Registration has opened for the Mesa Verde Writer’s Conference in Mancos on July 11-14.
The conference, which is “for published and aspiring writers,” was created by local authors Lisa Taylor and Mark Stevens in 2023 as a way to connect and inspire fellow writers.
“We met at an event and we started talking and we thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if we had this literary event in this area?’ Because there’s nothing like it,” Taylor said. “He (Stevens) and his wife own a retreat space called Harmony Barn, and it’s this beautiful barn surrounded by mountains. And he said, ‘Well, it would be a really great space to have this.’ So we just came up with it. We wrote down all of our ideas and launched it last year, and to our surprise, it filled really quickly.”
In its first year, the conference attracted local writers, as well as bringing writers from Indiana, Illinois, New Mexico, Utah and Oklahoma. The writers ranged in age from 21 to 83.
Now, registration is open for the 2024 conference, and it is already more than half-filled. Taylor told The Journal that the conference can only host 26 individuals at this time, as the conference hall at Harmony Barn can only hold that capacity.
As of Tuesday, 14 individuals have registered, including writers from Ohio, Maine and Missouri.
The event is not only great for writers, but Taylor shared that it is great for promoting tourism in Montezuma County and surrounding areas.
“We also want to encourage tourism in the area,” Taylor said. “It’s great that lots of people come to the area for our conference and that people get to see this beautiful part of the country.”
While at the conference, the writers will have a chance to network with each other, allowing ideas to be shared and connections to be made.
Writers will also have the opportunity to share some of their work at an open mic night that will include music and a bonfire.
“The ability to begin and sustain creative work requires time,” organizers said on the conference website. “Let us provide this weekend for writing, dreaming, networking with other writers and gazing at the stars in a Western sky framed by mountain peaks.”
The 2024 faculty for the event are Alyse Knorr, Anita Mumm, Stevens and Taylor.
Knorr is an associate professor of English at Regis University, and is the author of Ardor, Mega-City Redux, Copper Mother and Annotated Glass. She has also written two video game history books and four poetry books.
Mumm is an author and development editor living in Salida. She “supports first-time novelists and bestsellers alike,” and the authors she has worked with have been recognized on The New York Times bestseller list, Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Kirkus and more.
She also teaches at various writing conferences and retreats, as well as Unbound Authors, “a program that serves incarcerated writers.”
Stevens is the author of The Fireballer and The Allison Coil mystery series. One of his books in the series, Trapline, won the Colorado Book Award for Best Mystery. He was also named Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers’ Writer of the Year in 2016 and 2023.
Taylor is the author of three poetry collections, and her most recent collection is titled Interrogation of Morning. She has also published two short-story collections, Impossibly Small Spaces and Growing a New Tail, one of which received the Hugo House New Fiction Award in 2015.
Taylor’s collaborative work with Irish poet and writer Geraldine Mills, The Other Side of Longing, was given the Elizabeth Stanley Garson Honor for Irish Literature at the University of Connecticut.
The Shape of What Remains, her first novel, will be published sometime in 2025.
The conference’s workshops will be spread across the four-day event, and attendees can attend whichever workshops and however many workshops that they’d like.
“We have a unique design,” Taylor said. “We offer like seven workshops, and we don’t run anything concurrently so everyone can do everything.”
Knorr will be hosting the workshops “The Art of Description” and “Mining Memories,” and Mumm will be hosting “A Feast for the Senses: Writing to Immerse Your Readers” and “The Joy of Revision: Essential Self-Editing Strategies for Prose.”
Stevens will host “Curiouser ad Curiouser,” while Taylor’s workshop will be “Secrets, Lies and Imperfect Truths: Writing as a Reality Check.”
Taylor shared that she hopes writers leave the event feeling encouraged and inspired.
“I hope they feel very encouraged as a writer, if they’ve always wanted to write or if they’re already published,” Taylor said. “I want them to go away with more confidence as a writer and that it really doesn’t matter if you’re published or not. I believe that everybody has a story or a poem or a memoir. We all want to tell our story.”
Registration for the conference is $425, and it includes the Thursday evening reception of appetizers, beer and wine, breakfast, lunch and dinner Friday and Saturday and breakfast on Sunday.
Registration is not complete until payment is received. One scholarship is available for one applicant who expresses financial need, but Taylor, who is on the board of the Mancos Creative District with Stevens, said they hope to offer additional scholarships in the future.
Questions and additional information can be found by contacting organizers at mesaverdewriters@gmail.com or by visiting the website at www.mesaverdewritersconference.com.
Those who wish to get involved in the writing sect of the county can also join the Four Corners Writers, a free event that takes place once a month at Zu Gallery in Cortez.
