What makes the Port Townsend Writers' Conference so special?

It's the focused attention on your needs as an individual writer.

Let's face it: we all have different ways of writing, of revising. We're literary poets, fiction writers, and nonfiction writers. We're experimental cross-genre writers. We have different degrees, or not. We teach or study at differing institutions, or not. Some of us write in the morning, some of us write in the evening. Some of us write on laptops, some on portable typewriters, some by hand on a yellow legal pad.

That's why, as always, you'll find so many different options at the July 18-25, Port Townsend Writers' Conference. Check out our daily schedule here!

The options start each morning with Ellie Mathews' legendary morning freewrites, happening from 7-8 am in the equally legendary Room D. (But more on that later). For those interested in a core morning workshop, in which you study with the same faculty member and small group of participants all week, that happens from 9 to 11:30. Our drop-in afternoon workshops, which are skyrocketing in popularity, happen from 2 to 3:30 pm. And our afternoon craft lectures and evening readings lead us up to 10 pm–and we're just getting started! At 10 pm you'll find open-mike opportunities, curated by none other than the Richard Hugo House's own Kate Lebo, one of the most dynamic emcees in the Pacific Northwest.  

We're here to read, we're here to write, and we're here to learn and teach. Learn what you don't know, teach what you do know, and enjoy a sun-splashed writing retreat in one of the most beautiful locations in the Pacific Northwest.

One thing to note: for those of you wanting to study with a core faculty member, many workshops are sold out, with waiting lists started. Space does remain in the nonfiction workshop of Bich Minh Nguyen, the fiction workshop of Peter Orner, the poetry workshop of Erin Belieu, and the nonfiction workshop of Denise Chávez. 

And the Residency-Only option, in which you come not to take workshops, but as a retreat to work on your own work, while availing yourself of the rich Readings and Lectures series, is the highest it's ever been!

Registration for all Conference workshops and residencies is available here, as well as by calling us at 360.385.3102, x131.