August 14, 2002

Contact: S. Adrianne Tucker
802-443-5629
satucker@middlebury.edu
Posted:August 14, 2002

MIDDLEBURY, VT-Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the oldest writers’ conference in the country, will meet from Aug. 14-24. Held every summer since 1926 on the College’s Bread Loaf campus in Ripton, Vt., the conference remains one of America’s most respected literary institutions. Two weeks of workshops, lectures, classes and readings present writers with rigorous practical and theoretical approaches to their craft, and offer a model of literary instruction. The mountain campus provides a dynamic setting that has attracted many renowned literary figures such as Robert Frost, Carson McCullers, John Irving, Terry Tempest Williams and Ted Conover.

“Bread Loaf is not a retreat-not a place to work in solitude. Instead, it provides a voluble congress of diverse voices in which we test our own assumptions regarding literature and seek advice about our progress as writers,” said Michael Collier, author of four books of poems and director of the conference.

This year, more than 230 writers, faculty, New York literary agents and editors and representatives of smaller agencies and presses from around the country will gather at the 77th session of the conference. Each year, faculty and guests give readings and talks open to the general public, which take place in the Little Theatre on the Bread Loaf campus on Route 125 East. Some highlights this year include a reading by novelist David Bradley on Monday, Aug. 15 at 8:15 p.m. Bradley, whose nonfiction has appeared frequently in the New York Times and Esquire magazine, is also the author of two novels, “South Street” and “The Chaneysville Incident,” which won the 1982 PEN/Faulkner Award and a Academy Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.

Novelist Terry Tempest Williams-recipient of the Lila Wallace Reader’s Digest Award and fellow of the Guggenheim and Lannan foundations-will read from her work on Sunday, Aug. 18 at 8:15 p.m. Williams’ books include the classic of environmental literature, “Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Space.” Other books by Williams are “Pieces of White Shell,” “Coyote’s Canyon,” “An Unspoken Hunger,” “Desert Quartet,” “Leap” and, most recently, “Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert.”

Poet Carl Phillips, whose works include “Pastoral” and “The Tether,” will give a reading on Wednesday, Aug. 21 at 4:15 p.m.

Ursula Hegi, whose works include “The Vision of Emma Blau” and “Stones from the River,” will give a reading on Friday, Aug. 23 at 8:15.

Memoirist Ted Conover, whose nonfiction works include “Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing,” “Rolling Nowhere: Riding the Rails with America’s Hoboes,” “Coyotes” and “Whiteout,” will give a reading at 4:15 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 24.

An additional conference treat will be a performance by the Vermont Symphony Trio on Thursday, Aug. 22 at 8:15 p.m., also in the Little Theatre.

All events are subject to change, so it is recommended that those interested contact the Middlebury College Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference at 802-443-2700 to confirm days and times. For more information about the conference, check online at http://go.middlebury.edu/blwc.

To follow is a list of events open to the public:

Events Schedule: Middlebury College Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference 2002

Lectures, readings and a concert by the Vermont Symphony Trio are free and open to the public. All events will take place in the Little Theatre, on the Bread Loaf campus in Ripton, Vermont. Events are subject to change. Please call 802-443-2700 to confirm days and times.

Wednesday, August 14
8:15 p.m. Reading with Michael Collier and Kevin McIlvoy

Thursday, August 15
9 a.m. Lecture with David Bradley, “The Tyranny of Genius, or, What if You Ain’t Shakespeare?”
4:15 p.m. Reading with Galway Kinnell
8:15 p.m. Reading with Susan Straight and Ted Genoways

Friday, August 16
9 a.m. Lecture with Carol Muske-Dukes, “A Poet in Hollywood”
4:15 p.m. Reading with Jim Shepard and Marc Estrin
8:15 p.m. Reading with Tom Sleigh and Maria Hummel

Saturday, August 17
9 a.m. Lecture with Ted Conover, “How Do I Sound?: Questions of Voice in Narrative Nonfiction”
4:15 p.m. Reading with Alan Shapiro and Jonathan Tel
8:15 p.m. Reading with Vikram Chandra and Dana Sachs

Sunday, August 18
9 a.m. Lecture with Alan Shapiro, “Some Questions Regarding Art and Suffering”
4:15 p.m. Reading with Helen Schulman and Elizabeth Arnold
8:15 p.m. Reading with Terry Tempest Williams and Greg Rappleye

Monday, August 19
4:15 p.m. Reading with Sigrid Nunez and Matthea Harvey
8:15 p.m. Reading with David Bradley and Daisy Fried

Tuesday, August 20
9 a.m. Lecture with Jim Shepard, “Saying What They Mean: The Child’s Sensibility in Fiction”
4:15 p.m. Reading with Josip Novakovich and Wendy Rawlings
8:15 p.m. Reading with Steve Orlen and Phyllis Alesia Perry

Wednesday, August 21
9 a.m. Lecture with Tom Sleigh, “Make it New/ Make it Old”
4:15 p.m. Reading with Carl Phillips and Brock Clarke
8:15 p.m. Reading with Robert Cohen and Major Jackson

Thursday, August 22
9 a.m. Lecture with Susan Straight, “Entitlement: Who Can Write What?”
4:15 p.m. Reading with Toi Derricotte and Ann Scott Knight
8:15 p.m. Vermont Symphony Trio

Friday, August 23
9 a.m. Readings with the 2000 Bakeless Literary Prize winners:
Miranda Field, Bill Gruber and Malinda Markham
8:15 p.m. Reading with Ursula Hegi and Adam Haslett

Saturday, August 24
4:15 p.m. Reading with Ted Conover and Ernesto Quiñonez
8:15 p.m. Reading with Carol Muske-Dukes and Steve Almond