Over 1600 plus entries, received from writers across the United States and Europe, competed for thirty-five literary awards at the Sixty-first Annual Arkansas Writers' Conference in Little Rock. Hosted by the Arkansas Pioneer Branch, National League of Pen Women, and staged at the Holiday Inn Select, the conference included experienced and entertaining speakers, morning and afternoon workshops, read-arounds, a Hall of Fame Awards luncheon, door prizes, chances to meet one-on-one, a one act play, an authors' book display and sales area and a Literary Awards Banquet.

Between sessions, beginners, intermediates and seasoned professionals mingled, laughed, swapped stories of their successes and failures-and offered tips and encouragement.

"Full Circle: Non-Fiction to Fiction and Back Again"- Grif Stockley, attorney, author of five Gideon Page legal mysteries, and winner of the Porter Prize.

"The Form is Willing but the Spirit is Weak"-
Patricia A. Laster, president of
the Poets' Roundtable of Arkansas.

"Maintaining Confidence in a Rejection-Filled Business"-Jeanni Brosius

An Afternoon with Dusty Richards,
Arkansas Hall of Fame Writer
with over 65 novels.
"What Did That Editor Mean by That?"
"How to Write a Book so Delicious
An Editor Can't Refuse It."

"Invoking Your Muse: Using Art as Inspiration"-
Paula Morell co-founder and creative director of "Way With Words" Writing Workshops.

"Sparking Quarks: Igniting and Feeding Our Creativity" - Sherry Organ, professor at
Harding College in Searcy, Arkansas.

Afternoon with Laura Parker Castoro, 2005 Arkansas Hall of Fame inductee, best selling author of 36 novels, lecturer and president of the Board of Directors of
the Writers Colony at Dairy Hollow.

"What Makes a Hero or Heroine?"
"Second Bananas and First Class Writing"