Conference registration is going faster than ever before in our 38-year-history. The workshops of Sam Ligon, Dorianne Laux, Pam Houston, and Benjamin Alire Sáenz are full, with waiting lists started. However, several different options and tracks for the 2011 Port Townsend Writers’ Conference remain, depending on what you want to do.
With a focus on community and rigorous attention to craft, the Conference offers morning workshops featuring such writers as poet Carl Phillips, novelist Cheryl Strayed, poet and nonfiction writer Paisley Rekdal, and nonfiction writer Bob Shacochis. For those of you who register for a morning workshop, you’ll spend a week in intimate classes with your core faculty member.
You can also indulge yourself with afternoon workshops, residencies, guided freewrites, and a vibrant readings and lectures series. Online registration is available here. Learn more by calling Jordan at 360.385.3102, ext. 131.
Happening the week of July 17-24, the Conference has been since 1974 at the heart of the thriving Pacific Northwest literary scene.
Whether you’re new to writing and seeking an inspirational environment to create new work, looking for advanced post-MFA revision workshops, or simply desire to renew and recharge yourself in a writing retreat, the Port Townsend Writers’ Conference gives you the craft and connections to make breakthroughs in your work.
Following these workshops, a vibrant lectures series presents the morning faculty members discussing their process from origin to completed product.
Each evening at 7:30, two faculty writers give a reading at the Joseph F. Wheeler Theater. These readings are free for all participants. Schedule.
Tuition
Tuition for core morning workshops is $625. Admission to afternoon workshops only is $50 per workshop or $275 for unlimited access to all afternoon workshops. Admission to freewrites and morning writing exercises is $150 (you get both, all week!). All freewrites, morning writing exercises, and afternoon workshops are free for those who are registered for the core morning workshops. Room and board options range from $205 to $525. Financial-aid funds are available for all tracks. Register for any track here.
For some, the PTWC is an intense immersion in craft. For others, it’s about getting the time and space to write, while soaking in the readings and craft lectures, morning freewrites, and afternoon workshops. For all, it’s a time of retreat and renewal.
None of this would be possible without the generous support of The Inland Center for Writers at Eastern Washington University, Western Washington University, the University of Washington, the University of Idaho, 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, Goddard College, and the Richard Hugo House. We are so grateful to all of these organizations, as well as thousands of individual donors whose generosity is at the heart of everything we do.