News on 20th Annual Writer's Symposium by the Sea

"The Greek" Amphitheater at Point Loma Nazarene University, home of The Writers' Symposium by the Sea.

Point Loma Nazarene University will host its 20th Annual Writer's Symposium by the Sea in late February. The amazing writers who have attended and shared their thoughts on the craft of writing over the last two decades have been phenomenal: Ray Bradbury, Amy Tan, Anne Lamott, Donald Miller, Philip Yancey, Kathleen Norris, Frederica Mathewes-Green, Eugene Peterson, Calvin Miller, and other journalists, novelists, poets, bloggers, and non-fiction writers, both Christian and secular. A good number of videos of past featured writers at the Symposium are available via UCSD-TV's Writer's Symposium page. 

The news was just released that to celebrate the 20th anniversary of The Writer's Symposium by the Sea, Dean Nelson (my former creative writing professor and later my kindly office mate when I taught there) will be having a conversation with Joyce Carol Oates. The announcement with details may be seen here if you scroll down a bit (and ignore the "19th Annual" heading): Joyce Carol Oates at Writer's Symposium.

Dean has outdone himself in obtaining such a major figure in American literature to celebrate the Symposium's 20th anniversary. I am so thrilled that Joyce Carol Oates will be coming on February 26. 

Tickets will go on sale in November, and I'll be one of the first in the virtual queue. Meanwhile, I have a copy of a small book I snatched from the library shelves last week to read (once I finish teaching Romeo & Juliet at Brave Writer this Friday!): First Love. It's a small, illustrated Gothic novelette, and I'm very much looking forward to perusing it as my first book on my Summer Reading List. 

The Mountain Empire Creative Arts Council's Writer's Workshop is hoping to host another of our popular Write-Ins next month to coincide with July's Camp NaNoWriMo  so that we can enjoy coffee, tea, treats, and a few bursts of creative conversation while we tap away on our keyboards or scratch away in our notebooks for a few hours, usually from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM. As soon as we have a date cleared with the Pine Valley Library for the use of their Community Room, I'll post the date here on this blog and on the MECAC Writer's Workshop website.


Happy Writing, Everyone!