Registration for the 2010 Port Townsend Writers' Conference opens in fewer than four days from now: on November 9, at 9 am. Registration will be available online here as well as by calling 360.385.3102, x131 or 117 if the first extension is busy.

One workshop that I'm particularly excited about this year is the generative fiction workshop with Ana Menéndez. Check out her class description:

“Van Gogh Story Marathon”
Have you ever seen Van Gogh’s early drawings? They were terrible. How did he become one of the most celebrated artists of the modern era? Practice. Study. Practice. And then more practice. In this course, we will take heed, writing a story a day. The opening line will be given to you the day before. The following day, you must come to class with a fully-formed story with a beginning, middle and end. No experimental stuff. Straight, traditional story. Though these will be shorties: just six hundred words. No more, no less. To inspire you and prove she can take her own medicine, the instructor will work along with you. In class, we will discuss the stories and do reading and exercises designed to help you imagine and produce excellent shorties. What to bring to class: a pen, a notebook, a number two pencil, an eraser and an 8 x 11 drawing pad – doesn’t have to be fancy, just something you can draw on.

Other workshops will feature such writers as Chris Abani, a master-class workshop with Bich Minh Nguyen, a poetry workshop with Copper Canyon Press poet Dana Levin, and a travel-writing workshop with Tom Miller.

Afternoon workshop faculty members includes Wendy Call, Sam Ligon, Susan Landgraf, Susan Rich, Deborah Poe, Lana Ayers, Kelli Russell Agodon, Maya Jewell Zeller, Tamara Sellman, Sayantani Dasgupta, Kitty Hoffman, Stan Rubin, and Lindsay Wilson, with more continuing to be added.