Undergrads attend summer writers’ conference

Since 1926, Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf campus in Ripton has played host to the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. Every year in mid-August, several hundred poetry and prose artists of varying notoriety flock to Bread Loaf’s secluded collection of egg-yolk-yellow buildings to hone their craft in the company of other writers. This year, the conference convened between Wednesday, August 11th and Saturday, August 21st, and 250 writers attended, twelve of whom were Middlebury students. Those students lucky enough to attend were Lea Calderon-Guthe ’11.5, Carla Cevasco ’11, Sean Dennison ’11, Liz Gay ’11, Seth Gilbert ’10, Kelly March ’11, Ellie Moore ’10.5, Elisse Ota ’11, Alex Russo ’12.5, Alicia Wright ’11.5, Chris Wood ’10 and Christian Woodard ’10.5.

During the program, contributors meet every other day with small groups in order to workshop their poetry, fiction, or nonfiction. Accomplished writers from around the country are always brought in to lead these workshops; this year, Jane Brox, Tom Bissell and Rebecca Solnit served as the nonfiction faculty; Marianne Boruch, Linda Gregerson, Jane Hirshfield, Yusef Komunyakaa, Carl Phillips, Alberto Ríos and David Rivard taught poetry, and Andrea Barrett, Lan Samantha Chang, Stacey D’Erasmo, Percival Everett, Amy Hempel, Margot Livesey, Kevin McIlvoy, Jim Shepard, Helena Maria Viramontes and Middlebury Professor of English and American Literatures Robert Cohen lead the fiction workshops.

The Writers’ Conference’s connection with a prominent lineup of writers is no recent phenomenon; The New Yorker once called it “the oldest and most prestigious writers’ conference in the country,” and authors such as Norman Mailer, Toni Morrison, John Irving, Truman Capote and Eudora Welty have been historically associated with the Conference. Robert Frost, whose Ripton home is just a few miles from Bread Loaf, was closely tied with the program for a great many years, and attended 29 of its sessions. In the words of Middlebury student contributor Liz Gay ’11, “it’s really exciting to think that although I probably won’t ever reach that level of fame, I’m now a part of that legacy.”

Typically, a number of other writers, agents and editors of prominent publications and publishing companies also attend the Writers’ Conference as guests in order to make connections and scout for talent. For many emerging (or established) writers, this is the moment for them to make that crucial deal that could catapult them to the next level of prominence.

Gay spoke for her fellow Middlebury students in saying that “although we’re all serious about writing, as undergrads at the conference we did not feel the same amount of pressure to come away from the conference with an agent and a book deal. We could enjoy the readings, lectures and workshops, and take advantage of all the conference had to offer without stress.”