Are you a writer and reader of fantasy? Are you excited to learn how to make your fantasy writing stand out? Do you want to honor God with your fantasy writing? This Fantasy & Worldbuilding Workshop is designed especially for you!
Come to Taylor U for two days (July 23-24, 2026) at the Early Bird Price of $139, which includes all sessions and meals. And if you’re a high schooler aged 16-18, you get your own special price of just $99!
And if you’re interested, you can stay on for the General Conference.
Join AJ Skelly, Josiah DeGraaf, and several Taylor University Professional Writing faculty, students, and alumni, as you explore writing powerful fantasy.
During this two-day intensive experience, you’ll discuss
- Fantasy’s role in literature.
- The power of writing clean and hopeful fantasy that leaves your readers with a positive reading experience.
- How to include romance that’s clean and appropriate.
- How to write strong dialogue.
- How to build your fantasy world from the ground up following basic guiding principles.
- How to visually tell your story and how it could become a script.
- What editors are looking for and the common errors in fantasy manuscripts.
- What publishers are looking for and how to get published.
Meet AJ Skelly
AJ Skelly (also writing as April J. Skelly) is an author, reader, and lover of all things fantasy, medieval, and fairy-tale-romance. And werewolves. She has a serious soft spot for them. As an avid life-long reader and a former high school English teacher, she’s always been fascinated with the written word.
She is also the founder and CEO of Quill & Flame Publishing House. Quill & Flame got its start from bestselling author April J. Skelly’s frustration with the general market. Tired of searching for good books for her high school students that didn’t glorify toxic relationships, have words sailors would blush at hearing, and graphic sex on the page, she wanted something more for her students. Quill & Flame was born. Quill & Flame seeks to fill that gap by producing wholesome, if not always squeaky, romance across all genres for YA, NA, and adult audiences.
AJ lives in Ohio with her husband, children, and many imaginary friends who often find their way into her stories. They all drink copious amounts of tea together and stay up reading far later than they should.
Meet Josiah DeGraaf
Josiah DeGraaf is the author of A Study of Shattered Spells and the program director of the Young Writer’s Workshop. He loves crafting fantastical stories about characters who face the same dilemmas we do when we try to do the right thing. You can learn more about him and download his free short story collection at JosiahDeGraaf.com.
Josiah writes because he loves epic fantasy stories with imaginative worldbuilding. But he also wants stories where characters face the same dilemmas people do when they try to do the right thing. It’s not easy to be heroic in the real world. And he wants stories where characters don’t always know the right thing to do at first and do have to face hardships in their struggle to act nobly.
When he’s not writing stories, he analyzes other great stories and explores what we can learn from them as Christians. His latest book A Study of Shattered Spells explores the familiar magic school setting from a new perspective: the teacher’s.
Registration opens February 1
Registration opens February 1. Early Bird price until May 1.
On-campus housing is offered for Thursday night (price not included in registration). See the Registration page on the conference website for more information. Availability not guaranteed.
Come join us for some fantastic fantasy!
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