The University of North Dakota Writers Conference is an annual literary event held at the University of North Dakota

University of North Dakota

The University of North Dakota is a public university in Grand Forks, North Dakota, USA. Established by the Dakota Territorial Assembly in 1883, six years before the establishment of the state of North Dakota, UND is the oldest and largest university in the state and enrolls over 14,000 students. ...

 (UND) located in Grand Forks, North Dakota

Grand Forks, North Dakota

Grand Forks is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat of Grand Forks County. According to the 2010 census, the city's population was 52,838, while that of the city and surrounding metropolitan area was 98,461...

. The week-long Writers Conference is known for being one of the most distinguished cultural events on campus. It brings prominent writers from the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and abroad to Grand Forks.

Number	Year	Theme	Participants
40th	2009	Wit	Steve Almond Steve Almond Steve Almond is an American short story writer and essayist. He is the author of eight books.-Life:He was raised in Palo Alto, California, and graduated from Henry M. Gunn High School. He received his undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University. He spent seven years as a newspaper reporter,...	Charles Baxter (Presidential Lecture)	Marco Candida	Chuck Klosterman Chuck Klosterman Charles John "Chuck" Klosterman is an American author and essayist who has written for The New York Times Magazine, The Believer, and The Washington Post, and has written books focusing on American popular culture....	Jacqueline Osherow Jacqueline Osherow Jacqueline Osherow is an American poet, and Distinguished Professor at University of Utah.-Life:She was raised in Philadelphia.She graduated from Radcliffe College with a BA magna cum laude, and from Princeton University with a PhD....	Karen Rushow	Greg Williamson Greg Williamson Greg Williamson is an American poet. He is most known for the invention of the "Double Exposure" form in which one poem can be read three different ways: solely the standard type, solely the bold type in alternating lines, or the combination of the two. Williamson is also the youngest poet in the...
39th	2008	Revolutions	Russell Banks Russell Banks Russell Banks is an American writer of fiction and poetry.- Biography :Russell Banks was born in Newton, Massachusetts on March 28, 1940. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He lives in upstate New York, and has been named a New York State Author. He is also... (Presidential Lecture)	Junot Díaz Junot Díaz Junot Díaz is a Dominican-American writer and creative writing professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology . Central to Díaz's work is the immigrant experience...	Alexandra Fuller Alexandra Fuller Alexandra Fuller is an Anglo-African author, who currently lives in the U.S. state of Wyoming.-Biography:Her first book was Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, a memoir of life with her family living all around Africa...	Alice Fulton Alice Fulton Alice Fulton is an American author of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction.- Biography :Fulton was born and raised in Troy, New York, the youngest of three daughters. Her father was the proprietor of the historic Phoenix Hotel, and her mother was a visiting nurse. She began writing poetry in high school...	Peter Kuper Peter Kuper Peter Kuper is an American alternative cartoonist and illustrator known for his autobiographical, social, and political observations.-Early life:...	Salman Rushdie
38th	2007	Writing the Body	Stuart Dybek Stuart Dybek -Personal life:Dybek was born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Chicago's Little Village and Pilsen neighborhoods in the 1950s and early 1960s. Dybek graduated from St. Rita of Cascia High School in 1959...	Mary Gaitskill Mary Gaitskill Mary Gaitskill is an American author of essays, short stories and novels. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, Esquire, The Best American Short Stories , and The O. Henry Prize Stories .-Life:Gaitskill was born in Lexington, Kentucky...	Anne Harris (Painter)	Li-Young Lee Li-Young Lee Li-Young Lee is an American poet. He was born in Jakarta, Indonesia, to Chinese parents. His maternal grandfather was Yuan Shikai, China's first Republican President, who attempted to make himself emperor...	Timothy Liu Timothy Liu Timothy Liu is an American poet and the author of such books as Bending the Mind Around the Dream's Blown Fuse, For Dust Thou Art, Of Thee I Sing, Hard Evidence, Say Goodnight, Burnt Offerings and Vox Angelica. He is also the editor of Word of Mouth: An Anthology of Gay American Poetry...	Leslie Adrienne Miller Leslie Adrienne Miller Leslie Adrienne Miller is the author of five collections of poems.Professor of English at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, Miller holds a B.A. from Stephens College, an M.A. from the University of Missouri, and an M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and a Ph.D...	Michelle Richmond Michelle Richmond Michelle Richmond is an American novelist and essayist.Richmond's first book, the story collection The Girl in the Fall-Away Dress, won the Associated Writing Programs Award for Short Fiction in 2000 and was published by University of Massachusetts Press in 2001. Her first novel, Dream of the Blue...	Miller Williams Miller Williams Miller Williams is an American contemporary poet, as well as a translator and editor. He has authored over twenty-five books and won several awards for his poetry. His accomplishments have been chronicled in Arkansas Biography. He is perhaps best known for reading a poem at President Clinton's...   (Presidential Lecture)
37th	2006	Border Crossings	Carol Gilligan Carol Gilligan Carol Gilligan is an American feminist, ethicist, and psychologist best known for her work with and against Lawrence Kohlberg on ethical community and ethical relationships, and certain subject-object problems in ethics. She is currently a Professor at New York University and a Visiting Professor...	Barry Lopez Barry Lopez Barry Holstun Lopez is an American author, essayist, and fiction writer whose work is known for its environmental and social concerns.-Biography:...   (Presidential Lecture)	Robin Magowan	Sam Pickering	Mark Salzman Mark Salzman Mark Joseph Salzman is an American writer. Salzman is best known for his 1986 memoir Iron & Silk, which describes his experiences living in China as an English teacher in the early 1980s....	Fan Shen	Nance van Winckel	Branca Vilela
36th	2005	Hope/Illusion	Chris Belden	Carolyn Forché Carolyn Forché Carolyn Forché is an American poet, editor, translator, and human rights advocate.-Life:Forché was born in Detroit, Michigan, on April 28, 1950, to Michael Joseph and Louise Nada Blackford Sidlosky. Forché earned a B.A...	Charles Johnson Charles Johnson Charles Johnson, Charlie Johnson, Charley Johnson or Chuck Johnson may refer to:-American public officials:*Charles Johnson , Democratic-Republican who represented 8th congressional district, 1801–1802...	Marilyn Nelson Marilyn Nelson Marilyn Nelson is an American poet, translator and children's book author. She is the author or translator of twelve books and three chapbooks.-Early life:...	Kathleen Norris Kathleen Norris Kathleen Thompson Norris was an American novelist and wife of fellow writer Charles Norris, whom she wed in 1909...	Jane Urquhart Jane Urquhart Jane Urquhart, OC is a Canadian novelist and poet.-Biography:Born 200 miles north of Thunder Bay, Ontario in Little Longlac , Ontario, Jane Urquhart is the third of three children and the only daughter of Marian and Walter Carter, a prospector and mining engineer...	Jane Varley
35th	2004	35th Anniversary Writers Conference	Elmaz Abinader	Tony Buba	Annie Dawid	Louise Erdrich Louise Erdrich Karen Louise Erdrich, known as Louise Erdrich, is an author of novels, poetry, and children's books featuring Native American heritage. She is widely acclaimed as one of the most significant writers of the second wave of what critic Kenneth Lincoln has called the Native American Renaissance... (Presidential Lecturer)	Albert Goldbarth Albert Goldbarth Albert Goldbarth is an American poet born January 31, 1948 in Chicago. He is known for his prolific production, his gregarious tone, his eclectic interests and his distinctive 'talky' style. He has been a Guggenheim fellow and won the National Book Critics Circle award in 1991 and 2001, the only...	Tony Khalife	Marilynne Robinson Marilynne Robinson -Biography:Robinson was born and grew up in Sandpoint, Idaho, and did her undergraduate work at Pembroke College, the former women's college at Brown University, receiving her B.A., magna cum laude in 1966, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She received her Ph.D...	Mark Turcotte Mark Turcotte Mark Turcotte is a Native American poet. He has published two books of poetry, Exploding Chippewas and Feathered Heart.Turcotte is currently a visiting assistant professor of English at in Chicago, IL.- External links :* * *...	Larry Woiwode Larry Woiwode Larry Alfred Woiwode is an American writer who lives in North Dakota, where he has been the state's Poet Laureate since 1995. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, The Atlantic Monthly, Harpers, Gentleman's Quarterly, The Partisan Review and The Paris Review...
34th	2003	Art & Science	Natalie Angier Natalie Angier Natalie Angier is a nonfiction writer and a science journalist for the New York Times.- Life :...	Rafael Campo Rafael Campo Rafael Campo Pomar was President of El Salvador 12 February 1856 - 1 February 1858. Campo was elected president on 30 January 1856. He turned over power to his vice president, Francisco Dueñas, on 12 May of the same year, but resumed the presidency on 19 July...	Devra Davis Devra Davis Devra Lee Davis is an American epidemiologist and writer. She was born on June 7th, 1946, in Washington, DC, the daughter of Harry B. and Jean Langer Davis, and was raised in Donora and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania....	Alison Hawthorne Deming Alison Hawthorne Deming Alison Hawthorne Deming is an American poet, and essayist.-Life:Deming is a descendant of Nathaniel Hawthorne. She worked in health care for fifteen years.She graduated in 1983 with a M.F.A...	Thomas Disch	Ted Mooney Ted Mooney Ted Mooney is an American novelist and short story writer; He has published four novels: Easy Travel to Other Planets , Traffic and Laughter , Singing into the Piano , and The Same River Twice,...	Pattiann Rogers Pattiann Rogers Pattiann Rogers is an American poet who has published 11 books and received numerous awards, grants and fellowships.She was born in Joplin, Missouri, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a bachelor's degree from the University of Missouri in 1961...	Oliver Sacks Oliver Sacks Oliver Wolf Sacks, CBE , is a British neurologist and psychologist residing in New York City. He is a professor of neurology and psychiatry at Columbia University, where he also holds the position of Columbia Artist...	Julia Whitty
33rd	2002	Explorations	Kate Daniels Kate Daniels for the Kate Daniels urban fantasy mystery series, see Ilona AndrewsKate Daniels is an American poet.-Life:...	Sharon Doubiago	Eddy Harris	Ursula Hegi Ursula Hegi Ursula Hegi is a German-born American writer.She was born Ursula Koch in 1946 in Düsseldorf, Germany, a city that was heavily bombed during World War II. Her perception growing up was that the war was avoided as a topic of discussion despite its evidence everywhere, and The Holocaust was a...	Bill Holm Bill Holm Bill Holm may refer to:*Bill Holm , American artist, author and art historian*Bill Holm , American poet, essayist, memoirist, and musician from Minnesota...	David Treuer David Treuer David Treuer is a writer of Ojibwe and Jewish descent. He was born in Washington, D.C. and raised on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota. He attended Princeton University and was graduated in 1992 after writing two senior theses, one in the anthropology department and one in...	Sara Wheeler
32nd	2001	Worklife/Lifework	Peter Carey	Gary Fisketjon	Kent Haruf Kent Haruf Kent Haruf is an award-winning American novelist.-Life:Haruf was born in Pueblo, Colorado, the son of a Methodist minister...	Natasha Tretheway	Joy Williams Joy Williams Joy Williams is an American singer-songwriter and a member of the folk duo The Civil Wars.-Studio albums:* Joy Williams, 2001 [Reunion]* By Surprise, 2002 [Reunion]* Genesis, 2005 [Reunion]...	Frederick Wiseman Frederick Wiseman Frederick Wiseman is an American documentary filmmaker. He came to documentary filmmaking after first being trained as a lawyer...	Ofelia Zepeda Ofelia Zepeda Ofelia Zepeda is a Tohono O'odham poet and intellectual. Zepeda is a professor of linguistics at the University of Arizona and is well known for her efforts in the preservation of her native language and promotion literacy in it. She is also known for her work as a consultant and advocate on...
31st	2000	Writing War	John Balaban John Balaban John B. Balaban is an American poet and translator, an authority on Vietnamese literature.-Biography:Balaban was born in a housing project neighborhood in Philadelphia to Romanian immigrant parents, Phillip and Alice Georgies Balaban...	Eavan Boland Eavan Boland -Biography:Boland's father, Frederick Boland, was a career diplomat and her mother, Frances Kelly, was a noted post-expressionist painter. She was born in Dublin in 1944. At the age of six, Boland's father was appointed Irish Ambassador to the United Kingdom; the family followed him to London,...	Tessa Bridal	Robert Olen Butler Robert Olen Butler Robert Olen Butler is an American fiction writer. His short-story collection A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1993.-Early life:...	Helen Fremont	Arnold Isaacs	Ha Jin Ha Jin Jīn Xuěfēi is a contemporary Chinese-American writer and novelist using the pen name Ha Jin . Ha comes from his favorite city, Harbin.-Early life:...	Louis Simpson Louis Simpson Louis Aston Marantz Simpson is an American poet. He won the 1964 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his work At The End Of The Open Road.-Life:...	Barbara Sonneborn
30th	1999	Expressing the Sacred	Joseph Bruchac Joseph Bruchac Joseph Bruchac is a writer of books relating to the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, with a particular focus on northeastern Native American and Anglo-American lives and folklore. He has published works of poetry, novels, and short stories. He is from Saratoga Springs, New York, and is of...	Robert Clark Robert Clark Robert Clark may refer to:*Robert Clark , American-born Canadian television actor*Robert Clark , American football player...	Mark Doty Mark Doty Mark Doty is an American poet and memoirist.-Biography:He was born in Maryville, Tennessee, earned his Bachelor of Arts from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, and received his Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from Goddard College in Vermont.In 1989, his partner Wally Roberts tested...	Galway Kinnell Galway Kinnell Galway Kinnell is an American poet. He was Poet Laureate of Vermont from 1989 to 1993. An admitted follower of Walt Whitman, Kinnell rejects the idea of seeking fulfillment by escaping into the imaginary world. His best-loved and most anthologized poems are "St...	Victor Masayesva Jr.	Peter Matthiessen Peter Matthiessen Peter Matthiessen is a two-time National Book Award-winning American novelist and non-fiction writer, as well as an environmental activist...	Ruhama Veltfort	Terry Tempest Williams Terry Tempest Williams Terry Tempest Williams , is an American author, conservationist and activist.Williams’ writing is rooted in the American West and has been significantly influenced by the arid landscape of her native Utah in which she was raised...
29th	1998	The Use of History	Toi Derricotte Toi Derricotte Toi Derricotte is an American poet and a professor of writing at University of Pittsburgh.At Wayne State University she earned a B.A. in 1965 and an M.A...	Patricia Hampl Patricia Hampl Patricia Hampl is an American memoirist, writer, lecturer, and educator. She is a recipient of the prestigious Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, teaches in the MFA program at the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis and is one of the founding members of the Loft Literary Center.-Life:Hampl was...	John Hanson John Hanson John Hanson was a merchant and public official from Maryland during the era of the American Revolution. After serving in a variety of roles for the Patriot cause in Maryland, in 1779 Hanson was elected as a delegate to the Continental Congress...	Paulette Jiles Paulette Jiles Paulette Jiles-Johnson is an American-born Canadian poet and novelist. Born in Salem, Missouri, she was educated at the University of Illinois in Spanish literature...	Arnost Lustig Arnošt Lustig Arnošt Lustig was a renowned Czech Jewish author of novels, short stories, plays, and screenplays whose works have often involved the Holocaust.Lustig was born in Prague...	Josef Skvorecky Josef Škvorecký Josef Škvorecký, CM is a leading contemporary Czech writer and publisher who has spent much of his life in Canada. He and his wife were long-time supporters of Czech dissident writers before the fall of communism in that country...	August Wilson August Wilson August Wilson was an American playwright whose work included a series of ten plays, The Pittsburgh Cycle, for which he received two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama...	Susan Yuzna Susan Yuzna -Life:She has a B.A. in English from the University of Iowa, and an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Montana.She has been resident at several artist colonies, including Yaddo, and MacDowell....
28th	1997	Writing Nature: The Nature of Writing	Susan Griffin Susan Griffin Susan Griffin is an eco-feminist author. She describes her work as "draw[ing] connections between the destruction of nature, the diminishment of women and racism, and trac[ing] the causes of war to denial in both private and public life." She received a MacArthur grant for Peace and International...	Linda Hogan Linda Hogan Linda Hogan may refer to:* Linda Hogan , Native American poet, storyteller, academic, playwright, novelist, environmentalist and writer of short stories...	Garrett Hongo Garrett Hongo Garrett Hongo is a Yonsei, fourth-generation Japanese American academic, poet and academic. The work of this Pulitzer-nominated writer draws on Japanese American history and own experiences.-Educational background:...	Bill McKibben Bill McKibben William Ernest "Bill" McKibben is an American environmentalist, author, and journalist who has written extensively on the impact of global warming. He is the Schumann Distinguished Scholar at Middlebury College...	Bill Morrissey Bill Morrissey Bill Morrissey was an American folk singer/songwriter from New Hampshire. Many of his songs reflect the harsh realities of life in crumbling New England mill towns.-Career:Morrissey was born in Hartford, Connecticut...	Annick Smith Annick Smith Annick Smith is a writer and filmmaker whose work often focuses on the natural world.The daughter of Hungarian émigrés, Smith was born in Paris and raised in Chicago, Illinois. In 1964, she moved to Montana, where she and her husband and sons eventually settled on a ranch in the Blackfoot River...	David Treuer David Treuer David Treuer is a writer of Ojibwe and Jewish descent. He was born in Washington, D.C. and raised on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota. He attended Princeton University and was graduated in 1992 after writing two senior theses, one in the anthropology department and one in...	Meeka Walsh
27th	1996	Living in America	Rosellen Brown Rosellen Brown Rosellen Brown is an American author, and has been an instructor of English and creative writing at several universities, including the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Houston...	Jon Hassler Jon Hassler Jon Hassler was an American writer and teacher known for his novels about small-town life in Minnesota. He held the positions of Regents Professor Emeritus and Writer-in-Residence at St...	Sydney Lea Sydney Lea Sydney Lea is an American poet, novelist, essayist, editor, and professor. His most recent book is A Little Wildness: Some Notes on Rambling , and he has a ninth collection of poetry, Young of the Year, forthcoming from Four Way Books...	Li-Young Lee Li-Young Lee Li-Young Lee is an American poet. He was born in Jakarta, Indonesia, to Chinese parents. His maternal grandfather was Yuan Shikai, China's first Republican President, who attempted to make himself emperor...	David Mura David Mura David Mura is a Japanese American author, poet, novelist, playwright, critic and performance artist. His most recent book is his novel, Famous Suicides of the Japanese Empire...	Susan Power Susan Power Susan Power is a Standing Rock Sioux author from Chicago. She earned her bachelor's degree from Harvard University and a JD from Harvard Law School...	Pattiann Rogers Pattiann Rogers Pattiann Rogers is an American poet who has published 11 books and received numerous awards, grants and fellowships.She was born in Joplin, Missouri, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a bachelor's degree from the University of Missouri in 1961...
26th	1995	States of the Art	Sherman Alexie Sherman Alexie Sherman Joseph Alexie, Jr. is a writer, poet, filmmaker, and occasional comedian. Much of his writing draws on his experiences as a Native American. Two of Alexie's best known works are The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven , a book of short stories and Smoke Signals, a film...	Gordon Henry Jr.	Yusef Komunyakaa Yusef Komunyakaa Yusef Komunyakaa is an American poet who currently teaches at New York University and is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. Komunyakaa is a recipient of the 1994 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, for Neon Vernacular and the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. He also received the Ruth Lilly...	Bharati Mukherjee Bharati Mukherjee Bharati Mukherjee is an award-winning Indian-born American writer. She is currently a professor in the department of English at the University of California, Berkeley.-Background:...	Tim O’Brien Tim O'Brien (author) Tim O'Brien is an American novelist who often writes about his experiences in the Vietnam War and the impact the war had on the American servicemen who fought there...	Sharon Olds Sharon Olds -Life:Sharon Olds was born in 1942 in San Francisco. She was raised as a “hellfire Calvinist”, as she describes it. She says she was by nature "a pagan and a pantheist" and notes "I was in a church where there was both great literary art and bad literary art, the great art being psalms and the bad...	Marge Piercy Marge Piercy Marge Piercy is an American poet, novelist, and social activist. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller Gone to Soldiers, a sweeping historical novel set during World War II.-Biography:...
25th	1994	Homelands	Jonis Agee Jonis Agee Jonis Agee is a writer of short stories, novels, essays, and screenplays. She is the author of thirteen books, including five novels and five collections of short fiction...	Sandra Benitez Sandra Benitez -Life:Her twin sister, Susana, died just 37 days after their birth.A year later, her father, who worked for the U.S. State Department, was assigned to Mexico, where her sister, Anita, was born....	Adrian Louis	John Stone John Stone John Stone may refer to:*John Stone , former Australian Senator and Treasury Secretary*John Stone , baseball outfielder*John Stone , American film producer and screenwriter...	Jervey Tervalon	Larry Watson Larry Watson Larry Watson is an American author of novels, poetry and short stories. He was born in 1947 in Rugby, North Dakota. He grew up in Bismarck, North Dakota. He earned both Bachelors and Masters degrees in fine arts at the University of North Dakota...	James Whitehead James Whitehead (poet) James Tillotson Whitehead was an American poet and novelist. He published four books of poetry and one critically acclaimed novel, Joiner.-Biography:...
24th	1993	La Literatura: Contemporary Latino/Latina Writing	Gloria Anzaldúa	Ana Castillo Ana Castillo Ana Castillo is a Mexican-American Chicana novelist, poet, short story writer, and essayist.- Life and career :Castillo was born and raised in an inner city barrio of Chicago, Illinois. After completing undergraduate studies, she immediately began teaching college courses...	Martín Espada Martín Espada Martín Espada is a Latino poet, and professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he teaches poetry. Puerto Rico has frequently been featured as a theme in his poems.- Life and career :Espada was born in Brooklyn, New York...	Francisco Goldman Francisco Goldman Francisco Goldman is an American novelist, journalist, and Allen K. Smith Professor of Literature and Creative Writing, Trinity College. He is workshop director at , the journalism school for Latin-America created by Gabriel García Márquez...	Luisa Valenzuela Luisa Valenzuela Luisa Valenzuela is a post-'Boom' novelist and short story writer. Her writing is characterized by an experimental, avant-garde style which questions hierarchical social structures from a feminist perspective. She is best known for her work written in response to the dictatorship of the 1970s in...	Ed Vega Ed Vega Edgardo Vega Yunqué was a Puerto Rican novelist and short-story writer who also used the Americanized pen name Ed Vega.- Early years :...
23rd	1992	A Festival of Publishers and Writers	Carol Bly Carol Bly Carol Bly was a teacher and an award-winning American author of short stories, essays, and nonfiction works on writing...	Diane Glancy Diane Glancy Diane Glancy was born in 1941 in Kansas City, Missouri. She is a Cherokee poet, author and playwright. Glancy was awarded a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Missouri in 1964, then later continued her education at the University of Central Oklahoma, earning her a Masters degree in English...	Linda Hasselstrom	William Kloefkorn William Kloefkorn William Charles "Bill" Kloefkorn , was a Nebraska poet and educator based in Lincoln, Nebraska. He was the author of twelve collections of poetry, two short story collections, a collection of children's Christmas stories, and four memoirs...	Ted Kooser Ted Kooser Ted Kooser is an American poet. He served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004 to 2006.-Early Life:...	Lon Otto	David Pichaske	Maura Stanton Maura Stanton -Biography:Maura Stanton was born to Joseph Stanton, a salesman, and Wanda Haggard Stanton, a nurse, in Evanston, Illinois. She received her B.A. from the University of Minnesota in 1969, and her M.F.A. in 1971 from the University of Iowa....	Thom Tammaro	Mark Vinz
22nd	1991	The Literatures of Canada	David Arnason David Arnason David Arnason is a Canadian author and poet who lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with his partner Mhari Mackintosh.-Life:...	Ven Begamudré Ven Begamudré Ven Begamudré is a Canadian writer. He was born in South India and moved with his family to Canada when he was six. He currently divides his time between western Canada and the island of Bali.-Personal profile:...	Di Brandt Di Brandt Di Brandt is an award-winning Canadian poet and literary critic. Despite the similarity of their names, she should not be confused with poet Dionne Brand.-Biography:...	Roch Carrier Roch Carrier Roch Carrier, OC is a Canadian novelist and author of "contes" . He is among the best known Quebec writers in English Canada....	Madeleine Gagnon	Kristjana Gunnars Kristjana Gunnars Kristjana Gunnars is an Icelandic-Canadian poet and novelist. Her volumes of poetry include Settlement Poems, which focuses on 19th century Icelandic settlers in Manitoba, and One-Eyed Moon Maps.-External links:...	W.P. Kinsella	Dorothy Livesay Dorothy Livesay Dorothy Kathleen May Livesay, was a Canadian poet who twice won the Governor General`s Award in the 1940s, and was "senior woman writer in Canada" during the 1970s and 1980s.-Life:...	Michael Ondaatje Michael Ondaatje Philip Michael Ondaatje , OC, is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian novelist and poet of Burgher origin. He is perhaps best known for his Booker Prize-winning novel, The English Patient, which was adapted into an Academy-Award-winning film.-Life and work:...	Carol Shields Carol Shields Carol Ann Shields, CC, OM, FRSC, MA was an American-born Canadian author. She is best known for her 1993 novel The Stone Diaries, which won the U.S. Pulitzer Prize for Fiction as well as the Governor General's Award in Canada.-Biography:Shields was born in Oak Park, Illinois...	David Williamson David Williamson David Keith Williamson AO is one of Australia's best-known playwrights. He has also written screenplays and teleplays.-Biography:...
21st	1990	The Literature of Immigration	Karen Karbo Karen Karbo Karen Karbo is an award-winning American author.Born in Detroit, she is the author of three adult novels: Trespassers Welcome Here, The Diamond Lane, and Motherhood Made a Man Out of Me, all of which were named New York Times Notable Books...	James McAuley James McAuley James Phillip McAuley was an Australian academic, poet, journalist, literary critic and a prominent convert to Roman Catholicism.-Life and career:...	Reginald McKnight Reginald McKnight -Life:McKnight was born 26 February 1956 in Fürstenfeldbruck, Germany to an Air Force family; therefore, he moved around a lot in childhood, although he calls Colorado home...	Lore Segal Lore Segal Lore Segal , née Lore Groszmann, is an American novelist, translator, teacher, and author of children’s books.-Personal life:...	Ron Vossler	Will Weaver Will Weaver Will Weaver, , is an American author.-Background:Weaver was raised on a dairy farm near Park Rapids, Minnesota, where his parents, who were of Scandinavian descent, farmed 150 acres. In Weaver's youth, he enjoyed fishing and participating in sports...	Solveig Zempel
20th	1989	Circle of Many Colors	Gretel Ehrlich Gretel Ehrlich Gretel Ehrlich is an American travel writer, poet, and essayist.Born in 1946 in Santa Barbara, California, she studied at Bennington College and UCLA film school. She began to write full time in 1978, living on a Wyoming ranch, after the death of a loved one. Ehrlich debuted in 1985 with The Solace...	Richard Ford Richard Ford Richard Ford is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist and short story writer. His best-known works are the novel The Sportswriter and its sequels, Independence Day and The Lay of the Land, and the short story collection Rock Springs, which contains several widely anthologized stories.-Early...	William Least Heat-Moon William Least Heat-Moon William Least Heat-Moon, the byname of William Lewis Trogdon is an American travel writer of English, Irish and Osage Nation ancestry. He is the author of a bestselling trilogy of topographical U.S. travel writing.-Biography:...	N. Scott Momaday N. Scott Momaday Navarre Scott Momaday is a Kiowa-Cherokee Pulitzer Prize-winning writer from Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arizona.-Background:...	Leslie Silko	David Solheim	Tobias Wolff Tobias Wolff Tobias Jonathan Ansell Wolff is an American author. He is known for his memoirs, particularly This Boy's Life , and his short stories. He has also written two novels.-Biography:Wolff was born in 1945 in Birmingham, Alabama...
19th	1988	Parent and Child	Michael Dorris Michael Dorris Michael Anthony Dorris was a prominent American novelist and scholar. During his career he presented himself as Native American and this identity was a key part of his professional activities and his public reputation; but its factuality is in doubt...	Louise Erdrich Louise Erdrich Karen Louise Erdrich, known as Louise Erdrich, is an author of novels, poetry, and children's books featuring Native American heritage. She is widely acclaimed as one of the most significant writers of the second wave of what critic Kenneth Lincoln has called the Native American Renaissance...	Patrick Hemingway Patrick Hemingway Patrick Hemingway is Ernest Hemingway's second son, and the first born to Hemingway's second wife Pauline Pfeiffer. During his childhood he travelled frequently with his parents, and then attended Harvard University, graduated in 1950, and shortly thereafter moved to East Africa where he lived for...	Adam Hochschild Adam Hochschild Adam Hochschild is an American author and journalist.-Biography:Hochschild was born in New York City. As a college student, he spent a summer working on an anti-government newspaper in South Africa and subsequently worked briefly as a civil rights worker in Mississippi in 1964...	Mona Simpson Mona Simpson Mona E. Simpson is an American author. She is a professor of English at the University of California, Los Angeles and the Sadie Samuelson Levy Professor in Languages and Literature at Bard College. She won the Whiting Prize for her first novel, Anywhere but Here...	W.D. Snodgrass
18th	1987	Writers of the Purple Sage	Ralph Beer	Joy Harjo Joy Harjo Joy Harjo is a Native American poet, musician, and author of ancestry. Known primarily as a poet, Harjo has also taught at the college level, played alto saxophone with a band called Poetic Justice, edited literary journals, and written screenplays. She is a member of the Muscogee Nation and...	Robert Kammen	Larry McMurtry Larry McMurtry Larry Jeff McMurtry is an American novelist, essayist, bookseller and screenwriter whose work is predominantly set in either the old West or in contemporary Texas...	Paul St. Pierre	Elizabeth Tallent Elizabeth Tallent Elizabeth Tallent is an American fiction writer.-Life:Tallent's short stories have been published in literary magazines and journals such as The New Yorker, Esquire, Harper's Magazine, The Threepenny Review, and North American Review, and her stories have been reprinted in the O...	James Welch
17th	1986	To Make a Prairie	Raymond Carver Raymond Carver Raymond Clevie Carver, Jr. was an American short story writer and poet. Carver is considered a major American writer of the late 20th century and also a major force in the revitalization of the short story in the 1980s....	Ellen Gilchrist Ellen Gilchrist Ellen Gilchrist is an American novelist, short story writer, and poet.-Life:Gilchrist was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and spent part of her childhood on a plantation owned by her maternal grandparents. She earned a bachelor of arts degree in philosophy and studied creative writing, especially...	Rebecca Hill	Maxine Kumin Maxine Kumin Maxine Kumin is an American poet and author. She was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1981-1982.-Early years:...	Jay McInerney Jay McInerney John Barrett McInerney Jr. is an American writer. His novels include Bright Lights, Big City; Ransom; Story of My Life; Brightness Falls; and The Last of the Savages...	Ernest Mickler	Robert Ward Robert Ward Robert Ward is an American composer.-Early work and education:Ward was one of five children of the owner of a moving and storage company. He sang in church choirs and local opera theaters when he was a boy. His earliest extant compositions date to 1934, at a time he was attending John Adams High...	John Yount
16th	1985	Narratives	Ann Beattie Ann Beattie Ann Beattie is an American short story writer and novelist. She has received an award for excellence from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters and a PEN/Bernard Malamud Award for excellence in the short story form. Her work has been compared to that of Alice Adams, J.D. Salinger,...	Sandra Birdsell Sandra Birdsell Sandra Louise Birdsell, CM is a Canadian novelist and short story writer of Métis and Mennonite heritage....	Amy Clampitt Amy Clampitt -Life:Amy Clampitt was born on June 15, 1920 of Quaker parents, and brought up in New Providence, Iowa. In the American Academy of Arts and Letters and at nearby Grinnell College she began a study of English literature that eventually led her to poetry. She graduated from Grinnell College, and from...	Jorie Graham Jorie Graham Jorie Graham is an American poet. The U.S. Poetry Foundation suggests "She is perhaps the most celebrated poet of the American post-war generation". She replaced poet Seamus Heaney as Boylston Professor at Harvard, becoming the first woman to be appointed to this position...	Alex Haley Alex Haley Alexander Murray Palmer Haley was an African-American writer. He is best known as the author of Roots: The Saga of an American Family and the coauthor of The Autobiography of Malcolm X.-Early life:...	Barry Hannah Barry Hannah Howard Barry Hannah was an American novelist and short story writer from Mississippi.The author of eight novels and five short story collections , Hannah worked with notable American editors and publishers such as Gordon Lish, Seymour Lawrence, and Morgan Entrekin...	Norman Mailer Norman Mailer Norman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S...	Thomas McGrath (poet) Thomas McGrath (poet) Thomas Matthew McGrath, was a celebrated American poet....
15th	1984	Nineteen eighty-four Nineteen Eighty-Four Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is a dystopian novel about Oceania, a society ruled by the oligarchical dictatorship of the Party...	Harlan Ellison Harlan Ellison Harlan Jay Ellison is an American writer. His principal genre is speculative fiction.His published works include over 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, teleplays, essays, a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media...	Gay Haldeman	Joe Haldeman Joe Haldeman Joe William Haldeman is an American science fiction author.-Life :Haldeman was born June 9, 1943 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. His family traveled and he lived in Puerto Rico, New Orleans, Washington, D.C., Bethesda, Maryland and Anchorage, Alaska as a child. Haldeman married Mary Gay Potter, known...	Robert Silverberg Robert Silverberg Robert Silverberg is an American author, best known for writing science fiction. He is a multiple nominee of the Hugo Award and a winner of the Nebula Award.-Early years:...	Jane Sturgeon	Theodore Sturgeon Theodore Sturgeon Theodore Sturgeon was an American science fiction author.His most famous novel is More Than Human .-Biography:...	Luisa Valenzuela Luisa Valenzuela Luisa Valenzuela is a post-'Boom' novelist and short story writer. Her writing is characterized by an experimental, avant-garde style which questions hierarchical social structures from a feminist perspective. She is best known for her work written in response to the dictatorship of the 1970s in...	Roger Zelazny Roger Zelazny Roger Joseph Zelazny was an American writer of fantasy and science fiction short stories and novels, best known for his The Chronicles of Amber series...
14th	1983	The Centennial Year	Joseph Brodsky Joseph Brodsky Iosif Aleksandrovich Brodsky , was a Russian poet and essayist.In 1964, 23-year-old Brodsky was arrested and charged with the crime of "social parasitism" He was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1972 and settled in America with the help of W. H. Auden and other supporters...	Carolyn Forché Carolyn Forché Carolyn Forché is an American poet, editor, translator, and human rights advocate.-Life:Forché was born in Detroit, Michigan, on April 28, 1950, to Michael Joseph and Louise Nada Blackford Sidlosky. Forché earned a B.A...	Richard Howard Richard Howard Richard Howard is an American poet, literary critic, essayist, teacher, and translator. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio and is a graduate of Columbia University, where he studied under Mark Van Doren, and where he now teaches...	Bobbie Ann Mason Bobbie Ann Mason Bobbie Ann Mason is an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and literary critic from Kentucky.With four siblings Mason grew up on her family's dairy farm outside of Mayfield, Kentucky. As a child she loved to read, so her parents, Wilburn and Christina Mason, always made sure she had...	James Alan McPherson James Alan McPherson -External links:*...	James Merrill James Merrill James Ingram Merrill was an American poet whose awards include the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for Divine Comedies...	Czeslaw Milosz Czeslaw Milosz Czesław Miłosz was a Polish poet, prose writer and translator of Lithuanian origin and subsequent American citizenship. His World War II-era sequence The World is a collection of 20 "naive" poems. He defected to the West in 1951, and his nonfiction book The Captive Mind is a classic of...
13th	1982	International Writers	Ellen Gilchrist Ellen Gilchrist Ellen Gilchrist is an American novelist, short story writer, and poet.-Life:Gilchrist was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and spent part of her childhood on a plantation owned by her maternal grandparents. She earned a bachelor of arts degree in philosophy and studied creative writing, especially...	Thomas McGrath (poet) Thomas McGrath (poet) Thomas Matthew McGrath, was a celebrated American poet....	Alain Robbe-Grillet Alain Robbe-Grillet Alain Robbe-Grillet , was a French writer and filmmaker. He was, along with Nathalie Sarraute, Michel Butor and Claude Simon, one of the figures most associated with the Nouveau Roman trend. Alain Robbe-Grillet was elected a member of the Académie française on March 25, 2004, succeeding Maurice...	Susan Sontag Susan Sontag Susan Sontag was an American author, literary theorist, feminist and political activist whose works include On Photography and Against Interpretation.-Life:...	Arturo Vivante Arturo Vivante Arturo Vivante was an Italian American writer.He was the son of Leone and Elena DeBosis Vivante . In 1938, the family moved to England...	Derek Walcott Derek Walcott Derek Alton Walcott, OBE OCC is a Saint Lucian poet, playwright, writer and visual artist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992 and the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2011 for White Egrets. His works include the Homeric epic Omeros...
12th	1981	Voices	Esther Broner E. M. Broner Esther M. Broner, best known as E.M. Broner, Ph.D., Professor Emerita was a Jewish American feminist author....	Robert Creeley Robert Creeley Robert Creeley was an American poet and author of more than sixty books. He is usually associated with the Black Mountain poets, though his verse aesthetic diverged from that school's. He was close with Charles Olson, Robert Duncan, Allen Ginsberg, John Wieners and Ed Dorn. He served as the Samuel P...	Etheridge Knight Etheridge Knight Etheridge Knight was an African-American poet who became a notable poet in 1968 with his debut volume, Poems from Prison. The book recalls in verse his eight-year-long sentence after Etheridge was arrested for robbery in 1960...	Denise Levertov Denise Levertov -Early life and influences:Levertov was born and grew up in Ilford, Essex.Couzyn, Jeni Contemporary Women Poets. Bloodaxe, p74 Her mother, Beatrice Spooner-Jones Levertoff, came from a small mining village in North Wales...	Ntozake Shange Ntozake Shange Ntozake Shange born October 18, 1948, is an American playwright, and poet. As a self proclaimed black feminist, much of the content of her work addresses issues relating to race and feminism....	Richard Wilbur Richard Wilbur Richard Purdy Wilbur is an American poet and literary translator. He was appointed the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1987, and twice received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, in 1957 and again in 1989....
11th	1980	The Storyteller	Harry Crews Harry Crews Harry Crews is an American novelist, playwright, short story writer and essayist. He was born in Bacon County, Georgia in 1935 and served in the Marines during the Korean War. He attended the University of Florida on the GI Bill, but dropped out to travel...	Selo Black Crow Selo Black Crow Selo Black Crow was a leader of the Oglala Lakota people, and activist.-Life:He served Paratrooper and Pathfinder during the Korean War, and the Vietnam War.He was an award-winning rodeo rider for many years....	James Crumley James Crumley James Arthur Crumley was the author of violent hardboiled crime novels and several volumes of short stories and essays, as well as published and unpublished screenplays...	James Dickey James Dickey James Lafayette Dickey was an American poet and novelist. He was appointed the eighteenth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1966.-Early years:...	June Jordan June Jordan June Millicent Jordan was a Caribbean American poet, novelist, journalist, biographer, dramatist, teacher and committed activist...	Richard Kostelanetz Richard Kostelanetz Richard Kostelanetz is an American artist, author and critic.He was born to Boris Kostelanetz and Ethel Cory and is the nephew of the composer Andre Kostelanetz....	Leslie Silko
10th	1979	Epitomes, Bombast, and Climaxes	Edward Albee Edward Albee Edward Franklin Albee III is an American playwright who is best known for The Zoo Story , The Sandbox , Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , and a rewrite of the screenplay for the unsuccessful musical version of Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's . His works are considered well-crafted, often...	Robert Bly Robert Bly Robert Bly is an American poet, author, activist and leader of the Mythopoetic Men's Movement.-Life:Bly was born in Lac qui Parle County, Minnesota, to Jacob and Alice Bly, who were of Norwegian ancestry. Following graduation from high school in 1944, he enlisted in the United States Navy, serving...	Frederick Exley Frederick Exley Frederick E. "Fred" Exley, was an American novelist best known as the author of A Fan's Notes.-Biography:Early yearsFred Exley was born March 28, 1929, in Watertown, New York...	N. Scott Momaday N. Scott Momaday Navarre Scott Momaday is a Kiowa-Cherokee Pulitzer Prize-winning writer from Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arizona.-Background:...	Grace Paley Grace Paley Grace Paley was an American-Jewish short story writer, poet, and political activist.-Biography:Grace Paley was born in the Bronx to Isaac and Manya Ridnyik Goodside, who anglicized the family name from Gutseit on immigrating from Ukraine. Her father was a doctor. The family spoke Russian and...	Megan Terry Megan Terry Megan Terry is an internationally known playwright and prolific writer. Terry, born in Seattle, Washington, United States in 1932, had a love for the theatre since the age of seven and became involved with the theatre at an early age...
9th	1978	The Mirror and the Lamp	John Ashbery John Ashbery John Lawrence Ashbery is an American poet. He has published more than twenty volumes of poetry and won nearly every major American award for poetry, including a Pulitzer Prize in 1976 for his collection Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror. But Ashbery's work still proves controversial...	Amiri Baraka Amiri Baraka Amiri Baraka , formerly known as LeRoi Jones, is an American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays, and music criticism...	William Burroughs	Ring Lardner Jr. Ring Lardner Jr. Ringgold Wilmer "Ring" Lardner, Jr. was an American journalist and screenwriter blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studios during the Red Scare of the late 1940s and 1950s.-Early life:...	Tillie Olsen Tillie Olsen Tillie Lerner Olsen was an American writer associated with the political turmoil of the 1930s and the first generation of American feminists.-Biography:...	Eudora Welty Eudora Welty Eudora Alice Welty was an American author of short stories and novels about the American South. Her novel The Optimist's Daughter won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973. Welty was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among numerous awards. She was the first living author to have her works published...
8th	1977	Literature and Film	Harlan Ellison Harlan Ellison Harlan Jay Ellison is an American writer. His principal genre is speculative fiction.His published works include over 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, teleplays, essays, a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media...	George Garrett George Garrett (poet) George Palmer Garrett. was an American poet and novelist. He was the Poet Laureate of Virginia from 2002 to 2006. His novels include The Finished Man, Double Vision, and the Elizabethan Trilogy, composed of Death of the Fox, The Succession, and Entered from the Sun...	John Houseman John Houseman John Houseman was a Romanian-born British-American actor and film producer who became known for his highly publicized collaboration with director Orson Welles from their days in the Federal Theatre Project through to the production of Citizen Kane...	Larry McMurtry Larry McMurtry Larry Jeff McMurtry is an American novelist, essayist, bookseller and screenwriter whose work is predominantly set in either the old West or in contemporary Texas...	Marcel Ophuls Marcel Ophuls Marcel Ophüls is a documentary film maker and former actor.He was born in Frankfurt, Germany, the son of the director Max Ophüls...	Joan Tewkesbury Joan Tewkesbury Joan Tewkesbury is an American film and television director, screenwriter, producer and actress. She had a long association with Robert Altman, writing two of his most acclaimed films, Nashville and Thieves Like Us...
7th	1976	New Journalism and the Novel	Truman Capote Truman Capote Truman Streckfus Persons , known as Truman Capote , was an American author, many of whose short stories, novels, plays, and nonfiction are recognized literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's and the true crime novel In Cold Blood , which he labeled a "nonfiction novel." At...	Ed McClanahan Ed McClanahan Ed McClanahan is an American novelist, essayist, and professor.-Biography:Edward Poage McClanahan was born in Brooksville, Kentucky in 1932 to Edward Leroy and Jesse McClanahan. He attended school there and later in nearby Maysville, Kentucky where the family relocated in 1948. McClanahan...	B.J. Phillips B.J. Phillips B.J. Phillips was an Associate Editor at TIME magazine. She contributed to coverage of the Pentagon Papers.-Life:She attended the University of Georgia in the 1960s.It has been erroneously reported that she graduated from Kenyon College...	Alix Kates Shulman Alix Kates Shulman Alix Kates Shulman is an American writer of fiction, memoirs, and essays, as well as one of the early radical feminist activists of feminism's Second Wave...	Larry Woiwode Larry Woiwode Larry Alfred Woiwode is an American writer who lives in North Dakota, where he has been the state's Poet Laureate since 1995. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, The Atlantic Monthly, Harpers, Gentleman's Quarterly, The Partisan Review and The Paris Review...	Tom Wolfe Tom Wolfe Thomas Kennerly "Tom" Wolfe, Jr. is a best-selling American author and journalist. He is one of the founders of the New Journalism movement of the 1960s and 1970s.-Early life and education:...
6th	1975	Spirit of Place	John Barth John Barth John Simmons Barth is an American novelist and short-story writer, known for the postmodernist and metafictive quality of his work.-Life:...	Wendell Berry Wendell Berry Wendell Berry is an American man of letters, academic, cultural and economic critic, and farmer. He is a prolific author of novels, short stories, poems, and essays...	William Gass	Ken Kesey Ken Kesey Kenneth Elton "Ken" Kesey was an American author, best known for his novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest , and as a counter-cultural figure who considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s. "I was too young to be a beatnik, and too old to be a...	N. Scott Momaday N. Scott Momaday Navarre Scott Momaday is a Kiowa-Cherokee Pulitzer Prize-winning writer from Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arizona.-Background:...	Ishmael Reed Ishmael Reed Ishmael Scott Reed is an American poet, essayist, and novelist. A prominent African-American literary figure, Reed is known for his satirical works challenging American political culture, and highlighting political and cultural oppression.Reed has been described as one of the most controversial...	Alice Walker Alice Walker Alice Malsenior Walker is an American author, poet, and activist. She has written both fiction and essays about race and gender...
5th	1974	City Lights Bookstore City Lights Bookstore City Lights is an independent bookstore-publisher combination that specializes in world literature, the arts, and progressive politics. It also houses the nonprofit City Lights Foundation, which publishes selected titles related to San Francisco culture. It was founded in 1953 by poet Lawrence...  in North Dakota	Gregory Corso Gregory Corso Gregory Nunzio Corso was an American poet, youngest of the inner circle of Beat Generation writers...	Lawrence Ferlinghetti Lawrence Ferlinghetti Lawrence Ferlinghetti is an American poet, painter, liberal activist, and the co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers...	Allen Ginsberg Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...	Michael McClure Michael McClure Michael McClure is an American poet, playwright, songwriter, and novelist. After moving to San Francisco as a young man, he found fame as one of the five poets who read at the famous San Francisco Six Gallery reading in 1955 rendered in barely fictionalized terms in Jack Kerouac's Dharma Bums...	Peter Orlovsky Peter Orlovsky Peter Anton Orlovsky was an American poet.-Life and work:Orlovsky was born in the Lower East Side of New York City, the son of Katherine and Oleg Orlovsky, a Russian immigrant. He was raised in poverty and was forced to drop out of Newtown High School in his senior year so he could support his...	Kenneth Rexroth Kenneth Rexroth Kenneth Rexroth was an American poet, translator and critical essayist. He is regarded as a central figure in the San Francisco Renaissance, and paved the groundwork for the movement...	Gary Snyder Gary Snyder Gary Snyder is an American poet , as well as an essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist . Snyder is a winner of a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry...
4th	1973	Women in the Arts	Gwendolyn Brooks Gwendolyn Brooks Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks was an American poet. She was appointed Poet Laureate of Illinois in 1968 and Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1985.-Biography:...	Carolyn Kizer Carolyn Kizer Carolyn Ashley Kizer is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet of the Pacific Northwest whose works reflect her feminism.-Life and work:...	Myrna Lamb Myrna Lamb Myrna Lamb is an American playwright.Anselma dell'Olio selected her work for a feminist Theater production, at the Martinique Theater, May 1969.-Awards:* 1971 Biennale de Paris production grant...	Mary McCarthy Mary McCarthy Mary McCarthy may refer to:*Mary McCarthy , novelist, critic, and memoirist*Mary McCarthy , former CIA employee accused of leaking information...	Diane Wakoski Diane Wakoski Diane Wakoski is a American poet who is primarily associated with the deep image poets, as well as the confessional and Beat poets of the 1960s.-Biography:...	Sylvia Wilkinson Sylvia Wilkinson Sylvia Wilkinson was born in Durham, North Carolina in the United States. She graduated from Woman's College, now the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, in 1962...
3rd	1972	American Indian Writers Conference	Frederick Manfred Frederick Manfred Frederick Feikema Manfred was a noted Western author.Manfred was born in Doon, Iowa. He was baptized Frederick Feikes Feikema, VII, and he used the name Feike Feikema when he published his first books...	Ed McGaa Ed McGaa Ed McGaa is a member of the Oglala Lakota, and American author.-Life:He received his Bachelor's degree from St. John's University, earned a law degree from the University of South Dakota, and has studied under Chief Eagle Feather and Chief Fool's Crow, Sioux holy men...	Thomas McGrath (poet) Thomas McGrath (poet) Thomas Matthew McGrath, was a celebrated American poet....	Simon Ortiz	Jerome Rothenberg Jerome Rothenberg Jerome Rothenberg is an internationally known American poet, translator and anthologist who is noted for his work in ethnopoetics and poetry performance.-Early life and work:...	James Welch	Ray Young Bear Ray Young Bear Ray Young Bear is a Native American poet and novelist of the Meskwaki tribe.Growing up on the Meskwaki Tribal Settlement in Iowa, he was encouraged to learn English by his maternal grandmother, and he began to translate his poems into that language...
2nd	1971	Northern Plains Writers Conference	David Evans David Allan Evans David Allan Evans USA is an American poet. Since 2002, he is the poet laureate of the U.S. state of South Dakota.-Life:...	Roland Flint Roland Flint Roland Henry Flint was an American poet and professor of English at Georgetown University.-Life:Born in Park River, North Dakota, he attended the University of North Dakota before joining the United States Marine Corps. He served in post-war Korea and then returned to and graduated from the...	Lois P. Hudson Lois P. Hudson Lois Phillips Hudson was an American novelist.-Life:She graduated from Cornell University with a master's degree....	Richard Lyons Richard Lyons (writer) Richard Eugene Lyons was an American poet, and Professor of English at North Dakota State University from 1950 to 1982.-Life:...	Thomas McGrath (poet) Thomas McGrath (poet) Thomas Matthew McGrath, was a celebrated American poet....	John R. Milton John R. Milton John R. Milton was an American writer, and editor of South Dakota Review.-Life:He graduated from the University of Minnesota with a BA and MA in 1951, and from the University of Denver, with a Ph.D...	Antony Oldknow
1st	1970	Southern Writers Conference on the Arts	William Anderson William Anderson (writer) William Anderson - American author, historian and lecturer. He is a specialist in the subject of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her times.His interest in American frontier began after reading Little House on the Prairie...	John C. Carr John C. Carr John C. Carr was an American editor, and Professor Emeritus at the University of Maryland.-Life:From 1965 to 1994, he was Adjunct Professor in the Drama Department at The Catholic University of America....	Fred Chappell Fred Chappell Fred Davis Chappell is an author and poet. He retired after 40 years as an English professor at University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He was the Poet Laureate of North Carolina from 1997-2002...	Jesse Hill Ford Jesse Hill Ford Jesse Hill Ford was an American writer of Southern literature, best known for his critical and commercial success in short fiction as well as the novels Mountains of Gilead and The Liberation of Lord Byron Jones.Born in Troy, Alabama, Ford was raised in Nashville, Tennessee...	George Garrett George Garrett (poet) George Palmer Garrett. was an American poet and novelist. He was the Poet Laureate of Virginia from 2002 to 2006. His novels include The Finished Man, Double Vision, and the Elizabethan Trilogy, composed of Death of the Fox, The Succession, and Entered from the Sun...	Peter Taylor Peter Matthew Hillsman Taylor For other people named Peter Taylor, see Peter Taylor.Peter Matthew Hillsman Taylor was a U.S. author and writer.-Biography:...	James Whitehead James Whitehead (poet) James Tillotson Whitehead was an American poet and novelist. He published four books of poetry and one critically acclaimed novel, Joiner.-Biography:...

A film festival is held in conjunction with each Writers Conference.

External links

• UND Writers Conference website