Interviews are now available for streaming from the 28th Annual Writer's Symposium by the Sea, Writing That Celebrates. This year's writers included Pulitzer winning writers Anthony Doerr, William Finnegan, Maria Hinojosa, and N. Scott Momaday.
In an interview with symposium partner, San Diego Union~Tribune, Dean Nelson shared, "The purpose of the Writer’s Symposium By The Sea is to inspire, model, and celebrate great writing. The life-deepening conversations with these writers might make you consider awakening the writer hibernating within you." (San Diego Union~Tribune)
We hope that these interviews do just that. Thanks for watching.
Anthony Doerr
Pulitzer Prize winning author Anthony Doerr sits down for a fun and heartfelt conversation about what inspires him with host Dean Nelson as part of the Writer's Symposium By the Sea. Doerr won the Pulitzer Prize and Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction for All the Light We Cannot See, which was on the New York Times bestseller list for over 200 weeks. His other works include Cloud Cuckoo Land, About Grace, Four Seasons in Rome, and the short story collections The Shell Collector and Memory Wall.
Watch Video:Anthony Doerr interview, Writer's Symposium 2023
William Finnegan
The PLNU Honors Program hosted William Finnegan at the 2023 Writer's Symposium by the Sea, Writing That Celebrates for a discussion on the history and culture of surfing and his Pulitzer winning book, Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life. The interview was coordinated and led by Dr. Ben Cater, PLNU Assistant Professor of History, who teaches a course on Surf History and Culture. Cater is also the Director of PLNU Honors Program and Associate Dean of Foundational Explorations (General Education).
Watch Video:Interview with William Finnegan, Writer's Symposium 2023
Maria Hinojosa
As part of the 2023 Writer's Symposium by the Sea, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author Maria Hinojosa talks with host Dean Nelson about her work, including her experience being the first Latina in many newsroom she worked in. She 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. Her career includes reporting for PBS, CBS, WNBC, CNN, NPR, and anchoring the Emmy Award-winning talk show Maria Hinojosa: One-on-One. She is anchor and executive producer of the Peabody Award-winning show Latino USA.
Watch Video:Interview with Maria Hinojosa, Writer's Symposium 2023
N. Scott Momaday
Poet, novelist, and Native American scholar N. Scott Momaday has spent decades bringing his culture and the landscape alive through his writing. He 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 also the editor of various anthologies and collections centered on his Kiowa heritage. As part of the Writer's Symposium By the Sea, host Dean Nelson sat down with Momaday at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico to talk about his life in literature.
Watch Video:Interview with N. Scott Momaday, Writer's Symposium 2023
Watch the Interviews
Archived Interviews
Thanks to UCSD-TV, you can watch nearly all of the interviews from the Writer's Symposium by the Sea, beginning with an interview in 1997 with Joseph Wambaugh. There are additional interviews and afternoon forums listed on the Writer's Symposium YouTube account. Find the links below!