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Moravian College Writers’ Conference to be held February 3-4, 2017

Poet and essayist Alison Hawthorne Deming to deliver keynote address

Bethlehem, Pa., January 23, 2017- The Moravian College Writers' Conference will return in February 2017 with writing workshops, craft talks, readings, and a keynote address by poet and essayist  titled “Coming Home to Earth: What Purse Seines, Pumpjacks and a Twitter Feed from Space Taught One Worried Citizen ΢ƽ the Beauty of Climate Change." As in the past, the conference will focus on community, craft, and inspiration for writers of all levels in all genres. In keeping with Moravian College’s year-long In Focus programming on issues of sustainability, this year’s conference theme will be Writing and Sustainability.

Alison Hawthorne Deming

“Past writers’ conferences at Moravian College have provided a wonderful opportunity for writers of all ages and all levels of experience to learn and grow together, and this year’s conference will be no exception,” says Joyce Hinnefeld, Moravian College English professor and writers’ conference director. “The theme of Writing and Sustainability will allow us to think about both our writing and our communities in new ways—ways that we hope will nourish, inspire, and sustain us all.”

Following an opening reception at 5:00 pm on Friday, February 3, there will be a reading by conference faculty and an open-mic event for participants. Afterward, attendees may choose among Saturday-morning workshops in fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and documentary studies, as well as Saturday-afternoon craft talks in writing for children and young adults, science fiction and fantasy, and crossing boundaries between science and the literary arts.

The workshops and craft talks on Saturday will feature the following writers:

  • Paul Acampora 
  • Kate Brandes 
  • Benjamin Cohen 
  • Diane Husic 
  • Avi Setton 
  • Julia Kasdorf  
  • Mary Heather Noble  
  • Chuck Wendig 

In addition, Alison Hawthorne Deming will host a lecture at Moravian College on Thursday, February 2 at 7:00 pm titled 

Media contact:
Michael Corr
Moravian College
corrm@moravian.edu
610.861.1365

Event contact:
Joyce Hinnefeld, conference director
Moravian College
hinnefeldj@moravian.edu
610-861-1392

΢ƽ Moravian College
Moravian College is a private coeducational liberal arts college, located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and offering undergraduate and graduate degrees. For 275 years, the Moravian College degree has been based on a liberal arts curriculum where literature, history, science, cultural values, global issues, ethics, artistic expression, and the social sciences are infused with multidisciplinary perspectives. Visit  to learn more about how the Moravian College liberal arts curriculum prepares its students for life-long success.