Weekend of Poetry Conference
March 12-14, 2010
Experience a Weekend of Poetry featuring national award-winning poet Dorianne Laux.
Dorianne Laux
A finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, Dorianne Laux’s fourth book of poems, Facts about the Moon (W.W. Norton), is the recipient of the Oregon Book Award and was short-listed for the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize. Laux is also author of Awake (1990) What We Carry (1994) Smoke (2000) as well as Superman: The Chapbook (2008) and Dark Charms (2009), both from Red Dragonfly Press. Co-author of The Poet's Companion, she’s the recipient of two Best American Poetry Prizes, a Best American Erotic Poems Prize, a Pushcart Prize, two fellowships from The NEA and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her work has appeared in the Best of APR, The Norton Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, and many others. She has been teaching poetry in private and public venues since 1990 and since 2004 at Pacific University’s Low-Residency MFA Program. In the summers she teaches at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California and The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Mass. She and her husband, poet Joseph Millar, recently moved to Raleigh where she joined the faculty at North Carolina State University.
Conference
All poets — from aspiring beginners to published sages — are welcome to join us for a weekend of workshops, seminars and readings. As with Ted Kooser in 2007, and Philip Levine in 2008, Laux will do a reading on Saturday night and offer a master class for all participants on Sunday morning.
The Weekend of Poetry all-inclusive rate of $350 includes the Friday night opening dinner, all conference workshops, Dorianne Laux’s reading and her Master Class.
Venue
The conference is held at the beautiful Hotel Mar Monte on Santa Barbara’s stunning oceanfront. The hotel offers lovely amenities, including luxurious rooms, wifi, a beautiful pool, exercise room and spa, and restaurant and bar. Across the street is the Pacific Ocean and the 22-mile Cabrillo Beach walkway for runners, walkers and cyclists. Downtown Santa Barbara is within walking distance, as are Stearns Wharf and the Harbor, where there are shops and restaurants. The Hotel Mar Monte’s special room rate for those attending the is $169 per night plus tax on Friday and Saturday nights, and $139 per night plus tax Sunday through Thursday nights. The Hotel Mar Monte also owns a nearby hotel, The Parkside Inn, where SBWC students can reserve rooms for $129 Friday and Saturday and $99 per night Sunday through Thursday. (Ask for the Parkside Inn rate when you call.)
Lodging reservations must be made with the hotel: (800) 643-1994. A number of other hotels along Cabrillo Boulevard are just a short electric shuttle ride away. For a list of alternatives, click here.
Registration
You may register for the conference electronically or contact us to make other arrangements. Cancellation and refund policy: No refunds will be given after February 1, 2010. Requests for refunds must be made in writing, by postal mail to Santa Barbara Writers Conference, P.O. Box 6627, Santa Barbara, CA 93160. A $50 administrative fee will be charged for all refunds.
