The Community of Writers is a writers' conference held each summer in Olympic Valley, California. Founded in 1969, it is the oldest annual writers' conference on the
West Coast of the United States
The West Coast of the United States, also known as the Pacific Coast, Pacific states, and the western seaboard, is the coastline along which the Western United States meets the North Pacific Ocean. The term typically refers to the contiguous ...
. The Community of Writers is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization and has a governing Board of Directors.
History
The Community of Writers was founded by novelist Oakley Hall and writer Blair Fuller in 1969. Its first conference was held in August 1970 in the lodges of the ski area; to this day, panels, talks, staff readings and workshops take place in off-season ski lodge facilities. It was originally staffed by San Francisco writers including David Perlman, Walter Ballenger, Barnaby Conrad and
John Leggett
John Ward Leggett (November 11, 1917 – January 25, 2015) was an American writer who served as the third director of the Iowa Writers' Workshop from 1970 to 1987.
Biography
Leggett was born in Manhattan to Bleecker Noel Leggett, a real estate ...
, the latter two of whom went on to found, respectively, the Santa Barbara Writers Conference and the Napa Valley Writers Conference.
In December 2003, the organization changed its name to the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley, in response to some Native Americans’ and others’ belief that in some contexts the term “
squaw
The English word ''squaw'' is an ethnic and sexual slur, historically used for Indigenous North American women. Contemporary use of the term, especially by non-Natives, is considered derogatory, misogynist, and racist.King, C. Richard,De/S ...
” is derogatory. The Board decided it was best to change to name so that the word Squaw Valley referred to the place name only, to distance itself from any historical controversy or discomfort with the word. By 2021, the organization had shortened its name to Community of Writers and switched to calling the valley Olympic Valley.
Workshop
Workshops are held in fiction, (directors Lisa D. Alvarez and
Louis B. Jones
Louis B. Jones is an American author and essayist. He has written five novels, the first three of which were named New York Times Notable Books of their respective years.Robert Hass), and screenwriting (director Diana Fuller). From 1980 until 2000, novelist Carolyn Doty directed the writers workshops William Fox directed the poetry program during the years when it was integrated with prose. Later, poet Galway Kinnell reinvented and directed the Poetry Program for 17 years until 2004. The Screenwriters Workshop was founded by screenwriters Tom Rickman and Gill Dennis. The Community of Writers continues to be directed by Brett Hall Jones.
Admission
The Community has a formal and competitive admissions procedure. Applicants are asked to submit an application fee and a writing sample. Average acceptance rate is 33%. Roughly 50% of those who attend are granted some form of financial aid. Scholarships and financial aid is provided through the donations for alumni, staff and friends. The conference generally offers 8 fiction workshops of 12 participants each and two narrative nonfiction/memoir workshops of 12 each.
Yusef Komunyakaa
Yusef Komunyakaa (born James William Brown; April 29, 1941) is an American poet who 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 ''Ne ...
,
Li-Young Lee
Li-Young Lee (李立揚, pinyin: Lǐ Lìyáng) (born August 19, 1957) is an American poet. He was born in Jakarta, Indonesia, to Chinese parents. His maternal great-grandfather was Yuan Shikai, China's first Republican President, who attempted t ...
Peter Matthiessen
Peter Matthiessen (May 22, 1927 – April 5, 2014) was an American novelist, naturalist, wilderness writer, zen teacher and CIA Operative. A co-founder of the literary magazine ''The Paris Review'', he was the only writer to have won the Nation ...
Gary Snyder
Gary Snyder (born May 8, 1930) is an American poet, essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist. His early poetry has been associated with the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance and he has been described as the "poet laureate o ...
Mark Strand
Mark Strand (April 11, 1934 – November 29, 2014) was a Canadian-born American poet, essayist and translator. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1990 and received the Wallace Stevens Award in 2004 ...
Camille Dungy
Camille T. Dungy (born 1972) is an American poet and professor.
Career
Born in Denver, Colorado, Dungy graduated from Stanford University (BA) and the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, where she earned her MFA.
She is the author of four ...
,
Cornelius Eady
Cornelius Eady (born 1954) is an American writer focusing largely on matters of Race (classification of human beings), race and society. His poetry often centers on jazz and blues, family life, violence, and societal problems stemming from questi ...
Brenda Hillman
Brenda Hillman (born March 27, 1951 in Tucson, Arizona) is an American poet and translator. She is the author of ten collections of poetry: ''White Dress'', ''Fortress'', ''Death Tractates'', ''Bright Existence'', ''Loose Sugar'', ''Cascadia'', '' ...
,
Cathy Park Hong
Cathy Park Hong (born August 7, 1976) is an American poet, writer, and professor who has published three volumes of poetry. Much of her work includes mixed language and serialized narrative. She was named on the 2021 Time 100 list for her writing ...
Sharon Olds
Sharon Olds (born November 12, 1942) is an American poet. Olds won the first San Francisco Poetry Center Award in 1980, the 1984 National Book Critics Circle Award, and the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry.
Steve Almond
Steve Almond (born October 27, 1966) is an American short-story writer, essayist and author of ten books, three of which are self-published.
Life
Almond was raised in Palo Alto, California, graduated from Henry M. Gunn High School and received ...
Sarah Shun-lien Bynum
Sarah Shun-lien Bynum (born February 14, 1972) is a Chinese American writer. She previously taught writing and literature in the Graduate MFA Writing program at Otis College of Art and Design until 2015. Bynum is a graduate of Brown University and ...
Mark Childress
Mark Childress (born 1957 in Monroeville, Alabama) is an American novelist and Southern writer.
Life
Childress grew up in Ohio, Indiana, Mississippi, and Louisiana. He graduated from the University of Alabama, where he was a member of the ...
Sands Hall
Sands Hall (April 17, 1952) is an American writer, theatre director, actor, and musician.
Biography
The daughter of novelist Oakley Hall, she was born in La Jolla, California, and graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Drama from ...
,
Dana Johnson
Dana Johnson (born 1967) is an American writer and Associate Professor at the University of Southern California. Honors include the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, and being named a nominee for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. Her writ ...
Joanne Meschery
Joanne Meschery (born 1941 in Gorman, Texas) is an American fiction writer. She is the author of three novels: ''In a High Place'' (1981), ''A Gentleman's Guide to the Frontier'' (1990), which was nominated for a Pen/Faulkner Award, and ''Home an ...
Robin Romm
Robin Romm is an American writer of fiction and nonfiction books.
Biography
Robin Romm was born in Eugene, Oregon. She attended Brown University, where she studied English literature and won the Barbara Banks Brodsky prize in fiction. After ...
Martin J. Smith Martin may refer to:
Places
* Martin City (disambiguation)
* Martin County (disambiguation)
* Martin Township (disambiguation)
Antarctica
* Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land
* Port Martin, Adelie Land
* Point Martin, South Orkney Islands
Aus ...
,
Gregory Spatz
Gregory Spatz (born 1964) is an American author and musician based in the state of Washington. He is most known for writing the novel ''Inukshuk'' and for ''Half as Happy'', a collection of short stories. He is a teacher at Eastern Washington U ...
,
Elizabeth Tallent
Elizabeth Tallent (born Elizabeth Ann Tallent; August 8, 1954 in Washington, D.C.) is an American fiction writer, academic, and essayist.
Life
Tallent's short stories and essays have been published in literary magazines and journals such as ''The ...
,
Amy Tan
Amy Ruth Tan (born on February 19, 1952) is an American author known for the novel '' The Joy Luck Club,'' which was adapted into a film of the same name, as well as other novels, short story collections, and children's books.
Tan has written ...
,
Hector Tobar
In Greek mythology, Hector (; grc, Ἕκτωρ, Hektōr, label=none, ) is a character in Homer's Iliad. He was a Trojan prince and the greatest warrior for Troy during the Trojan War. Hector led the Trojans and their allies in the defe ...
,
Diana Wagman
Diana most commonly refers to:
* Diana (name), a given name (including a list of people with the name)
* Diana (mythology), ancient Roman goddess of the hunt and wild animals; later associated with the Moon
* Diana, Princess of Wales (1961–1997 ...
, Josh Weil, Tiphanie Yanique, Al Young
For over 30 years, Gill Dennis taught the special Finding the Story Workshop at the Community of Writers until his death in 2015.
Teaching Screenwriters include:
Eugene Corr,
Trey Ellis
Trey Ellis (born 1962) is an American novelist, screenwriter, professor, playwright, and essayist.
He was born in Washington D.C. and graduated from Hopkins School and Phillips Academy, Andover, where he studied under Alexander Theroux before at ...
,
Christopher Monger
Christopher Monger (born 1950, in Taffs Well, Cardiff, Wales) is a Welsh screenwriter, director and editor, best known for writing and directing '' The Englishman who Went up a Hill but Came down a Mountain'' and writing the HBO biopic '' Templ ...
Judith Rascoe
Judith Rascoe (born April 17, 1941) is an American screenwriter known for films like '' Havana'', '' Who'll Stop the Rain'', and '' Road Movie''.
She attended Stanford University, spent a year as a Fulbright scholar at the University of Bristol ...
, Tom Rickman, Don Roos, Camille Thomasson, Christopher Upham, Michael Urban, Jason Wolos
Lisa Alvarez Lisa or LISA may refer to:
People
People with the mononym
* Lisa Lisa (born 1967), American actress and lead singer of the Cult Jam
* Lisa (Japanese musician, born 1974), stylized "LISA", Japanese singer and producer
* Lisa Komine (born 1978), ...
, with a foreword by Richard Ford, was published.
The Community of Writers once sponsored the "Art of the Wild Writers' Conference" along with U.C. Davis, but that program has been discontinued.
Published Alumni Reading Series
Each summer, recently published alumni return to the conference with their recently published books. Alumni who have been part of this reading series include Anita Amirrezvani, Eddy Ancinas, Ramona Ausubel, David Bajo, Charmaine Craig, Eileen Cronin, Heather Donahue, Cai Emmons, Amy Franklin-Willis, Joshua Ferris,
Jamie Ford
Jamie Ford (born July 9, 1968) is an American author. He is best known for his debut novel, ''Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.'' The book spent 130 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List, and was also awarded best "Adult Fiction" b ...
, Vicki Forman, Alison Singh Gee, Tanya Egan Gibson, Alan Grostephan, Judith Hendricks, Susan Henderson, Sara J. Henry, Rhoda Huffey,
Alma Katsu
Alma Katsu (born 1959) is an American writer of adult fiction. Her books have been translated into over a dozen languages, and has been published in the United Kingdom, Brazil, Spain and Italy.
Katsu has also had a 29-year career in the US fede ...
, Krys Lee,
Edan Lepucki Idan or Edan may refers to: People
Given name
*Edan (musician), American alternative hip hop artist
*Edan Everly, American guitarist, musician, singer songwriter
*Edan Gross, American child actor
*Edan Milton Hughes, American art dealer and art co ...
Michael David Lukas
Michael David Lukas (born March 30, 1979) is an American author best known for his internationally bestselling novel, The Oracle of Stamboul, published by HarperCollins and translated into over a dozen languages. Michael's second novel, The Last ...
, Peyton Marshall,
Marisa Matarazzo
Marisa Matarazzo is an American author. She is best known for her collection of interconnected short stories, ''Drenched'', published by Soft Skull Press, an imprint of Counterpoint.
Biography
She is from Los Angeles, California.
She is the daugh ...
, Mark Maynard, Janis Cooke Newman, Jessica O’Dwyer, Aline Ohanesian, Victoria Patterson, Andrew Roe, Adrienne Sharp, Jordan Fisher Smith, Scott Sparling,
Ellen Sussman
Ellen Sussman is a ''New York Times'' bestselling author of four novels. She was born in Trenton, New Jersey and resides in Sebastopol, California with her husband. Sussman's work features settings and characters from France to Bali to the Unite ...
, Lisa Tucker, Brenda Rickman Vantrease, Mary Volmer, Dora Calott Wang, M.D., Andrew Winer, Alia Yunis, Désirée Zamorano among others including those who have returned as teaching staff.
Alumni
Writers and poets who have attended the Community of Writers as participants (students) include:
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ( ; born 15 September 1977) is a Nigerian writer whose works include novels, short stories and nonfiction. She was described in ''The Times Literary Supplement'' as "the most prominent" of a "procession of criticall ...
,
Phillip Barron
Phillip Barron is an American poet and philosopher who teaches at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. His poetry has won the Nicolás Guillén Outstanding Book Award for philosophical literature and has been featured in many national journ ...
,
Aimee Bender
Aimee Bender (born June 28, 1969) is an American novelist and short story writer, known for her surreal stories and characters. She is a 2011 recipient of the Alex Awards.
Biography
Born to a Jewish family, Bender received her undergraduate de ...
Elise Blackwell
Elise Blackwell is an American novelist and writer. She is the author of five novels, as well as numerous short stories and essays. Her books have been translated into five languages, adapted for the stage, and served as the inspiration for the s ...
,
Michael Chabon
Michael Chabon ( ;
born May 24, 1963) is an American novelist, screenwriter, columnist, and short story writer. Born in Washington, DC, he spent a year studying at Carnegie Mellon University before transferring to the University of Pittsburgh, gr ...
,
Meg Waite Clayton
Meg Waite Clayton (born January 1, 1959 in Washington, D.C.) is an American novelist.
Biography
A graduate of University of Michigan Law School, Clayton also earned bachelor's degrees in History and Psychology from the University of Michigan. ...
Selden Edwards
Selden Spaulding Edwards (born 1941) is an American writer and educator. His first novel '' The Little Book'' was a ''New York Times'' bestseller. His second novel ''The Lost Prince'', a sequel to ''The Little Book'', was published by Dutton in ...
,
Jennifer Egan
Jennifer Egan is an American novelist and short-story writer. Egan's novel '' A Visit from the Goon Squad'' won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. As of February 28, 2018, she is the Presiden ...
Lev Grossman
Lev Grossman (born June 26, 1969) is an American novelist and journalist who wrote ''The Magicians Trilogy'': '' The Magicians'' (2009), ''The Magician King'' (2011), and '' The Magician's Land'' (2014). He was the book critic and lead technology ...
,
Patricia Spears Jones
Patricia Spears Jones (born 1951) is an American poet. She is the author of five books of poetry. Jones is the editor of "The Future Differently Imagined", an issue of ''About Place Journal'', the online publication of Black Earth Institute. Pre ...
,
Troy Jollimore
Troy Jollimore is a poet, philosopher, and literary critic.
Career and education
Troy Jollimore was born in 1971 in Liverpool, Nova Scotia and attended the University of King's College in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He earned his Ph.D. in Philosophy ...
Kris Saknussemm
Kris Saknussemm (born June 28, 1961) is a cult novelist and multimedia artist. Born and educated in America, he has lived most of his life abroad, primarily in Australia and the Pacific Islands. He has published ten books that have been trans ...
,
Frederick Reiken
Frederick Reiken (born 1966) is an American author from Livingston, New Jersey He has published three novels to critical acclaim, and he teaches creative writing at Emerson College.
Early life and education
Reiken was born in New Jersey in 19 ...
,
Anne Rice
Anne Rice (born Howard Allen Frances O'Brien; October 4, 1941 – December 11, 2021) was an American author of gothic fiction, erotic literature, and Christian literature.
She was best known for her series of novels ''The Vampire Chronicles''. B ...
,
Elizabeth Rosner
Elizabeth Rosner is an American novelist, nonfiction author, essayist, and poet. She is author of three novels and a poetry collection. ''The Speed of Light'' was translated into nine languages and won several awards in the US and in Europe, in ...
and many others, including those who have returned as teaching staff.
See also
*
List of writers' conferences
This is a list of worldwide authors' conferences for writers of all genres.
Europe
Bulgaria
* Sozopol Fiction Seminars – Sozopol
France
* Paris Writers Retreat – Paris
Iceland
* Iceland Writers Retreat – Reykjavík
Ireland ...