Contact:

Sharon Oard Warner, 277-6248 Laurie Mellas-Ramirez, 277-5915

January 23, 2002

REGISTRATION UNDERWAY FOR SUMMER WRITERS' CONFERENCE

Registration is underway for the University of New Mexico's fourth annual Taos Summer Writers' Conference set for July 13-19 at the Sagebrush Inn Conference Center.

Sponsored by the Creative Writing Program and the Department of English, the conference offers workshops in fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, travel writing, memoir, nature writing, publishing, comedy writing, and autobiographical fiction. Early evening writer's craft panels, a new addition this year, will be free to the public.

Faculty for 2002 include 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. Sharon Oard Warner, novelist and director of the UNM Creative Writing Program, founded and directs the Conference.

Tuition for weekend courses is $235 and for weeklong workshops, $485. Participants may register for both weekend and weeklong courses for a special combined tuition rate of $660. Tuition includes registration in the course/workshop of your choice and special events such as the weekend social, an opening night New Mexican dinner, writers' craft panels, visit to the D. H. Lawrence Ranch, and closing barbecue.

"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."

Conference participants may apply for scholarships after completing registration. Applications for five merit-based scholarships -- two for poetry, two for fiction, and one specifically for a Taos resident - are due May 15. Application for the D. H. Lawrence Fellowship for emerging writers is due April 15.

Participants come from across the U. S. and Canada. Attendee Leo Love of Phoenix says the conference gave him the creative boost needed to apply for and earn the 2001 Creative Writing Fellowship in Poetry from the Arizona Commission on the Arts. He is now a major donor to the conference.

To reserve a space in a course/workshop, a non-refundable deposit of $100 for weekend courses, $150 for weeklong workshops and $200 for combined weekend/week-long registration is required. All deposits will be applied to cost of tuition. The balance of tuition is due June 1. Special conference rate lodging is available at the Sagebrush Inn or the adjacent Comfort Suites. Registration forms and more information including answers to 10 frequently asked questions are available at www.unm.edu/~taosconf.

For information, call Sharon Oard Warner, 277-6248.

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The University of New Mexico
Public Affairs Department
Hodgin Hall, 2nd floor
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0011
Telephone: (505) 277-5813
Fax: (505) 277-1981