Job Description: Director of the WIT Festival

Overview

The Authors Guild WIT: Words, Ideas, and Thinkers Series and Festival aim to expand our understanding of critical issues, celebrate America’s literary culture, and amplify new voices and perspectives. WIT features authors and others addressing the most important topics of our time. The WIT Festival is a three-day in-person event in the Berkshires. The WIT Series is a collection of one-off conversations online. We are proud to offer both online conversations and in-person talks free and open to the public to ensure accessible engagement and exchange of ideas.

Working closely with the Executive Director of the Authors Guild Foundation and members of the WIT Committee, the WIT Festival Director will be responsible for planning and executing the WIT Festival; organizing year-round one-off conversations in the Berkshires, online, and elsewhere; raising funds to support the program; and creating partnerships and sponsorships.

Job Type: Part-time

Job Location: The Berkshires

Responsibilities

Organizing the Festival

Working with the WIT Committee, the WIT Director will be responsible for:

• Identifying, recruiting, and handling the speakers throughout the process including negotiating speaker fees, finding accommodations, creating individual itineraries, getting headshots and bios, etc.
• Securing the venues for the main speaker sessions and any pop-ups, educational components, or other elements of the festival
• Setting the order of sessions and developing the Run of Shows for each session
• Finding partners to host dinners, lunches, and parties and organizing same, including caterers, rentals, and the like
• Managing communications
  • Media relations and publicizing the festival
  • Writing the program booklet
  • Giving interviews
  • Working with media partners
• Maintaining visibility year-round with Guild Nights, WIT one-offs, preview parties, readings, and other events

Fundraising

The Authors Guild Foundation is committed to keeping WIT free and open to the public. Working with the Authors Guild Foundation Executive Director, the WIT Director will be responsible for:

• Donor cultivation, solicitation, and recognition in the Berkshires for WIT and other AGF needs
• Securing sponsors and partners
• Writings, corporation, foundation, and government grants

Experience and Qualifications

• Minimum of three years of experience in special event programming and execution necessary
• Successful track record of raising funds for a project, major gift donations, and grants
• Strong communication skills, both verbal and written
• Excellent interpersonal and organizational skills
• Ability to shift between competing priorities quickly and handle stressful situations
• Ability to work well with multiple constituencies
• Mastery of word processing software, experience with creating and managing spreadsheets and Google docs, sheets, etc., understanding of CRM databases
• Work environment is normally in an office setting in front of a computer screen, but the ability to walk up and down stairs and lift and carry as much as 40 pounds is sometimes required

About the Authors Guild Foundation

The Authors Guild Foundation is the charitable and educational arm of the Authors Guild. It advocates for authors’ rights, educates authors across the country in the business of writing, and promotes an understanding of the value of writers.

The Foundation believes that an abundance of free literary expression is essential to our democracy, and that can only be achieved by protecting authors’ constitutional and moral rights to benefit from their work. It is the sole group of its kind dedicated to empowering all U.S. authors. Its founding members included Saul Bellow, John Hersey, Madeleine L’Engle, Sidney Offit, James A. Michener, Toni Morrison, Elizabeth Janeway, and Barbara Tuchman. Please visit https://authorsguild.org/foundation/.

Please send resume and cover letter to jobs@authorsguild.org.

The Authors Guild Foundation is an AA/EEO employer. We encourage applications from members of groups that have been marginalized or underrepresented in the nonprofit world.