Registration for the 2010 Port Townsend Writers' Conference is open, and is going fast.

The morning workshop faculty members will include fiction writer Chris Abani, nonfiction writer Denise Chávez, poet Martín Espada, poet Dana Levin, fiction writer Micheline Aharonian Marcom, travel writer Tom Miller, nonfiction writer Bich Minh Nguyen (leading a master class), and fiction writer Ana Menéndez.

Martín Espada (pictured, above) will be leading a generative workshop, designed to help writers unlock new work and new ways of thinking about their work. He writes:

"This is a generative workshop, rather than a workshop for the critique of poems. Participants will generate new work based on the distribution and discussion of poems by Walt Whitman, Pablo Neruda, Claribel Alegría, William Carlos Williams, Edgar Lee Masters, Wilfred Owen and Grace Paley, among others. We will write poems of unheeded prophecy, argue in the voices of the dead, wander in the company of our ancestors through the territory of our own names, curse our enemies (real or imagined), and apologize for things we’re secretly glad we did. Workshop participants write on the spot—or beneath a favorite tree–then share their work, reading aloud to the group (for thunderous applause only). The objective is the creation of a new poem every day, channeling the “barbaric yawp” within."

This workshop, after three days, is already more than half-full. Registration is available here, as well as by calling 360.385.3102, x117 or 360.385.3102, x131. We're also available at these extensions to assist you with any questions or place you in the most appropriate option.