Writers' Festival
Thursday, June 12 through Sunday, June 15, 2008
For four days and three nights, live and write in a community of writers on the beautiful grounds of the historic Chautauqua Institution on the shore of Chautauqua Lake.
The 5th Annual Chautauqua Writers’ Festival will be held Thursday, June 12 through Sunday, June 15, 2008. As in previous years, award-winning writers (two poets, two fiction writers, and two non-fiction writers) will share their insights on the art and craft of writing in intensive workshops designed to assure participants personalized attention. In addition to the workshops, the festival will offer a wide-ranging program consisting of readings, panel discussions, individual conferences with faculty mentors, writing time, open mics, and musical entertainment.
2008 Writers' Festival Registration Form 2008 Writers' Festival Schedule 2008 Writers' Festival brochure
This year’s poets will be Stanley Plumly and Robin Becker:
Stanley Plumly received a National Book Award nomination in 2007 for his recent collection, Old Heart. Other collections of poetry include Now That My Father Lies Down Beside Me: New and Selected Poems (2000), The Marriage in the Trees (1998), Boy on the Step (1989) and Summer Celestial (1983). His collection of essays on poetry, Argument and Song, was published in 2003. His meditations on the poet John Keats, Posthumous Keats, is forthcoming from W. W. Norton this year. Plumly is a recent recipient of the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Poetry. He has also won the Delmore Schwartz memorial Award. Plumly teaches at the University of Maryland.
Robin Becker has written seven collections of poetry, including Domain of Perfect Affection (2006), Venetian Blue (2002), The Horse Fair (2000) and All-American Girl (1996). Nominated for a Pushcart Prize four times, Becker has been honored with a Prairie Schooner’s Strousse Award and a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship. She received the Lamden Literary Award, and her poems and book reviews have appeared in The American Poetry Review, the Boston Globe, The Gettysburg Review, and Ploughshares. She serves as poetry editor for The Women’s Review of Books and writes a column on poetry and the poetry scene called “Field Notes.” She teaches English and Women’s Studies at Pennsylvania State University.
This year’s fiction writers will be Tony Doerr and Ann Pancake:
Tony Doerr is the Writer-in-Residence for the State of Idaho, and is the author of the novels Four Seasons in Rome and About Grace, which was named Best Book of 2004 by the Washington Post and which was a finalist for the PEN USA fiction award. About Grace was a CLSC selection in 2005. His short story collection, The Shell Collector, was a New York Times Notable Book and won the American Library Association Book of the Year. Doerr has also been awarded the Barnes and Noble Discover Prize, and two O. Henry Prizes.
Ann Pancake is returning for her third Writers’ Festival. Her newest book is Strange as This Weather Has Been. Wendell Berry has called the novel “one of the bravest novels I have ever read.” Her first book is the story collection Given Ground which was the 2001 winner of the Bakeless Publication Prize in fiction. She’s also been awarded a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship, the Thomas Woolfe Fiction Prize, a Pushcart Prize, and the 2003 Whiting Writers Award. She teaches at Pacific Lutheran University.
Non-fiction writers will be Lee Gutkind and Greg Kuzma:
Known as the “Godfather of Creative Nonfiction,” Lee Gutkind’s latest book is Almost Human: Making Robots Think (2007). He is the author of The Art of Creative Nonfiction and Forever Fat: Essays by the Godfather. He is the founder and editor of the Journal of Creative Nonfiction.
Greg Kuzma is a writer for all genres. He is the author of well over 20 books and chapbooks; his Selected Early Poems is forthcoming from Carnegie Mellon University Press and his prose poetry collection, All That Is Not Given Is Lost, came out in 2007. Kuzma’s letters to his fellow writers form a story of his life, and his long interest in the lives of other writers includes filmscripts about Delmore Schwartz and about Virginia Woolf. Editor and publisher of The Best Cellar Press, Kuzma teaches creative writing at the University of Nebraska. His essay on Chautauqua appears in the new literary journal Chautauqua.
Questions regarding registration or accommodations packages at Chautauqua’s Athenaeum Hotel or Bellinger Hall can be addressed to Christine Emo in Conferencing Services at cemo@ciweb.org
Questions regarding specific workshops and general festival information can be addressed to the festival’s co-director, Philip Terman at terman@cescowildblue.com.
