INDIANA UNIVERSITY WRITERS’ CONFERENCE

JUNE 3-7, 2017

IUWC.INDIANA.EDU

77th Annual Indiana University Writers’ Conference Will Bring Diverse Award-Winning Faculty to Bloomington

Headliners include Chris Abani, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Morgan Parker

The Indiana University Writers’ Conference will bring an exceptionally diverse and award-winning set of writers to town June 3-7, 2017. The seventy-seventh annual conference features workshops by:

• Chris Abani,​ whose 2015 book, The Secret History of Las Vegas won the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America, is also the recipient of the PEN USA Freedom-to-Write Award, the Prince Claus Award, a Lannan Literary Fellowship, a California Book Award, a Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, a PEN Beyond the Margins Award, the PEN Hemingway Book Prize and a Guggenheim Award. His books (fiction, poetry, and essays) have been published in several languages.
• Hugo-award winning author, Mary Robinette Kowal’s ​debut novel Shades of Milk and Honey was nominated for the 2010 Nebula Award for Best Novel, and in 2008, she won the Campbell Award for Best New Writer, while three of her short fiction works have been nominated for the Hugo Award: “Evil Robot Monkey” in 2009 and “For Want of a Nail” in 2011, which won the Hugo for short story that year. She is also a professional puppeteer.
• Poet Morgan Parker​ is the author of There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé and Other People’s Comfort Keeps Me Up At Night, which was selected by Eileen Myles for the 2013 Gatewood Prize and a finalist for the Poetry Society of America’s Norma Farber First Book Award.

Classes at the IUWC will be taught by:

• Graphic memoirist Amy Kurzweil​ is the author of Flying Couch: a graphic memoir, which the New York Times named an “Editor’s Choice” and one of the “2016 Season’s Best New Graphic Novels.” Her comics appear in The New Yorker and other publications, and her short stories have been published by The Toast, The Awl, Hobart, Shenandoah, and elsewhere.
• Fiction writer Alexander Weinstein​ is the Director of The Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing and the author of the short story collection Children of the New World, which the New York Times, described as “…contain[ing] moments of moral complexity and, even more challenging — and more moving — moments of grace.” In 2015, he won the 40th Short-Short Fiction Award Winner from New Millennium Writing
• Poet Rickey Laurentiis​ is the author of Boy with Thorn, selected by Terrance Hayes for the 2014 Cave Canem Poetry Prize, winner of the 2016 Levis Reading Prize, and named one of the Top 16 Best Poetry Books by Buzzfeed. He is the recipient of 2013 Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and a 2012 Ruth Lilly Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation.

Registration for the conference is open at http://www.iuwc.indiana.edu/registration/ Bob Bledsoe, director of the IUWC for the past twelve years, said, “Our visiting faculty this year is a dream team of interesting, diverse writers. Participants get to work directly with them in an inspiring environment, with a lot of time for casual book talk, too.”

Starting Saturday, June 3, each night at 8 PM, the IUWC will hold readings at the TED JONES PLAYHOUSE in Bloomington, featuring the visiting faculty, as well as local authors, Samuel Autman (DePauw University), Samrat Upadhyay (Indiana University- Bloomington), and Adrian Mateka (Indiana University- Bloomington). These readings are free and open to the public.