diff --git a/pinaxcon/proposals/forms.py b/pinaxcon/proposals/forms.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..b8d52ad8f67d4ca54aed792e45dd1c3cb840972d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pinaxcon/proposals/forms.py
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+from django import forms
+
+from .models import TalkProposal
+
+
+class ProposalForm(forms.ModelForm):
+
+    def clean_description(self):
+        value = self.cleaned_data["description"]
+        if len(value) > 400:
+            raise forms.ValidationError(
+                u"The description must be less than 400 characters"
+            )
+        return value
+
+
+class TalkProposalForm(ProposalForm):
+
+    class Meta:
+        model = TalkProposal
+        fields = [
+            "title",
+            "audience_level",
+            "description",
+            "abstract",
+            "additional_notes",
+            "recording_release",
+        ]