The League of Utah Writers was founded in 1935. Our mission is to educate and encourage writers of all genres and experience levels, from Logan to Saint George and everywhere in between. To do this, we bring in renowned writers, artists, and agents to teach our writers how to take the next steps in their careers at our two annual writing conferences, the April Pre-Quill Conference and the August Quills Conference. In between conferences, our two dozen local chapters bring writers together to learn from guest speakers and share their works in progress, providing a community of support. Though writing can be a solitary endeavor, writers need not ever feel alone, and the League is committed to fostering that inclusive sense of community. We've been doing it for almost 90 years and hope to do it for another 90 more.

We use print in a number of ways. First, we have programs at our events that help writers connect to the guests and programming that we have. What better way for that new writer to strike a conversation up with their favorite writer than use their program to ask for an autograph? Or how do they use it to keep up with the program and make sure they get to the class they want to get to? And for the writer who has our conference as the first they've ever taught at, how else do they commemorate that than keep the souvenir program?

We also print awards every year for our annual creative writing contest, The Woolley Awards. They're named for our founding president, Olive Woolley Burt, one of the most influential women in newspapers in the Intermountain West in the first half of the 20th century.

We use flyers and mailers to attract would-be writers into joining the community. We were able to increase our advertising reach this year by printing posters with Conquest Graphics for Utah Authors Day, an annual community outreach event codified by the Utah governor. These posters are prominently displayed in bookstores and libraries across the state to help get the word out about this free event where authors can connect with readers and writers of all ages.

The League of Utah Writers has a publishing arm that prints two anthologies every year, and our local chapters often publish their own anthologies as well. We aim to publish books that help bring our community together, which is why our theme for this year is “Write Where You Belong.” Print is the core function of the League of Utah Writers, because the written word is something we hold sacred. Using the print services of Conquest Graphics, we hope to increase our publishing footprint through unique, outside-the-box methods like offering stories from our members to schools to use as curriculum, or filling vending machines with short stories in order to foster more love of art and the printed word in the community. We are also launching a program to teach creative writing in the state’s prisons, and we’d like to be able to print an anthology of our graduates’ stories and essays at the end, to help the incarcerated tell their stories and progress from community offenders to published authors, sending them on a more positive trajectory. The possibilities for us to publish tangible stories outside of just books are endless, but we need a promotional partner to do it.

The community of writers we've fostered has been able to do so much. There are traditionally published authors and bestsellers in our ranks. The ability to put more out into the world would help advance our mission considerably. We are so grateful for Conquest Graphics’ past support of the League, and we’d love for that partnership to continue.