Each year, the week after spring break sees the arrival of the University of North Dakota Writers Conference. It is an annual celebration of writing and writers featuring panels, readings, community events, and socializing. The conference starts tomorrow, will stream online, and is open to the public 

This year’s conference is called “Roots of the Earth” and features a pretty remarkable panel of writers: Joy Harjo (US Poet Laureate with whom NDQ published an interview in 1985), Nnedi Okorafor, Ross Gay, Marie Mutsuki Mockett, Sonia Shah, Aylan Couchie, and Jessica Fischoff (editor of [PANK] and the American Poetry Journal).

Check out this year’s schedule here.

While all the events associated with the conference are pretty great, I have particularly appreciated the noon time panels. This year’s panels, are dedicated to “Subsistence,” “Stewardship,” and “Sustainability” and have a top tier trio of moderators: Melissa D. Birkhofer, Paul M. Worley, and Cari Campbell. Paul, as you may know, is our poetry editor and Cari Campbell has appeared on our blog. (I happen to know that Melissa Birkhofer is amazing as well!).

Congratulations to the UNDWC director (and check out her interview with William Gass in NDQ 86.1/2) Crystal Alberts, who each year commits her body and soul to making this conference happen! 

This year’s poster is sharp too!