Winter 2012-2013 alumni update: an Oprah pick, a Pushcart nomination & more
Oprah announces conference alumna Ayana Mathis’ debut as the second pick for Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 Our alumni have hardly been hibernating during the autumn and winter months. Since our last update we’ve received word of publications and accolades galore — rewards for long seasons of toil. On the fiction side, 2011 participant Ayana Mathis‘ [...]
September alumni news: publication success & a new local workshop
We continue to hear good publishing news from alumni — including the latest crop of participants from 2012. Fiction writer Kirstin Chen, who was in Lan Samantha Chang’s workshop this year, learned while at the conference that her debut novel will be published in the fall of 2013 by Amazon Publishing. A 2011-2012 Steinbeck Fellow [...]
Faculty Profile: Brenda Hillman
~ by Aaron DiFranco Few writers match the tenacity, courage and range of Brenda Hillman in seeking out a congruence between one’s non-verbal experience of the world and how language reflects it. Her poems command not only a fiercely demanding verbal range, but are also fearless in their investigations of the often-disconcerting emptiness of that [...]
We’re hearing good news from alumni !
Unbeknownst to each other, Kathleen Rowell (2010) and Thomas Linville (2010, 2011) both entered the Mighty River Short Story Contest in 2010 ~ and won prizes. Peterson received First Prize for her story “Resolution,” and Linville Second Prize for his story “Portland ” This is almost like a Trifecta, isn’t it? Okay, a Bi-fecta. The Mighty [...]
Faculty profile: Lan Samantha Chang
For last year’s conference, fiction and poetry assistant Jeannie Kim-McPherson penned this introduction to Lan Samantha Chang’s work. Lan Samantha Chang’s stories have appeared in The Atlantic and twice in The Best American Short Stories, and her books have won numerous awards and accolades, including the PEN Beyond Margins Award. She has received writing fellowships [...]
Allardice Publication News
Participant Jim Allardice sent the following message: Hello everyone, Just a quick note to let you know that the story I workshopped in Samantha Chang’s workshop last summer has been accepted in Folio. The story I workshopped with Robert Boswell was published in The Literary Review in January, and another story, which I submitted to [...]
Ron Carlson, Man of Many Genres
This year, we welcome the return of Ron Carlson, whose renown as a master of the short story is matched only by his excellence and generosity as a teacher—as those in his workshop are bound to discover. And this year, Carlson returns with a just-published first book of poetry under his belt. With five novels, [...]
Publication and Prize for Valerie Fioravanti (2009)
We recently heard from Valerie Fioravanti, (participant in 2009), that her first book,Garbage Night at the Opera, won the 2011 Chandra Prize and is forthcoming from BkMk Press. Congratulations are in high order! Valerie seems to be the very center of a vibrant writing community in Sacramento, CA,where she teaches, coaches and encourages writers. She [...]
Introducing Kevin Brockmeier
In an interview last year with Granta magazine, Kevin Brockmeier was asked about the premise of his highly acclaimed novel, The Illumination (2011), in which human suffering and pain become visible. Brockmeier cites G.K. Chesterton’s The Poet and the Lunatics in his response, “[Chesterton] says of St. Peter that, dying upside [...]
Scholarship Opportunity!
Eager to attend the conference but could use some financial support to pull it off? Here’s a scholarship opportunity offered throughthe Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP). The $500 award, offered to a poet and a fiction writer each, can be applied to any member conference of the Writing Conference and Centers, a division of AWP. We are [...]
About the Blog
This blog is for the Napa Valley Writers' Conference community: once and future attendees, friends of the conference, faculty and staff. Please contribute comments, which are reviewed before publishing (usually within 24-48 hours of submission). We look forward to the conversation!