The Writers Conference was founded by Adelbert M. Jakeman, Sr. of Westfield, Massachusetts and Loring Eugene Williams of Cleveland, Ohio. Jakeman was at one time head of the English department at Westfield High School and was Assembly Superintendent at Ocean Park for 31 years. Read more of Dr. Jim Brosnan's history of the Writers
Conference here ..
72nd
Annual Conference
August 13 - August 17, 2012
Check back for updates as they are announced.
Have you always wanted to write? Do you need the support of fellow writers? Are you looking for inspiration (a visit from the Muse)? Why not plan to attend the five-day 72st Writers Conference at Ocean Park, Maine? Registration and social with light refreshments begin at 5:30 pm on Monday, August 13. Attendees are weeklong participants.
Workshops start at 8:30 am on Tuesday and continue through Friday until early afternoon. The five-day conference fee of $200 is discounted to $190 if sent prior to July 1. Conference fee at the door is $225. No refunds will be issued. A food social (included in the conference fee) is planned for Tuesday evening. Poetry writing on the beach is a Thursday morning event, followed by coffee and pastry at the Ocean Park Library.
There are also several writing contests both in poetry and prose that participants are eligible to enter.
Call 401-598-1424 or e-mail jbrosnan@jwu.edu today for more information! Jumpstart your writing career in a supportive environment by joining us this August.
2012 presenters announced to date: Betsy Sholl, Alfred Nicol, and Elizabeth Peavey.
Betsy Sholl has published seven collections of poetry, most recently Rough Cradle (Alice James Books, 2009). Don't Explain won the 1997 Felix Pollak Prize from the University of Wisconsin, and her book The Red Line won the 1991 AWP Prize for Poetry. Her chapbooks include Pick A Card, winner of the Maine Chapbook Competition in 1991, and Betsy Sholl: Greatest Hits, 1974-2004, Pudding House Publications. She was a founding member of Alice James Books and published three collections with them: Changing Faces,Appalachian Winter and Rooms Overhead. Among her awards are a fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts, and two Maine Writer's Fellowships.
Alfred Nicol worked in the printing industry for twenty years after graduating from Dartmouth College, where he received the Academy of American Poets Prize. He now lives in Amesbury, Massachusetts and is a member of the Powow River Poets. He edited the Powow River Anthology, published by Ocean Publishing in 2006, and was the recipient of the 2004 Richard Wilbur Award for his first book of poems, Winter Light, published by The University of Evansville Press. His poems have appeared in Poetry, The Formalist, Measure, Commonweal, Verse Daily, The New England Review, Atlanta Review, and other journals. Several of his poems have been anthologized in Contemporary Poetry of New England, Sonnets: 150 Contemporary Sonnets, and Kiss and Part. The last of nine installments of his long poem, “Persnickety Ichabod’s Rhyming Diary” will appear in Light Quarterly, Vol. 52.
Elizabeth Peavey is a Portland-based freelance writer and teacher. Her one-woman show, My Mother's Clothes Are Not My Mother, premiered in Portland this past fall to sold-out houses and is currently on tour. She is the author of Outta My Way: An Odd Life Lived Loudly and of Maine & Me, which was awarded the Maine Literary Award for Best Maine-themed Book. Her writing is frequently featured in Down East magazine, where she has been a contributing editor since 1997. She has taught public speaking at the University of Southern Maine since 1993 and has also taught creative nonfiction at the University of Maine at Farmington. She is a longtime instructor for the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance, a nonprofit arts organization that supports writers and publishers in Maine.
Betsy Sholl has published seven collections of poetry, most recently Rough Cradle (Alice James Books, 2009). Don't Explain won the 1997 Felix Pollak Prize from the University of Wisconsin, and her book The Red Line won the 1991 AWP Prize for Poetry. Her chapbooks include Pick A Card, winner of the Maine Chapbook Competition in 1991, and Betsy Sholl: Greatest Hits, 1974-2004, Pudding House Publications. She was a founding member of Alice James Books and published three collections with them: Changing Faces, Appalachian Winter and Rooms Overhead. Among her awards are a fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts, and two Maine Writer's Fellowships. 
Alfred Nicol worked in the printing industry for twenty years after graduating from Dartmouth College, where he received the Academy of American Poets Prize. He now lives in Amesbury, Massachusetts and is a member of the Powow River Poets. He edited the Powow River Anthology, published by Ocean Publishing in 2006, and was the recipient of the 2004 Richard Wilbur Award for his first book of poems, Winter Light, published by The University of Evansville Press. His poems have appeared in Poetry, The Formalist, Measure, Commonweal, Verse Daily, The New England Review, Atlanta Review, and other journals. Several of his poems have been anthologized in Contemporary Poetry of New England, Sonnets: 150 Contemporary Sonnets, and Kiss and Part. The last of nine installments of his long poem, “Persnickety Ichabod’s Rhyming Diary” will appear in Light Quarterly, Vol. 52.
Elizabeth Peavey is a Portland-based freelance writer and teacher. Her one-woman show, My Mother's Clothes Are Not My Mother, premiered in Portland this past fall to sold-out houses and is currently on tour. She is the author of Outta My Way: An Odd Life Lived Loudly and of Maine & Me, which was awarded the Maine Literary Award for Best Maine-themed Book. Her writing is frequently featured in Down East magazine, where she has been a contributing editor since 1997. She has taught public speaking at the University of Southern Maine since 1993 and has also taught creative nonfiction at the University of Maine at Farmington. She is a longtime instructor for the