Tag Archive for: Post-MFA Conference|Warren Wilson

From Peter Klank (fiction, ’85):

The Annual Goddard/Warren Wilson Post-MFA Writing Conference got underway on Sunday with a reception, dinner, and evening readings that began with a 1978 Goddard graduate and proceeded on into the 21st century. We’re moving on to classes, panels, and caucuses (and readings every evening, of course), as well as poetry and fiction workshops, two Manuscript Reviews (groups of three each who for well over a month have been reading and considering one another’s book-length poetry collections, and who will be meeting each morning for two hours for the next week to discuss responses to and considerations of same), and a Fiction Roundtable (ditto, for book-length fiction). As well as classes on craft and teaching, we’re having one each on e-publishing, self-publishing, and the state of the print publishing world. The food, believe it or not, is good, we’ll have another reception when the short-stayers arrive Wednesday and, of course, a dance on Saturday night in Mt. Holyoke College’s Student Center, where we’ll have access to a top-flight sound system. (And we have several accomplished musicians amongst us who aren’t going to get out of here without providing at least a performance or two.) There’s a great indie bookstore and a gourmet deli just across the street and, rumor has it, three restaurant/taverns as well. It was hot as hell and then rained like hell, and everyone is delighted and excited and relieved to be here.

Hey Everyone,

A final shout-out, and then you won’t have me kicking you around any more: Final drop-dead end-of-the-line you’ll-be-sorry-if-you-don’t deadline to register for this year’s Goddard/Warren Wilson Post-MFA Writing Conference is this Friday, June 29. No late fee.

You’ve heard it all — the nightly readings, the good friends, the new friends, the new *readers,* the time to write, the workshops, Fiction Roundtable, Poetry Manuscript Reviews (yes, there are two of them this year), the dance, and so far it looks like: a caucus titled “The Writer who Loves Printed Books in the Digital Age,” a panel on doing (historical and other) research for fiction/non-fiction/poetry, classes “Creative Nonfiction: Boundaries and Ethics,” “Merry Christmas to Me: the Decision to Self-Publish,” one on Midwestern Gothic in poetry, and Marcia Pelletiere will be offering “more of an Experiment than a Class…I’ve worked with a group dream process for over 25 years, and it has occurred to me that some aspects of that process might provide an interesting way to work with imagery in a collaborative setting.” Have an image or character or setting you’re working on currently? Bring it on down to the rest of us, “Something like opening a window in a stuffy room….” And more in the works.

Don’t kick yourself for waiting till next year; email your intentions to [email protected] and then register and pay, electronically or by snail-mail.  Info and links at:

Friends of Writers: Conference Info

Teach a class, take a nap, write a poem, get up too early and go bird watching, take another nap and then write another poem. And Dance, if you like.

See you there.

Peter Klank
Fiction ’85

The 2012 Post-MFA Conference is only a few months away.  Remember, registration closes June 16th.

The Conference will surprise you. But the only way to know that is to come. Each year is different, and that’s the beauty of the thing. A conference is not a residency without faculty and it’s not a reunion. It’s a small summer oasis filled with peers who will amaze and encourage you, with laughter, with as much or as little work as you’d like. But the very best part of the conferences is meeting Wallys who were in the program at different times over many years – creating a lovely confusion of dates and faces. At last summer’s conference the attendees raised $900 earmarked for scholarships for recent graduates. But there are opportunities for everyone. So come. You’ll be happy. You’ll be surprised.”  –Nancy Koerbel

For more information, visit the Conference Info page at Friends of Writers.