This year’s UND Writers Conference features Frank Huyler, Kim Stanley Robinson, Brian Greene, Tania James, Katharine Coles and Allison Leigh Holt. Illustration courtesy of  undwritersconference.org

The 47th annual UND Writers Conference is coming to Grand Forks from April 6 to 8, but it’s not too early to start preparing.

Every Sunday from Feb. 14 to March 20, the public is invited to attend UND Writers Conference 101 at the Grand Forks Public Library. Each week a different author will be discussed, along with one of his or her selected works. The discussions are free and are held in the library’s conference room from 2 to 3 p.m.

The theme of this year’s Writers Conference is “The Art of Science.” Authors were selected for their incorporation of hard science into their creative work.

Each session will start with a biography of that week’s author, followed by an hour of discussion, which usually is led by someone from the UND faculty. The first Writers Conference 101 for the 2016 conference was last week, with UND English professor Heidi Czerwiec leading the discussion on the poetry of Katharine Coles.

Czerwiec said around seven people — both conference regulars and first-timers — braved the cold and snow to attend Sunday’s discussion, which focused on Coles’ use of science in her
poetry.

“Through reading and discussing some of her work, I hoped to give participants a sense of how Coles brings art and science together in her wide-ranging poems — what can be observed and measured, and what remains mysterious and magical,” Czerwiec said.

This Sunday’s book will be “The Blood of Strangers” by Frank Huyler, who, in addition to being an author and poet, is an emergency room doctor and a professor of medicine.

On Feb. 28, famed science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson’s newest novel, “Aurora,” will be discussed. Robinson is probably best known for his Mars trilogy — “Red Mars,” “Green Mars” and “Blue Mars” — and his reality-based approach to science fiction.

March 6 will feature “The Elegant Universe” by theoretical physicist and author Brian Greene. The book, which introduces string theory, has sold more than a million copies and has been adapted as a television special on PBS’s “Nova.”

On March 13, “The Tusk that Did the Damage” by Tania James will be discussed. James has been awarded fellowships from Fulbright, the Ragdale Foundation and the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities.

March 20 will feature the art of Allison Leigh Holt. The only visual artist at this year’s Writers Conference, Holt “pursues a dialogue between divergent ways of experiencing, comprehending, and describing reality,” according to her website.

The featured books, along with other titles by this year’s authors, are available at the UND Bookstore, Ferguson Books and More, the Grand Forks Public Library and the Chester Fritz Library.

The director of the conference, Crystal Alberts, said the UND Writers Conference 101 discussions are not only a great way to learn about the authors, they also are a great way to meet others with similar literary interests.

“It’s a chance to get to know the work of that person and find other people who have been reading that person’s work,” she said. “If you’re a big Kim Stanley Robinson fan and you’re wondering where the rest of them are, you might find them.”

This year’s authors will add to a long list of distinguished writers from previous conferences. Since the first UND Writers Conference in 1970 around 330 authors have come to Grand Forks, including some of the biggest names in late 20th and early 21st century literature. Of these, UND has hosted 33 Pulitzer Prize winners and four Nobel laureates.

Names such as William S. Burroughs, Louise Erdrich and Norman Mailer have all visited UND’s campus for the Writers Conference. Some of the more famous authors were already well established when they visited UND. Others attended before they had reached their greatest successes.

Alberts’ favorite example is Alice Walker.

“She was on campus in 1975. She didn’t win the Pulitzer for “The Color Purple” until 1983,” Alberts said. “One of the things we try to do is mix up-and-comers we think are going to be really big with more established authors.”

This mix makes for a friendly and inviting experience for conference goers, according to Alberts, who said that this is what makes the UND Writers Conference stand out from similar events.

“It’s such a unique experience to just be able to hang out with authors,” she said. “You don’t have to have an appointment. You can just go to the reception and ask them a question.”

Lucas Amundson is the features editor for The Dakota Student. He can be reached at [email protected]