Contact:	Sharon Oard Warner, 277-6248 Laurie Mellas-Ramirez, 277-5915
February 28, 2002 WRITERS' CONFERENCE ADDS NEW AWARD FOR TAOS RESIDENT Application due April 15 An award specifically designed for Taos area writers, the Taos Resident Writer Award, has been added to the list of scholarship opportunities this year at the University of New Mexico's fourth annual Taos Summer Writers' Conference. The conference, set for July 13-19 at the Sagebrush Inn Conference Center, is sponsored by the Creative Writing Program and the UNM Department of English. Writing workshops make up the core of the conference. Topics for 2002 are fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, travel writing, memoir, nature writing, publishing, comedy writing and autobiographical fiction. The program also includes readings, special events and new writer's craft panels free and open to the public. The faculty for 2002 come from near and far: Jonis Agee, Alison Hawthorne Deming, Elizabeth Hadas, Pam Houston, Laurie Kutchins, Sandra Lynn, E. A. Mares, Gregory Martin, Carolyn Meyer, Debra Monroe, Pat Mora, Daniel Mueller, Joseph Skibell and Brent Spencer. All bring experience with the West or Southwest to the program. Sharon Oard Warner, novelist and director of the UNM Creative Writing Program, founded and directs the conference, which offers instruction and inspiration for writers of all kinds. "The Conference is designed to be inclusive rather than exclusive, and so we welcome beginning as well as advanced writers, " said Warner. "I subscribe to the notion that writers are part of a community that stretches back though time. The Taos conference offers an opportunity to come together and learn from one another, to honor our past-D. H. Lawrence, for instance-and reimagine our future." The new Taos Resident Writer Award will provide the cost of tuition to one Taos-area writer based on writing samples submitted before April 15. Other support opportunities at the conference include four merit-based scholarships--two for poetry, two for fiction--and the D. H. Lawrence Fellowship for emerging writers. Scholarship applications are due May 15, and fellowship applications, April 15. Writers may apply for the Taos Resident Writer Award prior to registering for the conference. Scholarship and fellowship applicants must register for a workshop before applying. Writers from across the U. S. and Canada attend the Taos Summer Writers' Conference. Attendee Leo Love of Phoenix says the Conference gave him the creative boost needed to earn a fellowship in poetry from the Arizona Commission on the Arts. He is now a major donor. Participants register for single workshops (weekend or week-long) or a combination of each. Tuition costs are $235 (weekend), $485 (week-long) and $660 (combined), which cover registration fees and special events such as the weekend social, an opening night New Mexican dinner, writers' craft panels, visits to the D. H. Lawrence Ranch, and the closing evening barbecue. Registration forms are available at the conference website (www.unm.edu/~taosconf), along with answers to 10 frequently asked questions. For information, call Sharon Oard Warner, 505-277-6248. ### Conference Contact Sharon Oard Warner 277-6248 (W), 890-1421 (H) swarner@unm.edu --Author of Deep in the Heart (novel) --Associate Professor of English, University of New Mexico --Director, Creative Writing Program, UNM --Director, Taos Summer Writers' Conference Press Contact Laurie Mellas-Ramirez 277-5915 (W) lmellas@unm.edu --Senior Public Affairs Representative, UNM 2002 Faculty available for comment/interview Gregory Martin 277-6145 (W), 265-5471 (H) gmartin@unm.edu --Author of Mountain City (memoir) --Assistant Professor of English, University of New Mexico --2002 Taos workshop: Memoir Daniel Mueller 277-6120 (W), 878-9823 (H) dmueller@unm.edu --Author of How Animals Mate (stories) --Assistant Professor of English, University of New Mexico --2002 Taos workshop: Autobiographical Fiction Alison Hawthorne Deming 520-626-5880 (W), 520-622-0991 (H) aldeming@aol.com --Author of The Edges of the Civilized World, Writing the Sacred Into the Real, and Temporary Homelands (non-fiction) --Director, University of Arizona Poetry Center --2002 Taos workshop: Travel Writing

The University of New Mexico
Public Affairs Department
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Telephone: (505) 277-5813
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