The 44th Annual University of North Dakota Writers Conference, "A Portrait of an Artist" will run March 19-23.

Each year, literature lovers from all over North Dakota and beyond attend this event to listen to panel discussions, readings and ask questions of internationally prominent authors.

The lineup for this year's authors and artists include Cheryl Strayed, Nick Flynn, Ed Bok Lee, Dorothy Allison, Gary Shteyngart, Mary Jo Bang and Richard Bausch, as well as two-time Oscar nominee and Pulitzer Prize winner Tony Kushner.

Each authors will give a public reading during the Conference with time reserved for audience members to pose questions, with a book signing to follow. These readings take place at 4p.m. and 8 p.m., Tuesday through Friday, primarily in the UND Memorial Ballroom. At 8p.m., on Friday, at the Chester Fritz Auditorium, the UND Writers Conference will feature "A Conversation with Tony Kushner" moderated by Jack Russell Weinstein, director of the UND Institute for Philosophy in Public Life and the host of Prairie Public's popular WHY? Radio show.

In addition to readings, the Conference includes three panel discussions, where a group of Conference authors answer questions posed by the moderator and those submitted by the audience. Also, this year, the UND Theatre Arts Department will stage two Tony Kushner plays on Saturday night, March 23. A complete schedule is available athttp://www.undwritersconference.org/wc-schedule.htm.

All sessions are free to attend and open to the public.

There is no need to be familiar with an author's work prior to the session. People who are interested in brushing up on a particular author before the session can pick up books for the 2013 Writers Conference at the UND Bookstore.

Gary Shteyngart

His debut novel, The Russian Debutante's Handbook, won the Stephen Crane Award for First Fiction and the National Jewish Book Award for Fiction. It was also named a New York Times Notable Book, a best book of the year by The Washington Post and Entertainment Weekly, and one of the best debuts of the year by The Guardian. His novel Absurdistan was published in 2006 and was chosen as one of the ten best books of the year by New York Times Book Review and Time magazine, as well as a book of the year by The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, and many other publications. Recently, Shteyngart was recognized as one of today's top fiction writers on The New Yorker's prestigious "20 Under 40" list. His latest book is Super Sad True Love Story. His fiction and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, GQ, Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, and many other publications. He is also a contributing editor to Travel & Leisure magazine. One of his travelogues is included in the Best American Travel Writing of 2006 anthology.