During the years Tennessee Williams lived in Key West, he swam at South Beach every morning before sitting down to write. "I work everywhere," Williams said of Key West, "but I work best here."

The Key West Literary Seminar has been drawing lovers of literature to our small island in the subtropics for more than a quarter of a century. Each January, an audience of passionate readers gathers together under the tropical sun for three-and-a-half days of conversations, readings, panel discussions, lectures, and festive Key West parties where it is possible to mingle with the world's most illustrious writers.

In 2009, we will explore Historical Fiction and The Search for Truth. Scheduled speakers include Andrea Barrett, Russell Banks, Francisco Goldman, Allan Gurganus, Ursula Hegi, William Kennedy, David Levering Lewis, Joyce Carol Oates, Gore Vidal, and this year's National Book Award nominees Rachel Kushner, Peter Matthiessen, and Marilynne Robinson. Session 2 and our Writers' Workshops are open to new registrants. Session 1 is sold out. Click here for the complete list of panelists, here to see the full schedule of events, and here to register. In 2010, we will honor Richard Wilbur with Clearing the Sill of the World, a celebration of 60 years of American poetry.

LITTORAL is the year-round online voice of the Seminar. It is the home for our interview series, which includes recent conversations with our 2009 keynote speakers, Geraldine Brooks and Barry Unsworth. You'll also find Seminar news; and dispatches from our Audio Archives Project, which will archive, digitize, and format for the web twenty years of Seminar readings and discussions. More than 40 unique recordings of authors including John Ashbery, Ann Beattie, Junot Díaz, and Mark Doty, are now freely available as podcasts.

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Registration for the 2009 Literary Seminar.