The 2018 Post-MFA Alumni Conference

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!  http://friendsofwriters.org/the-2018-alumni-conference/

A FEW REASONS TO ATTEND FROM FELLOW WALLIES

The prospect of the afterlife is a unsettling one. Though we are told numerous times that we will be given all we will need, that what we learn within the current-student-Wally cocoon will be enough, that what comes after is merely a less bureaucratic version of what is coming now, I for one believed precisely none of it. Not a damn word. Why should I? How can you know if a thing is good until that thing is upon you? Which suddenly the afterlife is, and there you are, a writer reborn, raw and on your own again. But here is the tremendous, singular gift of the Warren Wilson education: you really are given all, or at least most, of what you need. This is lonely, unforgiving work and thankfully, we need not do it alone for 365 days a year. There is a span of seven golden haloed days we may spend with our tribe and remember why we do what we do. Last year was my first at an alumni conference and the prospect of missing another is difficult to conceive as the handful of days I spent with people who took my writer-ness as a given and never for granted, who delivered me back to the self I treasure most, the private self from which I write—this is a communion I imagine doing without. —Jen Funk

I went to my first conference three years after graduation, knowing nobody and feeling like a general writing failure. What I found that summer was the most supportive, smart, generous community of writers I’ve ever known. At each Wally Camp I get good work done—new pieces, deep dives into work-in-progress with friends—but the real reason I return is all the friendships I’ve made over the years. —Annie Kim

For me the best part of the conference is connecting across generations, those both before and after my time at Wally, and also those in different genres. In particular, one year in California, we did a cold reading of “A Midsummer’s Night Dream” and a bit of improv. I’ve yet to experience anything in a reunion or conference format that matched that! —George Higgins

The alumni conferences have been great experiences for me. I’ve gone to half a dozen since I graduated in 2002, and the most valuable thing about them is the deep and lasting friendships I’ve made, as well as the friendships I’ve deepened with people I was in the program with. I recommend doing a workshop or manuscript critique because you really get to know the people in your workshop—in a good way! And the food! Okay, the food has never been a highlight. But I am very excited about this year’s conference at Dominican University in San Rafael because I think the quality of the venue will be a quantum leap improvement over the previous Bay Area conferences at St. Mary’s in Moraga—which were good too! And the readings are fantastic and inspiring. If you’ve ever read at a reading where the barista just wishes you’d shut up and the people waiting to read at the open mike just want you to stop so they can do their thing (which they may well be writing during your reading), you know how valuable it is to have a group of extraordinary listeners as well as writers to hang with.

—Robert Thomas