Building on the success of its offerings in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and children’s literature, the Southampton Writers Conference, which author Tom Wolfe called “the best in the country,” is offering additional conferences and workshops in theatre and film this July for screenwriters, filmmakers, playwrights and directors.
Filmmakers will have the rare opportunity from July 6 to 24 to complete their own digital storytelling project under the guidance of Emmy and Director’s Guild Award-winning writer and producer Mitchell Kriegman, formerly of Wainscott Studios and creator of “It’s a Big, Big World,” among other shows.
Theatre world luminaries Joe Mantello (Wicked), Tina Landau (Superior Donuts) Austin Pendleton (Three Sisters), Tony Walton (Candida), Mark Wing-Davey (Mad Forest), and Kathleen Marshall (Anything Goes) are the headliners for the first Theatre Directing Conference, from July 13 to 24, offering master classes and hands-on demonstrations of the kind of performance-shaping techniques that have put them at the top of their field. Workshop participants will have the opportunity to work on projects with members of Off-Broadway’s esteemed Ensemble Studio Theatre, the resident theatre company at the Writers Conference.
The Screenwriting Conference, now in its fourth year, invites screenwriters to work on scripts in all stages of development. This year’s faculty include: Andrew Bienen, co-writer of Oscar winner, Boy’s Don’t Cry; Christina Lazaridi, Oscar nominee, One Day Crossing; Frank Pugliese, Obie winner, Aven ‘U Boys; Brushfire Award winner Paula Brancato; Stephen Molton, screenwriter and author, Brothers in Arms, The Kennedys, the Castros and the Politics of Murder; and Oscar nominee, By Courier, Peter Riegert.
Afternoons provide electives and evenings offer discussions with such writer/directors as: Alexander Payne (Sideways, About Schmidt), Robert Benton (Bonnie and Clyde, Places in the Heart), Kenneth Lonergan (You Can Count on Me) and Peter Hedges (What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, About a Boy).
Once again, the evening of the Alan Pakula Prize will be devoted to a renowned director and screening of compelling representative clips.
The playwriting conference, now in its third year, will be offered in two sessions this summer, July 6-10 and July 13-24. Playwrights can work on bringing stories, characters and ideas on the page into vibrant life for the stage with Obie Award winner Adam Bock (A Small Fire), actress and Outer Critics Circle Award-winning playwright Leslie Ayvazian (Nine Armenians), Pulitzer Prize finalist and Drama Desk Award-winner Jon Robin Baitz (The Substance of Fire), and Tony Award nominee Emily Mann (Execution of Justice). Sharing her expertise on the craft of creating the Musical Book will be Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner Marsha Norman ('Night, Mother, The Secret Garden ). Playwrights will also have the opportunity to work with the talented actors of Ensemble Studio Theatre.
The Children’s Literature Conference returns for a fourth summer, offering writers an opportunity to sharpen their storytelling skills for young audiences in workshops with the best writers in the field: Newbery, Caldecott and Coretta Scott King honoree, author and editor Andrea Davis Pinkney (Sit-In: How Four Friends Stood Up By Sitting Down); National Book Award finalist and award-winning middle-grade author Tor Seidler (The Wainscott Weasel); National Book Award finalist and ALA Best Book of the Year Award-winning YA author Patricia McCormick (Purple Heart); #1 New York Times bestselling author and illustrator Peter H. Reynolds (The Dot); and New York Times bestselling writer Chris Barton (Shark Vs. Train).
Novelists and short story writers will meet regularly to workshop their fiction with Meg Wolitzer (The Uncoupling, just out), Frederic Tuten (Self Portraits: Fictions, also just out), Melissa Bank (mega-seller The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing).
Poets can opt for workshops with former Poet Laureate Billy Collins or National Book Award winner Mark Doty, or hone their skills in a Meter & Form workshop with MFA faculty member and Whiting Award-winning poet Julie Sheehan.
For creative nonfiction writers developing memoirs or crafting familiar essays, intimate, five-session workshops will be offered by three master writers: Roger Rosenblatt (author of the bestseller Making Toast), Matthew Klam (contributing writer, The New York Times Magazine), and David Rakoff (Half Empty; regular contributor to NPR’s “This American Life”).
Writing workshops for teens will be offered during the Writers Conference, from July 5-8 for creative writing and from July 11-15 for scriptwriting, under the auspices of Stony Brook Southampton’s Young American Writers Project (YAWP). Professional writers will be paired with high school students for the 4- and 5-day retreats, with both workshops culminating in final readings. Select pieces of student work may be eligible for publication in the YAWP E-zine. Partial scholarships are still available; the application deadline for both workshops is June 15.
YouTube:
Former television producer (AMC, Bravo) and Manhattan Track Faculty Coordinator Magdalene Brandeis will continue to create programming for the new YouTube channel, launched last year. Bob’s Writing Shack features celebrated writers’ readings and popular author interviews as well as YAWP play readings.
In summer migration from classrooms on Park Avenue South, Manhattan Track students will once again be in attendance. The conference also offers sneak previews of Manhattan instructors for the fall semester, Melissa Bank, Daniel Menaker, and Dinitia Smith.
For more information, please contact MFA Conference Coordinator Christian McLean at 631-632-5007 or by email at Christian.mclean@stonybrook.edu.
Media contact:
Andrew.Botsford@stonybrook.edu
Christian.McLean@stonybrook.edu
631-632-5007
FACTS ABOUT THE WRITERS CONFERENCE
AND THE MFA IN CREATIVE WRITING & LITERATURE
About A Writer’s Summer
- Since its sleepy beginnings in 1975, the Southampton Writers Conference has grown from course offerings of four creative writing workshops to this year’s crop of 26, taught by authors of the first rank: Jon Robin Baitz, Melissa Bank, Billy Collins, Mark Doty, Emily Mann, Marsha Norman, David Rakoff, Roger Rosenblatt, Meg Wolitzer and more.
- Each writing workshop is limited to 12 enrollees, giving students genuine attention and access to faculty. (Most of the workshops are full, but there are still a few spaces here and there; it’s not too late to apply!)
- When not in class, the 235+ participants can attend more than 50 lectures, panels, readings, receptions and performances offered between July 13-24. A similarly rich series of events is offered during the 5-day conference, July 6-10. Jules Feiffer and James Salter are the keynote speakers for the two sessions.
- More than 100 distinguished authors, playwrights, screenwriters, directors, actors and filmmakers will visit Stony Brook Southampton in July to make the educational mission a success—including Ensemble Studio Theatre, a NYC-based company which marks its third year of July residency on campus during the Writers Conference.
- Restaurants, hotels, shops, and other small businesses in the area benefit from this influx of more than 300 visitors to campus during July.
- Since joining Stony Brook University in 2006, the Creative Writing & Literature Program has consistently expanded its summer courses to include Playwriting, Screenwriting, and Children’s Literature. Now, with its newest offerings in Directing and Digital Filmmaking, it has tripled summertime enrollment in the last 5 years.
About the MFA in Creative Writing & Literature program
The MFA in Creative Writing is a big, popular program, with close to 100 graduate students working toward their degrees by taking courses in fiction, poetry, nonfiction, playwriting and screenwriting every year. Among Stony Brook MFA programs, it is second only to Music Performance in size of enrollment. It is the fastest-growing graduate program in the humanities at SBU, and the only creative writing MFA program in the SUNY system.
The Creative Writing program attracts star faculty and, as a result, star students. Admission is selective. Faculty honors include Oscars, Tonys, Emmys, Guggenheims, Laureates, National Book Awards, and Pulitzer Prizes. Next stop: the Nobel!
In the past two years, more than a dozen major books have come from our program, by authors Helen Simonson (Westhampton), Julie Sheehan (East Quogue), Roger Rosenblatt (Quogue), Jules Feiffer (Water Mill), Kaylie Jones (Sagaponack), Ursula Hegi (Sag Harbor), Lou Ann Walker (Sag Harbor), and the team of Julie Andrews and Emma Walton Hamilton (Sag Harbor).
This fall marks the third year of the highly successful “Manhattan Track” to an MFA in Creative Writing, in which graduate students take courses at Stony Brook’s Manhattan facility during the fall, winter and spring, then head to the Hamptons in July. An increasing number of our MFA students are now Manhattan Track, making it a primary feeder to the Southampton program.
In addition to sponsoring the Southampton Writers Conference, the MFA program also sponsors the following:
- The Young American Writers Project (YAWP) reaches virtually every middle and secondary school on the South Fork, and has already served more than 700 students. Visiting artists come into the schools to teach creative writing workshops, supplementing classroom instruction.
- The Southampton Review, a highly regarded literary periodical, publishes biannually. It celebrates its fifth year with an issue launch reading on Friday, July 22.
- Six prizes in creative writing, including a national short story prize for college students, have been endowed and are administered through the MFA program.
- An International Program launched this past January with inaugural workshops in Florence, Italy. Plans are afoot to offer workshops in Kenya, at the Turkana Basin.
- The MFA in Creative Writing has grown, is growing, and will continue to grow. We manage growth by planning ahead for more of it. This year, we received approval for an MFA in Theatre, an Advanced Certificate program aimed at part-time study, and a Creative Writing Minor for undergraduates.
At Stony Brook Southampton, the blueprint is in place to serve larger populations of students engaged in more fields of study with a wider variety of courses than ever before. Stay tuned for future announcements about our plans for more growth—including one we anticipate making during this summer's Southampton Writers Conference.
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