FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:

Jackie Jones

Douglas Anderson School of the Arts Writers’ Festival

2445 San Diego Road, Jacksonville, FL  32207 (904) 322-3811

douglasandersonwritersfestival@gmail.com

Douglas Anderson School of the Arts presents the 12^th Annual Writers’ Festival March 3 with a full day of hands-on writing workshops conducted by authors, university professors and special guest, Margaret Atwood.

 Ms. Atwood is a giant of modern literature who has anticipated, explored, satirized -- and even changed-- the popular preoccupations of our time. The New York Times bestseller and  Booker Prize-winning author of The Handmaid's Tale, The Year of the Flood, Alias Grace and more than 35 volumes of poetry and fiction, including her newest book, a non-fiction, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth.  Atwood is the rare writer whose work is adored by the public, acclaimed by the critics, and studied on university campuses around the world. Though her subject matter varies, the precision crafting of her language -- she is also a renowned poet -- gives her body of work a sensibility entirely its own..

 Held this year at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, the festival will feature a day of readings and breakout workshops conducted by visiting authors,  followed by an Evening Reading with Margaret Atwood. 

Joining Atwood for this year’s event are writers Martha Cooley, Peter Meinke, Lola Haskins, Janisse Ray, Ira Sukrungruang, and Rock and Roll Hall of  Famer, Stan Lynch, in addition to other prominent writers. 

 Workshops will be offered in fiction, poetry, memoir, journalism, songwriting, playwriting, performance and literary non-fiction.  The morning will begin with readings from visiting authors, followed by breakout sessions and an on-stage interview and Q & A with Margaret Atwood .  The event will conclude with an evening reading and reception for Ms. Atwood. Former Festivals have included U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins, Pulitzer Prize winners Robert O. Butler and Natasha Tretheway, and in 2010, Joyce Carol Oates. 

 This is the first year the festival is partnering with the University of North Florida.  As part of the partnership, UNF Professor Mark Ari will present a fiction workshop and UNF Professor Clark Lunberry will orchestrate a live-art installation for the event. Students from both Douglas Anderson and UNF served on the planning committees and will share in the collaborative spirit of writing workshops, along side community writers from Jacksonville and around the state.  The festival seeks to inspire and encourage both student and community writers in a gathering for experienced and emerging writers to advance their craft. 

 Since 1994, the festival has been funded by the Douglas Anderson Writers’ Guild, a not-for-profit group of parent boosters affiliated with the school.  This year, in partnership with the Douglas Anderson Foundation, UNF, Publix, the PGA Tour and other supporters, the Festival has been expanded to allow for more participants.  The cost of attendance for students, educators and senior citizens is $35; community writers will pay $60 and the fee includes lunch and all festival events.   Parties interested in sponsorship opportunities should contact festival organizers through their website at www.douglasandersonwritersfest.com.

 For more information, please visit:

www.douglasandersonwritersfest.com.

www.facebook.com/DouglasAndersonWritersFest2012

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