28th Annual Writer's Symposium by the Sea

FEB 20

PLNU's Student Short Film Festival is an annual event featuring the winning films submitted to Driftwood's contest. The 2023 Festival will also feature work from director/producer Jared Callahan, followed by discussion with the filmmakers.

Festival hosted in partnership with Driftwood, Department of Communication Studies, and Department of Literature, Journalism, Writing, and Languages.

FEB 21

ANTHONY DOERR is the author of All the Light We Cannot See, which was awarded the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for fiction and the 2015 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and Cloud Cuckoo Land, which was a finalist for the 2021 National Book Award and is currently a finalist for Novel of the Year in the British Book Awards. (More about Doerr)

FEB 22

WILLIAM FINNEGAN is an award-winning reporter, a staff writer at The New Yorker, and the author of five books, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Barbarian Days, a memoir about his lifelong passion for surfing. (More about Finnegan)

FEB 23

MARIA HINOJOSA has written three books: Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America; Raising Raul: Adventures Raising Myself and My Son; and Crews: Gang Members Talk with Maria Hinojosa. Hinojosa is the founder of Futuro media group, anchor of the Emmy Award winning talk show from WGBH Maria Hinojosa: One-on-One, and has reported for PBS, CBS, WNBC, CNN, and NPR. (More about Hinojosa)

FEB 24

N. SCOTT MOMADAY received a Pulitzer Prize for his first novel, House Made of Dawn. His books include The Way to Rainy Mountain, In the Bear's House, In the Presence of the Sun: Stories and Poems, 1961-1991, and The Gourd Dancer. He is author of several other novels, prose collections, the children's book Circle of Wonder, and the play The Indolent Boys. He is also the editor of various anthologies and collections centered on his Kiowa heritage. (More about Momaday)

Writer's Symposium Donors

Thanks to our donors who support us with their financial contributions.

PLNU Honors Program
PLNU Center for Justice & Reconciliation
PLNU Office of Diversity & Black Student Union
Mery Olive Bangs Endowment
San Diego Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists
Ron & Kathleen Lauderbach
Lawrence and Suzanne Hess
Daniel K. O'Neill
Lori & John Dedic
The Tom and Melanie Gillette Trust, in memory of Tom Gillette
Bob and Jo Birdsell
The Rasak Family
Drs. Kathryn & Michael McConnell
Dr. David & Elizabeth Ostrander
David & Elinor Vandegrift
Phyllis Skidgel
Department of Communication Studies
PLNU Department of Literature, Journalism, Writing, & Languages

To maintain the symposium's high-quality programming, we need your help to meet our yearly donation goal of $60,000. Please consider partnering with Writer's Symposium by the Sea by giving an ongoing or one-time, tax-deductible donation. Every gift allows us to provide these inspiring events to PLNU students and the community.