Norman Mailer Writers Colony

Last month after I learned I wasn’t accepted for the Sewanee Writer’s Conference (see blog post, “Disappointed, Not Discouraged – March 14, 2010”) I looked for alternative conferences to attend.

Reading through Poets & Writers magazine I saw an ad for the Norman Mailer Writers Colony. I checked out their website and it really seemed too good to be true:

• great location in Provincetown, Massachusetts (Cape Cod area)

• small group setting – only seven attendees per workshop;

• great rooms - everyone stays at Mailer’s Provincetown estate

• no tuition or board if you’re accepted;

The last part was hard to believe. Most of the conferences cost over two grand. It cost $20 to apply, so I figured it was like buying a lottery ticket for a chance to win a really cool summer vacation.

I filled out the application, sent them my writing sample, and forgot about it. Yesterday I got an email telling me I had been awarded a scholarship to attend the weeklong seminar I had applied for, Fiction: The Protagonists, which will be hosted by Marita Golden who has written the memoir “Affairs of the Heart” and whose novel “AFTER” received the Fiction Award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association.

I will be attending from August 8 to August 15. It should be fun.