LONGLEAF WRITERS CONFERENCE

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DON’T MISS OUT!

2024 VISITING WRITERS

ADAM JOHNSON

Adam Johnson is the author of Fortune Smiles, winner of the National Book Award and the Story Prize and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and The Orphan Master’s Son, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and the California Book Award and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Johnson’s other awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers’ Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and a Stegner Fellowship; he was also a finalist for the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Award. His previous books are Emporium, a short story collection, and the novel Parasites Like Us. Johnson teaches creative writing at Stanford University and lives in San Francisco with his wife and children.

MAGGIE SMITH

Maggie Smith is the author of six award-winning books: You Could Make This Place Beautiful, Lamp of the Body, The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison, and Good Bones, named by the Washington Post as one of the Five Best Poetry Books of 2017, Keep Moving, and Goldenrod. The title poem of Good Bones was called the “Official Poem of 2016” by Public Radio International and has been translated into nearly a dozen languages. Smith’s poems have appeared in the New York Times, Tin House, The Believer, The Paris Review, Kenyon Review, Best American Poetry, and on the CBS primetime drama Madam Secretary. A Pushcart Prize winner, Smith has received fellowships and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Academy of American Poets, the Ohio Arts Council, and the Sustainable Arts Foundation.

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2024 FACULTY and VISITORS

BETH (Bich Minh) NGUYEN (prose, CNF)

DEAN BAKOPOULOS (prose, Screenwriting)

MATT BONDURANT (prose)

Stay Tuned (prose)

MELISSA GINSBURG (poetry)

SETH BRADY TUCKER (poetry)

VANDANA KHANNA (poetry)

MARTHA WYDYSH (agent, Trident Media)

ANJALI SINGH (agent, Ayesha Pande Literary)

Stay Tuned! TBA (agent)

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2023 FELLOWS and SCHOLARS (deadline for 2024 is January 10 so apply or come back after that date to see our stars!)

FROM 2023:

DEREK N. OTSUJI, Longleaf Poetry Fellow

CALEB JOHNSON, Longleaf Fiction Fellow

CHRISSY KOLAYA, Sundog Fiction Fellow

SAM MOE, St. Joe Community Foundation Poetry Fellow

LENORE MYKA, St. Joe Community Foundation Creative Nonfiction Fellow

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LAURA JOYCE-HUBBARD, Baker Veteran Scholar (open)

L. Renée, St. Joe Community Foundation URG Poetry Scholar

DANIEL ABIVA HUNT, St. Joe Community Foundation URG Prose Scholar

ELISE PLUNK, St. Joe Community Foundation Local Scholar

JACOB FRAZIER, University of Alabama-Birmingham Scholar

ISRAEL MASON, University of Alabama-Birmingham Scholar

MARINA LEIGH, University of Mississippi Scholar in poetry

BAE DI, University of Mississippi Scholar in prose

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BEACHSIDE VISITORS

Leona Sevick, author of Damaged Little Creatures, and Lion Brothers

Adam Vines, author of Lure, and The Coal Life

Snowden Wright, best-selling author of American Pop, Play Pretty Blues

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Please note that applications for fellowships and scholarships for 2024 will open August 2023 to January 10th, 2024. Our financial aid offerings are seven Fellowships (two Poetry, three Fiction, one CNF, one Screenwriting) and numerous open scholarships for Under-represented Groups and Teachers and Veteran and Local writers.

We also pair up for two University of Mississippi scholarships and two University of Alabama Birmingham scholarships and one Southern Mississippi University scholarships that go to students from those universities (faculty there make selections so there is no open application process).

See our Alumni page for how talented and successful our visitors are!

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ABOUT:

The Longleaf Writers Conference includes a full week of intensive and generative writing workshops (where attendees and scholars and fellows engage with small group workshop critiques of writing), daily seminars, agent consultations, school outreach programs, and special social events. The conference, which takes place in Seaside, Florida (some might recognize Seaside, as the set for the movie The Truman Show with Jim Carrey), provides an opportunity for all levels of writers to celebrate writing, to network, and to hone their craft in a beautiful setting among generous and celebrated writers and poets. Other components of the conference are the Scholars and Fellows Program, including the Celia Baker Veteran scholarship, the Marilyn R. Harris Teachers scholarship, and the St. Joe Community Foundation local scholarships, as well as local outreach programs for youth at local public schools.

Past writers and academic attendees have used our educational and publishing opportunities to justify and apply for professional development/travel funds from their schools and universities. Past attendees have been signed by agents at LWC and we are proud to have seen books, articles, essays, and other creative writing published widely by these friends in the past years. Our past visitors have included best-selling and award-winning poets and authors such as: Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Rebecca Makkai, Kwame Dawes, Michael Farris Smith, Erika Krouse, Wendy Rawlings, January Gill O’Neil, Derrick Harriell, Snowden Wright, Maurice Carlos Ruffin, Jessica Jacobs, Marie Myung Ok-Lee, Brian Turner, Beth Ann Fennelly, Tom Franklin, Nickole Brown, Andre Dubus III, Jacqueline Mitchard, Elizabeth Stuckey-French, Chris Offutt, Jenny Molberg, Ann Fisher-Wirth, Diane Roberts, Jennifer Percy, Anton DiSclafini, Antonya Nelson, David James Poissant, and many more writers,  agents, and editors. See Alumni for a complete list.

Are you ready to register? Enroll here with or without housing! Enrollees who pay full tuition with or without housing benefit from all workshops, seminars, readings, beach bonfire parties, readings, and social events. Full registration attendees will have their own work critiqued and improved through a 5-day intensive workshop and will enjoy daily activities, including seminars, receptions, and dinners. We schedule in plenty of time to also WRITE! The Longleaf Writers Conference is a place to gain inspiration from a broad swath of writers and poets, to sit and contemplate our craft, to revise and create, and to create life-long friendships and new writing relationships.

And of course let’s not forget the world-class beach; if you like white sand and clear water, this is the conference for you. We have chairs and umbrellas on the beach for your use and we encourage plenty of creative loafing. This is a casual, laid-back conference, flip-flops and salty hair, naps on the sand, leisure snacks at local shops and cafes, perusing this quaint cottage town before cocktails for these glorious nightly sunsets.

Our A La Carte options for local and regional writers are available on our registration page, as well as one option to join us for all our events and seminars, but without the requirement of submitting your work for critique in a workshop. Please feel free to write us directly with any questions or problems with the site. We hope you will decide to join us for this life-changing experience!

See you on the beach!

Seth Brady Tucker, Executive Director

Matt Bondurant, Creative Director

Jonathan D’Avignon, Educational Director

PLEASE NOTE FOR 2024: All attendees, guests, faculty, agents, editors, and registrants MUST TEST NEGATIVE or SHOW PROOF OF UP-TO-DATE VACCINATION/BOOSTER for COVID. We will do our best to monitor all negative tests (should show negative on first day and we will test throughout the week) and we expect our guests to follow all safety guidelines outlined by the CDC for group interactions. We trust the science and we are committed to ensuring everyone is safe.