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George Getschow, writer in residence of the nationally renowned Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference in Grapevine, Texas, is inviting nonfiction writers and anyone interested in narrative craft to the sixth annual conference, July 23-25, at the Hilton DFW Lakes Executive Conference Center, five minutes from the DFW Airport.

The 2010 conference will explore a variety of storytelling genres. Speakers include some of America’s top narrative practitioners: Mary Karr, author of two New York Times bestselling memoirs; Mark Bowden, author of Black Hawk Down; Bryan Burrough, author of Public Enemies and Barbarians at the Gate; David Grann, author of The Lost City of Z; Hampton Sides, author of Ghost Soldiers, Blood and Thunder, and Hellhound on his Trail; Gary Smith, a senior writer at Sports Illustrated, whom Slate calls “the best magazine writer in America.” Other nationally acclaimed speakers include Amanda Bennett, Kevin Fedarko, Paula Butturini, Madalit del Barco, Hannah Allam and many more.

The Mayborn Conference has grown into the most respected and acclaimed narrative nonfiction conference in the country. Hampton Sides, editor-at-large of Outside Magazine and author of the current bestseller, Hellhound On His Trail, says: "It’s no accident that the Mayborn Conference has very quickly risen to preeminence among the nation’s literary conferences. Stacked with talent, smartly choreographed, and well-attended by enthusiastic confreres whose passion for non-fiction is palpable, the Mayborn offers a distinctive format no other conference can match."

Gay Talese, the co-founder of New Journalism and a member of the Mayborns Advisory Board, says at the conference "I came to know an extraordinary gathering of writers, journalists, educators, students and readers devoted to the art and craft of literary nonfiction, a subject that has been my passion and my mission for a half century. The Mayborn...sponsors and promotes the discussion and application of nonfiction only on the highest standards."

Here's Columbia Journalism Review's story of last year's conference:
http://www.cjr.org/behind_the_news/i_heard_it_while_in_grapevine.php

The conference includes a book manuscript and essay writing contest. Deadline for submissions is June 15. In the essay competition, your essay or article must be no more than 20 pages double spaced. In the book writing competition, you submit one complete chapter and a chapter-by-chapter narrative synopsis (no more than five pages) of the rest of the book. If your essay is selected by our panel of judges, you will enter one of five, 10 person workshops and spend all day Friday, July 23, getting your essay or article critiqued and evaluated by the workshop and the workshop leaders.

Our workshop leaders are all award-winning writers and authors. The top six articles and essays win $12,000 in cash prizes. The 10 best articles or essays, including the six cash award winners, will be published in a popular literary journal called Ten Spurs. To read some of the essays published in Ten Spurs most recent issue, go to www.themayborn.com.

If your manuscript is selected by our panel of judges, you would enter one of two, 10-person workshops, and spend all day Friday, July 23, getting your ms critiqued and evaluated by the workshop and the workshop leaders, both of whom are published authors. You will also receive a written critique from the workshop leader. The first-place manuscript winner receives a $3,000 cash prize.

Mayborn book award winners continue to win major book publishing contracts. Donna Johnson's memoir about growing up evangelical, Holy Ghost Girl: Scenes from the Apocalypse, will be published by Gotham Books. And Susannah Charleson's Scent of the Missing, released by Houghton Mifflin a few weeks ago, is destined to become a best-seller.

Conference fees are $295 for the general public. Educator fees are $270. Student fees are $225. The fees include fine dining. Conference seating is limited. To register, visit the conference site.

For more information, contact George Getschow at getschow@unt.edu or by phone: 972-746-1633, or Project Coordinator Jo Ann Ballantine, joann.ballantine@unt.edu, 940-565-4778, cell 940-368-1998.

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