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John Leggett / November 11, 1917 – January 25, 2015

Program Director Anne Evans authored this tribute.  Jack Leggett at the 2014 conference. (Photo by Mary Shea) John Leggett, or Jack as we all knew him, was co-founder and Program Director of the Napa Valley Writers’ Conference from 1987 until his passing last Sunday at age 97. Jack loved to tell the story of meeting […]

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Meet the 2014 Faculty: Justin Torres

This profile was penned by Angela Pneuman, who will introduce Justin at the conference’s opening reading July 27, and who will appear on our “First Books” panel for conference participants. Her first novel, Lay It on My Heart, was released July 1.     Justin Torres’ bestselling novel, We the Animals, is a raw, devastating, […]

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Meet the 2014 Faculty: Brian Teare

A former Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, Brian Teare is the recipient of poetry fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the MacDowell Colony, the Marin Headlands Center for the Arts and the American Antiquarian Society. He’s the author of four full-length books, The Room Where I Was Born, Sight Map, the Lambda-Award-winning Pleasure, […]

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Meet the 2014 Faculty: Welcome Back, Ayana Mathis

Assistant Fiction Director Patrick Vogelpohl penned this profile of Ayana Mathis. Before Ayana Mathis earned praise for her debut novel The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, she was a standout student at the 2011 Napa Valley Writers’ Conference. “She was clearly a gifted and exciting writer who came to us as she was finishing up her […]

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Meet the 2014 Faculty: Kazim Ali

Assistant Poetry Director Iris Dunkle interviewed poet Kazim Ali for the journal Chautauqua in 2012. In the excerpt below, they discuss history, place and their intersection. You may read the full interview in PDF format or visit the journal Web site for further info.   Note: Kazim Ali and I met at the Crooker Art […]

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Meet the 2014 faculty: Brenda Hillman

Poetry Assistant Iris Dunkle penned this profile. Returning to our faculty this year is the highly esteemed poet, Brenda Hillman. Hillman has been on the faculty at Napa Valley Writers’ Conference for over two decades and anyone who has had the distinct pleasure of working with her in a workshop setting has left with a […]

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Meet the 2014 faculty: Michael Byers

By fiction director Lakin Khan At our conference in 2010, Michael Byers had the honor of reading the first night, a plein-air reading in the cool of approaching nightfall, sunset plying along the mountain behind him, full moon nosing its way up in the East. The onrush of words and sensation was the perfect opening […]

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Meet the 2014 Faculty: Camille Dungy

This profile is based on an introduction written by conference assistant Kathleen Winter for the 2013 conference. Camille Dungy holds degrees from Stanford and the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. She was born in Denver. Camille is author of three collections of poems: Smith Blue, which won the 2010 Crab Orchard Open Book Prize; Suck […]

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Meet the 2014 faculty: Lan Samantha Chang

This profile is based on an introduction written by conference director Andrea Bewick for the 2013 conference. It’s our great pleasure to welcome Lan Samantha Chang back to Napa and the writers’ conference.  Sam has been teaching at the conference for many years and, as with many of our beloved faculty who return, we think […]

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Fall 2013 alumni update: renown from near and far

Conference alumni have been as busy as ever since our last alumni update in January — earning plaudits and publication around the world. Beverly Bie Brahic (2009, 2010, 2011) wrote to let us know her second collection, White Sheets, was a finalist for the 2012 Forward Prize, the United Kingdom’s top poetry prize. Eavan Boland, […]

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