winning author Elizabeth Acevedo weaves magic, mortality, and the secrets of Dominican women across generations and continents. In the Grand Paloma Resort, Cleyvis placed womanhood against the weight of class, labor, and family loyalty. In My Train Leaves at Three, Natalie Guerrero wrote grief, ambition, and inheritance through the body of and Afro-Latina woman refusing to disappear. Together these three writers bring conversation about the craft of rendering Dominican women not as a backdrop- but as the full, complicated architecture of a story. What does this mean to write us with the depth we deserve?
Panelist: Elizabeth Acevedo, Cleyvis Natera and Natalie Guerrero
Moderator: TBN
12:00–1:00 PM
Masterclass w/ Senior Editor of Simon & Schuster, Yahdon Israel
Join Yahdon Israel, Senior Editor at Simon & Schuster and founder of a popular book club and literary podcast Atria Books, for an intimate conversation about building lasting influence in publishing beyond the manuscript. Explore how to build meaningful relationships in publishing, understand power structures, and consider how your path might extend into editing, curating, criticism, or cultural leadership. Lunch is included.
Time to be announced
KEYNOTE BY JULIA ALVAREZ
Julia Alvarez takes the stage for the keynote address of the Dominican Writers Conference 2026- a conference dedicated in her honor. In a conversation expansive as her body of work, Alvarez reflect on writing, legacy, and what it means to tell Dominican stories across generations. Not to be missed.
1:00 PM- 1:45PM
Interior Lives: Writing Desire, Silence & Emotional Truth
The most powerful moments in fiction are often the ones that go unsaid. This craft conversation centers the page itself -how to write emotionally charged material with restraint, how to render intimacy without melodrama, how to let silence carry weight, and how to build characters whose inner lives feel urgent, lived-in, and true. Join Natalie Guerrero and Alejandro heredia for a conversation about quiet intensity that makes a story impossible to put down.
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Panelist: Alejandro Heredia and Natalie Guerrero
Moderator: JP Infante
2:00PM-3:00PM
Carrying the Voice Across: Translation, Power & Dominican Literature
Translation is one of the most invisible — and most essential — forms of literary labor. It is the work that carries Dominican voices across languages, cultures, and borders. But who shapes that journey? Join us for a conversation on what it truly means to translate Dominican literature — navigating fidelity, cultural nuance, and the weight of carrying a community's stories into new hands.
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Panelist: Erika Morillo, Jasminne Mendez, Kianny Antigua
Moderator: Francis Mateo
3:15PM–4:15 PM
​IBBY Panel: Impulsando el futuro de la literatura infantil y juvenil Dominicana
IBBY — la Junta Internacional de Libros para Jóvenes — ha sido una de las fuerzas más importantes en el desarrollo de una cultura de literatura infantil en la República Dominicana, conectando a autores, ilustradores y educadores dominicanos con una red global dedicada a poner libros de calidad en manos de cada niño. Únase a los miembros de IBBY-RD para una conversación sobre el estado de la literatura infantil y juvenil dominicana, los recursos disponibles para escritores que trabajan en este espacio, y cómo la diáspora y la isla pueden continuar fortaleciendo el ecosistema literario para la próxima generación de lectores y narradores dominicanos.
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​* THIS PANEL WILL BE IN SPANISH
Panelist: Elizabeth Balaguer -Presidenta/IBBY Dominicana, Dulce Elvira de los Santos, Vice-Presidenta, IBBY-Dominicana, Geraldine de Santis,
Moderator: Angy Abreu
4:30–5:30 PM
Writing Desire on Our Own Terms: Power, Pleasure & the Modern Romance
Romance is one of the most commercially powerful genres in publishing and one of the most underestimated. For Latina writers, it is also something more; a space to center our pleasure, assert our agency, and tell love stories that don't ask us to flatten who we are to earn a happy ending. Join Dominican authors for an unfiltered conversation on crafting intimacy with intention, writing emotionally resonant love stories rooted in cultural specificity, and what it truly means to write desire on our own terms.
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Panelist: Adriana Herrera, Ligia Cushman
Moderator: Andreina Rodriguez
5:45-6:45 PM
Building the Shelf: Writing & Illustrating Dominican Stories for Children,
The books a child see themselves in are the books that shape who they believe they can become. For Dominican children, representation in picture books is not a bonus- it is a foundation. Join Dominican picture book authors and illustrators for a conversation on the collaborative craft behind children's literature: how text and image work together, how Dominican childhood is rendered on the page, and why getting these stories right matters far beyond the picture book shelf.
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Panelist: Doris Rodriguez, Luz Mack, Angela Quezada Padron, and Kiara Valdez
Moderator: Alyssa Reynoso-Morris