Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference

2012 Conference Format

Desert Nights, Rising Stars 2012 will feature new faces, old friends, and a renewed emphasis on developing fiction, nonfiction, and poetry in a true community of writers. The conference begins the evening of Thursday, February 23, with an opening banquet, the introduction of faculty, our first faculty readers, and plenty of time to get to meet one another. Friday and Saturday will start with a keynote talk for everyone; then we’ll break into small groups for Write Here—discussion classes with a focus on generating work—and intimate Master Classes focused on a combination of participants’ manuscripts and material introduced by the faculty. Lunch will be followed by a reading, then by a combination of classes, panels, and multi-faculty Q&As, all designed to give participants the opportunity to engage with faculty in a variety of combinations and settings to discuss a wide array of topics. After the dinner break, we’ll gather for more faculty readers followed by a book signing. Sunday will open with Write Here and Master Classes and the conference will conclude with the final faculty readers.

Click HERE to take a look back at the 2011 conference.

About the Conference Site

The Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing hosts the ASU Writers Conference on campus, in Arizona State University's historic quarter. The conference workshops, readings, and book signings will largely take place in the buildings near College Street and University Drive, on the north end of the main campus.

The Piper Writers House and its grounds offer a vibrant, nurturing environment in which writers, faculty, students and community members exchange ideas and share an appreciation for literature and writing. The facility provides essential space for classes, seminars, two formal reception areas, administrative offices, a library, an archive for ASU literary history, as well as an outdoor-performance area and writers garden. While the Piper Writers House evokes the particular warm atmosphere, deep historical roots and imaginative energy that characterize the ASU Creative Writing Program, it also serves as the launching ground for new initiatives that connect diverse communities.

The historic President's Cottage on the ASU Main Campus became home to the Piper Center for Creative Writing in Spring 2005. Located on the corner of Palm Walk and Tyler Mall, the house was constructed in 1907 and served as the home of the university's president until 1959. Since that time, it has been used by the ASU Alumni Association for administrative offices (1961 to 1972) and as the home of the University Archives (1972 to 1995). The house, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is especially fitting as a home for the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing, as Robert Frost visited there twice as the guest of then-President Grady Gammage.

In 1898, when Tempe was a village and Arizona a territory, the growing Tempe Normal School moved into a new home: an impressive, three-story edifice called the Main Building. For decades this dignified Victorian structure was the heart of the institution that would mature into Arizona State University. President Teddy Roosevelt spoke from her front stairway, and generations of students relaxed in the afternoon shade of her balconies. Today, Old Main still has a special place in ASU's history and spirit. The oldest building on campus, Old Main was just restored to its original grandeur. The Alumni Association now makes this building its home.

Click here for a map of the Arizona State University campus. The historic quarter is located at 4D on the map.

About ASU and Tempe

Arizona State University is a new model for American higher education, an unprecedented combination of academic excellence, broad access, and impact. This New American University is a single, unified institution comprising four differentiated campuses that positively impact the economic, social, cultural and environmental health of the communities it serves. Its research is inspired by real world application, blurring the boundaries that traditionally separate academic disciplines. ASU serves more than 70,000 students in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona, the nation’s fifth largest city. ASU champions intellectual and cultural diversity, and welcomes students from all fifty states and more than one hundred nations.

A unique aspect of ASU is that we are “one university in many places,” not a system with separate campuses, and not one main campus with branch campuses. Each campus has a unique identity. The Tempe campus focuses on research and graduate education along with an undergraduate education that is analytic and preparatory for graduate or professional school or employment. The Polytechnic campus focuses on learning by doing offering an applied approach to professional and technological programs that meet business and societal needs and an emphasis on technical education that is a direct preparation for the workforce. The West campus focuses on interdisciplinary liberal arts education with professional programs that connect to the community. The Downtown campus is focused on programs with a direct urban and public connection.

The city of Tempe is Arizona's seventh largest city, with a population of 160,000. Tempe is located in the center of the Valley of the Sun, bordered by Phoenix, Scottsdale, Mesa and Chandler. Tempe offers more than 300 days a year of sunshine to its residents and visitors. Mill Avenue, with its numerous shops and restaurants is within walking distance from the conference venues.