Previous Conferences by Year

55th: Horizons of Knowledge

March 20-22, 2024
Ava Chin, Terrance Hayes, Sterling HolyWhiteMountain, Marie Myung-Ok Lee, Laura Marris, Ariann Rousu

54th: The Healing Arts

March 23-25, 2023
Ingrid Rojas Contreras, Juliet Patterson, Xavier Pastrano, Tracy K. Smith, Morgan Talty, Niki Tsukamoto, Alejandro Varela

53rd: Communities and the Invidual

March 24-26, 2022
Hanif Abdurraqib, Jessica Bruder, Kelli Jo Ford, Kaitlyn Greenidge, Cal Lane, Sarah Vogel

52nd: Roots to the Earth

March 24-26, 2021
Aylan Couchie, Ross Gay, Joy Harjo, Marie Mutsuki Mockett, Nnedi Okorafor, Sonia Shah

51st: The Working Classes

September 17-November 19, 2020 (Thursdays)
Reginald Dwayne Betts, Roy G. Gúzman, Laila Lalami, Richard Tsong-Taatarii, Matt Young, Jenny Zhang

50th: What the Future Holds

March 20-22, 2019
Heid E. Erdrich, Kiese Laymon, Sally Wen Mao, Patrick Martinez, Tommy Orange, Sarah Smarsh

49th: Truth and Lies

March 21-23, 2018
Molly McCully Brown, Nicholas Galanin, David Grann, Marlon James, Lauren Markham, and Lorenzo Serna

48th: Citizen

March 22-24, 2017
NoViolet Bulawayo, Jennine Capó Crucet, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Layli Long Soldier, Jeff Shotts, Mai Der Vang, and Mario Ybarra, Jr.

47th: The Art of Science

April 6-8, 2016
Katharine Coles, Brian Greene, Allison Leigh Holt, Frank Huyler, Tania James, and Kim Stanley Robinson 

46th: The Other Half

March 25-27, 2015
Roxane Gay, Gish Jen, Bonnie Jo Campbell, Carol Muske-Dukes, Alexandra Grant, and Torill Stokkan

45th: Imagine: A Literary Festival on the Prairie

April 2-4, 2014
Colson Whitehead, Robert Pinsky, Geoff Dyer, Sarah Leavitt, Jessica Lott, and Brian Maxwell

44th: A Portrait of an Artist

March 19-23, 2013
Tony Kushner, Dorothy Allison, Gary Shteyngart, Mary Jo Bang, Ed Bok Lee, Richard Bausch, Nick Flynn, Cheryl Strayed 

43rd: Humanimal

March 27-31, 2012
Jane Smiley, Mark Doty, Pam Houston, Brenda Miller, Lee Ann Roripaugh, Aaron Poochigian, Hal Herzog

42nd: (Inter)National Affairs

March 29-April 2, 2011
Jamaica Kincaid, Maxine Hong Kingston, Carl Phillips, Susan Deer Cloud, Loida Maritza Pérez, Matthew Sienkiewicz, Jim Castellanos, Sean McLain Brown, Amoussa Koriko, Russell Scott Valentino

41st: Mind the Gap: Print, New Media, Art

March 23-March 27, 2010
Art Spiegelman, Saul Williams, Frank X. Walker, Nick Montfort, Deena Larsen, Mark Amerika, Stuart Moulthrop, Cecelia Condit, Zeitgeist

40th: Wit

March 31-April 4, 2009
Marco Candida, Jacqueline Osherow, Chuck Klosterman (North Dakota Humanities Council Lecture), Steve Almond, Charles Baxter (Presidential Lecture), Greg Williamson, Karen Russell

39th: Revolutions

March 25-29, 2008
Russell Banks (Presidential Lecture), Junot Díaz, Alexandra Fuller, Alice Fulton, Peter Kuper, Salman Rushdie

38th: Writing the Body

March 27-31, 2007

Stuart Dybek, Mary Gaitskill, Anne Harris (artist), Li-Young Lee, Timothy Liu, Leslie Adrienne Miller, Michelle Richmond, Miller Williams (Presidential Lecture)

37th: Border Crossings

March 21-25, 2006
Carol Gilligan, Barry Lopez (Presidential Lecture), Robin Magowan, Sam Pickering, Mark Salzman, Fan Shen, Nance van Winckel, Branca Vilela

36th: Hope/Illusion

March 29-April 2, 2005
Chris Belden, Carolyn Forché, Charles Johnson, Marilyn Nelson, Kathleen Norris, Jane Urquhart, Jane Varley

35th: 35th Anniversary Writers Conference

March 23-27, 2004
Elmaz Abinader, Tony Buba, Annie Dawid, Louise Erdrich (Presidential Lecturer), Albert Goldbarth, Tony Khalife, Marilynne Robinson, Mark Turcotte, Larry Woiwode

34th: Art & Science

March 24-29, 2003
Natalie Angier, Rafael Campo, Devra Davis, Alison Hawthorne Deming, Thomas Disch, Ted Mooney, Pattiann Rogers, Oliver Sacks, Julia Whitty

33rd: Explorations

March 18-22, 2002
Kate Daniels, Sharon Doubiago, Eddy Harris, Ursula Hegi, Bill Holm, David Treuer, Sara Wheeler

32nd: Worklife/Lifework

March 18-23, 2001
Peter Carey, Gary Fisketjon, Kent Haruf, Natasha Trethewey, Joy Williams, Frederick Wiseman, Ofelia Zepeda

31st: Writing War

March 20-24, 2000
John Balaban, Eavan Boland, Tessa Bridal, Robert Olen Butler, Helen Fremont, Arnold Isaacs, Ha Jin, Louis Simpson, Barbara Sonneborn

30th: Expressing the Sacred

March 16-19, 1999
Joseph Bruchac, Robert Clark, Mark Doty, Galway Kinnell, Victor Masayesva Jr., Peter Matthiessen, Ruhama Veltfort, Terry Tempest Williams

29th: The Use of History

March 24-27, 1998
Toi Derricotte, Patricia Hampl, John Hanson, Paulette Jiles, Arnost Lustig, Josef Skvorecky, August Wilson, Susan Yuzna

28th: Writing Nature: The Nature of Writing

March 18-22, 1997
Susan Griffin, Linda Hogan, Garrett Hongo, Bill McKibben, Bill Morrissey, Annick Smith, David Treuer, Meeka Walsh

27th: Living in America

April 9-12, 1996
Rosellen Brown, Jon Hassler, Sydney Lea, Li-Young Lee, David Mura, Susan Power, Pattiann Rogers

26th: States of the Art

March 21-25, 1995
Sherman Alexie, Gordon Henry Jr., Yusef Komunyakaa, Bharati Mukherjee, Tim O’Brien, Sharon Olds, Marge Piercy

25th: Homelands

April 6-9, 1994
Jonis Agee, Sandra Benitez, Adrian Louis, John Stone, Jervey Tervalon, Larry Watson, James Whitehead

24th: La Literatura: Contemporary Latino/Latina Writing

March 24-26, 1993
Gloria Anzaldúa, Ana Castillo, Martín Espada, Francisco Goldman, Luisa Valenzuela, Ed Vega

23rd: A Festival of Publishers and Writers

March 17-20, 1992
Carol Bly, Diane Glancy, Linda Hasselstrom, William Kloefkorn, Ted Kooser, Lon Otto, David Pichaske, Maura Stanton, Thom Tammaro, Mark Vinz

22nd: The Literatures of Canada

March 18-22, 1991
David Arnason, Ven Begamudre, Di Brandt, Roch Carrier, Madeleine Gagnon, Kristjana Gunnars, W.P. Kinsella, Dorothy Livesay, Michael Ondaatje, Carol Shields, David Williamson

21st: The Literature of Immigration

March 20-23, 1990
Karen Karbo, James McAuley, Reginald McKnight, Lore Segal, Ron Vossler, Will Weaver, Solveig Zempel

20th: Circle of Many Colors

April 3-7, 1989
Gretel Ehrlich, Richard Ford, William Least Heat-Moon, N. Scott Momaday, Leslie Silko, David Solheim, Tobias Wolff

19th: Parent and Child

March 22-26, 1988
Michael Dorris, Louise Erdrich, Patrick Hemingway, Adam Hochschild, Mona Simpson, W.D. Snodgrass

18th: Writers of the Purple Sage

March 17-21, 1987
Ralph Beer, Joy Harjo, Robert Kammen, Larry McMurtry, Paul St. Pierre, Elizabeth Tallent, James Welch

17th: To Make a Prairie

March 17-21, 1986
Raymond Carver, Ellen Gilchrist, Rebecca Hill, Maxine Kumin, Jay McInerney, Ernest Mickler, Robert Ward, John Yount

16th: Narratives

March 18-22, 1985
Ann Beattie, Sandra Birdsell, Amy Clampitt, Jorie Graham, Alex Haley, Barry Hannah, Norman Mailer, Thomas McGrath

15th: 1984

March 19-24, 1984
Harlan Ellison, Gay Haldeman, Joe Haldeman, Robert Silverberg, Jane Sturgeon, Theodore Sturgeon, Luisa Valenzuela, Roger Zelazny, Ray Bradbury (via telephone)

14th: The Centennial Year

March 21-25, 1983
Joseph Brodsky, Carolyn Forché, Richard Howard, Bobbie Ann Mason, James Alan McPherson, James Merrill, Czeslaw Milosz

13th: International Writers

March 22-26, 1982
Ellen Gilchrist, Thomas McGrath, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Susan Sontag, Arturo Vivante, Derek Walcott

12th: Voices

March 16-20, 1981
Esther Broner, Robert Creeley, Etheridge Knight, Denise Levertov, Ntozake Shange, Richard Wilbur

11th: The Storytellers

March 17-21, 1980
Harry Crews, Selo Black Crow, James Crumley, James Dickey, June Jordan, Richard Kostelanetz, Antony Oldknow, Leslie Silko, and Larry Watson

10th: Epitomes, Bombast, and Climaxes

March 19-23, 1979
Edward Albee, Robert Bly, Frederick Exley, N. Scott Momaday, Grace Paley, Megan Terry

9th: The Mirror and the Lamp

March 20-23, 1978
John Ashbery, Amiri Baraka, William Burroughs, Ring Lardner Jr., Tillie Olsen, Eudora Welty

8th: Literature and Film

March 21-25, 1977
Harlan Ellison, George Garrett, John Houseman, Larry McMurtry, Marcel Ophuls, Joan Tewkesbury

7th: New Journalism and the Novel

March 15-19, 1976
Truman Capote, Ed McClanahan, B.J. Phillips, Alix Kates Shulman, Larry Woiwode, Tom Wolfe

6th: Spirit of Place

March 17-21, 1975
John Barth, Wendell Berry, William Gass, Ken Kesey, N. Scott Momaday, Ishmael Reed, Alice Walker

5th: City Lights in North Dakota

March 18-22, 1974
Gregory Corso, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, Michael McClure, Peter Orlovsky, Kenneth Rexroth, Gary Snyder

4th: Women in the Arts

March 12-16, 1973
Gwendolyn Brooks, Carolyn Kizer, Myrna Lamb, Mary McCarthy, Diane Wakoski, Sylvia Wilkinson

3rd: American Indian Writers Conference

March 20-23, 1972
Frederick Manfred, Ed McGaa, Thomas McGrath, Simon Ortiz, Jerome Rothenberg, James Welch, Ray Young Bear

2nd: Northern Plains Writers Conference

February 16-19, 1971
David Evans, Roland Flint, Lois P. Hudson, Richard Lyons, Thomas McGrath, John Milton, Antony Oldknow

1st: Southern Writers Conference on the Arts

April 21-25, 1970
William Anderson, John Carr, Fred Chappel, Jesse Hill Ford, George Garrett, Peter Taylor, James Whitehead