Gwendolyn Brooks Writers’ Conference Rescheduled

Organizers Consider Dates during April, National Poetry Month

Chicago, September 8 – Organizers of the annual Gwendolyn Brooks Writers’ Conference today announced a schedule change for the famed annual symposium, which was originally slated for October 22-25. Dates during National Poetry Month, traditionally observed in April, are now being considered.

Founded in 1990, the conference has consistently attracted nationally known award-winning authors and aspiring writers, and is one of the pre-eminent events on the literary calendar. The decision to postpone this year’s conference was heavily influenced by funding concerns. For the past 17 years, organizers say, the conference has operated with limited financial resources, partly because the October date conflicts with the grant awards calendars of many funding sources.

“We thank the greater university community, the writers and the staff of the Gwendolyn Brooks Center for enabling us to pull off a miracle for the past 17 years,” said Quraysh Ali Lansana, Director of the Gwendolyn Brooks Center and CSU Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing. “We anticipate that the new April date will address many of the budgetary concerns that we have had in the past.”

The annual Gwendolyn Brooks Conference is a presentation of the Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Black Literature and Creative Writing. The Center was founded in 1990 by Chicago State University Distinguished Professor Haki R. Madhubuti and was inspired by the life and works of the late Distinguished CSU Professor Gwendolyn Brooks, poet laureate of Illinois and the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize.

# # #

For more conference information, including specific conference dates and registration information, please contact:

Tacuma R. Roeback of the Gwendolyn Brooks Center at, 773-995-4440 or via e-mail at troeback@csu.edu