INTIMATE WRITING WORKSHOPS WITH A FOCUS ON CRAFT
READINGS, CRAFT TALKS, AND COMMUNITY CLASSES OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
SAVE THE DATE for our 45th annual conference: July 26 – 31, 2026
Craft talks, evening readings, and community classes are always open to the public.
Stay tuned for our 2026 faculty announcement in December
Thanks to our wonderful 2025 FACULTY
Victoria Chang – Brenda Hillman – Major Jackson – Brian Teare – Lan Samantha Chang – Mitchell S. Jackson – Margot Livesey – Sarah Thankam Mathews – Robert Hass Full faculty bios here
Poetry Special Guests: Caroline Goodwin – Didi Jackson
Napa, CA
Since 1981, the Napa Valley Writers’ Conference has provided literary fellowship and a craft-focused experience among the foothills and vineyards that have made this region famous.
News
2025 Faculty Spotlight: Brenda Hillman
Brenda Hillman is the author of 11 collections of poetry, most recently In a Few Minutes Before Later. Her previous [...]
2025 Faculty Spotlight: Victoria Chang
Victoria Chang’s most recent book of poems is With My Back to the World, published in 2024. It received the [...]
2023 Special Guest Spotlight: Katie Farris
Katie Farris is a poet, writer of hybrid forms, and translator. She is the author of Standing in the Forest [...]
Key Dates
March 2026 – NVWC 2026 applications open
April 2026 – NVWC 2026 applications close
May 2026 – NVWC 2026 acceptance notifications
July 26 – 31, 2026 – NVWC 2026 – 45th conference
- workshops, lectures & readings
Testimonials
“The spirit of Napa is one of generosity and support, with little focus given to professionalization, which often kills inspiration. I keep coming back to the conference each year because I want to turn my attention entirely to the study and to the creation of poetry, and unlike so many other conferences, Napa stands for that.”
“The conference fosters an amazing literary community, and I’m still in touch with classmates from our workshop. I deeply appreciate how my time at the conference shaped my development as a writer.”
“The support I received from everyone, teacher, students, staff, was the wind I needed to believe my words could fly. In a very literal way, the time and space provided by the conference helped me plant the seeds to what would become a book seven years later.”
