Welcome writers to BWC 2009!

The bookcase, the writing desk, the clock--
chiseling out of this some beautiful and mournful ritual.

-- from the poem "Requiem" by Jane Satterfield, BWC 2009 featured poet.

The craft of poems and prose

Our featured poet and fiction writer have announced the subjects for their BWC 2009 craft lectures.

Elise Levine will speak about "Narrative Thrust, Lyric Suspense."

Levine is author of the novel Requests and Dedications and the short story collection Driving Men Mad. Writes Levine: "In this lecture we’ll first consider the fundamentals of story

structure and pacing in fiction writing. And then you’ll learn how —
by deploying a variety of techniques including a heightened use of
language to temporarily suspend the forward movement of your story —
you can enhance the dynamic tension in your fiction."

Poet Jane Satterfield will talk about "Epistles and Other Conversations: The Poem as Letter". Her poetry volumes include Assignations at Vanishing Point and Shepardess with an Automatic.

Not registered yet? Walk up ...

BWC 2009 is on pace to be one of our most popular yet with pre-registration numbers outpacing last year's. If you haven't registered yet but would still like to attend, we'll accept walk-up registrations starting at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday. Registration is $95 for the general public and $50 for students with student identification. Those amounts include breakfast snacks, a buffet lunch, and a post-conference wine-and-cheese reception, in addition to access to writers, editors and publishing professionals. Join us!

Parking for the BWC

Folks attending the Baltimore Writers Conference will be able to park for free at the Towsontown garage off University Avenue on the Towson University campus. From there, the University Union, site of the conference, is a short jog south along Union Avenue.

The Union garage, which is closest to the conference site, will be closed. So don't try to park there. Click here for an interactive map.

Bowden's latest

Mark Bowden, keynote speaker for BWC 2009, writes in the October issue of the Atlantic about the ways political operatives feed news to the networks.

Early registration deadline looming!

Take advantage of BWC's lower rates for early registration by registering today! The deadline of Monday, Nov. 2 is rushing toward us. Your registration fee gets you a full day of writers -- including keynote speaker Mark Bowden -- editors and people who work in publishing, quick critiques of your work, and a hot lunch. Love those creamy enchiladas!

Visit our main page for more information.

What's in a name?

Not much, unless you have the biography behind it. Visit this link to learn about the people who will be working the panels at BWC 2009.

Exhibit tables available for BWC 2009

At BWC 2009, exhibitors—freelance editors, designers, journals, small presses, and literary organizations—are able to reach their primary audience...writers! For $35 you get a table in the exhibition area and lunch for one person. Additional lunches are only $15. Submit your reservation by Nov. 1 by downloading the reservation form or by calling 410.704.5196 or sending an email to PRWR@towson.edu.

BWC schedule posted!

BWC 2009 is pleased to release its schedule for this November's conference. We've got a talented array of writers and publishing professionals and the always popular quick critiques. In case you missed the link to the schedule on our main page, here it is again.

BWC writers at the Baltimore Book Festival

At least three writers who are scheduled to offer panels at the Baltimore Writers' Conference will also be participating in the Baltimore Book Festival this coming weekend, Sept. 25-27. If you go, look for Andrew Auseon, Geoffrey Becker, James Magruder, Jane Satterfield and others. And be sure to visit the tent maintained by BWC co-sponsor City Lit, where writers will ofter round-the-clock readings and discussions about their craft.

"Cutting-edge" sensation to lead fiction session

BWC 2009 will feature a craft lecture in fiction writing from novelist and short story writer Elise Levine. Originally from Toronto, Levine was named by Margaret Atwood as one of Canada’s most important emerging women writers. Reviewers have called her “a cutting-edge literary sensation” and “a sensitive, cagey dominatrix of literary form and human psychology." Her books include the story collection Driving Men Mad and the novel Requests and Dedications.

A note from 2008

Marise Morse of Washington, D.C., attended BWC 2008 with her daughter, Delphine, and wrote us recently about how the conference helped with her pursuit of graduate writing programs. She's set now to continue writing with guidance from authors at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. "My time at the Baltimore Writer's Conference is memorable in several ways," she wrote.

From the beginning I was struck by the convivial, welcoming atmosphere. The opening panel session of writers with keynote speaker Larry Doyle was lively, amusing, and for me, revealing. I found their personal stories and anecdotes stimulating and when the discussion turned to their motivation for writing it particularly struck home for me. I had several conversations on various writing programs which proved extremely helpful & found the feedback from one-on-one sessions discerning and very encouraging. Before arriving I wasn't sure what to expect and once there discovered a wonderful synergy of writers, authors and readers. I was not only moved but motivated by a sense of people dedicated to their craft, writers wishing to learn and teach, open and ready to offer advice, and plenty of insights.

Panel on YA novels to include FUNNY LITTLE MONKEY author

Andrew Auseon, a video game designer and the author of young adult novels, will join the Baltimore Writers Conference for its panel on writing for young adults. Auseon's books include Funny Little Monkey, Jo-Jo and the Fiendish Lot, and Freak Magnet. His recent project, Alienated, will be published in fall 2009. Written in collaboration with filmmaker David O. Russell, Alienated tells the story of two boys who discover aliens in their town, a discovery that puts them in the center of an intergalactic struggle.

BWC 2009 keynote speaker's latest in Vanity Fair

Our keynote speaker for 2009, Mark Bowden, also contributes to Vanity Fair. Here's an excerpt from his latest, an examination of the New York Times, its ownership, and what forces of economy and character have combined to endanger one of the country's great newspapers.

America is not kind to the heir. He is a stereotypical figure in our literature, and not an appealing one at that. He tends to be depicted as weak, pampered, flawed, a diluted strain of the hardy founding stock. America celebrates the self-made. Unless an heir veers sharply from his father’s path, he is not taken seriously. Even in middle age he seems costumed, a pretender draped in oversize clothes, a boy who has raided his father’s closet. The depiction may be unfair, but it is what it is.

Award-winning poet to appear at BWC 2009

Jane Satterfield, a poet and nonfiction writer, will lead the BWC 2009 craft session on poetry. Satterfield is the author of two books of poetry and has just published a memoir called Daughters of Empire: A Memoir of Year in Britain and Beyond. She is also the literary editor for the Journal of the Association for Research on Mothering. Her work has won awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Towson University, and the Maryland State Arts Council, among others.

A BWC success story

Word comes to us from Peggy Rowe, who attended the BWC 2008 edition, of a publishing success. Her essay about her mother, "An O's Fan to the Last Pitch" appeared in the Baltimore Sun for Mother's Day. Peggy, a former school teacher from Perry Hall, writes:

Last fall I attended the Baltimore Writers Conference at Towson. The presentations on Freelance Writing and Creative Nonfiction were especially helpful to me. At the end of the day, I took advantage of a one-on-one critique session. I had brought an essay I’d recently completed, and received some very beneficial feedback. I took the suggestions, and my essay was recently printed in The Baltimore Sun.

I plan to attend the Baltimore Writers Conference again this fall. I’m hoping there will be a presentation on writing humor, my particular area of interest.

Have you attended a BWC and gone on to publish? Let us know your story with a comment to the this blog, and we'll post it here.

Black Hawk Down author to offer keynote address

Mark Bowden, award-winning journalist and author of Black Hawk Down, will be the keynote speaker at the 2009 Baltimore Writers’ Conference. His most recent book is The Best Game Ever: Giants vs. Colts, 1958, and the Birth of the Modern NFL.

From Bowden’s biography on the Philadelphia Inquirer web site:

Mark Bowden is the author of the bestselling books Guests of The Ayatollah, Black Hawk Down and Killing Pablo. He is a national correspondent for The Atlantic, and an occasional contributor to National Public Radio.
Black Hawk Down was a finalist for the 1999 National Book Award, and Killing Pablo received the Overseas Press Club’s Cornelius Ryan Award for the best book of 2001. Bowden worked as a consultant and screenwriter on the film version of Black Hawk Down. He is currently adapting Killing Pablo for the screen and is writing an original screenplay for Imagine Entertainment.
He has also written for The New Yorker, Sports Illustrated and The New York Times, among other publications. Bowden teaches journalism and creative writing at his alma mater, Loyola College of Maryland.