Registration is currently taking place for the 8th Annual Chesapeake Writers’ Conference held on St. Mary’s College of Maryland’s campus, Sunday, June 23 – Saturday, June 29. Workshop tuition is $800. There is also a course credit option for an additional fee and optional meal and housing packages available. For more information, visit go.smcm.edu/chesapeake.
The Chesapeake Writers’ Conference hosts writers at all levels of experience for a rich week of lectures, craft talks, readings, and panel discussions, as well as daily workshops in fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, translation, and screenwriting. Workshops are led by a variety of writers at the top of their field, such as Angela Pelster, winner of the Great Lakes Colleges Association “New Writer Award in Nonfiction;” Patricia Henley, a finalist for the National Book Award; and Elizabeth Arnold, a Whiting Writer’s Award winner.
College Students
Course credit is available for college students enrolled in a degree program. College students wishing to pursue the course credit option should check the appropriate box in the application. The two-credit course has a prerequisite of a 200-level writing course or permission from the instructor. St. Mary’s College students will need to sign up for the course during summer enrollment. There are also a limited number of scholarships available for SMCM students. For more information, contact Conference Director Jerry Gabriel at chesapeakewritersconference@smcm.edu.
Teachers
The teachers’ seminar meets daily to discuss ways of connecting one’s own writing practices with their pedagogy, as well as to share and learn innovative ways of implementing writing and literature in the classroom. Teachers participate in the activities of the larger conference, but also develop a strong community of educators. The seminar will offer two graduate credits from St. Mary’s College of Maryland, which can be used toward fulfilling continuing professional development requirements in Maryland and elsewhere.
High School Students
A workshop designed for high school-aged youth (grades 9-12) explores poetry, fiction, personal narrative, and playwriting. Students read and write in traditional forms such as sonnets, villanelles, short stories, memoirs, and plays, as well as read and use less traditional forms and techniques, from prose poems and automatic writing to cut-ups, magical realism and first-person journalism. There is also a focus on script-writing for television, movies, and graphic novels.
