The Vermont College of Fine Arts Postgraduate Writers’ Conference Fourteenth Annual Event will be held from Aug. 11 to Aug. 17.

Vermont College of Fine Arts, home of the nationally acclaimed MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults Program, has since 1996 offered a summer conference dedicated to advanced writers seeking to recharge, reconnect, and nourish their creative development.

The award-winning YA faculty for summer 2009 are Newbery Honor author and National Book Award finalist Kathi Appelt and Printz Winner and National Book Award Finalist An Na.

Kathi Appelt is the author of more than thirty books for children and young adults.

My Father’s Summers (Henry Holt, 2004) won the Paterson Poetry Prize for Young Adult Literature and was selected as a NYPL Book for the Teen Age as well as an ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers. In addition, it was a finalist for the PEN USA Award for Children’s Literature.

Kathi’s first novel, The Underneath, was recently named a finalist for The National Book Award and an ALA Newbery Honor Book. She is on the faculty of the MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults Program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. She and her husband Ken live in College Station, Texas.

An Na was born in Korea and grew up in San Diego. Her first novel, A Step From Heaven (Front Street, 2001), was a National Book Award Finalist and received the Michael L. Printz Award and the 2002 Children’s Book Award in Young Adult Fiction from the International Reading Association. It was also named a New York Times Book Review Notable Book and an ALA Best Book for Young Adults.

Wait For Me (Putnam, 2006) was an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and Junior Library Guild Selection. Her third novel, The Fold (Putnam), was released in spring 2008.

An Na is a graduate of the MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults Program at VCFA and teaches in The Solstice Low-Residency MFA Program of Pine Manor College.

The Postgraduate Conference is open to all experienced writers, with graduate degrees or equivalent backgrounds.

Process and craft are emphasized through a unique structure based on intimate workshops limited to five-seven participants, which include individual consultations with faculty, readings by faculty and participants, issues forums and master classes—all in a lively, supportive community of writers who share meals, ideas, and social activities in scenic Vermont.

The historic campus of Vermont College of Fine Arts is host to the annual gathering. Along with the rich menu of conference events, participants will enjoy the amenities of downtown Montpelier—the nation’s smallest and arguably most charming state capitol—just a few minutes’ walk from the college, as well as the beauty and recreational opportunities of the surrounding countryside.

Cynsational Notes

Additional faculty will be teaching writing for adults in the novel, short story, creative nonfiction, poetry, and poetry manuscript.

Contact Ellen Lesser, conference director, with any questions.