PHILADELPHIA -- Writers seeking to explore topics in fiction, non-fiction and poetry can choose among 26 morning and afternoon workshops at the eighth annual Writers Conference at the University of Pennsylvania.
Sponsored by the Special Programs division of Penn's College of General Studies and Kelly Writers House, the Nov. 9 conference will focus on creating writer's circles, writing humor for movies, poetry as journalism, non-fiction workshops and working with agents, among many other offerings. As part of the day's events, authors will lead discussions, read from their work and offer critiques.

This year's participants will hear from keynote speaker Ken Kalfus who will speak on "Research in Fiction: What to Use, What to Leave Out and What to Make Up." Kalfus is the author of two short stories collections, "Thirst" and "Pu-239 and Other Russian Fantasies," which was a finalist for the 2000 PEN/Faulkner Award. His fiction has appeared in Harper's, The North American Review and the Village Voice Literary Supplement.

Laura Miller, literary critic for Salon.com wrote of Kalfus as "that rare writer of fiction whose passages of description feel like action. It's as if he were injecting his readers with a serum that renders them, in a rush, intimately familiar with the texture of the Russian experience."

A film based on the title story of "Pu-239 and Other Russian Fantasies" is in development and the author's first novel, "The Commissariat of Enlightenment," will be published early next year.

The cost for the 2002 Eighth Annual Writers Conference at Penn is $150, which includes the keynote speech, one morning and one afternoon workshop, lunch and a reception. It will last from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Additional information, including registration information, is available from Nadia Daniel at 215-898-6479 or at www.upenn.edu/writconf.