During the Port Townsend Writers’ Conference, a rich and diverse gathering of prose writers and poets read from their work.

Readings are free, and open to the public at the Joseph F. Wheeler Theater. View the entire Readings schedule.

Friday, July 17, 2015
7 pm: Melissa Febos and Erin Belieu

Melissa Febos is the author of Whip Smart (2010).  A three-time MacDowell Colony fellow, she has received fellowships from Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Vermont Studio Center, and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. Her essays have won awards from Prairie Schooner and StoryQuarterly, and she is on the Board of Directors of Vida: Women in Literary Arts.

Febos has taught at SUNY Purchase College, the Gotham Writers’ Workshop, The New School, Sarah Lawrence College, New York University, and Utica College. She currently teaches at Monmouth University.

Febos has contributed to publications such as The New York Times, Salon, Bomb (magazine), Hunger Mountain, Prairie Schooner, The Kenyon Review, Post Road, Dissent, The Southeast Review, Redivider, The Rambler, The Huffington Post, Bitch Magazine and The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Erin Belieu is the author of three  collections of poetry. Her first book, “Infanta,” was a winner of the National Poetry Series, selected by Hayden Carruth. “Infanta” was also chosen as a best book of the year by The Washington Post and Library Journal.

Her second collection, “One Above & One Below,” was the winner of the Midland Authors Prize in poetry and the Ohioana prize, and her most recent collection, “Black Box,” was a finalist in 2007 for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

In addition, Erin is the co-founder and co-director of VIDA, a literary organization that seeks to explore critical and cultural perceptions of writing by women.