Press Releases

June 20, 2001
Writers Conference To Be Held At College

Contact:
Jane Finalborgo
Darren Johnson
Patricia Conway
(631) 287 8313
Fax: (631) 283 4081

Southampton College of Long Island University will hold its 26th Annual Summer Writers Conference from June 29 through July 7. The conference provides a forum for writers of all genres to study and discuss writing. This year's conference will offer a reading/lecture series, where distinguished authors present their insights on the craft of writing, as well as workshops with prominent writers of fiction, nonfiction and poetry. The series will focus on the topic Publishers and Publishing and will take place at 8:00 p.m. in Duke Lecture Hall of Southampton College.

The participants are as follows:

Friday, June 29 - Billy Collins, widely regarded as America's favorite living poet, is the author of several collections of poetry, including Picnic, Lightening, The Art of Drowning, and Questions About Angels.

Saturday, June 30 - Roger Rosenblatt, is the host of Not The News with Roger Rosenblatt, which airs on WPBX 88.3 on Friday evenings. He is a contributing editor and writer for Time and The New Republic, and appears as a regular essayist on PBS Newshour. Rosenblatt is the author of various books and the recipient of numerous awards, including an Emmy, two George Polk Awards, and the George Foster Peabody Award.

Sunday, July 1 - Matthew Klam was named one of the twenty best young fiction writers in America by The New Yorker in 1999. He is a 1997 O. Henry Award winner. His first book, Sam The Cat and other stories, was published by Random House in 2000 and selected by Borders for their New Voices series.

Monday, July 2 - Stefan Kanfer is the author of ten books of both fiction and nonfiction, including the recent biography Groucho: The Life and Times of Julius Henry Marx. A writer and editor at Time for more than 20 years, Kanfer served as cinema and theater reviewer, essayist, and Senior Editor of the magazine's book review.

Tuesday, July 3 - Larry Heinemann is the author of three novels, including Paco's Story, which received the National Book Award. A recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, he is currently the Writer-in-Residence at De Paul University, Chicago.

Thursday, July 5 - Robert Phillips, poetry editor for the Texas Review, is the author of six widely acclaimed books of poetry, most recently Spinach Days. His last collection, Breakdown Lane, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and runner-up for the Poets' Prize.

Friday, July 6 - Kaylie Jones is the author of the novels Celeste Ascending and A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries, which was adapted for the screen by Merchant-Ivory.

Workshops in the program are scheduled for the week and include short story, screenwriting, fiction and poetry. Call the Southampton College Summer Programs office for further details at (631) 287-8175.