24th Annual Summer Writers' Conference

June 21 - 30, 2010

Schedule to be posted soon. Registration will begin in March of 2010.

2010 visiting writers and agents will include:

Daniel Bergner
Lorene Cary
Jonathan Dee
Mark Doty
Stephen Dunn
Beth Kephart
Victor LaValle
Paul Lisicky
Denise Shannon
Brenda Shaughnessey
Lisa Tracy

The Schedule for the 23rd Summer Writers' Conference is below for reference of how the conference runs. The final schedule for 2010 will be posted as soon as it becomes available.

23^rd Annual Rutgers-Camden
Summer Writers' Conference
July 6 through July 15, 2009

An intensive program of workshops and readings, featuring a staff of nationally-known writers, poets and editors. The series of workshops, lectures and lunch meetings is open to both Rutgers students and the community, though some prior workshop or professional experience is required. It may be taken for either undergraduate or graduate credit as well as on a non-credit certificate basis. See the course listings for Undergraduate and Graduate course numbers.

EVENING READINGS
The 2009 Summer Writers' Conference features evening readings by the staff members and students. These affairs with refreshments begin at 7pm (except on Friday, July 10) and are free and open to the general public. All readings will be in the Stedman Gallery in the Fine Arts Center.

SUMMER 2009 SCHEDULE
Tuesday, July 7: J.T. Barbarese and Nahid Rachlin
Wednesday, July 8: Kathryn Harrison and Tom Sleigh
Thursday, July 9: Adam Mansbach and Diane McKinney-Whetstone
Friday, July 10 (Note this reading at 1pm in the Black Box Theater): Lise Funderburg and Lisa Zeidner
Monday, July 13: W. S. DiPiero and Meghan Daum
Tuesday, July 14: Jill Bialosky and Elaine Terranova
Wednesday, July 15: Students from the program

SCHEDULE
Please note that the sessions are subject to change. All evening readings are free and open to the public. Workshops are open only to conference registrants (individuals may not register for single workshops).

SCHEDULE FOR 2009
Monday, July 6
11:00 - 12:00: Orientation session
12:00 - 1:00: Lunch
1:00 - 2:00: Roundtable discussion - "On Using Research in Creative Ways" - J. T. Barbarese, Lise Funderburg and Lisa Zeidner

Tuesday, July 7
10:00 - 12:00: Poetry workshop - Elaine Terranova
2:00 - 4:00: Fiction workshop - Nahid Rachlid
7:00: Reading: J. T. Barbarese and Nahid Rachlin

Wedesday, July 8
10:00 - 12:00: Nonfiction workshop - Kathryn Harrison
2:00 - 4:00: Poetry workshop - Tom Sleigh
7:00: Reading: Kathryn Harrison and Tom Sleigh

Thursday, July 9
9:00 - 10:00: StoryQuarterly workshop - J. T. Barbarese
10:00 - 12:00: Fiction workshop - Diane McKinney-Whetstone
2:00 - 4:00: Fiction workshop - Adam Mansbach
7:00: Reading: Adam Mansbach and Diane McKinney-Whetstone

Friday, July 10
9:00 - 10:00: Coffee session - Adam Manbach
10:00 - 12:00: Nonfiction workshop - Lise Funderburg
1:00 - 2:00: Black Box Theater: Lise Funderburg and Lisa Zeidner Reading and informal discussion of creative process

Monday, July 13
10:00 - 12:00: Poetry workshop - W. S. Di Piero
2:00 - 4:00: Nonfiction workshop - Meghan Daum
7:00: Reading: W. S. Di Piero and Meghan Daum

Tuesday, July 14
9:00 - 10:00: Poetry coffee session - W. S. Di Piero
10:00 - 11:00: Nonfiction coffee session "The Fearless Writer: How to Take Risks in Nonfiction and Still Be a Reliable Narrator" - Meghan Daum
1:00 - 3:00: Book publishing editor's session - Jill Bialosky
7:00: Reading: Jill Bialosky and Elaine Terranova

Wednesday, July 15
5:00 - 7:00: Class dinner
7:00: Class reading

STAFF FOR 2009

J. T. BARBARESE is the author of four collections of poetry and a translation of Euripides Children of Herakles. His most recent collection, The Black Beach, won the Vassar Miller Prize in Poetry. His fiction and essays have appeared in Story Quarterly, Narrative, and The Georgia Review. He teaches at Rutgers University in Camden.

JILL BIALOSKY is the author of three poetry collections: The End of Desire; Subterranean, which was a finalist for the James Laughlin Prize from the Academy of American Poets; and Intruder. She is also the author of two novels, House Under Snow and most recently, The Life Room. She is an Executive Editor and Vice President at W. W. Norton & Company. Some of her authors include bestselling authors, Nicole Krauss, Nick Flynn, Mary Roach, Manil Suri, and Thomas Lynch (finalist for the National Book Award). In poetry she has worked with Eavan Boland, Adrienne Rich, Joy Harjo, BH Fairchild, Stanley Plumly, Ai (Winner of the National Book Award), Kim Addonizio, Li-Young Lee and Marie Howe among others.

MEGHAN DAUM is a columnist at The Los Angeles Times. She is the author of the bestselling essay collection My Misspent Youth and the novel The Quality of Life Report. She has written for many publications, including The New Yorker, Harper's, GQ, Vogue, and The New York Times, and has contributed to National Public Radio's Morning Edition and "This American Life. "Her LA Times column, which appears every Saturday on the op-ed page, was a finalist for a National Journalism Award and the winner of the Southern California Journalism Award in commentary. She is currently working on a book about real estate and identity.

W. S. DI PIERO is the author of nine books of poetry, the most recent being Chinese Apples: New and Selected Poems, He's also an essayist on art, literature, culture, and personal experience. His collection of essays, City Dog, was recently published. He writes a regular column on the visual arts for the San Diego Reader and has contributed catalog essays for gallery and museum exhibitions. His books include three collections of essays - Memory and Enthusiasm; Out Of Eden; and Shooting the Works - and translations from Greek and Italian. He teaches at Stanford University.

LISE FUNDERBURG'S first nonfiction book, Black, White, Other: Biracial Americans Talk About Race and Identity, was a collection of oral histories. She is also the author of a combined social history and memoir, Pig Candy: Taking My Father South, Taking My Father Home. She has written book reviews, essays, and feature articles for such publications as The Nation, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The New York Times, and The Hungry Mind Review. She has also served as an editor for Vogue, Lucky, and O, the Oprah Magazine. She teaches in the Rutgers-Camden MFA Program.

KATHRYN HARRISON is the author of the novels Envy, The Seal Wife, The Binding Chair, Poison, Exposure, and Thicker Than Water. She has also written memoirs, The Kiss and The Mother Knot; a travel memoir, The Road to Santiago; a biography, Saint Therese of Lisieux; and a collection of personal essays, Seeking Rapture. Her essays, which have been included in many anthologies, have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's, Vogue, and other publications. She lives in New York with her husband, the novelist Colin Harrison, and their children and teaches at Hunter College.

ADAM MANSBACH'S latest novel is The End of the Jews. His previous novel, Angry Black White Boy, was a San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2005 and is currently taught at over fifty universities. Mansbach's previous books include the novel Shackling Water, the poetry collection genius b-boy cynics getting weeded in the garden of delights and Nature of the Beast, a forthcoming graphic novel. The recipient of a 2008 Future Aesthetics Artist Regrant from the Ford Foundation, Mansbach is the founder of the 1990s hip-hop journal Elementary and a regular contributor to the Boston Globe and Los Angeles Times book reviews. He is the 2009 New Voices Professor at Rutgers-Camden.

DIANE MCKINNEY-WHETSTONE is the author of five novels, most recently Trading Dreams at Midnight. Her work has appeared in Philadelphia Magazine; Essence; The Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine; and the anthologies Bluelight Corner, and Mending the World. She has received numerous awards, including the 2005 BCALA Literary Award for Fiction, a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts grant, the Zora Neale Hurston Society award for creative contribution to literature, a citation from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for her portrayal of urban life as presented in Tumbling, Author of the Year award from the Go On Girl Book Club, and more. She teaches at the University of Pennsylvania..

NAHID RACHLIN'S publications include a memoir, Persian Girls; four novels, Jumping Over Fire, Foreigner, Married to a Stranger, and Heart's Desire . She has also published a memoir, Persian Girls, and a collection of short stories, Veils. Her stories have appeared in about fifty magazines and her essays have appeared in a wide variety of magazines including The New York Times. While a student she held a Doubleday-Columbia fellowship and a Wallace Stegner Fellowship (Stanford). She has been awarded a National Endowment for the Arts grant. She lives in New York.

TOM SLEIGH'S most recent book of poetry, Space Walk (Houghton Mifflin, 2007), won the $100,000 2008 Kingsley Tufts Award. His book of essays, Interview with a Ghost, was published by Graywolf Press in 2006. He has also published After One, Waking, The Chain, The Dreamhouse, Far Side of the Earth, Bula Matari/Smasher of Rocks, and a translation of Euripides' Herakles. He has won the Shelley Prize from the PSA, and grants from the Lila Wallace Fund, American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Guggenheim and NEA. He teaches in the MFA Program at Hunter College.

ELAINE TERRANOVA is the author of four books of poems: The Dog's Heart, Damages, Not To, and The Cult of the Right Hand, winner of the Walt Whitman Award. She has also published a translation from Euripides, Iphigenia at Aulis. Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The American Poetry Review, Prairie Schooner, Ploughshares and many other publications. She has received a Pew Fellowship, a National Endowment in the Arts Fellowship, and a Robert Frost Fellowship, among other awards.

LISA ZEIDNER, Conference Director, is the author of four novels, most recently Layover, and two books of poems. Her stories, essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, GQ, Salon, Slate and many other publications. She is also a screenwriter, currently working on an adaptation for Focus Features. She teaches at Rutgers-Camden..

ADMISSION & WORK REQUIREMENTS
The Conference is for intermediate and advanced writing students. Writers should have taken at least one creative writing workshop or have some publications or writing experience. Address questions about admission to Lisa Zeidner, Conference Director, at (856) 225-6490 or email: zeidner@camden.rutgers.edu. Students interested in the Conference are encouraged to apply early, since space is limited.

Participants will have two pieces of writing reviewed by the staff: one by a visiting writer during the conference, and one by mail afterwards. The length limits for these submissions are:

Fiction and Personal Essay - A minimum of 7 and a maximum of 17 pages double spaced.
Poetry - A minimum of 4 and a maximum of 8 pages single spaced. Please keep margins to approximately one inch, and font size to the 10-12 pt. range.

Participants should submit the work to the SAKAI system that they wish to be discussed during the conference. The deadline for registration and posting the work is MONDAY, JUNE 8, 2009.

All manuscripts should be typed; fiction and essays should be double-spaced. Work must be submitted electronically, in MS Word, PDF or Text File format to the Rutgers Sakai website by no later than June 8, 2009. Login ID is either your RU ID (if you have one) or your email address. You will receive an invitation to the Sakai site when your registration has been completed. Instructions on uploading papers to the site are available on the site itself.

Please note that Conference participants may only submit work in one genre (poetry, fiction or the personal essay), although they will be encouraged to attend all workshop sessions.

Those taking the Conference for credit will be required to attend at least one workshop each day in their genre (on days in which their genre is not represented, a workshop of their choice) and all evening readings. Students are strongly encouraged to attend as many sessions as possible. For course credit, students also submit final work (same length restrictions as above), to be responded to by staff members. Due date for the final work will be Monday, August 3, 2009.

Please note that it is not possible to register for individual workshop sessions.

HOUSING
Dorm accommodations are available for $20.00 per night for a single room in a suite housing four rooms and a shared kitchen and bath. For more information regarding on-campus housing see the Rutgers-Camden Student Housing website. If you are interested in a hotel room, either in South Jersey or in downtown Philadelphia, please email the Conference Director for recommendations in the local region. Rutgers-Camden is accessible via a variety of public transportation systems, including NJ Transit buses, the Riverline Light Rail, and the PATCO Hi-Speed Line.

Rutgers-Camden strives to assure access to programs for all people with disabilities. Use the Rutgers-Camden TTY line for information on programs: (856)225-6648. Please notify us at least two weeks in advance of any special needs.

CREDITS
The Conference is open to the community as well as to Rutgers students. Applicants may register in the following ways for the Summer Conference:

Undergraduate Credit
50:989:401:D1:90493
50:989:402:D1:90375 - for students who have already taken a Summer Conference for undergraduate credit

Graduate Credit
56:200:525:D1:92828
56:200:526:D1:92829 - for students who have already taken a Summer Conference for graduate credit

No Credit (Certificate of Achievement awarded)

TUITION AND FEES
Fees below are for three-credit courses and include the Summer Student Fee.

Undergraduate credit - NJ resident - $1,033.00
Undergraduate credit- non-NJ resident - $2,032.00

Graduate credit - NJ resident - $1,816.00
Graduate credit - non-NJ resident - $2,668.00

Non-credit (Certificate of Achievement) - $750.00

Tuition and Certification Program checks payable to Rutgers University.

In addition to the tuition and fees listed above, students pay a separate Conference Fee of $65.00. This covers students for one lunch, one dinner, and the coffee sessions. Make separate $65.00 check payable to Rutgers University Arts and Culture Fund.

APPLICATION FORM
If you are interested in applying for the Writers' Conference 2009, you may print out the Registration Form provided and mail it to the address below or FAX it to (856)225-6524. To print out the hard copy form, you will need the Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is freely available from the Adobe Website.

Mail To:
Summer Writers' Conference
Rutgers Summer Session
319 Cooper St.
Camden, NJ 08102

call us at (856)225-6098
or FAX at (856)225-6524

We look forward to hearing from you!