Registration is open for the 2026 Bay to Ocean Writers Conference, which takes place March 14th at Chesapeake College in Wye Mills, Maryland. This year’s conference offers 31 sessions in six tracks to help writers hone their craft.
The keynote speaker is the award-winning and bestselling crime thriller writer S. A. Cosby, from Gloucester, Virginia, whose gritty “Southern noir” novels have been selected multiple times by former president Barack Obama for his summer reading lists.
Organized and sponsored by the Eastern Shore Writers Association and now in its 29th year, BTO is dedicated to providing first-rate educational sessions and inspirational tips across a variety of writing genres. Whether you’re a beginning writer or an established, well-published author, BTO can help you on your writing journey.
The conference sessions, all 50-minutes in length, were carefully designed to help attendees develop their craft; edit, publish, and market their writing; and allow them to ask pointed questions of published and award-winning presenters about the process.
To register or learn more about this year’s conference, visit: https://www.easternshorewriters.org/
Keynote Speaker
S. A. COSBY is an award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of five thriller novels, as well as the co-author of two forthcoming middle grade novels (with Questlove) published by Flatiron Press, a division of Macmillan.
Cosby’s thrillers have been featured three times by former President Barack Obama on his summer reading lists, and all of them have been optioned for movies or TV—including forthcoming Netflix shows to be produced by Barack and Michelle Obama’s company Higher Ground with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television.
Cosby’s work has been honored by the Macavity, the Barry, the Anthony, and the ITW (International Thriller Writers) awards, the (Dashiell) Hammett Prize, and the BCALA award, and has been long listed for both the Steel Dagger and ALA Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence.awards.
His most recent book, King of Ashes (2025), has been both a New York Times and Amazon best seller. All the Sinners Bleed (2023) appeared on more than forty Best of the Year lists, while Blacktop Wasteland (2021) won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, was a New York Times Notable Book, and was named a best book of the year by NPR, The Guardian, and Library Journal, among others.
Cosby lives and works in Southeastern Virginia.
