Nonfiction writers, consider attending the NONFICTIONOW conference at the University of Iowa, November 10 to 12. The conference “will highlight some of the best writing of this burgeoning and often indefinable genre,” as well as “generate a discussion of the writing and teaching communities of nonfiction’s myriad forms and the places of intersection.”
Featured speakers include Phillip Lopate (whose introduction to The Art of the Personal Essay alone is worth the price of the essay collection), Pico Iyer, and Lauren Slater. The sessions are wide ranging—from writing about the environment to war, from the spirit to sports, food, family, and home. There are also sessions on forms, process, writing tools and teaching.
In addition to the featured speakers, the conference is loaded with presenters. Here’s a brief sampling: Dinty Moore, Gayle Pemberton, Mary Swander, Mimi Schwartz, Judith Kitchen, Bret Lott, Michael Martone, Robin Hemley, Albert Goldbarth, James McPherson, Patricia Foster, Hope Edelman, Michele Morano, Michael Steinberg, Abigail Thomas, and Bob Shacochis.
