Announcing 20th Annual Book Passage Travel, Food & Photography Conference

March 22, 2011 - PRLog -- Located just 15 minutes across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, the Conference has an extraordinary reputation among publishers, editors, and writers. Now with the addition of food writing panels and classes, this is an exciting moment in the history of this internationally-known Conference!

This four-day Conference offers an array of writing and photography workshops in the morning, a full afternoon of panels and discussions, and evening faculty presentations. There are optional Pre-Conference field trips with a faculty member—one for each concentration: travel writing, food writing, and photography—to explore the resources of the Bay Area. Alumni of this Conference have published books, articles, and photos—many as the direct result of lessons learned and contacts made at the Conference.

This year’s Conference boasts a large and extraordinary faculty of writers, agents, editors, publishing professionals, photographers, and culinary pros, including famed travel writer and founding editor of Outside magazine Tim Cahill, author-filmmaker Phil Cousineau (Beyond Forgiveness, The Art of Pilgrimage), authors Roger Housden (Saved by Beauty, Ten Poems series), Janis Cooke Newman (The Russian Word for Snow, Mary), and Michael David Lukas (Oracle of Stamboul), co-founder of the Travelers’ Tales series Larry Habegger, travel editor of the Los Angeles Times Catharine Hamm, acclaimed travel writers Spud Hilton, David Farley, Linda Watanabe McFerrin, and Michael Shapiro, award-winning photojournalist Andrea Johnson, veteran travel writer-editor-blogger Jim Benning, wine director of famed Bay Area restaurants A16 & SPQR Shelley Lindgren, literary agents Kimberley Cameron and Amy Burkhardt (Kimberley Cameron & Associates), Andy Ross (Andy Ross Literary Agency), Danielle Svetcov (Levine-Greenberg Literary Agency), award-winning travel writer and editor Don George (Conference Chair), three-time winner of Travel Photographer of the Year from the Society of American Travel Writers Robert Holmes (Conference Photography Chair), and many more!

The cost of the four-day Conference is $635. Optional 30-minute private consultations are available for $95. For complete details, a full schedule, faculty list, accommodations, or to register, please visit the Conference homepage on the Web at www.bookpassage.com/travel-food-photography-conference. You may also contact Conference Coordinator, Kathryn Petrocelli, by phone at (415) 927-0960, ext. 239, or email
bpconferences@bookpassage.com.

There will be optional travel writing, food writing, and photography workshops on Wednesday morning and afternoon (August 10) just prior to the Conference. These pre-Conference classes are available to participants for an additional fee.

Authors say:

“You will find that many of the people who are teaching here are alumni of this (conference). They’re successful writers now, and they got their start here…It’s amazing how many people come out of this conference and start publishing pretty much within the next six months or so.” – Tim Cahill, founding editor of Outside Magazine

“My section had articles by three Book Passage students within weeks of taking the classes—they knew what I was looking for instead of having to fire blindly into the darkness.” – Spud Hilton, travel editor of the San Francisco Chronicle

"Before signing up for the Conference, I had never published a travel article. After soaking up information from the conference faculty, I went home and applied what I'd learned. Thanks to Book Passage, I've written more than 100 articles and two travel memoirs, one of which became a bestseller." – Elliot Hester, Syndicated Columnist, author of Plane Insanity and Adventures of a Continental Drifter

"Don George, John Flinn, Larry Habegger, Linda Watanabe McFerrin, Lynn Ferrin, Robert Holmes and other instructors at the Book Passage Conference taught me skills I used in my stories and photographs which have been published in the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, Denver Post, Montreal Gazette, other newspapers and three anthologies (including the cover photos of one of them). But even if I had never sold a story or photo, the conference was great fun, and I made friendships that will last a lifetime." – travel writer April Orcutt

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Book Passage has served the Bay Area for more than 30 years, providing the community with an array of author events, writing and language classes, and highly-respected, annual writing conferences.