We are delighted to announce the theme for the 2011 Key West Literary Seminar. "The Hungry Muse: an exploration of food in literature" will bring together 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. Confirmed speakers for the 29th annual event include humorists Calvin Trillin and Roy Blount, Jr., acclaimed memoirist and Gourmet editor-in-chief Ruth Reichl, novelists Bich Minh Nguyen and Diana Abu-Jaber, American Food Writing editor Molly O'Neill, and poet Kevin Young.

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."

With demand for this Seminar high, "The Hungry Muse" will encompass two independent Seminars, from January 6-9 and January 13-16, as well as a slate of writers' workshops January 10-13. Many more speakers, as well as writers' workshop faculty members, will be announced in the coming months. Registration is now open. Advance registration is strongly encouraged, as an early sell-out is likely.