Two things you will need to know if your summer writing plans include the Port Townsend Writers' Conference (July 18-25, 2010). One, when registration opens, on November 9, at 9 am, it is going to go fast. But here's the second thing: registration will be available online here as well as by calling 360.385.3102, x131 or 117 if the first extension is busy!

We've got a jam-packed lineup for the Conference. 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.

The Port Townsend Writers' Conference is known internationally for being the most craft-heavy, egalitarian writers' conference in the world. We do three things: we serve writers of all skill levels, from writers who have never put pen to paper before, to writers who have published many books in their own right, but come to deepen their craft and soak themselves in a week of literature; two, here, it's all about literature: no agents, no five-minute book pitches to editors, none of the mercantile aspect of writing; and three, it's all about you, here. Whatever your particular craft needs are, and whatever you need to work on, we have workshops designed for that track.

And nothing we do would be possible without these organizations, who nourish and sustain us: The Inland Center for Writers at Eastern Washington University, Western Washington University, the University of Washington, the University of Idaho, Central Washington University, the Crab Creek Review, Willow Springs, Copper Canyon Press, Amazon.com, Port Book and News, the Rainier Writers' Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University, Peninsula College, and the Richard Hugo House.