by Sara Nimis

How do we write our truth when surveillance and detention mean that attention from the public can present a real danger…

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by Kamaria Korta

“Why I Am Unable to Write a Short Story” served as both the title of the Saturday night closing presentation and a perspective on novels from two-time U.S. Poet Laureate…

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by Alison Kreiss

How does the writer transform “the messiness of Self”– “this amorphous baggy collection of perception”–into Art? With this softball question…

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by Thomas Edward Frank

One of the most thrilling moments of any KWLS session is hearing first-hand from an author who has written an instant classic …

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by Bobbie Marquis

When Leslie Jamison and James Wood took the stage on Friday afternoon for the last discussion of the day, a packed auditorium waited to hear how they would…

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by Michael Sadoff

Executive Director Arlo Haskell delivered brief comments yesterday before the presentation of this year’s Cecelia Joyce Johnson Award for a Short Story. He shared that KWLS…

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by Sarah Smith

The audience stilled as each poet turned author read an excerpt from their novel; a type of music filled the air as the cadence of the writer’s voice and inflections made each…

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by Vicky Lettmann

This lively session began with David McConnell noting that all three novelists create a strong sense of place in their work and asking how they see the role of place in their fiction…

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by Megan Roberts

Originally meant to be a true crime novel in the tradition of “In Cold Blood” and “The Executioner’s Song,” Chris Kraus’ latest novel “The Four Spent the Day Together…

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by Luis Guzmán Valerio

Quiara Alegría Hudes is not afraid of trying her hand at different literary genres. A playwright and memoirist, Quiara Alegría Hudes’s latest book, her first novel, is titled The White Hot. This novel is written…

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by Rosalind Brackenbury

Listening to Colm Toibìn begin to speak is like hearing an orchestra tuning up, preparing to deliver its satisfying resonant chords.  He described himself first, to Schwartz and to us, as ‘a cross between…

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by Laura Duarte Hazan

The 43rd Key West Literary Seminar opened on Thursday evening, January 8, at the San Carlos Institute with Rachel Kushner giving the John Hersey Memorial Address to a packed house. This is her third…

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Welcome to the 2026 Key West Literary Seminar: “Pay Attention! The Novel.” Check-in for the Seminar will be that day from 1-3pm at the San Carlos Institute, 516 Duval Street and then The John Hersey Memorial Address will be given by our Keynote Speaker, Rachel Kushner, at 7pm.

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