Key West Literary Seminar

Key West, FL -
Key West, America's tiny little Caribbean island, has been associated with writers and literature since the 1920's. It was then that Ernest Hemingway first set foot on the island... and began a literary association with Key West that lasted for most of the rest of his life.

This year's Seminar has already been booked full, so a second seminar has been planned for January 17-20, 2002.

It is in celebration of this heritage that the Key West Literary Seminar was founded. This year's theme - Spirit of Place: American Literary Landscapes - celebrates the role of place in American literature.

It does so through an exploration of the ways in which our literature has been inspired and defined by the remarkably varied cultural, social, and geographic landscapes of this country.

This year's Seminar has already been booked full, so a second seminar has been planned for January 17-20, 2002.

The seminar, now in its twentieth year, is dedicated to exploring and celebrating American writing, and writers. The Seminar's goal of promoting an on-going dialogue between writers and readers, and the academic scholars who mediate between the two, is accomplished through the January seminar and year-round readings, workshops, and literary walking tours.

One of the unique features of the Seminar is its deliberately small scale. What is sought is an intimate environment in which writers can discuss the ideas and techniques behind their work with a sophisticated audience of authors, academics, and general readers.

There are few places in the world where this type of casually pursued intellectual investigation could take place... and many would argue that it could only happen in Key West! The island is famous for its literary past - and present - and known as well for its laid-back tranquility and openness to new ideas.

Most of the events associated with the festival are to be held at the San Carlos Institute, located at 516 Duval Street. The Institute is dedicated to preserving the Cuban cultural heritage of Key West. Within its walls books and historic documents are housed which relate to the Cuban experience in the Florida Keys.

The centerpiece of the Seminar are the writer's workshops. Hosted by writers of international repute, these small gatherings will explore more fully this year's theme that a sense of "place" permeates much of literature, and adds to it a breadth of emotional range.

For instance, Paulette Bates Alden, in her workshop entitled "Roaming in the Heart's Field: What Place Means to the Writer and the Writing," will explore what concepts such as region, land and home "mean" to writers and readers, and why it is that writing that has a strong sense of place can move us so deeply.

Madeleine Blais, in her workshop "Geography at Home and Abroad," will seek to show that unless readers are grounded in a particular place, they will become unhappy with what they're reading, and the author will lose a chance at otherwise reaching an audience.

She will point out that "place" can become a character in writing, whether fiction or non-fiction, and can become a motive factor in the development of the piece.

This being Key West, there's more going on than workshops and seminars. Writer's Walks through literary-historical interest, a wine and cheese reception at Lucky Street Gallery, a gala reception in the garden of the Wrecker's Museum/Oldest House, a champagne reception at the Audubon House and Tropical Gardens and another at The Key West Museum of Art and History at the Custom House.

The Key West Literary Seminar has become both a Key West and a literary keystone, one that enhances American literature and bridges Key West's fabled literary past with its soon to be spectacular literary future!