KEY WEST LITERARY SEMINAR
The Key West Literary Seminar welcomes readers and writers to this subtropical island city. Our flagship program is the annual Seminar, a four-day readers’ event that explores a unique literary theme each January. At the Seminar, readers from all over the world join the best writers of our time for the readings, discussions, lectures, and parties that make up today’s smartest and most high-spirited literary gathering. Our Writers’ Workshop Program also takes place in January but is distinct from the Seminar; here, writers of all levels meet in small groups with esteemed faculty to share their work and explore the craft of writing in a focused and nurturing environment.
Our 32nd annual Seminar—“The Dark Side”—will include two independent sessions: Chapter One, January 9-12; and the Final Chapter, January 16-19, 2014. “The Dark Side” will explore the mystery, crime, and thriller genres, and feature panelists including Megan Abbott, John Banville, Stephen L. Carter, Lee Child, Michael Connelly, Percival Everett, Gillian Flynn, William Gibson, Sue Grafton, Joseph Kanon, Attica Locke, Joyce Carol Oates, Sara Paretsky, Alexander McCall Smith, and Scott Turow. Our next Writers’ Workshop Program will take place between the two Seminar sessions, January 12-16, 2014; Faculty include Billy Collins, James W. Hall, and Bich Minh Nguyen. Advance registration is required. Chapter One is now sold out; all workshops and the Final Chapter are also expected to fill up well before January.
Our Audio Archives Project has select recordings from the most recent Seminar—”Writers on Writers”—including the keynote addresses by Phyllis Rose and Colm Tóibín. Video coverage of “Writers on Writers” by C-SPAN’s BookTV includes presentations by Geoff Dyer, Paul Hendrickson, and Robert D. Richardson, while our own online journal—LITTORAL—is loaded with images and other coverage of the event. Our audio collection also includes dozens of historic presentations by Joyce Carol Oates, Junot Díaz, Gore Vidal, Natasha Trethewey, James Merrill, and many more.
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