PORT TOWNSEND — Centrum’s Port Townsend Writers Conference will get underway on Sunday at Fort Worden, and free public readings are scheduled throughout next week.
Writers will attend 2½-hour morning workshops during the week with the same faculty. Each group has a 14-writer cap, program manager Eric Greenwell said.
In the afternoon, writers will have an opportunity to choose daily between a few lecture options.
All of the programming is designed to be iterative, meaning a writer will have an opportunity to start and develop a piece of writing and to use it as they move through various workshops and lectures concepts, Greenwell said.
In the evenings, readings from the faculty will take place at 7 p.m. at Fort Worden’s Wheeler Hall, 210 Battery Way.
Alice Anderson, Bryce Andrews, Bryan Fry, Anna Quinn, Reginald Dwayne Betts, Toni Jenson and Kathryn Hunt will read on Sunday and Monday nights.
The rest of the schedule includes:
• Tuesday: Valerie Miner and Tess Gallagher.
• Wednesday: Peter Quinn, Debra Magpie Earling and Terrance Hayes.
• Thursday: Tessa Hulls, Jonathan Evison and Ryler Dustin.
• Friday: Erica Bauermeister, Claudia Castro-Luna and Robert Stubblefield.
• Saturday: Dawn Pichón Barron, Nicole Persun and PTWC Artistic Director Gary Copeland Lilley.
Also happening nightly, conference attendees will have an opportunity to read their own work at 305 Fort Worden Way.
Copeland Lilley, a poet, first came to Port Townsend as faculty in 2008 and moved to the area in 2009. He said he was charmed by the area and came to learn it is populated by great writers.
He said the workshop attracts high-caliber writers. In addition to all being highly capable and appreciated working writers, all of them are community-minded and strong teachers, Copeland Lilley said.
The poet Reginald Dwayne Betts will teach a morning block called “The Art of Juxtaposition.” Copeland Lilley said he’s known Dwayne Betts since his time living in Washington, D.C.
Dwayne Betts discovered writing and poetry while serving time in prison.
“Him being incarcerated at one time as a youth, you know, and then what he does now with Freedom Reads, putting libraries in the prisons, that’s awesome to me,” Copeland Lilley said.
In 2020, Dwayne Betts founded Freedom Reads, an organization devoted to opening libraries in prison cell blocks.
Tessa Hulls, who won the Pulitzer prize in 2024 for her debut graphic novel “Feeding Ghosts,” will teach a morning workshop, “Exploring the Borders of Graphic Narrative.”
“Feeding Ghosts,” which explores the lives and emigration of her mother and grandmother from China, is proof that the graphic novel is a serious literary genre, Copeland Lilley said.
Port Angeles-based poet Tess Gallagher will teach a morning workshop called “The Moment: Beginnings and Endings.”
Copeland Lilley said his focus as artistic director has been to extend the conference’s accessibility, regardless of race, gender, age or any other marker. He said the week can cost about $2,000 and that scholarships allow people, who otherwise would not be able to attend, access to the inspiring week.
Gallagher gave money to establish a scholarship fund, Copeland Lilley said.
He noted the importance of scholarships and supporting access to writers.
Novelist Jonathan Evison will launch a pilot program this year at the writers’ workshop. A group of writers will begin the process of writing a draft novel as a part of Levison’s workshop. Throughout the year, they will meet online twice a month. Next year, they will wrap up the program in Levison’s workshop at Fort Worden.
Greenwell said the conference has a strong retention rate, both for faculty and attendees. He attributes that to a deep commitment to the craft of writing, strong faculty curation and focus on building community.
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Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@sequimgazette.com.
