organization history by maureen eppstein, former executive director of mcwc

Early on Saturday, June 23, 1990, about 70 writers met for breakfast at the Fort Bragg Center for the Arts, housed in the Company Store on Main Street in Fort Bragg, California. Coffee cups in hand, they listened to keynote speaker Jim Fullan advise them to maintain their confidence, in a talk titled “Try Telling the Banker You’re a Writer.”

With that breakfast talk, the Mendocino Coast Writers’ Conference (MCWC) officially began. The 1990 conference was a one-day event sponsored by the Fort Bragg Center for the Arts (FBCA), with facilities support from the College of the Redwoods, which then operated a campus in Fort Bragg. Conference organizers were Marlis Broadhead, a College of the Redwoods teacher of English and Creative Writing, and Ro Peterson and Barbara LeLievre of FBCA.

After breakfast, conference participants adjourned to the College of the Redwoods campus, where they chose from fourteen half-hour seminars scheduled throughout the day, with such titles as “Script Writing—from Both Sides of the Camera” by Bob Santos, “Playwriting: What’s My Motivation?” by Lynne Abels, or “Writing for Future Technologies: TV, Film and Beyond” by renowned Muppet Show writer Jerry Juhl. Reporter Kathleen M. Nevin wrote in the Mendocino Beacon: “Several times it was a tough choice. Would learning about children’s stories be more beneficial than playwriting? Would I be more likely to try my hand at a mystery novel or a travel story?”

Nevin also discovered “an unexpected benefit of this cozy conference,” the opportunity to meet and talk with the speakers. After sitting with mystery writer Janet LaPierre at breakfast, she chose LaPierre’s seminar for her first of the day: “Does the New Golden Age of the Mystery Novel Have Room for Newcomers?”

The event concluded with a reading back at FBCA by fiction writer Michael Martone and a reception with music by the Redwoods Jazz Trio.

The following year, 1991, the conference grew from one day to Friday afternoon, all day Saturday, and a Sunday morning session. On Friday night scenes were featured from an opera in progress written by one of the conference participants.

Marlis Broadhead shared executive directorship of MCWC for a year after she left Fort Bragg in 1997. From 1998 to 2005, Suzanne Byerley, Marlis's successor as creative writing instructor at College of the Redwoods, and local writer Ginny Rorby co-directed the conference with help from a committee. They oversaw growth to a three-day conference. Authors, editors, and agents taught children’s' writing, memoir and essay, journalism, screenwriting and playwriting. Editors and agents were available for consultations. The conference attracted a growing list of writers and presenters from California, the West, and beyond. From 2006 through 2009 the Executive Director was Charlotte Gullick. In 2009 the group, which until then had been an informal committee of the College of the Redwoods, led by a conference executive director, split away and became an independent non-profit entity with a formal structure and board.

In 2010 the conference was run by Katherine Brown and Maureen Eppstein as Executive Co-Directors. In 2011 Mendocino poet Maureen Eppstein became Executive Director. During Eppstein’s leadership, the Mendocino Coast Writers’ Conference organized twice yearly evening lectures followed by a workshop on the following morning. These events were called Soundings.

In 2014, Albion writer Karen Lewis became Executive Director, and in 2016, writer and editor Shirin Yim Leos took the reins of MCWC. Current Executive Director Lisa Locascio Nighthawk began her position in 2018.

More than thirty years after its founding, presenters and participants at the Mendocino Coast Writers’ Conference still mingle over breakfast and lunch, still share in creating a supportive community where beginners and experienced writers are equally welcome. We are grateful to the visionary leaders who started this conference and to the directors and volunteers who continued their work.

Written by Maureen Eppstein in 2011, with some updates

More History of the Conference from Ginny Rorby, Founding board member and former executive director of mcwc

In the early 1990s, Marlis Broadhead taught a creative writing class at the College of the Redwoods, and thought it would be inspirational to invite a published author or two up to speak to and work with the class for an afternoon. By 1996, it had become a full weekend conference, and I volunteered to help by arranging housing for the presenters. The Mendocino Coast is as beautiful as any in the world, and many of the people who live here are very generous with their guest facilities. Within two years, the word was out and we had wonderful writers asking to come.

In 1997, Marlis moved to Oklahoma, where she and her husband got full-time jobs teaching. Suzanne Byerley, who was my first friend when I moved here in 1991, took over teaching her creative writing classes. Marlis made an attempt to run the conference that year from Oklahoma, but it was by then big enough to be impossible to do from that far away—especially with just me and a design person from the college. It looked as if the end had come.

The College of the Redwoods, from the beginning, had sponsored the conference, but the word was out that it would be cancelled. Suzanne and I had a long talk and agreed to give running it a try. Dr. Leslie Lawson, an inn owner from Elk, was the vice president (Dean) of the Fort Bragg campus at that time. She gave us the nod—and her inn.

I hold an MFA degree in Creative Writing from Florida International University, so for the next two years, I invited virtually the entire faculty of FIU to present at the conference. Suzanne got all her creative writing students to either come as full paying participants, or as volunteers. For those two years, Leslie turned her inn over to us, hosting a dinner of real shepherd’s pie, and sing-along for the presenters, rooms for all with an ocean view, and a full breakfast the following morning. Finding presenters after that was never a problem.

In 2005, Suzanne and I exited as we had entered—hand in hand. She wanted to move East to be closer to her grandchildren, and I’d just sold my second novel and wanted more time to focus on my own writing. Suzanne chose one of her creative writing students, Charlotte Gullick, to take over the conference. Charlotte worked with us that last year, joined at the hip, so to speak, with Suzanne. I have to say here, that we had a twelve member Board of Directors who had been a part of this conference since 1998. Suz and I were the directors, but it would have been a failed endeavor without those committee members.

When Charlotte left for a full-time teaching job in Austin, Texas, two of our committee members stepped forward and took over the conference, Maureen Eppstein, a fabulous poet, and Katherine Brown, a terrific writer and teacher.

Aside from being held in one of the most beautiful areas of the country, this conference is unique. I’d been to a dozen conferences during the early years of my own growth as a writer—partly because in the FIU master’s program, it was required. With few exceptions, they were all the same. There were wonderful, talented writers at every one of them, but they weren’t teachers. They were talking heads on a panel—informative but not necessarily inspirational. Our number one priority is now, and always has been, to have presenters who are generous, inspirational teachers, as well as recognized writers. For many years our participants returned at an unheard-of rate of over 50%.

Charlotte Gullick said, "This conference is all about craft and community. We leave ego at the door." I can’t say it any better than that.

From the time Suzanne and I took over as directors we felt the importance of reaching out to young writers. Each year since, we have awarded between full scholarships to local high school students who show promise as writers, and expanded that program to encompass the full county.

We also have at least one event that is free and open to the public. As a community, pursuit of the arts is who we are.

As good as we are, we were a “white bread” conference, not because we wanted to be. We were a committee, honestly, run by old women. I was one of them. That’s not a bad thing. We all knew how to mother, and we were good at it. That’s why participants always came away feeling cared for and encouraged, but we selected our presenters from the writers we knew and read—the familiar. Charlotte Gullick changed all that. She wanted to see more diversity in our presenters, and she and her husband were young enough to know who some of the up and comers were. We are grateful for her leadership, which set MCWC on the course it continues today. Our current Executive Director, Lisa Locascio Nighthawk, has carried on Charlotte’s legacy and significantly expanded our organization’s commitment to diversity, accessibility, and prestige, bringing writers from all walks of life to enjoy creative community and artistic exploration in the unparalleled beauty of the Mendocino Coast.

Written by Ginny Rorby in 2012, with some updates