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If you’re a writer or want to be one, you should write this
down. The Schreiner University annual
Texas Writers Conference will be
Wednesday-Friday,
April 16-18. There will be an associated workshop on
Saturday, April 19, featuring this year’s artist-in-residence,
Bret Anthony Johnston, author of the award-winning “Corpus Christi” and
director of creative writing at Harvard. He has also edited the anthology
“Naming the World: And Other Exercises for the Creative Writer,” which will
be featured at the workshop. There will be an open mike for readings 7-7:45
p.m., Thursday, April 17, after which Johnston will read from his work.
 Johnston,
a native Texan and former professional skateboarder, is waiving his fee for
the conference. That money will be used to establish a scholarship to help
students defray the costs for attending the National Undergraduate
Literature Conference, according to Dr. Lydia Kualapai, assistant professor
of English at Schreiner and one of the conference organizers.
“When I visited Schreiner a few years ago, I was struck by how dedicated and
engaged the students were, and how eager they were to read and write and
explore the life of the mind,” Johnston said.
“Like them, I went to college in Texas, so I know that writing and reading
can often get lost in the mix, so I want to do everything I can to make it
available for them. I want to read their stories and poems and books that
they have inside them.”
Conference events are free and open to the public; however,
there is a $95 tuition workshop charge [registration],
which includes five hours of workshop instruction, lunch and a signed copy
of “Naming the World.”
“The workshop will be one in which we generate new material and become
familiar with techniques and strategies that professional writers use,”
Johnston said. “We'll explore mostly fiction and nonfiction, but we'll touch
on poetry here and there as well. I'm very much looking forward to it.”
Dr. Kathleen Hudson, professor of English at Schreiner, organized the
writers conference in 1990. It has previously featured such writers as
Robert Flynn, Susan Bright, Naomi Nye and Sandra Cisneros and Texas
songwriters James McMurtry and Tish Hinojosa.
For more information about the Writers Conference, call Dr. Kathleen Hudson
at 830-792-7409 or e-mail her at
khudson@schreiner.edu. For more information
about Bret Johnston, visit his Web site at
www.bretanthonyjohnston.com. |
