Welcome to the 2023 Port Townsend Writers Conference!

Below you will find our Afternoon Workshop Schedule.

You can also download a copy by clicking this link: 2023 PTWC Afternoon Schedule-Final

Sunday, July 16^th

7:00 – 8:30 Welcome and Readings: Anatacia-Renee, CMarie Fuhrman, Arna Botempts Hemmenway, Quenton Baker

Monday, July 17^th

1:00 – 1:50 p.m. Craft Lecture – Ravi Howard: Nations Through Their Mouths: Silence, Inner Voices, and Dialogue.

1:00 – 1:50 p.m. Craft Lection – Kim Addonizio: Freeing the Angel of Precise, Concise, Powerful, Distilled-Down-to-Its-Essence Poetry from the Marble of Floridity, Flummery, and Furbelows, or Shut Up and Kiss Me: the value of concision for both writing and revision. 

2:00 – 2:15 p.m. Afternoon Workshop – Sasha LaPointe: The Stories that Guide Us

2:00 – 2:15 p.m. Afternoon Workshop – Quenton Baker: Unmaking the Unpoetic

2:00 – 2:15 p.m. Afternoon Workshop – Arna Botempts Hemenway: Entering the Dream – Adventures in Openings

3:30 – 4:45 p.m. Afternoon Workshop – Melissa Febos: Mindf*ck

3:30 – 4:45 p.m. Afternoon Workshop – Sebastian Matthews: Like Dancing to Architecture: Using Visual Arts to Generate New Material

3:30 – 4:45 p.m. Afternoon Workshop – Laura Read: Envelopes of Air 

7:00 – 8:20 Readings – Anna Quinn, Sebastian Matthews, Kristen Millares Young, Tess Gallagher

9:00 p.m. Open Mic

Tuesday, July 18th

1:00 – 1:50 p.m. Craft Lecture – EJ Colen: Interrupted Intimacies: What We Can’t or Shouldn’t Say 

1:00 – 1:50 p.m. Craft Lecture – Derrick Harriell: Writing About My Male Body: A Distressing Undertaking of Pain and Catharsis 

2:00 – 2:15 p.m. Afternoon Workshop – Anna Quin: Your Wiley, Elusive Voice

2:00 – 2:15 p.m. Afternoon Workshop – Rena Priest: Music and Identity in Poetry

3:30 – 4:45 p.m. Afternoon Workshop – Alice Derry: In Media Res, Beginning a Poem

3:30 – 4:45 p.m. Afternoon Workshop – Sasha LaPointe: The Landscape of Memory

7:00 – 8:00 p.m. Readings – EJ Colen, Alice Derry, Jourdan Keith

9:00 p.m. Open Mic

Wednesday, July 19th

1:00 – 1:50 p.m. Craft Lecture – Anastasia Renee: Change Your Address and Leave Writers Block 

1:00 – 1:50 p.m. Craft Lecture – CMarie Fuhrman: The (or A?) Genuine Article 2:00 – 2:15 p.m. Afternoon Workshop – Rena Priest: Finding Your Way Through a Poem

2:00 – 2:15 p.m. Afternoon Workshop – Arna Botempts Hemenway: The Guilty Witness – Understanding Scene

2:00 – 2:15 p.m. p.m. Afternoon Workshop – Quenton Baker: The Value of Repetition

3:30 – 4:45 p.m. Afternoon Workshop – Jordan Keith: Ekphrasis and Epistolary

3:30 – 4:45 p.m. Afternoon Workshop – Laura Read: No One Puts Baby in a Corner

3:30 – 4:45 p.m. Afternoon Workshop – Gary Lilley: Dead Poem Society

7:00 – 8:00 p.m. Readings – Laura Read, Melissa Febos, Derrick Harriell

9:00 Open Mic

Thursday, July 20th

1:00 – 1:50 p.m. Craft Lecture – Kristen Millares Young, Circling Back: On the Art of Recurrence 

1:00 – 1:50 p.m. Craft Lecture – Shawn Vestel: The Forest and the Trees: Notes on Revision 

2:00 – 2:15 p.m. Afternoon Workshop – Melissa Febos: Nonfiction Forms Lab

2:00 – 2:15 p.m. Afternoon Workshop – Alice Derry: Ellen Bryant Voigt – The Art of Syntax

3:30 – 4:45 p.m. Afternoon Workshop – Sebastian Matthews: Spaces is the Place – Utilizing Cinematic Technique in Your Writing

3:30 – 4:45 p.m. Afternoon Workshop – Rena Priest: Snapshots of the Essential

7:00 – 8:00 p.m. Readings – Ravi Howard, Rena Priest, Shawn Vestal

9:00 p.m. Open Mic

Friday, July 21^st

1:00 – 1:50 p.m. Craft Lecture – Sam Ligon: Fiction and the Tyranny of Chronology

1:00 – 1:50 p.m. Craft Lecture – Tess Gallagher: Writing Beyond Endings 

2:00 – 2:15 p.m. Afternoon Workshop – Laura Read: Historical Friends

2:00 – 2:15 p.m. Afternoon Workshop – Sebastian Matthews: Points of Entry – On Collage & Technique

2:00 – 2:15 p.m. Afternoon Workshop – Sasha LaPoint: Hybrid Moments

3:30 – 4:45 p.m. Afternoon Workshop – Quenton Baker: Theft as Practice

3:30 – 4:45 p.m. Afternoon Workshop – Anna Quinn: Blow Your Mind 

3:30 – 4:45 p.m. Afternoon Workshop – Arna Botempts Hemenway: Getting Unstuck: What to do when you don’t know what to do

7:00 – 8:20 p.m. Readings – Sam Ligon, Kim Addonizio, Sasha LaPointe, Gary Copeland Lilley

9:00 – Open Mic

Saturday, July 22^nd

Shuttle to SeaTac and Check Out.