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The deadline for regular and scholarship applications to the 2008 Napa Valley Writers' Conference is May 22 (not a postmark deadline!). This year's conference begins Sunday, July 27 and ends Friday, August 1. Faculty in fiction are Ron Carlson, Lan Samantha Chang, Ehud Havazalet, and Ann Packer; in poetry, Mark Doty, Nick Flynn, Brenda Hillman, and Claudia Rankine. Novelist Paul Lisicky is a special guest.

Scholarships are based on merit and need and are intended to bring to the conference serious and talented writers who would not otherwise be able to attend. Most scholarships are partial, defraying the cost of tuition; two full scholarships, the Richard Lemon Scholarship in poetry and the Rosselli-DeFilippis Scholarship in Fiction, are awarded to writers of color. Full details are available on our website, http://www.napawritersconf.org/, where you can also learn about our workshops, our community housing program and our faculty.