The Norman Mailer Center Goes On the Road to Salt Lake City

NEW YORK, April 7, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The Norman Mailer Center and Writers Colony is pleased to announce that we are continuing our On the Road fellowship and workshop program with a stop this year in Salt Lake City, Utah this summer. The reason for the Center's stop in Salt Lake City is that Utah is the location where Mailer researched and began writing his Pulitzer Prize Winning book, The Executioner's Song, which dealt with the murders of two young men and the execution of murderer Gary Gilmore. Several of those involved in the actual events, recounted in the book, will be present during the programs.

Beginning on July 12, 2014, The University of Utah English Department and the Norman Mailer Center will invite 64 emerging writers from all over the world to participate in the Center's annual writing program which allows writers of all ages and backgrounds to write within intense writing groups while developing their craft professionally. The 3-week summer program will conclude on August 2, 2014. 

The Norman Mailer Center and Writers Colony On the Road series began in 2013 in Brooklyn Heights, NY (where Mailer lived and wrote for forty years) with the goal of making the Center's program more accessible for emerging writers around the world.  The program in future years will travel to Palm Springs where Mailer planned The Deer Park; and Miami where Mailer began to write Miami and the Siege of Chicago.

This summer's fellowship mentors include notable writers such as novelist Jeffery Renard Allen, poet Quincy Troupe, and critic and essayist, Kevin Oderman. Workshop faculty includes screenwriter, David Black, journalist, Andrew Meier, and poet Ronaldo Wilson. In addition to writing, program participants will have the opportunity to tour the Salt Lake areas pertinent to Norman Mailer and attend historical public programs which include collaborations with local Salt Lake venues such as Kings English Bookstore, the historical society, and area colleges. The 3-week program will also include a film screening of the The Executioner's Song along with a panel discussion with the film's director and community members involved with the Gary Gilmore case.

Applications for fellowships and workshops are still open. Consideration is given to Utah resident writers. Please visit our website http://nmcenter.org/pages/view/2/overview  to view applications for the writing programs.

THE NORMAN MAILER CENTER AND WRITERS COLONY is an educational nonprofit dedicated to nurturing the values of Mailer's work in future generations of writers. Through a diverse set of programming including creative writing workshops, the Mailer Fellowships, student and teacher writing awards, artist retreat programs, and initiatives for international outreach and exchange, the Center provides educational, monetary and professional support to early and mid-career writers in all genres who relish dialogue and debate; are driven by an endless curiosity to make sense of the times in which they live; fully exercise their creativity; apply themselves to the craft of writing with the rigor of an athlete; and wish to reach a broad audience through their work. Through its programming, the Center aims to preserve the role of the engaged writer as not only a legitimate, but an indispensable voice in contemporary dialogue. Visit www.nmcenter.org for more information.

SOURCE The Norman Mailer Center