Mayborn conference

Journalist Ted Conover was a featured keynote speaker  at the seventh annual  Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference in July. (Photo by Jonathan Reynolds)In July, the seventh annual Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference hosted a roster of the nation's most intriguing storytellers.

Keynote speakers included author and poet Diane Ackerman, whose intimately detailed works include One Hundred Names for Love and The Zoo Keeper's Wife; Ted Conover, who has ridden rails with hoboes (Rolling Nowhere) and become a maximum-security prison officer (Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing) to produce provocative stories; and Gene Weingarten, who has won two Pulitzer Prizes. One of Weingarten's winning works was built from interviews with parents who left their children in hot cars (Fatal Distraction); the other is about a world-class violinist who played for tips in a Washington, D.C., subway (The Fiddler in the Subway).

Other speakers also showcased the power of narrative through participatory journalism.

The conference awarded $15,000 in cash prizes to winning articles, essays and book manuscripts. UNT Press will publish one of the books, and the top 10 essays will be published in Mayborn's literary journal, Ten Spurs.

The conference is hosted by the Mayborn Graduate Institute of Journalism.

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