June 18 – June 20

Featured Guests:

Louise DeSalvo

Robin Hemley

Patricia Smith

Louise DeSalvo is the Jenny Hunter Endowed Scholar for Creative Writing and Literature at Hunter College, where she has taught since 1981. She has been awarded The President’s Award from Hunter College, The Douglass Society Medal for Distinguished Achievement from Douglass College, and both The Gay Talese Award and the Premio Acerbi Award for her memoir Vertigo. DeSalvo has published seventeen books. Among them are Virginia Woolf’s Melymbrosia, the co-edited Vita Sackville-West’s Letters to Virginia Woolf, and the co-edited The Milk of Almonds: Italian American Women Writers on Food and Culture. Her Virginia Woolf: The Impact of Childhood Sexual Abuse on Her Life and Work was named one of the most important books of the 20th century by The Women’s Review of Book. DeSalvo has also published the memoirs Vertigo, Breathless, and Adultery, and Crazy in the Kitchen: Food, Feuds and Forgiveness in an Italian American Family, which was named a Booksense Book of the Year for 2004. Her book about the writing process, Writing as a Way of Healing: How Telling Our Stories Transforms Our Lives, is a widely used resource for writers recovering from trauma, illness, or terrorist acts. Her most recent memoir, On Moving: A Writer’s Meditation on New Houses, Old Haunts, and Finding Home Again, was published in March. She is at work on another memoir entitled Reading My Father’s War.

Robin Hemley is the author of eight books of fiction and nonfiction, most recently DO-OVER! In which a forty-eight-year-old father of three returns to kindergarten, summer camp, the prom, and other embarrassments (Little, Brown, May, 2009). His awards and fellowships include a 2008 Fellowship from The Guggenheim Foundation, two Pushcart Prizes, The Nelson Algren Award from The Chicago Tribune, and the Independent Press Book Award for Nonfiction. Of Do-Over!, Pulitzer Prize winning author Robert Olen Butler writes: “Robin Hemley is on my very short list of writers I not only wish to read, not only need to read, but downright can’t wait to read. Do-Over! is quintessential Hemley, full of wit and invention and brilliant language and warm humanity and when you least expect it-mid-bellylaugh, mid-bon mot-he will sneak up on you with a dazzlingly smart, deep-cutting insight into human nature. Do-Over! is an instant classic.” Hemley teaches in the Nonfiction writing Program at The University of Iowa and lives in Iowa City.

Patricia Smith is the author of five books of poetry, includingBlood Dazzler, chronicling the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, which was a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award and one of NPR’s top five books of 2008; and Teahouse of the Almighty, a National Poetry Series selection, winner of the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award and About.com’s Best Poetry Book of 2006. She also authored the ground-breaking history Africans in America and the award-winning children’s book Janna and the Kings. Her work has appeared in Poetry,The Paris Review, TriQuarterly and many other journals, and has been performed around the world, including Carnegie Hall, the Poets Stage in Stockholm, Rotterdam’s Poetry International, the Aran Islands International Poetry and Prose Festival, the Bahia Festival, the Schomburg Center and on tour in Germany, Austria and Holland. She is a Pushcart Prize winner, a Cave Canem faculty member and a four-time individual champion of the National Poetry Slam, the most successful poet in the competition’s history. She is on the faculty of the Stonecoast MFA program at the University of Southern Maine.

Talvikki Ansel has published two books of poems: My Shining Archipelago (Yale Series of Younger Poets Award) and Jetty & Other Poems. She has received a Stegner Fellowship, Pushcart Prize and Lannan Residency Fellowship. Currently teaching at URI, she has also taught at Centre College, Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Texas at Austin.

Carol Bonomo Albright is the editor of Italian Americana and teaches Italian American Studies at Harvard Extension School. She is co-editor of Wild Dreams: The Best of Italian Americana; an annotated edition of Joseph Rocchietti’s works, 1835-l845; co-editor of Italian Immigrants Go West; series editor of Italian American Autobiographies; and has published essays in Our Roots are Deep with Passion; The Dream Book: Writings by Italian American Women; Voices of the Daughters; Social Pluralism and Literary History; and in the Journal of American Ethnic History, LIT, and MELUS. Her memoir has just been published. She is a recipient of a Danforth Foundation university-to-community outreach grant.

Jericho Brown worked as the speechwriter for the Mayor of New Orleans before receiving his Ph.D. in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Houston. He also holds an M.F.A. from the University of New Orleans and he has served as poetry editor at Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts. His poems have appeared in Callaloo, The Iowa Review, Jubilat, New England Review, and Prairie Schooner. The recipient of the Bunting Fellowship at Harvard University, a Cave Canem Fellowship, and two travel fellowships to the Krakow Poetry Seminar in Poland, Brown is currently an Assistant Professor of English at the University of San Diego. Western Michigan published his first book, Please.

Mary Cappello is the author of Night Bloom: A Memoir and the Los Angeles Times Bestseller,Awkward: A Detour. Called Back: My Reply to Cancer, My Return to Life will appear this October from Alyson Books, and Swallow, based on the Mutter Museum’s collection of foreign bodies extracted and then stowed in a cabinet of curiosity by the father of endoscopy, Chevalier Jackson, is forthcoming from The New Press. Her literary nonfiction and experimental prose appears in The Georgia Review,Salmagundi, Michigan Quarterly Review, Southwest Review, Raritan, American Letters and Commentary, and elsewhere. Professor of English and Creative Writing at URI, Cappello is the recipient of the Lange-Taylor Prize; the Bechtel Prize for Educating the Imagination from Teachers and Writers Collaborative; a Fulbright Lectureship to Russia; and Notable Essay of the Year Citations in Best American Essays.

Tina Chang is the author of Half-Lit Houses and co-editor of the anthology Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, and Beyond  (W.W. Norton, 2008).  Her poems have appeared in American Poet, Indiana Review, McSweeney’s, The Missouri Review, Ploughshares, Quarterly West, Sonora Review, among others.  She has received awards from the Academy of American Poets, the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation, the New York Foundation for the Arts, Poets & Writers, the Van Lier Foundation among others. She teaches poetry at Sarah Lawrence College and Hunter College.

Betty J. Cotter is the author of the novel Roberta’s Woods, which was released in 2008 by Five Star. She holds an MFA in writing from Vermont College and was named the 2006 Fiction Fellow by the R.I. State Council on the Arts. She is managing editor of Independent Newspapers in Wakefield, R.I., and teaches creative writing at the Neighborhood Guild.

Peter Covino is an Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Rhode Island. He is the author of the poetry collection, Cut Off the Ears of Winter (New Issues 2005), winner of the 2007 PEN/Osterweil Award for emerging poets, and a finalist for the Thom Gunn Award and the Paterson Poetry Prize. His chapbook. Straight Boyfriend (2001), won the Frank O’Hara Poetry Prize. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Colorado Review, Columbia, Gulf Coast, Interim, The Paris Review, Verse, The Penguin Anthology of Italian-American Writing, and Contemporary European Poets(Graywolf, 2008), among others.

Kate Epstein founded the Epstein Literary Agency in 2005 and is a member of the AAR. She represents nonfiction for adults exclusively. Her books include: Whatever You Do, Don’t Run by Peter Allison, The Crochet Dude’s Designs for Guys by Drew Emborsky, Pets and the Planet by Carol Frischmann,The Green Bride Guide by Kate Harrison, Knitting the Threads of Time by Nora Murphy, Nail Your Law Job Interview by Natalie Prescott and Oleg Cross, The Day After He Left for Iraq by Melissa Seligman, The Year My Son and I Were Born by Kathryn Lynard Soper, and Hooked for Life: Adventures of a Crochet Zealotby Mary Beth Temple.

Amity Gaige is the author of two novels, O My Darling (2005) and The Folded World (2007). In 2007,The Folded World was named Foreword Book of the Year, best book of fiction in the Independent Publisher Book Awards, and one of the year’s Favorite Books by the Chicago Tribune. Amity is the winner of a Fulbright Fellowship, a McDowell Colony Fellowship, and in 2006, she was recognized as one of “5 Under 35” outstanding emerging writers by the National Book Foundation. She lived and taught in Rhode Island for many years before moving to Amherst, Massachusetts in 2006. She currently teaches creative writing and literature at Mt. Holyoke College.

Christina Gombar A resident of Saunderstown, Rhode Island, Christina Gombar graduated from the University of Rhode Island and holds an M.A. in Creative Writing and English Literature from the City University of New York. The author of a nonfiction book, her fiction, memoir, journalism and literary criticism have been recognized with numerous prizes and awards and internationally anthologized.  Her work can be viewed at www.ChristinaGombar.com.

Melissa Hotchkiss’ first book of poems, Storm Damage, was published by Tupelo Press in 2002. Her poems have appeared in numerous publications such as failbetter.com, The New York Times, Free Inquiry, LIT, 3rd bed, Lyric Poetry Review, Upstairs at Duroc, and Heliotrope. Her prose has appeared in The New York Times and the New Virginia Review. Melissa is one of the editors of the poetry journal Barrow Street and a member of Urban Park Rangers, a poetry workshop in New York City.

Marna Krajeski has written two books about military family life—Household Baggage: The Moving Life of a Soldier’s Wife and Household Baggage Handlers: 56 Stories From the Hearts and Lives of Military Wives. She grew up an Air Force brat, served on active duty as a helicopter pilot, and was an Army wife for 19 years. Krajeski earned her MA in English at Austin Peay State University while stationed at Fort Campbell, KY. A university writing instructor, her articles and essays have been published in SO Rhode Island, Military Spouse, Off Duty, Married to the Military, American Baby, The Military Times, and theProvidence Journal. She also blogs at http://www.Householdbaggage.com.

Amy Lemmon is the author of two poetry collections: Fine Motor (Sow’s Ear Poetry Review Press, 2008) and Saint Nobody (Red Hen Press, 2009). Her work has appeared in Rolling Stone, New Letters,Prairie Schooner, Verse, Court Green, The Journal, Barrow Street, and many other magazines and anthologies. Amy holds a PhD in English/Creative Writing from the University of Cincinnati. She is Associate Professor of English at the Fashion Institute of Technology and lives with her two children in Astoria, Queens.

Robert Leuci is an adjunct professor in the URI English department. He has written seven crime novels, translated into four languages and has most recently published a memoir with Harper Collins,All The Centurions. He has also written a television play for the Arts And Entertainment network show 100 Centre Street and has done a radio play for German radio, Brooklyn Roofs. In 1999 he received the South County Center For the Arts literary prize. He lives in Saunderstown.

Jody Lisberger, PhD, MFA (fiction), Vermont College. Jody Lisberger’s story collection, Remember Love, was published by Fleur-de-Lis Press. Her stories have appeared in Fugue, Michigan Quarterly Review, Thema, Confrontation, and The Louisville Review. Her story “Crucible” was nominated for a Pushcart Award. She won third place in the 2003 American Literary Review Fiction Contest and was a finalist in the 2004 Quarterly West Fiction Contest. She has taught fiction, creative nonfiction, literature, and feminist theory at Brown, Harvard, Tufts, Holy Cross, Boston University, and University of Rhode Island where she currently is the interim director of Women’s Studies. She has also worked as a journalist, editor, and grant writer.

David Masello is senior editor and men’s fashion editor at Town & Country magazine. Prior to the position, he has held staff editing positions at numerous magazines, including Travel & Leisure,Country Living, Art & Antiques and Departures. His essays have appeared regularly in the New York Times (one of which was featured in Best American Essays 2005),  Boston Globe. Massachusetts Review and numerous anthologies. He is the author of two books (one about the houses of architect Marcel Breuer and another about public artworks in New York City). He is also a published poet. Masello lives and works in Manhattan.

Michael Montlack, a poet and essayist, edited the nonfiction anthology My Diva: 65 Gay Men on the Women Who Inspire Them (University of Wisconsin Press, 2009). He is the author of three poetry chapbooks: Cover Charge (winner of the 2007 Gertrude Prize); Girls, Girls, Girls; and The Slip. His work has appeared in various literary journals, including Cimarron Review, Court Green, New York Quarterly,Poet Lore, 5 AM, Columbia Poetry Review, MiPOesias, and Gay and Lesbian Review. He lives in New York City, where he teaches at Berkeley College, and San Francisco. The recipient of fellowships and residencies from Ucross, Tinhouse, VCCA, Lambda Literary Foundation, and Soul Mountain Retreat, he is currently finishing his first novel.

James Morrison is the author of a memoir, Broken Fever (2001), a novel, The Lost Girl (2007), and a collection of short stories, Said and Done, forthcoming from Black Lawrence Press, an imprint of Dzanc Books.  He has also written several critical books on film and won the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies’ First Place Award in Arts Criticism in 2001 for his movie reviews in theIndependent Weekly (Durham, NC).  His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in many journals and been cited in both Best American Short Stories and Best American Essays.  He is Professor of Literature at Claremont McKenna College in Southern California, where he teaches film, literature, and creative writing.

Pamela Petro is a full-time writer based in Northampton, Massachusetts. She is the author of three books of travel literature, all published by HarperCollins, UK, which have focused respectively on Wales, the American South, and Southwest France. Petro has also written on travel, literature, art, and architecture for such varied publications as The Sunday New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, Gastronomica, and Granta, and has taught courses on travel writing at Smith College and Brown Univeristy. She is currently working on a creative non-fiction account of the next eruption of Mount Vesuvius, in Italy.

Kara Provost’s chapbook, Nests, was published in 2006 by Finishing Line Press in Kentucky. She has published poetry and memoir in Main Street Rag, Hurricane Alice, The Newport Review, Ibbetson Street,The Aurorean, and other journals, as well as in an anthology edited by David Starkey and Wendy Bishop, In Praise of Pedagogy: Poetry, Flash Fiction, and Essays on Composing. Kara holds a PhD in English from the University of Minnesota and a BA from Hampshire College. She teaches at Curry College and conducts writing workshops for elementary students through adults at schools and public libraries.

David Rutschman’s stories and essays have appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, The Massachusetts Review, Puerto del Sol, Salt Hill, Seneca Review, The Southeast Review, and other journals. He’s a graduate of the MFA Program at Warren Wilson College and the recipient of fellowships from the Texas Commission on the Arts and the Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Foundation. An instructor in creative writing and U.S. literature at URI, he lives in Providence.

Vivian Shipley is Connecticut State University Distinguished Professor and Editor of Connecticut Review. Her seventh book of poems, Hardboot: Poems New & Old, won the 2006 Paterson Prize for Sustained Literary Achievement and the 2006 Connecticut Press Club Prize for Best Creative Writing. Shipley won the 2005 Lifetime Achievement Award for Service to the Literary Community from the Library of Congress Connecticut Center for the Book. She has been twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, has won the Paterson Prize for Sustained Literary Achievement, Connecticut Book Award for Poetry, was inducted into the University of Kentucky Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame, among many other awards. Her latest book, All of Your Message Have Been Erased, is forthcoming.

Heather Sullivan holds an M.A. in English from URI.  She won first place/memoir in Writer’s Digest’s 1999 Writing Competition. She is published in Balancing the Tides, The Writers’ Circle’s 2008 Anthology, Newport Round Table’s Anthology, The Providence Journal, and She Shines Magazine. Sullivan’s work recently aired on RI NPR’s This I Believe series. In 2007, she served as a panel judge for Barnes and Noble’s Maya Angelou High School Poetry Contest.  In July 2007, she was appointed Assistant Creative Director of The RI Writers’ Circle.  Heather joined the Circle’s Power to the Poets, an outreach group for the underserved.

Aaron Tillman received a Short-Story Award for New Writers from Glimmer Train Stories and won First Prize in the 2007 Nancy Potter Short Story Contest at URI. His fiction has appeared or will appear in Opium Magazine, Glimmer Train Stories, The Carolina Quarterly, and The Babson Literary Magazine. Aaron has an MFA in Fiction Writing from Sarah Lawrence College and has worked as a contributing writer and editor for Chelsea House Publishers. This past Spring 2009, he successfully defended his doctoral dissertation, Magical American Jew: The Enigma of Difference in Contemporary Jewish American Short Fiction and Film.

Mary-Ann Tirone Smith has published eight novels, the Poppy Rice Mystery series, and a memoir,Girls Of Tender Age, which is presently under option for a film.  She has had short fiction and essays included in collection, and has written book reviews for The New York Times, the Hartford Courant, and the Boston Globe among others. Smith has taught fiction writing at Fairfield University, was writer-in-residence at Suomi College in Michigan, and was guest teacher-writer at the University of Ireland and on the Aran Islands. She will serve as nonfiction judge for the Connecticut Center for the Book Award this year and is working on a Civil War novel.

Sylvia Torti is an ecologist and writer. She has worked in the tropics of Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica, Peru and Democratic Republic of Congo. Her first novel, The Scorpion’s Tail, set during the Zapatista Rebellion of 1994, won the won the 2005 Miguel Marmol Prize, awarded for the best debut work in fiction by a Latino/a writer. Her stories and essays have been published in SEED, Wasatch Journal,City Weekly, and River City and the anthology, Are We Feeling Better Yet? Presently, she manages the University of Utah’s Entrada Field Station on the Colorado Plateau and is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology.

Patrick Tracey is the author of Stalking Irish Madness: Searching for the Roots of My Family’s Schizophrenia, which won the prestigious PEN New England Nonfiction Award in 2009 and was also picked bySlate magazine as “one of the best books of 2008.” The writer, a 1981 graduate of the University of Rhode Island, has lived in Washington, D.C., Russia, and London.  He now makes his home in Boston, with his family, where he is writing a roman a clef.

Allison Trzop is an Assistant Editor at Beacon Press, where she specializes in law, sports, media, and graphic nonfiction books. Her latest editing project is American Privacy: The 400-year History of Our Most Contested Right, by Frederick S. Lane. She teaches writing at Lesley University and blogs about book publishing at beaconbroadside.com.

Padma Venkatraman is the author of over 100 articles for adults and children. Her debut novel,Climbing the Stairs (Penguin, 2008) was released to starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, Booklist, andVOYA ; and has  received other honors (Booklist Editor’s Choice Best Books of the Year, BooksenseNotable, New York Public Library Book, ALA/YALSA Best Books of the year, Booklinks Best New Books, NCSS/CBC Notable, CCBC choice, Capitol Choice, ALA/Amelia Bloomer list, CLN Top 25, Publishers Weekly Flying Start, RARI shortlist). Venkatraman’s most recent award is the Julia Ward Howe Boston Authors Club 2009 Award for Climbing the Stairs.

Priscilla Warner grew up in Providence, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, spent fifteen years as an advertising art director, and then wrote children’s books. With the success of theNew York Times bestseller she co-authored, The Faith Club, she’s spent three years speaking and engaged in interfaith dialogue all across America. An excerpt from Priscilla’s memoir about her mother was published in MORE magazine and featured on the website Priscilla created at www.rivaleviten.com.  To read interviews and reviews for The Faith Club, go to www.thefaithclub.com.

The third year of Ocean State Summer Writing Conference offers new and exciting opportunities for writers of all kinds. Those who are new to the conference will find a wide range of activities from discussions to workshops and seminars that will afford attendees the chance to benefit from the experience of our accomplished faculty and guests, as well as time to practice new writing techniques and methods. Those who have attended the conference in the past will be happy to see new opportunities for networking and the chance to have a one-on-one consultation with one of our faculty members.

Below you will find descriptions of the event offerings available this year.  Be sure to visit our Conference Schedule page for details about when/where these events will take place!

Workshops

Each genre-specific workshop will take place over two days beginning Thursday afternoon. Workshops are led by some of our most highly accomplished faculty members. They are a chance to spend several hours in a small, intimate setting practicing writing and learning from one another. They are a great place to get feedback from fellow students as well as a faculty member in a comfortable and supportive environment. For more information visit our Event Details page. Space is limited so be sure to sign up early!

Panel Discussions

Each panel discussion will feature three or more writers who will each give a short talk about their experience with, and thoughts on, the panel topic. The panel will then be open to attendees’ questions and comments. Panel discussions offer attendees the chance to interact with several faculty members as well as hear a diverse set of opinions and experiences on interesting, thought-provoking topics. For more information visit our Event Details page.

Craft Seminars

Craft seminars are designed around a particular aspect of, or approach to, writing and are often genre-specific. Participants will read and discuss examples of writing, then get a chance to complete a short in-class writing assignment. Craft seminars are a chance for you to consider a particular aspect of writing, respond to a prompt on-site, and see how other attendees respond to your work.

Mentorships

Mentorships are a wonderful new way for conference attendees to learn from some of our most accomplished faculty in a personalized, unique way. Attendees can choose to submit a short manuscript (no more than 10 pages or 5 poems) prior to the start of the conference and sign up for a twenty-minute consultation with one of our faculty. During the mentorship, the faculty member will discuss the submitted manuscript, offering suggestions for improvement, developing a strategy for getting the most out of your writing, and brainstorming ways to get to the next level. Attendees can also come to the mentorship with specific questions about roadblocks or trouble spots. There is an additional cost for each mentorship session. Limited space available.

Networking

Community is one of the best things the Ocean State Summer Writing Conference can offer a writer. We not only want to help develop your talent, we also want to give you the chance to meet other writers and form relationships that you can build on, and get support from, after the conference is over. We’ve scheduled specific times for attendees to meet and greet one another in between classes and readings. So whether you’ve come to Ocean State Summer Writing Conference alone or with a group of friends, you can reap the rewards of being part of a large group of motivated writers and learners. Being a writer is tough work—but you shouldn’t have to go it alone! 

Cocktail Reception & Dinner

The cocktail and dinner hour is your chance to talk with faculty and other attendees in a relaxing and informal environment. Held at the University Club, the dinner will be followed by a reading from conference faculty. Here is your chance to ask that question you’ve always wanted to ask your favorite writer and get to know other writers in your community!

Readings

There are a number of readings scheduled throughout the conference, each one offering something different. The three keynote speakers will talk about their road to success, giving personal insight into the life and work of writing. There will also be readings by accomplished local writers, conference faculty members, and a not-to-be-missed reading after the Friday night reception dinner. Conference students will also have the chance to read their own work to an audience of their peers.

Book Signings

On Friday and Saturday afternoon, conference faculty will be available to sign their books at the Author Table—but you can buy books anytime!