We recently put the final, celebratory finish to the Autumn Writers’ Intensive, in which fiction and poetry writers worked intimately with Rebecca Brown and Ilya Kaminsky. Morning workshops, afternoon conversations and writing time, and two readings–a participant reading over wine and a public reading featuring Rebecca and Ilya–were some of the highlights of the experience.

We are very close to rolling out registration and details for 2009 offerings. May 7-10, Poet Carolyn Forché and novelist Micheline Aharonian Marcom will be leading workshops in writing in witness to global trends. How do we, as writers, bear witness to the events of our time through literary craft?

The 2009 Port Townsend Writers’ Conference will take place the week of July 12-19, featuring Chris Abani, Peter Orner, Mark Doty, Robert Wrigley, Kim Barnes, Tony Cohan, Denise Chávez, Liliana Valenzuela, and Adrian Castro leading workshops in fiction, nonfiction, and cross-genre prose in writing about family.

September 17-20, poet Quincy Troupe will be leading a "Jazz and the Word" workshop focusing on how to use the language of jazz as a mechanism for accessing new ways to tell stories.