College of Arts and Sciences Newsroom

Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Connie Schultz will keynote the Antioch Writers' Workshop at the University of Dayton's 33rd annual summer program, July 14-20, on the University campus.

Schultz, professional-in-residence at Kent State University’s School of Journalism, will give the keynote address and also serve as Sunday morning Creative Writing Craft instructor. She is the author of two books and was named the recipient of the 2018 Ernie Pyle Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.

Her keynote address at 7 p.m. Saturday, July 14, at the University of Dayton is free and open to the public.

The workshop is able to provide this free event, as well as faculty and participant readings July 15-19 and other free events throughout the year, through a grant from the Ohio Arts Council.

In March 2017, the University of Dayton Department of English became home to an office of the independent, nonprofit organization — now known as the Antioch Writers' Workshop at University of Dayton. The University hosts spring and summer workshops; additional programs continue elsewhere throughout the year.

Summer program participants have three options to attend: full week, morning only or weekend only. These options provide flexible opportunities for writers of all levels, schedules and budgets.

The weekend option begins the morning of July 15, before the keynote, as a “prologue” to the weeklong workshop, and may be attended by itself or as part of the workshop week. The featured speaker is Ellen Birkett Morris, an award-winning fiction writer and poet, who will speak on “Paths to Publishing.”

Workshop faculty include award-winning novelist, memoirist and essayist Sophronia Scott (Unforgivable Love), novelists David B. Coe (Spell Blind) and USA Today and The New York Times best-selling author Megan Hart (All Fall Down), poets Lynn Powell (Season of the Second Thought) and Doug Ramspeck (Black Flowers), non-fiction author Joe Oestreich (Partisans), and novelist and essayist Rebecca Morean (The Bench).

Agent Elizabeth Kracht from the Kimberley Cameron & Associates agency and editor M. Scott Douglass from Main Street Rag Publishing will also be on hand to take pitches and answer questions about the business of publishing.

Registration for attending the full conference is open through June 18 on the workshop’s website. Morning and a la carte registration is open through July 9.

Participants may opt to stay for the workshop week at the Caldwell Apartments on University of Dayton’s campus.

The workshop, originally started by Antioch College in 1987, has operated as an independent 501c3 nonprofit since 1992. In addition to its in-kind partnership with University of Dayton and grant support from the Ohio Arts Council, the Antioch Writers’ Workshop at University of Dayton receives support and sponsorship from WYSO 91.3 FM, Books & Co. at The Greene, and local businesses in and around Dayton.