The Desert Nights, Rising Stars
Writers Conference

Gracious, generous educators with a passion for community.

Featuring over 25 award-winning writers, editors, agents, educators, and other internationally recognized creative writing professionals, our faculty are here to do more than expand your skill set or open new ways of thinking about your work. They're here to share their experiences, answer questions, and spend time connecting with conference attendees.

Our current faculty are Ryka Aoki, Andrea Avery, Sally Ball, Tracey Baptiste, Matt Bell, Sherwin Bitsui, Piper J. Daniels, Rosemarie Dombrowski, Cristina García, Vanessa Hua, Jenny Irish, Kirby Kim, Bill Konigsberg, Cathy Linh Che, Saretta Morgan, Alberto Ríos, Ivelisse Rodriguez, Ingrid Rojas Contreras, Natalie Scenters-Zapico, Solmaz Sharif, Michael A. Stackpole, Nafissa Thompson-Spires, Laura Tohe, Peter Twal, and Kay Ulanday Barrett.

To meet our current faculty, select a name from the list below.

More faculty will be announced soon.

In the meantime, you can meet past faculty, meet our fellows, view the schedule, or learn more about the conference.