25th ASU Writers Conference in Honor of Elmer Kelton

March 3-4, 2022

The 2022 conference will commemorate the 25th 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 Naomi Shihab Nye.

Featured Writer: Naomi Shihab Nye

We are pleased to announce this year’s featured writer is acclaimed poet, fiction writer, and children’s literature author Naomi Shihab Nye.

Nye’s 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East was a 2002 National Book Award finalist. The Tiny Journalist (2019) won Best Poetry Book from both the Texas Institute of Letters and the Writers League of Texas and was named a Best Poetry Book by the Washington Post (2019).

Her work has been featured on National Public Radio’s A Prairie Home Companion and PBS poetry specials. Her most recent poetry collection Everything Comes Next: Collected and New Poems (2020) features some of her most celebrated poems as well as some of her new poetry.

Nye has also authored several books of poetry and works of fiction for children. She was named Young People’s Poet Laureate 2019-2021 by the Poetry Foundation and is the winner of two Jane Addams Children’s Book Awards.

Schedule

At the conference, Nye will speak in the morning and the evening of Thursday, March 3, 2022:

• 9:30 a.m. - “A Conversation with Naomi Shihab Nye”
• 7 p.m. - “Reading and Presentation by Naomi Shihab Nye”

These presentations are free to the campus community and the public, and they will be located in the Houston Harte University Center C.J. Davidson Conference Room.

The two-day conference will also include presentations by some of the best writers from Texas and beyond. These presentations will be scheduled in the afternoon of Thursday, March 3, and the morning of Friday, March 4.

Including works of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, these readings will take place in the Eldon Black Recital Hall in the Carr Education-Fine Arts Building. They are also free to the campus community and the public.

Questions? Contact Us!

For questions or inquiries, please contact Dr. Laurence Musgrove, the Writers Conference Chair, at lmusgrove@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.