26th ASU Writers Conference in Honor of Elmer Kelton

March 2-3, 2023

The 2023 conference will commemorate the 26th Angelo State University’s Writers Conference in Honor of Elmer Kelton. Our two-day conference is one of the few in the state that requires no registration or attendance fees for presenters and guests. This year’s celebration of writers will also be commemorated with the publication of a conference proceedings that will include selected conference presentations, winning entries from the area high school contest, and an interview with Brandon Hobson.

Featured Writer: Brandon Hobson

We are pleased to announce this year’s featured writer is critically acclaimed fiction writer Brandon Hobson.

Brandon Hobson in a black and white photograph

The ASU Writers Conference brings award-winning authors from all genres to campus to share their works and their creativity with the ASU community and the public. Our two-day conference is one of the few that requires no registration or attendance fees for presenters or guests. Featured speakers have included renowned authors such as Naomi Shihab Nye, Craig Johnson, Leslie Marmon Silko, Art Spiegelman and Tim O’Brien.

The conference is held every year in honor of the late Elmer Kelton, who wrote more than 40 books, including “The Time it Never Rained,” “The Man Who Rode Midnight” and “The Good Old Boys.” He was a seven-time winner of the Western Writers of America’s (WWA) Spur Award, and the WWA named him the “all-time best Western author.” Additionally, local and regional writers are invited to showcase their works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry and prose. The event is hosted by the ASU Department of English and Modern Languages and sponsored by the university with support from the ASU Alumni Association, the College of Arts and Humanities and Guy and Eva Choate.

Invitation to Submit

Please submit newly composed or recently published poetry, short fiction, and creative nonfiction for 15-minute readings.
Deadline for submission is Nov. 1, 2022.
Notification by Dec. 1, 2022.

Submission Guidelines

Please attach a cover letter, including a brief biography, and please reference the genre in which you’re submitting.
Attach your work as a single file in either .docx format or .pdf.
Submit entries to writers-conference@angelo.edu.

Questions? Contact Us!

For questions or inquiries, please contact Dr. Rebecca Bernard, the Writers Conference Chair, at writers-conference@angelo.edu.

Help support and enhance the Writers Conference in Honor of Elmer Kelton with a tax-deductible gift to its endowment. For more information, contact the Office of Development at 325-942-2116 or development@angelo.edu.