# University of North Dakota Writers Conference

The University of North Dakota Writers Conference is an annual literary event held at the University of North Dakota (UND) located in Grand Forks, North Dakota, whose mission is to offer open access to the arts and create opportunities for discussion of how they impact our everyday lives. The Writers Conference is known for being one of the most distinguished cultural events on campus and the state. It brings prominent writers from the United States and abroad to Grand Forks. To date, the Conference has hosted over 360 authors (most genres) and artists to its literary event, including thirty-five Pulitzer Prize winners, four recipients of the Nobel Prize, and many others who have received awards from the MacArthur Foundation, National Book Foundation, National Book Critics Circle, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and more. The participants are by invite only, but all events are, and have always been, free and open to the public.
In recent years, thanks in part to grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, over 150 hours of archival video footage is now freely available for educational, scholarly, and historical purposes at commons.und.edu/writers-conference.
| Number | Year | Theme | Participants | Participants | Participants | Participants | Participants | Participants | Participants | Participants | Participants | Participants | Participants |
| 53rd | 2022 | Communities and the Individual | Hanif Abdurraqib | Jessica Bruder | Kelli Jo Ford | Kaitlyn Greenidge | Cal Lane | Sarah Vogel | | |
| 52nd | 2021 | Roots to the Earth | Aylan Couchie | Ross Gay | Joy Harjo | Marie Mutsuki Mockett | Nnedi Okorafor | Sonia Shah | | |
| 51st | 2020 | The Working Classes | Reginald Dwayne Betts | Roy G. Gúzman | Laila Lalami | Richard Tsong-Taatarii | Matt Young | Jenny Zhang | | |
| 50th | 2019 | What the Future Holds | Heid E. Erdrich | Kiese Laymon | Sally Wen Mao | Patrick Martinez | Tommy Orange | Sarah Smarsh | | | | | |
| 49th | 2018 | Truth & Lies | Molly McCully Brown | Nicholas Galanin | David Grann | Marlon James | Lauren Markham | Lorenzo Serna of Unicorn Riot | | | | | |
| 48th | 2017 | Citizen | Viet Thanh Nguyen | NoViolet Bulawayo | Jennine Capó Crucet | Layli Long Soldier | Jeff Shotts | Mai Der Vang | Mario Ybarra, Jr. | | | | |
| 47th | 2016 | The Art of Science | Brian Greene | Kim Stanley Robinson | Katherine Coles | Tania James | Allison Leigh Holt | Frank Huyler | | | | | |
| 46th | 2015 | The Other Half | Roxane Gay | Gish Jen | Bonnie Jo Campbell | Carol Muske-Dukes | Alexandra Grant | Torill Stokkan | | | | | |
| 45th | 2014 | Imagine: A Literary Festival on the Prairie | Colson Whitehead | Robert Pinsky | Geoff Dyer | Sarah Leavitt | Jessica Lott | Brian Maxwell | | | | | |
| 44th | 2013 | A Portrait of an Artist | Dorothy Allison | Mary Jo Bang | Richard Bausch | Nick Flynn | Tony Kushner | Ed Bok Lee | Gary Shteyngart | Cheryl Strayed | | | |
| 43rd | 2012 | humanimal | Mark Doty | Hal Herzog | Pam Houston | Brenda Miller | Aaron Poochigian | Lee Ann Roripaugh | Jane Smiley | | | | |
| 42nd | 2011 | (Inter)National Affairs | Sean McLain Brown | Jim Castellanos | Susan Deer Cloud | Jamaica Kincaid | Maxine Hong Kingston | Amoussa Koriko | Carl Phillips | Matthew Sienkiewicz | Russell Scott Valentino | | |
| 41st | 2010 | Mind the Gap: Print, New Media Art | Mark Amerika | Cecelia Condit | Deena Larsen | Nick Montfort | Stuart Moulthrop | Art Spiegelman | Frank X Walker | Saul Williams | Zeitgeist | | |
| 40th | 2009 | Wit | Steve Almond | Charles Baxter (Presidential Lecture) | Marco Candida | Chuck Klosterman | Jacqueline Osherow | Karen Russell | Greg Williamson | | | | |
| 39th | 2008 | Revolutions | Russell Banks (Presidential Lecture) | Junot Díaz | Alexandra Fuller | Alice Fulton | Peter Kuper | Salman Rushdie | | | | | |
| 38th | 2007 | Writing the Body | Stuart Dybek | Mary Gaitskill | Anne Harris (painter) | Li-Young Lee | Timothy Liu | Leslie Adrienne Miller | Michelle Richmond | Miller Williams (Presidential Lecture) | | | |
| 37th | 2006 | Border Crossings | Carol Gilligan | Barry Lopez (Presidential Lecture) | Robin Magowan | Sam Pickering | Mark Salzman | Fan Shen | Nance van Winckel | Branca Vilela | | | |
| 36th | 2005 | Hope/Illusion | Chris Belden | Carolyn Forché | Charles Johnson | Marilyn Nelson | Kathleen Norris | Jane Urquhart | Jane Varley | | | | |
| 35th | 2004 | 35th Anniversary Writers Conference | Elmaz Abinader | Tony Buba | Annie Dawid | Louise Erdrich (Presidential Lecturer) | Albert Goldbarth | Tony Khalife | Marilynne Robinson | Mark Turcotte | Larry Woiwode | | |
| 34th | 2003 | Art & Science | Natalie Angier | Rafael Campo | Devra Davis | Alison Hawthorne Deming | Thomas Disch | Ted Mooney | Pattiann Rogers | Oliver Sacks | Julia Whitty | | |
| 33rd | 2002 | Explorations | Kate Daniels | Sharon Doubiago | Eddy Harris | Ursula Hegi | Bill Holm | David Treuer | Sara Wheeler | | | | |
| 32nd | 2001 | Worklife/Lifework | Peter Carey | Gary Fisketjon | Kent Haruf | Natasha Trethewey | Joy Williams | Frederick Wiseman | Ofelia Zepeda | | | | |
| 31st | 2000 | Writing War | John Balaban | Eavan Boland | Tessa Bridal | Robert Olen Butler | Helen Fremont | Arnold Isaacs | Ha Jin | Louis Simpson | Barbara Sonneborn | | |
| 30th | 1999 | Expressing the Sacred | Joseph Bruchac | Robert Clark | Mark Doty | Galway Kinnell | Victor Masayesva Jr. | Peter Matthiessen | Ruhama Veltfort | Terry Tempest Williams | | | |
| 29th | 1998 | The Use of History | Toi Derricotte | Patricia Hampl | John Hanson | Paulette Jiles | Arnošt Lustig | Josef Škvorecký | August Wilson | Susan Yuzna | | | |
| 28th | 1997 | Writing Nature: The Nature of Writing | Susan Griffin | Linda Hogan | Garrett Hongo | Bill McKibben | Bill Morrissey | Annick Smith | David Treuer | Meeka Walsh | | | |
| 27th | 1996 | Living in America | Rosellen Brown | Jon Hassler | Sydney Lea | Li-Young Lee | David Mura | Susan Power | Pattiann Rogers | | | | |
| 26th | 1995 | States of the Art | Sherman Alexie | Gordon Henry Jr. | Yusef Komunyakaa | Bharati Mukherjee | Tim O’Brien | Sharon Olds | Marge Piercy | | | | |
| 25th | 1994 | Homelands | Jonis Agee | Sandra Benitez | Adrian Louis | John Stone | Jervey Tervalon | Larry Watson | James Whitehead | | | | |
| 24th | 1993 | La Literatura: Contemporary Latino/Latina Writing | Gloria Anzaldúa | Ana Castillo | Martín Espada | Francisco Goldman | Luisa Valenzuela | Ed Vega | | | | | |
| 23rd | 1992 | A Festival of Publishers and Writers | Carol Bly | Diane Glancy | Linda Hasselstrom | William Kloefkorn | Ted Kooser | Lon Otto | David Pichaske | Maura Stanton | Thom Tammaro | Mark Vinz | |
| 22nd | 1991 | The Literatures of Canada | David Arnason | Ven Begamudré | Di Brandt | Roch Carrier | Madeleine Gagnon | Kristjana Gunnars | W.P. Kinsella | Dorothy Livesay | Michael Ondaatje | Carol Shields | David Williamson |
| 21st | 1990 | The Literature of Immigration | Karen Karbo | James McAuley | Reginald McKnight | Lore Segal | Ron Vossler | Will Weaver | Solveig Zempel | | | | |
| 20th | 1989 | Circle of Many Colors | Gretel Ehrlich | Richard Ford | William Least Heat-Moon | N. Scott Momaday | Leslie Silko | David Solheim | Tobias Wolff | | | | |
| 19th | 1988 | Parent and Child | Michael Dorris | Louise Erdrich | Patrick Hemingway | Adam Hochschild | Mona Simpson | W. D. Snodgrass | | | | | |
| 18th | 1987 | Writers of the Purple Sage | Ralph Beer | Joy Harjo | Robert Kammen | Larry McMurtry | Paul St. Pierre | Elizabeth Tallent | James Welch | | | | |
| 17th | 1986 | To Make a Prairie | Raymond Carver | Ellen Gilchrist | Rebecca Hill | Maxine Kumin | Jay McInerney | Ernest Mickler | Robert Ward | John Yount | | | |
| 16th | 1985 | Narratives | Ann Beattie | Sandra Birdsell | Amy Clampitt | Jorie Graham | Alex Haley | Barry Hannah | Norman Mailer | Thomas McGrath (poet) | | | |
| 15th | 1984 | Nineteen eighty-four | Harlan Ellison | Gay Haldeman | Joe Haldeman | Robert Silverberg | Jane Sturgeon | Theodore Sturgeon | Luisa Valenzuela | Roger Zelazny | | | |
| 14th | 1983 | The Centennial Year | Joseph Brodsky | Carolyn Forché | Richard Howard | Bobbie Ann Mason | James Alan McPherson | James Merrill | Czesław Miłosz | | | | |
| 13th | 1982 | International Writers | Ellen Gilchrist | Thomas McGrath (poet) | Alain Robbe-Grillet | Susan Sontag | Arturo Vivante | Derek Walcott | | | | | |
| 12th | 1981 | Voices | Esther Broner | Robert Creeley | Etheridge Knight | Denise Levertov | Ntozake Shange | Richard Wilbur | | | | | |
| 11th | 1980 | The Storyteller | Harry Crews | Selo Black Crow | James Crumley | James Dickey | June Jordan | Richard Kostelanetz | Leslie Silko | | | | |
| 10th | 1979 | Epitomes, Bombast, and Climaxes | Edward Albee | Robert Bly | Frederick Exley | N. Scott Momaday | Grace Paley | Megan Terry | | | | | |
| 9th | 1978 | The Mirror and the Lamp | John Ashbery | Amiri Baraka | William Burroughs | Ring Lardner Jr. | Tillie Olsen | Eudora Welty | | | | | |
| 8th | 1977 | Literature and Film | Harlan Ellison | George Garrett | John Houseman | Larry McMurtry | Marcel Ophüls | Joan Tewkesbury | | | | | |
| 7th | 1976 | New Journalism and the Novel | Truman Capote | Ed McClanahan | B.J. Phillips | Alix Kates Shulman | Larry Woiwode | Tom Wolfe | | | | | |
| 6th | 1975 | Spirit of Place | John Barth | Wendell Berry | William Gass | Ken Kesey | N. Scott Momaday | Ishmael Reed | Alice Walker | | | | |
| 5th | 1974 | City Lights Bookstore in North Dakota | Gregory Corso | Lawrence Ferlinghetti | Allen Ginsberg | Michael McClure | Peter Orlovsky | Kenneth Rexroth | Gary Snyder | Miriam Patchen | | | |
| 4th | 1973 | Women in the Arts | Gwendolyn Brooks | Carolyn Kizer | Myrna Lamb | Mary McCarthy | Diane Wakoski | Sylvia Wilkinson | | | | | |
| 3rd | 1972 | American Indian Writers Conference | Frederick Manfred | Ed McGaa | Thomas McGrath (poet) | Simon Ortiz | Jerome Rothenberg | James Welch | Ray Young Bear | | | | |
| 2nd | 1971 | Northern Plains Writers Conference | David Evans | Roland Flint | Lois P. Hudson | Richard Lyons | Thomas McGrath (poet) | John R. Milton | Antony Oldknow | | | | |
| 1st | 1970 | Southern Writers Conference on the Arts | William Anderson | John C. Carr | Fred Chappell | Jesse Hill Ford | George Garrett | Peter Taylor | James Whitehead | | | | |