University of North Dakota Writers Conference

Last updated

The University of North Dakota Writers Conference is an annual literary event held at the University of North Dakota (UND) located in Grand Forks, North Dakota, whose mission is to offer open access to the arts and create opportunities for discussion of how they impact our everyday lives. The Writers Conference is known for being one of the most distinguished cultural events on campus and the state. It brings prominent writers from the United States and abroad to Grand Forks. To date, the Conference has hosted over 360 authors (most genres) and artists to its literary event, including thirty-five Pulitzer Prize winners, [1] four recipients of the Nobel Prize, [2] and many others who have received awards from the MacArthur Foundation, National Book Foundation, National Book Critics Circle, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and more. The participants are by invite only, but all events are, and have always been, free and open to the public.

In recent years, thanks in part to grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, over 150 hours of archival video footage is now freely available for educational, scholarly, and historical purposes at commons.und.edu/writers-conference.

NumberYearThemeParticipants
53rd2022Communities and the Individual Hanif Abdurraqib Jessica Bruder Kelli Jo Ford Kaitlyn Greenidge Cal Lane Sarah Vogel
52nd2021Roots to the Earth Aylan Couchie Ross Gay Joy Harjo Marie Mutsuki Mockett Nnedi Okorafor Sonia Shah
51st2020The Working Classes Reginald Dwayne Betts Roy G. Gúzman Laila Lalami Richard Tsong-Taatarii Matt Young Jenny Zhang
50th2019What the Future Holds Heid E. Erdrich Kiese Laymon Sally Wen Mao Patrick Martinez Tommy Orange Sarah Smarsh
49th2018Truth & Lies Molly McCully Brown Nicholas Galanin David Grann Marlon James Lauren Markham Lorenzo Serna of Unicorn Riot
48th2017Citizen Viet Thanh Nguyen NoViolet Bulawayo Jennine Capó Crucet Layli Long Soldier Jeff Shotts Mai Der Vang Mario Ybarra, Jr.
47th2016The Art of Science Brian Greene Kim Stanley Robinson Katherine Coles Tania James Allison Leigh Holt Frank Huyler
46th2015The Other Half Roxane Gay Gish Jen Bonnie Jo Campbell Carol Muske-Dukes Alexandra Grant Torill Stokkan
45th2014Imagine: A Literary Festival on the Prairie Colson Whitehead Robert Pinsky Geoff Dyer Sarah Leavitt Jessica Lott Brian Maxwell
44th2013A Portrait of an Artist Dorothy Allison Mary Jo Bang Richard Bausch Nick Flynn Tony Kushner Ed Bok Lee Gary Shteyngart Cheryl Strayed
43rd2012humanimal Mark Doty Hal Herzog Pam Houston Brenda Miller Aaron Poochigian Lee Ann Roripaugh Jane Smiley
42nd2011(Inter)National Affairs Sean McLain Brown Jim Castellanos Susan Deer Cloud Jamaica Kincaid Maxine Hong Kingston Amoussa Koriko Carl Phillips Matthew Sienkiewicz Russell Scott Valentino
41st2010Mind the Gap: Print, New Media Art Mark Amerika Cecelia Condit Deena Larsen Nick Montfort Stuart Moulthrop Art Spiegelman Frank X Walker Saul Williams Zeitgeist
40th2009Wit Steve Almond Charles Baxter
(Presidential Lecture)
Marco Candida Chuck Klosterman Jacqueline Osherow Karen Russell Greg Williamson
39th2008Revolutions Russell Banks
(Presidential Lecture)
Junot Díaz Alexandra Fuller Alice Fulton Peter Kuper Salman Rushdie
38th2007Writing the Body Stuart Dybek Mary Gaitskill Anne Harris (painter) Li-Young Lee Timothy Liu Leslie Adrienne Miller Michelle Richmond Miller Williams
(Presidential Lecture)
37th2006Border Crossings Carol Gilligan Barry Lopez
(Presidential Lecture)
Robin Magowan Sam Pickering Mark Salzman Fan Shen Nance van Winckel Branca Vilela
36th2005Hope/Illusion Chris Belden Carolyn Forché Charles Johnson Marilyn Nelson Kathleen Norris Jane Urquhart Jane Varley
35th200435th Anniversary Writers Conference Elmaz Abinader Tony Buba Annie Dawid Louise Erdrich
(Presidential Lecturer)
Albert Goldbarth Tony Khalife Marilynne Robinson Mark Turcotte Larry Woiwode
34th2003Art & Science Natalie Angier Rafael Campo Devra Davis Alison Hawthorne Deming Thomas Disch Ted Mooney Pattiann Rogers Oliver Sacks Julia Whitty
33rd2002Explorations Kate Daniels Sharon Doubiago Eddy Harris Ursula Hegi Bill Holm David Treuer Sara Wheeler
32nd2001Worklife/Lifework Peter Carey Gary Fisketjon Kent Haruf Natasha Trethewey Joy Williams Frederick Wiseman Ofelia Zepeda
31st2000Writing War John Balaban Eavan Boland Tessa Bridal Robert Olen Butler Helen Fremont Arnold Isaacs Ha Jin Louis Simpson Barbara Sonneborn
30th1999Expressing the Sacred Joseph Bruchac Robert Clark Mark Doty Galway Kinnell Victor Masayesva Jr. Peter Matthiessen Ruhama Veltfort Terry Tempest Williams
29th1998The Use of History Toi Derricotte Patricia Hampl John Hanson Paulette Jiles Arnošt Lustig Josef Škvorecký August Wilson Susan Yuzna
28th1997Writing Nature: The Nature of Writing Susan Griffin Linda Hogan Garrett Hongo Bill McKibben Bill Morrissey Annick Smith David Treuer Meeka Walsh
27th1996Living in America Rosellen Brown Jon Hassler Sydney Lea Li-Young Lee David Mura Susan Power Pattiann Rogers
26th1995States of the Art Sherman Alexie Gordon Henry Jr. Yusef Komunyakaa Bharati Mukherjee Tim O’Brien Sharon Olds Marge Piercy
25th1994Homelands Jonis Agee Sandra Benitez Adrian Louis John Stone Jervey Tervalon Larry Watson James Whitehead
24th1993La Literatura: Contemporary Latino/Latina Writing Gloria Anzaldúa Ana Castillo Martín Espada Francisco Goldman Luisa Valenzuela Ed Vega
23rd1992A Festival of Publishers and Writers Carol Bly Diane Glancy Linda Hasselstrom William Kloefkorn Ted Kooser Lon Otto David Pichaske Maura Stanton Thom Tammaro Mark Vinz
22nd1991The Literatures of Canada David Arnason Ven Begamudré Di Brandt Roch Carrier Madeleine Gagnon Kristjana Gunnars W.P. Kinsella Dorothy Livesay Michael Ondaatje Carol Shields David Williamson
21st1990The Literature of ImmigrationKaren Karbo James McAuley Reginald McKnight Lore Segal Ron Vossler Will Weaver Solveig Zempel
20th1989Circle of Many Colors Gretel Ehrlich Richard Ford William Least Heat-Moon N. Scott Momaday Leslie Silko David Solheim Tobias Wolff
19th1988Parent and Child Michael Dorris Louise Erdrich Patrick Hemingway Adam Hochschild Mona Simpson W. D. Snodgrass
18th1987Writers of the Purple Sage Ralph Beer Joy Harjo Robert Kammen Larry McMurtry Paul St. Pierre Elizabeth Tallent James Welch
17th1986To Make a Prairie Raymond Carver Ellen Gilchrist Rebecca Hill Maxine Kumin Jay McInerney Ernest Mickler Robert Ward John Yount
16th1985Narratives Ann Beattie Sandra Birdsell Amy Clampitt Jorie Graham Alex Haley Barry Hannah Norman Mailer Thomas McGrath (poet)
15th1984 Nineteen eighty-four Harlan Ellison Gay Haldeman Joe Haldeman Robert Silverberg Jane Sturgeon Theodore Sturgeon Luisa Valenzuela Roger Zelazny
14th1983The Centennial Year Joseph Brodsky Carolyn Forché Richard Howard Bobbie Ann Mason James Alan McPherson James Merrill Czesław Miłosz
13th1982International Writers Ellen Gilchrist Thomas McGrath (poet) Alain Robbe-Grillet Susan Sontag Arturo Vivante Derek Walcott
12th1981Voices Esther Broner Robert Creeley Etheridge Knight Denise Levertov Ntozake Shange Richard Wilbur
11th1980The Storyteller Harry Crews Selo Black Crow James Crumley James Dickey June Jordan Richard Kostelanetz Leslie Silko
10th1979Epitomes, Bombast, and Climaxes Edward Albee Robert Bly Frederick Exley N. Scott Momaday Grace Paley Megan Terry
9th1978The Mirror and the Lamp John Ashbery Amiri Baraka William Burroughs Ring Lardner Jr. Tillie Olsen Eudora Welty
8th1977Literature and Film Harlan Ellison George Garrett John Houseman Larry McMurtry Marcel Ophüls Joan Tewkesbury
7th1976New Journalism and the Novel Truman Capote Ed McClanahan B.J. Phillips Alix Kates Shulman Larry Woiwode Tom Wolfe
6th1975Spirit of Place John Barth Wendell Berry William Gass Ken Kesey N. Scott Momaday Ishmael Reed Alice Walker
5th1974 City Lights Bookstore in North Dakota Gregory Corso Lawrence Ferlinghetti Allen Ginsberg Michael McClure Peter Orlovsky Kenneth Rexroth Gary Snyder Miriam Patchen
4th1973Women in the Arts Gwendolyn Brooks Carolyn Kizer Myrna Lamb Mary McCarthy Diane Wakoski Sylvia Wilkinson
3rd1972American Indian Writers Conference Frederick Manfred Ed McGaa Thomas McGrath (poet) Simon Ortiz Jerome Rothenberg James Welch Ray Young Bear
2nd1971Northern Plains Writers Conference David Evans Roland Flint Lois P. Hudson Richard Lyons Thomas McGrath (poet) John R. Milton Antony Oldknow
1st1970Southern Writers Conference on the Arts William Anderson John C. Carr Fred Chappell Jesse Hill Ford George Garrett Peter Taylor James Whitehead

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louise Erdrich</span> American author (born 1954)

Karen Louise Erdrich is an American author of novels, poetry, and children's books featuring Native American characters and settings. She is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, a federally recognized tribe of Ojibwe people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grand Forks, North Dakota</span> City in North Dakota, United States

Grand Forks is the 3rd most populous city in the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat of Grand Forks County. According to the 2020 census, the city's population was 59,166. Grand Forks, along with its twin city of East Grand Forks, Minnesota, forms the center of the Grand Forks, ND-MN Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is often called Greater Grand Forks or the Grand Cities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of South Dakota</span> Public university in Vermillion, South Dakota, U.S.

The University of South Dakota (USD) is a public research university in Vermillion, South Dakota. Established by the Dakota Territory legislature in 1862, 27 years before the establishment of the state of South Dakota, USD is the flagship university for the state of South Dakota and the state's oldest public university. It occupies a 274 acres (1.11 km2) campus located in southeastern South Dakota, approximately 63 miles (101 km) southwest of Sioux Falls, 39 miles (63 km) northwest of Sioux City, Iowa, and north of the Missouri River.

Ralph Louis Engelstad was an American businessman who owned the Imperial Palace casino-hotels in Las Vegas and in Biloxi, Mississippi. He also owned the Kona Kai motel in Las Vegas, which later became the Klondike Hotel and Casino. He was also the donor for the construction of the $104 million Ralph Engelstad Arena for his alma mater, the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, North Dakota, and another arena bearing his name in Thief River Falls, Minnesota. Engelstad was also a co-developer of the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Engelstad was one of the very few independent casino-hotel owners in Las Vegas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Dakota State University</span> Public university in Fargo, North Dakota, US

North Dakota State University is a public land-grant research university in Fargo, North Dakota. It was founded as North Dakota Agricultural College in 1890 as the state's land-grant university. As of 2021, NDSU offers 94 undergraduate majors, 146 undergraduate degree programs, 5 undergraduate certificate programs, 84 undergraduate minors, 87 master's degree programs, 51 doctoral degree programs of study, and 210 graduate certificate programs. It is classified among "R1-Doctoral Universities – Very High Research Activity".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of North Dakota</span> Public university in Grand Forks, North Dakota, U.S.

The University of North Dakota is a public research university in Grand Forks, North Dakota. It was established by the Dakota Territorial Assembly in 1883, six years before the establishment of the state of North Dakota.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Writers' Trust of Canada</span>

The Writers' Trust of Canada is a registered charity which provides financial support to Canadian writers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larry Woiwode</span> American writer (1941–2022)

Larry Alfred Woiwode was an American writer from North Dakota, where he was the state's Poet Laureate from 1995 until his death. His work appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, The Atlantic Monthly, Harpers, Gentleman's Quarterly, The Partisan Review and The Paris Review. He was the author of five novels; two collections of short stories; a commentary titled "Acts"; a biography of the Gold Seal founder and entrepreneur, Harold Schafer, Aristocrat of the West; a book of poetry, Even Tide; and reviews and essays and essay-reviews that appeared in dozens of publications, including The New York Times and The Washington Post Book World. He received North Dakota's highest honor, the Theodore Roosevelt Rough Rider Award, in 1992.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Dakota Fighting Hawks football</span> Football team for the University of North Dakota

The North Dakota Fighting Hawks represent the University of North Dakota, competing as a member of the Missouri Valley Football Conference (MVFC) in the NCAA Division I's Football Championship Subdivision. From 1973 to 2008, they played in the NCAA's NCAA Division II, winning the national championship in 2001. From 1955 to 1972, they competed in the NCAA's College Division where they participated in and won three bowl games.

The Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) is a nonprofit literary organization that provides support, advocacy, resources, and community to nearly 50,000 writers, 500 college and university creative writing programs, and 125 writers' conferences and centers. It was founded in 1967 by R. V. Cassill and George Garrett.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences</span>

The John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences is a multidisciplinary college within the University of North Dakota (UND) in Grand Forks, North Dakota. The school was formed in 1968. The majority of the school's fleet of over 120 aircraft is based at nearby Grand Forks International Airport and is the largest fleet of civilian flight training aircraft in North America. UND Aerospace also operates a flight training center at Phoenix–Mesa Gateway Airport in Mesa, Arizona. Today, the school has many aerospace-related programs including commercial aviation, Unmanned aircraft systems operations, air traffic control, airport management, Space Studies, Computer Science, Atmospheric Sciences, and Earth System Science & Policy. Currently, the school has over 500 faculty and 2,000 students making it the second largest of UND's degree-granting colleges. The present dean of the school is Robert Kraus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nickel Trophy</span> American college football rivalry

The Nickel Trophy is presented to the winner of the currently annual football game between the rival University of North Dakota (UND) Fighting Hawks and the North Dakota State University (NDSU) Bison. The two universities are approximately 76 miles apart on the eastern border of North Dakota. The two schools suspended play in 2003 and resumed play in 2015. In the entire history of the rivalry, the game has never been contested anywhere beside Grand Forks or Fargo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Book Foundation</span> American nonprofit organization

The National Book Foundation (NBF) is an American nonprofit organization established with the goal "to raise the cultural appreciation of great writing in America." Established in 1989 by National Book Awards, Inc., the foundation is the administrator and sponsor of the National Book Awards, a set of literary awards inaugurated in 1936 and continuous from 1950. It also organizes and sponsors public and educational programs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adam Johnson (writer)</span> American novelist and short story writer (born 1967)

Adam Johnson is an American novelist and short story writer. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his 2012 novel, The Orphan Master's Son, and the National Book Award for his 2015 story collection Fortune Smiles. He is also a professor of English at Stanford University with a focus on creative writing.

<i>North Dakota Quarterly</i> American literary journal

North Dakota Quarterly (NDQ) is a literary journal published quarterly by the University of North Dakota. NDQ publishes poetry, fiction, interviews, and literary non-fiction. It was first published in 1911 as a vehicle for faculty papers. After a hiatus during the depression, NDQ began publishing again with a broader focus that gradually came to include stories and poems. Preeminent Hemingway scholar Robert W. Lewis edited NDQ from 1982 until his death in 2013 and published about a dozen special editions focused on Hemingway, as well as a number of special editions focused on China, Yugoslavia, and Native American issues and literature. In 2019, NDQ began being published by the University of Nebraska Press.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Loft Literary Center</span> American non-profit organization

The Loft Literary Center is a non-profit literary organization located in Minneapolis, Minnesota incorporated in 1975. The Loft is a large and comprehensive independent literary center and offers a variety of writing classes, conferences, grants, readings, writers' studios and other services to both established and emerging writers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">JLG Architects</span> Architecture firm

JLG Architects is an architecture firm that specializes in urban design, master planning and architectural design for sports/recreation facilities, universities, K-12 schools, aviation facilities, medical centers, and mixed-use/multi-family housing. JLG has offices in Minneapolis, St. Cloud, and Alexandria, Minnesota, and Grand Forks, Bismarck, Minot, Williston, and Fargo, North Dakota, Rapid City and Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Boston, Massachusetts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Douglas Kearney</span> American poet (1974-)

Douglas Kearney is an American poet, performer and librettist. Kearney grew up in Altadena, California. His work has appeared in Nocturnes, Jubilat, Beloit Poetry Journal, Gulf Coast, Poetry, Pleiades, Iowa Review, Callaloo, Boston Review, Hyperallergic, Scapegoat, Obsidian, Boundary 2, Jacket2, Lana Turner, Brooklyn Rail, and Indiana Review.In 2012, his and Anne LeBaron's opera, Crescent City, premiered and received widespread praise. He is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota.

The University of North Dakota College of Arts and Science (A&S) is the liberal arts and sciences unit of the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, North Dakota. The College of Arts and Sciences was established in 1883, and is the largest and oldest of nine colleges at the University, with over 200 regular faculty members in eighteen departments. The departments are organized into four divisions: fine arts, social sciences, humanities, and math & science. The college currently enrolls approximately 2,100 undergraduate students, about 21% of the University's total undergraduate enrollment. It offers forty-three undergraduate degree programs, fifteen master's programs, and eleven doctoral programs. The college is headquartered in Columbia Hall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Dakota Fighting Sioux controversy</span>

The North Dakota Fighting Sioux controversy refers to the controversy surrounding the now retired nickname and logo of the North Dakota Fighting Hawks a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the athletic teams that represented the University of North Dakota (UND) based in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

References

  1. "53rd Annual UND Writers Conference | University of North Dakota". .und.edu. Retrieved 2021-10-22.
  2. "53rd Annual UND Writers Conference | University of North Dakota". .und.edu. Retrieved 2021-10-22.