The Southampton Writers Conference

Last year I became aware of the Southampton Writers Conference, but I was scheduled to leave for the Philippines before it took place. When my departure was postponed for the final time, I quickly filled out an application and biked over to the campus with it – but most of the workshops were full, so they told me no. Just as well, in the end – I had a busy couple of weeks before my departure! This year I applied, was accepted, and attended.

The conference takes place every year for ten days at the end of July. It consists of workshops, readings, talks and lectures, morning, afternoon and evening. I biked over to the Stony Brook Southampton campus, a few miles away, past the Shinnecock reservation. It gets dark here when it gets dark, so I skipped all of the evening events. That’s okay – the days were full enough! The Southampton Breakers wooden-bat baseball league plays on the campus, and I stayed for a couple of games after the afternoon sessions.


Right around the time I applied last year, there was a New Yorker article about the proliferation of writing programs and how tough it was to have your peers tear your writing apart; at least that’s how I remember the article, and that was another reason it was okay that I didn’t go last year. I don’t know if I was any less fragile this year, but in my memoir workshop this year, nobody tore anybody’s work apart. They were very supportive! From what I hear, that wasn’t the case in all of the workshops – so I ended up in a good place for me.

Another good place was a restaurant right near the campus, where I went for lunch. It was called the Tidewater; I thought it was named that because Southampton is near the ocean. Inside, there were photographs of the ’69 Mets. The burgers were names after them – the Seaver, the Koosman. So maybe the restaurant is named after the Mets AAA team. What a find!


It was wonderful to hear writers talk about their craft, to see them respectfully interact with and learn from each other. And inspirational to be with other aspiring writers. My favorite session was led by Alan Alda – he talked about how to connect with the audience when doing a reading. He did some role play, and you could see each person improve with just a little bit of coaching from him.

What did I learn and how has it affected my writing? Would I do it – or another workshop/conference again? I am still processing all of that. I am glad I went - it felt great to be there - and I think I got a lot out of it. I will say that it reinforced my love of writing – as well as reading! Lasting impact TBD, I think.