Rosemary Beach Spring Writer's Conference May 11-14, 2011

[Teresa]

Rosemary Beach Spring Writer's Conference

The Spring Writers? Conference will bring together a talented group of authors and professors to lead and inspire those engaged in the craft of writing. Conference includes general sessions, writing exercises, craft classes and evening receptions. Presenters and participants will read excerpts from their published works followed by group discussion, literary dialogue, and book signings.

WHEN: Wednesday, May 11 at 9:00am - May 14 at 12:00pm (Printable Complete Schedule)

WHERE: Rosemary Beach Town Hall

Seven featured authors are:

• LYNNE BARRETT is the author of The Secret Names of Women and (forthcoming) Magpies, and co-edited Birth: A Literary Companion. She has received the Edgar Award for best mystery story and a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship. She teaches at Florida International University and edits The Florida Book Review.
• CINDY CHINELLY is a poet and short story writer, the author of the chapbook The Coralroot (Livingston University Press). She teaches creative writing at Florida International University and is co-editor of the anthology, Having a Wonderful Time: An Anthology of South Florida Writers.
• WILLIAM COBBis the author of seven novels, the latest of which is The Last Queen of the Gypsies (Newsouth). His 1991 novel A Walk Through Fire (Morrow) was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and his short story collection Somewhere In All This Green (Black Belt Press) was awarded the Alabama Library Association Fiction Book of the Year in 2000. He was the Harper Lee Award winner in 2007.
• JOHN DUFRESNE is the author of several novels [Louisiana Power & Light, Love Warps the Mind a Little, Deep in the Shade of Paradise, and Requiem Mass]. He has also written two collections of stories [The Way That Water Enters Stone and Johnny Too Bad] and two guides to writing fiction [The Lie That Tells a Truth and Is Life Like This?] He teaches creative writing at Florida International University in Miami.
• FRANK GIAMPIETRO?s first book of poems Begin Anywhere was published by Alice James Books in 2008. He is the editor and designer of the online poetry journal, La Fovea and Poems by Heart. He received his PhD in English from Florida State University in August, 2010 and is the 2010-2012 resident scholar at The Southern Review.
• MICHAEL LISTER, an award-winning novelist, grew up in North Florida near the Apalachicola River where most of his books are set. Lister became the youngest chaplain within the Florida Department of Corrections?a unique experience that led to his critically acclaimed mystery series featuring prison chaplain John Jordan (Power in the Blood, Blood of the Lam, Flesh and Blood, The Body and the Blood and the forthcoming Blood Sacrifice). His literary thriller, Double Exposure, won a Florida Book Award and is currently being turned into a feature film. Lister writes a popular weekly column on art and life titled Of Font and Film which includes reviews of film and fiction.
• LAURA LEE SMITH short fiction was selected by guest editor Amy Hempel for inclusion in New Stories from the South: The Year?s Best, 2010. Her work has also appeared in The Florida Review, Natural Bridge, Bayou and other journals, and it received the Snake Nation Press prize for short fiction. She teaches creative writing at Flagler College and works as an advertising copywriter.

Make your reservation for four days of creative writing, readings and the fellowship of writers.

detailed conference schedule
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source: Rosemary Beach Blog

 

[bluemtnrunner]

I'm in!!!

 

[Teresa]

Michael Lister joins Spring Writers' Conference

Michael Lister joins faculty of the Spring Writers? Conference

?Micheal Lister is a terrific writer, a poet whose language is evocative, rich and muscular.? Marcus Sakey

A native Floridian, award-winning novelist, Michael Lister, grew up in North Florida near the Gulf of Mexico and the Apalachicola River, beneath slash pines and Spanish moss draped oak limbs, in a small town world famous for tupelo honey.

Truly a regional writer, his canvas is not a central, major city (there are none in North Florida), but a region?small towns (THUNDER BEACH), river swamps (DOUBLE EXPOSURE), massive prisons in rural areas (THE BODY AND THE BLOOD).

HEADED TO THE BIG SCREEN -- This dark, pulse-pounding, art house thriller aims to go into production in the fall 2011.

Captivated by story since childhood, Michael has a love for language and narrative inspired by the Southern storytelling tradition that captured his imagination and became such a source of meaning and inspiration, he pursued and received undergraduate and graduate degrees in theology with an emphasis on myth and narrative within religion.

In the early 90s, Lister became the youngest chaplain within the Florida Department of Corrections. For nearly a decade, he served as a contract, staff, then senior chaplain at three different facilities in the Panhandle of Florida?a unique experience that led to his first novel, 1997?s critically acclaimed, POWER IN THE BLOOD. It was the first in a series of popular and celebrated novels featuring ex-cop turned prison chaplain, John Jordan. Subsequent books in the series include BLOOD OF THE LAMB, FLESH AND BLOOD, and THE BODY AND THE BLOOD, and each takes readers through the electronically locked gates of the chain-link fences, beneath the looping razor wire glinting in the sun, and into the strange world of Potter Correctional Institution, Florida?s toughest maximum security prison.

Michael Lister won a Florida Book Award for his first literary novel, DOUBLE EXPOSURE, a book, according to the Panama City News Herald, that ?is lyrical and literary, written in a sparse but evocative prose reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy.? It is a contemplation of life and death, art and meaning, set deep in the swamps of the Apalachicola River, a thriller about a wildlife photographer whose camera traps capture a crime, that shows the beauty and danger of the Panhandle paradise.

A committed environmentalist, Michael works to protect the area he so loves, setting up the Mother Earth Fund (named after a character from DOUBLE EXPOSURE) for environmental conservation and education and serving on the board of directors of the Apalachicola Riverkeeper.

For the past seven years, Lister has written for, edited, and operated the oldest newspaper in Gulf County, The Gulf County Breeze. One of the last independent paper in the region, it began in 1925.

His love of story and drama led him to write and produce plays and to begin The Tupelo, a community theater that features his original work.

A screenwriter and filmmaker, Michael worked for three years as the senior staff writer for Triple Horse Entertainment, one of the South?s largest production companies, and continues to write scripts for the company today. But his first love and greatest passion is the novel?what he refers to as the center of his creative universe.

Michael also writes a popular and highly praised weekly column on art and meaning and life titled Of Font and Film (Of Font and Film), which includes reviews of film and fiction.

In addition to writing suspenseful literary crime novels, Lister writes historical thrillers, such as THE BIG GOODBYE, featuring Jimmy "Soldier" Riley, a PI in Panama City during World War II (FloridaNoir.com), and short stories, which have appeared in such collections as DELTA BLUES, NORTH FLORIDA NOIR, and now FLORIDA HEAT WAVE, which he edited.

Lister?s latest standalone literary thrillers include THUNDER BEACH, BURNT OFFERINGS, and SEPARATION ANXIETY. When he isn?t writing, he studies writing, film, religion, and philosophy, teaches college, operates a charity, and plays basketball. Visit Michael Lister for more information.

The Rosemary Beach Spring Writers? Conference includes general sessions, writing exercises, craft classes and evening receptions. Presenters and participants will read excerpts from their published works followed by group discussion, literary dialogue, and book signings. Lynne Barrett, Cindy Chinelly, William Cobb, John Dufresne, Frank Giampietro, Michael Lister, and Laura Lee Smith

Make your reservation four days of creative writing exercises, craft classes, readings and receptions.
Registration fee: $200
also, now offering:
Student rate: $150
Conference details: www.conferenceforwriters.com
Contact Malayne DeMars at malayne.demars@gmail.com , 850-231-7382

Sponsored by The Rosemary Beach Foundation and The Merchants of Rosemary Beach