THE HUNGRY MUSE

—An Exploration of Food in Literature—

The 29th annual Key West Literary Seminar

January 6 - 16, 2011

Food is as much a part of literature as it is of life. From Marcel Proust’s petite madeleines to the hefty polemics about food in the 21st century, the subject of what we eat– and how and why we eat it– lies at the heart of good writing of all genres.

When asked why she wrote about food, the incomparable M.F.K. Fisher answered, “It seems to me that our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and intertwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the others. So it happens that when I write of hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth and the love of it and the hunger for it ... and then the warmth and richness and fine reality of hunger satisfied ... and it is all one.”

KWLS 2011 | The Hungry Muse


Join us next January for the 29th Key West Literary Seminar, The Hungry Muse. In this subtropical city teeming with shrimp, stone crab, mango, and key lime we present dozens of today’s most compelling, thought-provoking, and funniest writers– memoirists, novelists, poets, historians, journalists, and all manner of lettered gastronome, gourmand, and epicure– to explore food and its place in contemporary literature.

In anticipation of significant demand, KWLS 2011 will encompass two independent four-day Seminars. Advance registration is strongly encouraged, as an early sell-out is likely. For more information, click on the registration link at the bottom of this page.