Annual Writing in Place Conference

Unfortunately, we will not be hosting our Writing in Place Conference this summer (2023). We are taking this year off to regroup for an even better conference experience in 2024. You can stay tuned for updates by subscribing to our newsletter at the bottom of this page. Thank you for your patience and support.


Hub City Writers Project is home to the Annual Writing in Place conference, hosted at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina in mid-July. This conference is centered around three generative writing classes designed to kick start new projects, introduce new techniques, styles, and influences, and encourage participants to step out of their writing box for a weekend of writing practice.

Published novelists, poets, essayists, and literary critics lead a series of workshops over three days that include intense instruction, challenging exercises, and an opportunity for feedback. Registrants must sign up for one genre: poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction. Our instructors will expect you to write during this conference, and we have planned a weekend with "downtime" for that purpose. We also want you to have time for networking with faculty and new friends. This conference is open to 48 adult writers and sells out every year, so register early. This conference is geared toward starting a new piece of work rather than workshopping something you have already written.

Our conference is held in the Michael S. Brown Village Center on the north side of campus. Overnight guests are housed in the Village apartment housing. Guests should bring towels, a pillow, a blanket, and sheets for a twin XL bed.

 

About Manuscript Critiques

For a $50 fee you will get a thirty-minute private session with one of our faculty members.

After you register, please email ten pages of prose or five poems by June 21 to julie.jones@converse.edu. Critiques are available in fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction.

Discounts

If you have joined the Hub City Writers Project as a member at the $30 level or higher, tuition to the conference is reduced to $260. This membership also entitles you to 25 percent discount on Hub City Press books and 10 percent on other books. Call us for a discount code on your registration. If you have questions about whether you have made a donation, email anne@hubcity.org. Donate to become a member.

Hub City can issue full refunds, minus processing fees, until one week before the conference.

 

Click to Register

Tentative Schedule

Friday

5:00 pm Registration for people staying in dorms
5:30 pm General registration
6:00 pm Dinner
6:30 pm Faculty readings and Q&A
7:45 pm 1st Writing Class 

Saturday

8:00 am Coffee and breakfast
9:00 am Opening session
9:30 am 2nd Writing class
Noon Lunch
1:00 pm Writing time
3:00 pm 3rd writing class
5:30 pm Social hour
6:30 pm Dinner
7:30 pm Keynote address
8:30 pm Open Mic 

Sunday

8:00 am Coffee and bagels
9:00 am Concurrent workshops
10:30 Concurrent workshops
Noon Conference ends

 

2022 Faculty

Keynote - Taylor Brown

Taylor Brown grew up on the Georgia coast. He’s the author of a short story collection, In the Season of Blood and Gold (Press 53, 2014), and five novels from St. Martin’s Press: Fallen Land (2016), The River of Kings (2017), Gods of Howl Mountain (2018), Pride of Eden (2020), and Wingwalkers (2022). You can find his work in The New York TimesGarden & GunThe Bitter SouthernerThe Rumpus, and many other publications. He’s been a recipient of the Montana Prize in Fiction, a three-time finalist for the Southern Book Prize, and he was named the 2021 Georgia Author of the Year for his novel Pride of Eden. After stints in Buenos Aires, San Francisco, and the mountains of Western North Carolina, Taylor has settled in Savannah with his partner, painter AJ Grey, and their trio of rescue dogs. He serves as editor-in-chief of BikeBound, a custom motorcycle publication.


Nonfiction - Sayantani Dasgupta

Born in Calcutta and raised in New Delhi, Sayantani Dasgupta is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. She is the author of Women Who Misbehave (Penguin Random House), Fire Girl: Essays on India, America, & the In-Between (Two Sylvias Press) & the chapbook The House of Nails: Memories of a New Delhi Childhood (Red Bird Press). Her writing has appeared in over 50 literary journals and magazines, including The HinduThe Rumpus, Scroll, Economic & Political Weekly, IIC Quarterly, Chicago Quarterly Review, and others. She has been awarded a Centrum Foundation Fellowship, and a Pushcart Prize Special Mention. Besides the US, she has taught creative writing in India, Italy, and Mexico. Sayantani is also the winner of Season 3 of Write India, adjudged by the novelist Kavita Kane, and organized by the books division of The Times of India.

 


Poetry - Tyree Daye

Tyree Daye is a poet from Youngsville, North Carolina, and a Teaching Assistant Professor at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is the author of two poetry collections, River Hymns, the 2017 APR/Honickman First Book Prize winner, and Cardinal from Copper Canyon Press 2020. Daye is a Cave Canem fellow. Daye won the 2019 Palm Beach Poetry Festival Langston Hughes Fellowship, 2019 Diana and Simon Raab Writer-In-Residence at UC Santa Barbara, and is a 2019 Kate Tufts Finalist. Daye most recently was awarded a 2019 Whiting Writers Award.


 

Fiction - Ashleigh Bryant Phillips

Ashleigh Bryant Phillips is from Woodland, North Carolina. Her debut collection, Sleepovers, won the C. Michael Curtis Short Story Book Prize. It was longlisted for The Story Prize, and stories from it appeared in The Paris Review and The Oxford American. Her fiction has been translated into Urdu and an Italian translation of Sleepovers is forthcoming this year. Ashleigh teaches fiction at West Virginia Wesleyan College's low residency MFA and is a Southern editor for Joyland Magazine.


Conference Lodging

Wofford Village

Lodging is available in a Wofford College dormitory for $35 a night, a short walk from main conference classrooms and event space. Two story apartment style units with four single bedrooms and two bathrooms. You will not have a roommate but will share the quad with other participants. There is a full kitchen including a fridge, but no kitchen supplies. (All your meals are provided at the conference.) Please check the appropriate box at registration if you intend to stay at Wofford. 

PLEASE NOTE: The Wofford dorm rooms are spartan, and the beds are four feet off the floor. If you have difficulty reaching a bed that high, please consider a motel room. For additional information regarding local area lodging options please see below. You will be required to provide your own linens (sheets, blanket, towel, etc) for a twin XL bed. The room temperature is set at 68 degrees. 
 

Marriott Conference Hotel

299 N Church St, Spartanburg, SC 29306 
864-596-1211 
Approx. 0.5 Miles (10 min Walk) to Wofford College
Located in the heart of Spartanburg, this hotel is a 5-minute walk to downtown. This is the closest hotel to the conference classrooms. CLICK TO RESERVE

AC Hotel Spartanburg

225 W Main St Spartanburg, SC 29306 
864-585-8900 
Approx. 1.1 Miles (6 min drive) to Wofford College
The arts-focused AC Hotel is at the center of downtown Spartanburg, steps from the Hub City Bookshop, and about a six minute drive to the Wofford Conference facilities. LINK TO RESERVE

The Inn on Main

319 E Main St Spartanburg, SC 29302 
864-585-5001 
Approx. 1.3 miles (6 min drive) to Wofford College
Step back to 1904 and experience the charm and nostalgia of an earlier time at the Inn on Main, just outside downtown and a 5 minute drive to the conference classrooms.

 

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