Special Events at the 2013 Taos Summer Writers' Conference
Sagebrush Inn Conference Center, 1508 Paseo Del Pueblo Sur
Taos, New Mexico
2013 Keynote Speaker: Natasha Trethewey - Free and Open to the Public
Sunday, July 14, 2013 – 8 pm
Natasha Trethewey (photo Joel Benjamin) is the 19th United States Poet Laureate (2012-2013). In his citation, Librarian of Congress James Billington wrote "Her poems dig beneath the surface of history—personal or communal, from childhood or from a century ago—to explore the human struggles that we all face." She is the author of Thrall (2012), Native Guard (Houghton Mifflin), for which she won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize, Bellocq’s Ophelia (Graywolf, 2002), which was named a Notable Book for 2003 by the American Library Association, and Domestic Work (Graywolf, 2000). She is also the author of Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast (University of Georgia Press). A memoir is forthcoming in 2013.
Her first collection of poetry, Domestic Work (2000), was selected by Rita Dove as the winner of the inaugural Cave Canem Poetry Prize for the best first book by an African American poet and won both the 2001 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Book Prize and the 2001 Lillian Smith Award for Poetry. In her introduction to the book, Dove said, "Trethewey eschews the Polaroid instant, choosing to render the unsuspecting yearnings and tremulous hopes that accompany our most private thoughts—reclaiming for us that interior life where the true self flourishes and to which we return, in solitary reverie, for strength."
Trethewey is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Study Center, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Bunting Fellowship Program of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard. Her poems have appeared in such journals and anthologies as American Poetry Review, Callaloo, Kenyon Review, The Southern Review, New England Review, Gettysburg Review, and several volumes of The Best American Poetry. At Emory University she is Robert W. Woodruff Professor of English and Creative Writing. In addition to being United States Poet Laureate, she is the State Poet Laureate of Mississippi, from 2012-2016.
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Faculty Readings and Signings - Free and open to the public
Monday, July 15 at 5:30 p.m.
B. K. Loren, John Dufresne, Laura Brodie, Pam Houston
Tuesday, July 16 at 5:30 p.m.
Demetria Martinez, Antonya Nelson, Frank Huyler, Wally Lamb
Wednesday, July 17 at 5:30 p.m.
Luci Tapahonso, Emily Rapp, Trey Ellis, Brent Spencer
Thursday, July 18 at 5:30 p.m.
Jonis Agee, Rob Wilder, Summer Wood
Friday, July 19 at 5:30 p.m.
Priscilla Long, Robert Boswell, Joy Harjo
Saturday, July 20 at 5:30 p.m.
Hilda Raz, Annie Dawid, Stephen Benz, Daniel Mueller, Amy Beeder, Valerie Martinez
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Round Tables
Monday, July 15 at 1 p.m.
Elise McHugh and Hilda Raz - UNM Press
Tuesday, July 16 at 1 p.m.
Wally Lamb
Wednesday, July 17 at 1 p.m.
Trey Ellis
Jane von Mehren
Thursday, July 18 at 1 p.m.
Allison Hunter and Alexis Hurley, InkWell Management, New York: The Ins and Outs of Agenting
Sarah Martinez: Small Press Info
Sarah Martinez is the author of Sex and Death in the American Novel, which has been nominated for the Washington Book Award. She is currently editing for Booktrope Publishing and previously served as Senior Editor for Pink Fish Press. Sarah began her career as Editorial Assistant for the literary agent Andrea Hurst. Visit her website at www.mywildskies.com.
Not all books need to take the same path. There are thousands of small presses operating today, publishing everything from poetry chapbooks to novels and literary magazines. Having a press behind you—even a small one—offers a certain amount of validation, which is still important to some authors. Many small presses provide the same services as traditional publishers, only on a much smaller scale, and the quality of the services will vary. This roundtable will offer an opportunity to examine what to look for in a small press and what to avoid as well as to discuss the benefits of going with a small press as opposed to self-publishing or taking the traditional route.
Friday, July 19 at 1 p.m.
Stephen Benz - Online Writing Resources
David Perez: Bookstores, Independent and Otherwise: What Writers Need to Know
Saturday, July 20 at 1 p.m.
Lara Reznik/Violet Crown Publishers - The New Alternative for Authors - Indie Publishing
1. pros & cons of indie vs. legacy publishing
2. One writer's journey in achieving substantial success as an indie-author.
3. How Violet Crown Publishers was formed to help other authors through the maze of what it takes to make it as an indie-author today.
Lara Reznik, a native New Yorker, attended college at the University of New Mexico and currently divides her time between her homes in Taos, NM and Austin, TX. As an English major, Lara studied under esteemed authors Rudolfo Anaya and the late Tony Hillerman, and attended a summer program at the prestigious Iowa Writers Workshop.
Lara published her first novel, The Girl From Long Guyland in November 2012. The novel ranked #1 during its recent Kindle promotion and has over 80,000 Kindle downloads. In addition to her novels, Lara has written and optioned three screenplays that have garnered semifinalist and finalist wins in the Austin Heart of Film, Southwest Writers, TV Writer, Chesterfield and Writer's Digest contests. Currently, Lara is working on a new novel based on her screenplay, The M&M Boys and is a co-partner in Violet Crown Publishers.
Sunday, July 21 at 1 p.m.
John Kremer: How to Outsell a New York Times Bestseller: Book Promotion and Marketing
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Open Mic
Sagebrush Inn Cantina
Thursday, July 18, 8:00 - 10:00 p.m.
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