Writers Conference Records, 1970-
Collection Overview
Title: Writers Conference Records, 1970-
ID: UA114
Extent: 3.75 Linear Feet
Date Acquired: 08/00/1998. More info below under Accruals.
Subjects: University of North Dakota - Writers Conference
Languages: English
Abstract
Scope and Contents of the Materials
Collection Historical Note
While the English Department traces its roots to the very founding of the University in 1883, the Writers Conference only began in 1970. Founded by the late professor John Little, the conference had a modest beginning with the Southern Writers Conference of the Arts. Funded by the College of Arts and Sciences as well as by some of the visiting writers themselves, the conference was so successful that it became an annual event, almost immediately.
Though the conference quickly had university-wide appeal and, since the mid-1970s, significant attendance from the community and region, it has always been organized by faculty, staff, and students of the English Department. In more recent years it has become known nationwide as one of the most distinctive conferences of its kind, in part because it remains free and open to the public, probably the only way it could function.
Financial support for the conference has always come from a variety of sources, depending on a particular conference topic or other factors in shifting personnel and circumstances at the university. The steadiest support historically was from student organizations and the president's office, but there have often been grants from outside agencies, donations from alumni and other individuals, and, since the mid-1990s, a modest but growing endowment, managed by the UND Alumni Foundation.
Currently, the UND Writers Conference is funded through those same modest endowments, individual gifts, and yearly grant writing, as well as new gifts from alumni and other friends of the Conference like the Alice Lillian Carlson Estate, The Kemen/Randall Family Writers Conference Distribution Fund, the John Little Memorial Endowment, and the Jackie McElroy-Edwards and Tom Edwards Writers Conference Endowment.
Now in its 51st year, the Conference enjoys a national reputation among writers as one of the best run, most interesting events of its kind, especially because of its strong public audiences, attracted by its free and open format. A large number of volunteers from around the university and the community make it all possible, but it is still organized by the UND English Department, which provides administrative support and the release of one class per semester for the faculty member who directs it.
https://und.edu/writers-conference/about/index.html
Subject/Index Terms
Administrative Information
Repository: Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections
Accruals: Additional materials were donated by UND Professor James McKenzie in March 2004.
Access Restrictions: Open for inspection under the rules and regulations of the Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections.
Acquisition Source: John Little
Acquisition Method: Donation; the originals were loaned to Special Collections for duplication by John Little, UND Professor Emeritus.
Preferred Citation: Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections, Chester Fritz Library, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks.
Finding Aid Revision History: Finding aid added to Archon in May 2019.
Other Note: Writers Conference Digitized Materials on the UND Scholarly Commons
Box and Folder Listing
Browse by Box:
[Box 1],
[Box 2],
[Box 3],
[Oversize Folder 1: Conference Posters, 1970-1979],
[Oversize Folder 2: Conference Posters, 1980-1989],
[Oversize Folder 3: Conference Posters, 1990-1999],
[Oversize Folder 4: Conference Posters, 2000-2009],
[Oversize Folder 5: Conference Posters, 2010-2019],
[Oversize Folder 6: Conference Posters, 2020-],
[Photographs :],
[All]
- Box 1
- Folder 1: John Little Personal/Biographical
- Folder 2: 1st Conference, "Southern Writers Conference on the Arts": General, 1970
- Folder 3: 1st Conference: William Anderson
- Folder 4: 1st Conference: John Carr
- Folder 5: 1st Conference: Fred Chappell
- Folder 6: 1st Conference: Jesse Hill Ford
- Folder 7: 1st Conference: George Garrett
- Folder 8: 1st Conference: Peter Taylor
- Folder 9: 1st Conference: Jim Whitehead
- Folder 10: 2nd Conference, "Northern Plains Writers Conference": General, 1971
- Folder 11: 2nd Conference: Dave Evans
- Folder 12: 2nd Conference: Roland Flint
- Folder 13: 2nd Conference: Lois Phillips Hudson
- Folder 14: 2nd Conference: Richard Lyons
- Folder 15: 2nd Conference: Thomas McGrath
- Folder 16: 2nd Conference: John Milton
- Folder 17: 2nd Conference: Antony Oldknow
- Folder 18: 3rd Conference, "American Indian Writers Conference": General, 1972
- Folder 19: 4th Conference, "Women in the Arts": General, 1973
- Folder 20: 4th Conference: Gwendolyn Brooks
- Folder 21: 4th Conference: Carolyn Kizer
- Folder 22: 4th Conference: Myrna Lamb
- Folder 23: 4th Conference: Mary McCarthy
- Folder 24: 4th Conference: Diane Wakoski
- Folder 25: 4th Conference: Sylvia Wilkinson
- Folder 26: 5th Conference, "City Lights in North Dakota": General, 1974
- Folder 27: 5th Conference: "City Lights in North Dakota: the Poet Looks at Industry and Ecology (Videotape Transcript)"
- Folder 28: 5th Conference: Gregory Corso
- Folder 29: 5th Conference: Lawrence Ferlinghetti
- Folder 30: 5th Conference: Allen Ginsberg
- Folder 31: 5th Conference: Michael McClure
- Folder 32: 5th Conference: Kenneth Rexroth
- Folder 33: 5th Conference: Charles R. Rothschild Productions, Inc. (agent)
- Folder 34: 5th Conference: Gary Snyder
- Folder 35: 5th Conference: Open Mike Session, Tuesday, March 19, 1974
- Folder 36: 5th Conference: Open Mike Session, Wednesday, March 20, 1974
- Folder 37: 5th Conference: Open Mike Session, Thursday, March 21, 1974
- Folder 38: 5th Conference: Open Mike Session, Friday, March 22, 1974
- Folder 39: 6th Conference, "Spirit of Place": General, 1975
- Folder 40: 6th Conference: "Spirit of Place: American Writers Look at People and Places (Transcript of Videotape)"
- Folder 41: 6th Conference: Short Story by unknown author
- Folder 42: 6th Conference: John Barth
- Folder 43: 6th Conference: Wendell Berry
- Folder 44: 6th Conference: William Gass
- Folder 45: 6th Conference: Ken Kesey
- Folder 46: 6th Conference: N. Scott Momaday
- Folder 47: 6th Conference: Ishmael Reed
- Folder 48: 6th Conference: Alice Walker
- Folder 49: 7th Conference, "New Journalism and the Novel": General, 1976
- Folder 50: 7th Conference: Truman Capote
- Folder 51: 7th Conference: Ed McClanahan
- Folder 52: 7th Conference: B.J. Phillips
- Folder 53: 7th Conference: Alix Kates Shulman
- Folder 54: 7th Conference: Larry Woiwode
- Folder 55: 7th Conference: Tom Wolfe
- Folder 56: 8th Conference, "Literature and Film": General, 1977
- Folder 57: 8th Conference: Harlan Ellison
- Folder 58: 8th Conference: George Garrett
- Folder 59: 8th Conference: John Houseman
- Folder 60: 8th Conference: Larry McMurtry
- Folder 61: 8th Conference: Joan Tewkesbury
- Folder 62: 9th Conference, "The Mirror and the Lamp": General, 1978
- Folder 63: 9th Conference: John Ashbery
- Folder 64: 9th Conference: Amiri Baraka
- Folder 65: 9th Conference: William Burroughs
- Folder 66: 9th Conference: Ring Lardner
- Folder 67: 9th Conference: Tillie Olsen
- Folder 68: 9th Conference: Eudora Welty
- Folder 69: 10th Conference, "Epitomes, Bombast, & Climaxes": General, 1979
- Folder 70: 11th Conference, "The Storytellers": General, 1980
- Folder 71: 11th Conference: Selo Black Crow
- Folder 72: 11th Conference: James Crumley
- Folder 73: 11th Conference: James Dickey
- Folder 74: 11th Conference: Antony Oldknow
- Folder 75: 11th Conference: Leslie Marmon Silko
- Folder 76: 11th Conference: Lawrence Watson
- Folder 77: 12th Conference, "Voices": General, 1981
- Folder 78: 12th Conference: Esther Broner
- Folder 79: 12th Conference: Robert Creeley
- Folder 80: 13th Conference, "International Writers": General, 1982
- Folder 81: 13th Conference: Alain Robbe-Grillet
- Folder 82: 13th Conference: Paul Engle and Hualing Nieh Engle
- Folder 83: 14th Conference, "Centennial": General, 1983
- Folder 84: 14th Conference: Joseph Brodsky
- Folder 85: 14th Conference: Caroline Forche
- Folder 86: 14th Conference: Richard Howard and James Merrill
- Folder 87: 14th Conference: Bobby Ann Mason and James McPherson
- Folder 88: 14th Conference: Czeslaw Milosz
- Folder 1: John Little Personal/Biographical
Browse by Box:
[Box 1],
[Box 2],
[Box 3],
[Oversize Folder 1: Conference Posters, 1970-1979],
[Oversize Folder 2: Conference Posters, 1980-1989],
[Oversize Folder 3: Conference Posters, 1990-1999],
[Oversize Folder 4: Conference Posters, 2000-2009],
[Oversize Folder 5: Conference Posters, 2010-2019],
[Oversize Folder 6: Conference Posters, 2020-],
[Photographs :],
[All]