Aspiring, acclaimed writers come together at WMU
April 19, 2001
KALAMAZOO -- Literary neophytes will have the chance to meet and get advice from an assortment of prominent, award-winning authors and poets next month at Western Michigan University as part of the Third Coast Writer's Conference.
This is the 14th year for the conference, which will take place Thursday through Saturday, May 10 through 12. Sponsored by the WMU Department of English with contributions from Meijer Inc. and the WMU College of Arts and Sciences, the conference is a celebration of fiction, nonfiction, memoir and poetry writing in which successful writers share their work and insights with participants and the community. Conference participants were selected in March on the basis of their manuscript submissions.
A number of the authors who are participating in the conference will present readings of their work during three sessions that are free and open to the public. All readings will take place in the South Ballroom of the Bernhard Center. The public reading times and featured presenters are:
8 p.m., Thursday, May 10, featuring Martha Rhodes, poet and director of Four Way Books, an independent literary press; Brooks Haxton, nominee for the 2000 Pen Poetry in Translation Award; and Danzy Senna, author of the novel "Caucasia," which won the Book of the Month Club First Fiction Award.
8 p.m., Friday, May 11, featuring Barry Werth, award-winning freelance journalist and author of "The Billion Dollar Molecule"; Laura Kasischke, author of two novels, including "Suspicious River," which was recently made into a film; and Thylias Moss, a poet whose book "Rainbow Remnants in Rock Bottom Ghetto Sky" was the winner of the 1991 National Poetry Series Open Competition.
8 p.m., Saturday, May 12, featuring Jane Brox, nonfiction writer and author of "Five Thousand Days Like This One"; Edward Hirsch, an award-winning poet who penned "How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry"; and David Gates, whose first novel, "Jernigan," was a finalist for the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Literature.
This year's conference is directed by J.D. Dolan, WMU assistant professor of English. For more information, call (616) 387-2570, email Michele McLaughlin at <michele.mclaughlin@wmich.edu> or visit the Third Coast Web site at <www.wmich.edu/thirdcoast>.
Media contact: Marie Lee, 616 387-8400, marie.lee@wmich.edu