DENTON, Texas--Considered one of the most famous living writers of the Southwest, N. Scott Momaday headlines the 4th Annual Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Writers Conference of the Southwest, presented by the University of North Texas Mayborn Graduate School of Journalism. Joining Momaday, the current poet laureate of Oklahoma, is literary journalist and National Book Award winner Bob Shacochis; Candice Millard, former editor and writer at National Geographic and "River of Doubt" author; Ali Wolfe, the daughter of Tom Wolfe and a literary journalist for Conde Nast Portfolio magazine; and some of the nation’s leading writers, editors, literary agents and book publishers. The conference will take place July 18-20 (Friday-Sunday) at the Hilton DFW Lakes Executive Conference Center, 1800 Highway 26 East, in Grapevine, Texas (Five minutes from Dallas/Fort Worth Airport).
 
"Momaday is a master in the great oral tradition of storytelling," said George Getschow, conference writer-in-residence.
 
The conference is geared toward aspiring literary nonfiction writers, established authors and journalists, and book lovers. The conference also offers literary nonfiction writers the chance to compete for cash prizes and recognition within the publishing world. The conference is offering a $3,000 cash award for the first prize winner in the manuscript competition, along with a publishing option with UNT Press.
 
The conference is also awarding $12,000 in cash prizes in two categories – $6,000 for the best research--and reporting--based narratives and another $6,000 to the best essays. The 10 best nonfiction narratives and essays selected by jurists will be published in the second edition of "Ten Spurs," the Mayborn’s literary journal jointly published by Hearst Newspapers and the Mayborn Graduate School of Journalism. The deadline for submitting entries is June 13 (Friday). Writers of the top 20 manuscripts and the top 50 articles and essays will be selected to participate in writing workshops with some of the nation’s top writers.
 
In addition to the workshop sessions, the conference features lectures, readings and roundtable discussions.
 
The writing competition has helped catapult the writing careers of previously unknown writers. Susannah Charleson came to last summer's tribal gathering, submitted her first book, "Scent of the Missing" to our writing contest and emerged with a six-figure book contract.
 
Julianne McCullagh, the 2007 essay winner, has gone from writing for her church bulletin to heading the workshop program for The Writer's Garret, a Dallas-based literary program. "We’re creating a new generation of writers who will sustain narrative nonfiction for generations to come," Getschow said.
 
Other speakers at the conference include sports writer Wright Thompson of ESPN.com, writer Nick Heil of Outside magazine, roving narrative reporter John Burnett of NPR, book reviewer Cathleen Medwick of O, The Oprah Magazine and nonfiction book editor David Patterson of Henry Holt & Co. Ken Wells, author of "The Good Pirates," a new literary nonfiction book about the survivors of Hurricane Katrina, and Tim Madigan, author of a true crime series currently running in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, are also speaking at the conference.
 
The Mayborn Conference has garnered national attention in its first three years. Past speakers have included three-time Nobel Prize nominee Joyce Carol Oates, new journalism pioneer Gay Talese and celebrated literary nonfiction writers Hampton Sides and Mary Roach. Roach, a writer for Readers Digest and author of "Spook" and the excitement of the Mayborn Conference in a letter she penned to Getschow after attending last year's gathering. "If a meteorite as big as a washing machine dropped from the sky on July 28 and landed on the Dallas-Fort Worth Hilton, it would have devastated literary nonfiction the way that plane crash with Buddy Holly and Richie Valens devastated rock and roll. There was so much talent on hand that weekend that even the old pros were sitting in the audience taking notes on each other’s talks. This is just plain the best nonfiction writing conference I’ve ever been to. It’s small enough and friendly enough that everyone gets to spend face time with whomever they want to, and it’s big enough that all the subgenres are covered: memoir, crime, sports, science. Mayborn rules!"
 
Conference attendees can sign up for 15-minute private consultations with literary agents during "Close Encounters of the Literary Kind." The cost is $50.To register, visit www.TheMayborn.unt.edu. For more information, call (940) 565-4564.