Location, Location, Location! That seems to be the consensus of the attendees the second session of Key West Literary Seminar in January. While it may have been a hassle to get down to the Southernmost Point of the Continental United States, most agreed that if the seminar alone wasn’t worth it, the location, food, mojitos, and the social aspect certainly made it worth the trip.

The seminar stretched over ten days in January, an ideal time. While the rest of the country was freezing, we were on the beach, sporting flip flops for sure, and maybe a light jacket just to prevent sunburn or warm up against the night time ocean breeze.

The first and second weekends of the seminar were devoted to readings, lectures and panel discussions. The guests our session included Billy Collins, Judy Blume, Junot Diaz, Lee Smith, Annie Dillard, Kevin Young, Silas House, Carolyn Mackler, Daniel Menaker and many more. The theme for this year’s conference was “New Voices: Where Have We Been? Where Are We Going?” [That’s one of the perks of this conference. They change topics every year. In 2009 it’s Historical Fiction.]

Porter Shreve, Professor of Creative Writing at Purdue (and author of Drives Like A Dream), balanced critical analysis of workshop at-tendees' short stories (ten participants) with practical writing tips and theoretical discourse on the creative process.

The seminar had its moments of brilliance, and then moments of, well, let’s just say something much less than brilliance. The quality of the panel discussions depended on the

people on them. Silas House, Lee Smith, and Tayari Jones rocked the house one afternoon with their honesty about regional writing. Junot Diaz (author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao) kept the auditorium laughing,“Yeah?” Billy Collins and Kevin Young kept the mood light with hilarious poetry readings.

One of the nice things about the seminar was how open the speakers were to mingling with the attendees. My friends and I found ourselves rubbing elbows with Jake Silverstein at the Waffle House at the wee hours of the morning, watching the sunset with Billy Collins and Lee Smith, or just passing Junot Diaz on a bicycle.

The seminar took great advantage of the historical landmarks on the island. The seminar invited us to open bars and dinner at the Audubon Gardens, and on the grounds of the Lighthouse that often lit Hemingway’s path home. They also had appetizers and live jazz at the art museum.

For atmosphere, food, drinks, even motor scooters, bikes and oversized golf carts, this seminar was absolutely the way to go. It was well-organized and allowed plenty of down time to enjoy the island and make some new friends. Overall though, our group agreed that it would not have been worth the expense for the quality of the seminar itself, if so many good friends hadn’t gathered in the Florida sunshine!