Great Writers, Speakers Coming to Town

What do you get when Ray Bradbury, Neil Simon, Sue Grafton, Christopher Buckley, Gayle Lynds and 350 other writers converge for a week at Westmont? The Santa Barbara Writers Conference!

"This year’s conference begins June 25 and runs through July 2, with outstanding speaker events every afternoon and evening that are open to the public. A special treat this year: Publishers have allowed the conference bookstore to sell advance copies of Ray Bradbury and Sue Grafton’s latest books before they hit the bookstores, but only on the days that Bradbury and Grafton appear.

Bradbury, as he has for 32 years, will open the conference with a public speech 8 p.m. Saturday, June 26, in the Westmont gym. Grafton’s books will be available Thursday, July 1, when she introduces Gayle Lynds, who speaks at 4 p.m.

The cost for all public lectures is $8 per person, and no reservations are necessary. For directions to campus, visit www.westmont.edu. The conference bookstore, in the gym, will be open 3:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. each day of the conference.

Playwright Neil Simon will speak 8 p.m. Sunday, June 27. New Yorker writer and author Christopher Buckley speaks 8 p.m. Thursday, July 1.

The week’s other great speakers include Santa Barbara’s Kathleen Sharp, author of “Mr. and Mrs. Hollywood,” (4 p.m. Saturday, June 26); comedian Shelley Berman (8 p.m. Monday, June 28); biographer Jeffrey Meyers (8 p.m. Tuesday, June 29); suspense novelist Andrew Klavan (4 p.m. Wednesday, June 30); and Bay area poet Alison Luterman (8 p.m. Wednesday, June 30).

Tony Wayman offers a workshop on “Savvy Self-Editing” 4 p.m. Sunday, June 27, and Dan Poynter conducts his popular “Self-Publishing and More” session 4 p.m. Thursday, July 1.

Also open to the public are a panel on writing and illustrating children’s books (4 p.m. Sunday, June 27) and a panel featuring a host of new-book authors, including Aram Saroyan, Thom Steinbeck and Valerie Hemingway (3:30 p.m. Monday, June 28).

A complete schedule of events can be found at www.sbwc.org. For more information, call Mary Conrad at (805) 684-2250.