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.

Beat the deadline! Save money!

Take advantage of BWC's lower rates for early registration by registering today! The early-registration deadline of FRIDAY, NOV. 5 is rushing toward us. Pay $75 now ($35 for students). After Nov. 5, the rates go up to $95 and $50.

Your registration fee gets you a full day of writers -- including keynote speaker Chimamanda Adichie -- editors and people who work in publishing, quick critiques of your work, a hot lunch, and a post-conference wine & cheese reception.

Print out your registration form and send it in today!

(Or pay us more later. We're good with that, too.)

Poe House in Tin House

Rob Spillman, editor of Tin House magazine and our guest this year at the Baltimore Writers' Conference, published a bit of Baltimore in the magazine's most recent edition. You can read an online excerpt from "On the Outskirts," an essay by A.N. Devers about her visit to the Edgar Allen Poe house in Charm City, or you can buy the magazine and read the whole thing.

Tin House started in 1999 and quickly became one of the country's top literary magazines and publishing houses. If you'd like to meet Rob Spillman, make sure you register for the conference. See our main page for details.

"Dark Horse"

The conversation keeps spreading following publication of Lisa Couturier's article "Dark Horse" in the July issue of Orion magazine. Her article, bringing to light the practice of horse-slaughter, has generated more than 50 online comments with the most recent coming this week. Couturier will participate in the BWC panel "Words for the Natural World."

In her article, Couturier reports from an auction where horses are sometimes sold for slaughter. She quotes a trustee with the New York Racing Association: " 'There are two things that flourish in the dark—mushrooms and horse slaughter. Most people don’t know it’s going on. We must deny them the darkness.”

BWC synchronicity

The writing world offers some pleasant synchronicities now and then. Here's one: A BWC organizer reads this week in a series hosted by a BWC presenter, which presenter herself has a new book out.

Geoffrey Becker, a short story writer, novelist, and primary organizer of BWC 2010, will read from his fiction and answer questions at Anne Arundel Community College's Arnold campus on Thursday, Oct. 14 from 2-3:30 p.m. The event is free and is part of the Writers Reading @ AACC series, hosted by Susan Cohen.

Cohen, a writer and editor whose work focuses on the natural world, will participate on the BWC 2010 panel, "Words for the Natural World: Essays on the Environment". With Florence Caplow, Cohen most recently edited the volume, Wildbranch: An Anthology of Nature, Environmental, and Place-Based Writing, which was published last month by University of Utah Press. Her essay, "Dear Bowl" is included among writings by Alison Hawthorne Deming, Scott Russell Sanders, and others.

Rated "R" and ready for BWC 2010

When we invited novelists Jessica Anya Blau (pictured, right) and James Magruder to BWC 2010 to dish about writing sex scenes, we imagined a raucous fun time. But we thought they'd wait until we put the kids to bed and closed the door.

Turns out, Jessica and Jim can't keep their words off each other. If you're over the age of 18 and want a peek at what's coming to BWC 2010, check out Jessica's "sex interview" with Jim at the website The Nervous Breakdown.

Adichie part of New Yorker's 20 under 40

The New Yorker magazine recently named twenty writers to watch who are under the age of 40, and included Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the keynote speaker for BWC 2010. The online edition of magazine includes a story, "Birdsong," and an interview.

SAVE THE DATE!

BWC 2010 is scheduled for Nov. 19 - 20 this year, with panels and quick critiques on Saturday and a reading by special guest Chimamanda Adichie on Friday night at 8 p.m.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a writer of international acclaim, the author of three books: the novels Purple Hibiscus and Half of Yellow Sun, and the short story collection The Thing Around Your Neck. Having earned a graduate degree in creative writing from Johns Hopkins, she has since won the prestigious Orange Prize, given annually for the best novel written by a women in English. She has also received a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship.

Adichie's reading is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by the Baltimore Writers' Conference, the Towson Literary Reading Series, the Department of English at Towson University through the Clarisse Mechanic Fund, the Dean's Office in the Towson University College of Liberal Arts, and Johns Hopkins Master of Arts in Writing Program.

The Baltimore Writers' Conference is sponsored by City Lit, Johns Hopkins Master of Arts in Writing program, and Towson University.

We hope to see you at BWC 2010!

Scenes from BWC 2009

The 2009 Baltimore Writers' Conference featured Mark Bowden, author of Black Hawk Down, and dozens of other panelists and speakers mingling with more than 100 publishes, aspiring or up-and-coming writers. We had a great time, and we hope you did, too, and that we'll see you again for the expaned BWC 2010, featuring a Friday night reading on Nov. 19 and the main conference on Nov. 20.

Bowden discussed the nature of truth in war reporting during his keynote speech.

The quick critiques allowed participants to have their work evaluated by published writers.

Elissa Weissman, author of Standing for Socks and The Trouble with Brent Hopper, shared her insights of the Young Adult market.

Novelist and dramaturge James Magruder, author of Sugarless, gave tips for playwriting.

Michael Salcman answered questions about poetry during his craft lecture.