David St. John Adam Haslett Daniel Alarcon
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D. A. Powell Michelle Huneven
Samantha Chang Jane Hirshfield Major Jackson
LEADING AUTHORS FEATURED IN SERIES OF READINGS AND LECTURES JULY 24-29 Napa Valley Writers’ Conference Hosts Acclaimed Poets and Fiction Writers
Contact: Andrea Bewick, managing director, abewick@napavalley.edu, 707-967-2900 x1611
Or Catherine Thorpe, publicist, catherine@napawritersconf.org, 707-478-4307
The 31st annual Napa Valley Writers’ Conference July 24-29 will host an internationally acclaimed faculty of poets and fiction writers whose works explore a richly textured web of landscapes and concerns, from war-torn South America to urban Philadelphia, the financial misdeeds of corporate America to life and death in the shadow of AIDS.
The authors will speak in a series of public lectures and readings during the conference, which is hosted and sponsored by Napa Valley College.
The eight poets and fiction writers who serve as conference faculty are united by the critical acclaim for their work. In fiction, Adam Haslett’s Union Atlantic has been called “the first great novel of the 21st century,” while Michelle Huneven’s novel Blame was a finalist for the 2009 National Book Critics’ Circle Award. Daniel Alarcón’s novel Lost City Radio prompted Granta magazine to name him one of America’s top young novelists, while Lan Samantha Chang, director of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, recently published All is Forgotten, Nothing is Lost, which National Public Radio called “a full and resonant story of the pains and perils, falsehoods and truths of trying to be an American artist . . . unforgettable.”
The poetry faculty includes Jane Hirshfield, whose collection After was shortlisted for England’s T.S. Eliot Prize and selected as one of the top books of 2006 by the Washington Post. D.A. Powell’s Chronic and Major Jackson’s Leaving Saturn were both finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Award, while David St. John, author of nine volumes of poetry, was a finalist for the National Book Award for Study for the World’s Body: New and Selected Poems.
Morning and afternoon lectures on the art and craft of writing will be held at the Napa Valley College Upper Valley Campus in St. Helena.
Evening readings are scheduled for various venues throughout the Napa Valley. The full schedule of readings and lectures is as follows:
Sunday, July 24
• 7:30 p.m.: Wine reception and reading with poet D. A. Powell and fiction writer Daniel Alarcón at the Upper Valley Campus, 1088 College Ave., St. Helena
Monday, July 25
• 9 a.m.: Poetry lecture by Jane Hirshfield, Upper Valley Campus • 1:30 p.m.: Fiction lecture by Adam Haslett, Upper Valley Campus • 7:30 p.m.: Wine reception and reading with poet David St. John and fiction writer Lan Samantha Chang, Rubicon Estate, 1991 St. Helena Highway, Rutherford
Tuesday, July 26
• 9 a.m.: Poetry lecture by D.A. Powell, Upper Valley Campus • 1:30 p.m.: Fiction lecture by Daniel Alarcón, Upper Valley Campus • 7:30 p.m.: Wine reception and reading with poet Major Jackson and fiction writer Michelle Huneven, Robert Mondavi Winery, 7801 St. Helena Highway, Oakville
Wednesday, July 27
• 9 a.m.: Poetry lecture by David St. John, Upper Valley Campus • 1:30 p.m.: Fiction lecture by Lan Samantha Chang, Upper Valley Campus • 6:30 p.m.: Wine reception and reading with poet Jane Hirshfield and fiction writer Adam Haslett, Educational Center for the Performing Arts, Napa Valley College, 2277 Napa-Vallejo Highway (Highway 221), Napa
Thursday, July 28
• 9 a.m.: Poetry lecture by Major Jackson • 1:30 p.m.: Fiction lecture by Michelle Huneven, Napa Valley College Upper Valley Campus in St Helena
Admission to evening readings costs $10. Admission to the daytime lectures is $25 apiece, $90 for the four-lecture series in either poetry or fiction, or $175 for all eight lectures. Tickets for all public events may be purchased at the door by cash or check. Students with valid student IDs will be admitted free of charge to all lectures and evening readings.
For more information about the conference and the reading and lecture series, visit napawritersconf.org or facebook.com/napawritersconference.
*About the Napa Valley Writers’ Conference* For 31 years, the Napa Valley Writers’ Conference has given emerging and established writers the opportunity to convene for fellowship and serious work with a focus on craft. Faculty members have included Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winners, U.S. Poets Laureate and a winner of the Nobel Prize for Poetry. The conference is sponsored and hosted by Napa Valley College. For more information, visit napawritersconf.org and "like" the conference at facebook.com/napawritersconference.