From Erma Bombeck’s neighbor Phil Donahue to Saturday Night Live legends and Pulitzer Prize winners, the Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop has drawn some of the most iconic names in writing and comedy as keynote speakers since its founding at the University of Dayton in 2000.
Keynoters
2000: Art Buchwald, Liz Carpenter, Bil Keane
2002: Phil Donahue, Loretta LaRoche, W. Bruce Cameron
2004: Nancy Cartwright, Don Novello, Jill Conner Browne, Karyl Miller, Patricia Wynn Brown, Craig Wilson, W. Bruce Cameron, Sophfronia Scott
2006: Dave Barry, Gordon Kirkland, Craig Wilson, Susan Reinhardt, Kristen Godsey
2008: Garrison Keillor; Martha Bolton; Mike Peters; Connie Schultz; and Matt Sloan and Aaron Yonda
2010: Loretta LaRoche, Gail Collins, Bill Scheft, Steve Doocy, W. Bruce Cameron
2012: Alan Zweibel, Connie Schultz, Adriana Trigiani, Ilene Beckerman, Gina Barreca
2014: Phil Donahue; Lisa Scottoline and Fracesca Serritella; Mary Lou Quinlan; Judy Carter; and Bruce Ferber
2016: Roy Blount Jr.; Amy Ephron; Kathy Kinney and Cindy Ratzlaff; Leighann Lord; and
One-Woman Play: “Erma Bombeck: At Wit’s End” starring Barbara Chisholm, followed by talk back with Bombeck family and playwrights Allison and Peggy Engel
2018: Liza Donnelly, Karen Walrond, Rita Davenport, John Grogan, Monica Piper
2020 (Virtual): Mike and Peggy Rowe in conversation with Patricia Wynn Brown; Annabelle Gurwitch; Wendy Leibman; Sophfronia Scott; and Mike Reiss
2022: Cathy Guisewite; Dion Flynn; W. Bruce Cameron and Cathryn Michon in conversation with Adriana Trigiani; Katrina Kittle; and Laraine Newman
2024: Anna Quindlen in conversation with Marsha Bonhart; Zibby Owens; Beth Lapides; Jacquelyn Mitchard; and Wade Rouse. Original poem: For Erma: when the real writers come back home written and performed by Barbara Fant, Erma Poet Laureate
The Virtual Erma Keynoters
2021: Jenny Lawson, Wade Rouse
2023: Marta Kauffman
2025: Anne Lamott