Call for Writers of the Eastern Shore!

Do you have a story to tell?

Are you from here? Come here? Baysider? Seasider?

Writers from all literary fields and experience levels are invited to participate in a Coastal Writing Workshop that will provide an opportunity to express and support varied experiences of our coast. The workshop will use literature to bring forward underrepresented voices in discussions on coastal change. Community members with various professional, personal, and ancestral relationships to the Eastern shore (like watermen, policymakers, artists, tribal members, researchers, and residents) are all invited to contribute their written voices to the coastal conversation.

The weekend workshop will bring writers together for a shared coastal experience, workshop time with genre-based guidance and supported revision, a keynote presentation, and an opportunity to contribute to a collective publication. Meals are provided. The keynote event on Saturday and reading of participant works on Sunday will be open to the public.

April 25-26th (optional welcome reception on Friday the 24th)

UVA’s Coastal Research Center in Oyster, VA


Interested in joining the workshop?

By March 7th (deadline extended from the 1st!), please provide to Cora Johnston (coraj@virginia.edu or 757-620-7016)

  • Your name and contact information
  • A brief statement of interest (approximately 1 paragraph)
  • A selection of your writing (optional)
  • Identification of genre preference (i.e. fiction, poetry, songwriting, creative nonfiction)
  • Your relationship to the Shore, briefly stated.
  • Will you need housing at the Coastal Research Center in Oyster? If so, indicate which nights.

Selected writers will be notified by March 20th.

Sponsored by VCR LTER, UVA, and The Coastal Conservatory