New sites (physical AND virtual) for BWC 2011

Mr. Candyfreak himself

BWC 2011 will feature keynote speaker Steve Almond, the scary-smart, scary-funny author of ten books of fiction and non-fiction including Candyfreak and Rock and Roll Will Save Your Soul. In October, Lookout Press will publish his third story collection, God Bless America.


But to find him and us, you'll have to look a bit beyond this blog. This year we've got a new location for the conference and a new address on the web. Look for us on Nov. 12 at the snazzy new College of Liberal Arts building on the Towson campus. And look for us on the web here!

WELCOME TO BWC 2010

"Ugwu was writing as she spoke, and his writing, the earnestness of his interest, suddenly made her story important, made it serve a larger purpose that even she was not sure of, and so she told him all she remembered ..."

-- from Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Adichie reading kicks off BWC 2010

For the first time, the Baltimore Writers Conference will begin with a

free Friday night reading. Chimamanda Adichie, our keynote speaker, will read from her work at 8 p.m., Friday, Nov. 19, in Lecture Hall 238 near the center of Towson University's campus. A Q&A and book signing will follow. Come here this internationally renowned author give voice to her work.

Parking for BWC

Folks attending the Baltimore Writers Conference will be able to park for free at the Union garage off Osler Drive. From the garage, the University Union is a short walk east. Click here for an interactive map.

For those attending Chimamanda Adichie's reading at 8 p.m. on Friday night in Lecture Hall 238, parking is free at that hour pretty much everywhere on campus. Remember: Lecture Hall is the name of a building. You can find it on the interactive map. An outdoor staircase leads to the room. Come early for a good seat!

Not registered yet? There's still time ...

Remember that you can still register for BWC by mail through this coming Friday. If that doesn't work for you, we'll also take walk-up registrations Saturday morning when the conference starts at the University Union at Towson University.

Registration buys you a day filled with authors, editors and agents (featuring our keynote speaker, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie), along with a hot lunch and post-conference wine-and-cheese reception. Registration the day of the conference opens up at 8:30 a.m. See you there!

Hope. Change. Reality.

BWC 2010 panelist Wil S. Hylton just published his latest article in GQ magazine, for which he is a contributing editor. Hylton's profile of Eric Holder, the U.S. attorney general, raises the question of how difficult it is to be an idealist in Washington, D.C.

For BWC 2010, Hylton might discuss how difficult it is to be an idealist as a freelance writer.

Corked!

Laura van den Berg, who will give the BWC 2010 fiction craft talk, recently returned from Cork, Ireland, where she participated in the Frank O'Connor Short Story Festival. Laura's book, What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us, was a finalist for the Frank O'Connor Award in the short story. Her book was also selected for Barnes & Noble's Discover Great New Writers program.

You can read about her Cork adventures on her blog and visit with her at BWC 2010.