Harriette Austin: Inspiration Behind the Writers Conference

Former students of Harriette Austin pay tribute to their favorite educator each year. Austin has inspired her students for almost three decades to dream to become writers and to follow the dream. Austin, a longtime writing instructor for the Community Programs at The University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education, is honored annually with a writers conference which carries her name.  In its six-year history, the Harriette Austin Writers Conference has gained a national reputation as one of the top writers conferences in the country, and has attracted some of the most desireable names in the publishing industry.

Organized by some of Austin's former students, the annual Harriette Austin Writers Conference is directed to new and practicing writers of fiction and nonfiction works. Presentations are made at  the annual conferences by local, state, and national publishing editors, literary agents, authors, and special experts. Areas of interest include mainstream fiction, mystery/suspense, science fiction, romance, nonfiction, and children and young adult.

Attendees receive professional advice on getting published, manuscript critique and personal consultation, and information from experts in forensic techniques, criminal investigation and the law. Workshops focus on all aspects of improving writing skills and the publishing world.

A Georgia Center instructor since 1972, Austin has been credited with inspiring several of her students to seek careers in writing and publishing. In fact, a group of her students -- Charles Connor, a faculty member in UGA's College of Education, Beverly Connor, author of the Lindsay Chamberlain Mystery series, and Alice Gay, media director for a learning disabilities training program in UGA's College of Education -- formed a small publishing company, Quick Brown Fox Publishers, Inc. The company cosponsored the conference with the Georgia Center in its beginning. In 1999 the conference was integrated into the creative writing program of the Torrance Center for Creative Studies in the College of Education of The University of Georgia, where it now resides.

"She inspired several of us to pursue careers in publishing and writing," Charles Connor said of Austin. "She has served as mentor and gathering point for a community of writers. Because of her kind, benevolent and knowledgeable influence, an incredibly large number of her students have achieved success in writing. This year alone, four of her students will have novels released by national publishers, including St. Martins, Cumberland House, Harlequin-Worldwide and Signet. During the course of her tenure at the University of Georgia, her students have had millions of copies of  novels sold. She is a major influence."

Austin was a stand-in for actress Gail Patrick, at the old Republic Studios, and studied at Yale University, New York's Barnard College, and at the Max Reinhardt Theatre in Hollywood. As a tribute to Austin's career in acting, conference goers are treated to such features as an interactive "murder mystery in the round" and, what has become a favorite event for the conference -- an old-time live radio drama production.

To raise funds to underwrite the first conference in 1994, Quick Brown Fox Publishers, Inc. published a calendar featuring a collection of short stories written by Austin's students. Connor said of the 2,000 calendars printed, 1,200 were sold and 700 were donated to the Georgia Adult Literacy program. That first conference attracted 269 registrants. The conference has grown each year, and it annually attracts more than 400 participants.

Austin's former students co-sponsor the event, not only to honor the instructor, but also to fulfill Austin's three-decade-long desire to provide aspiring writers with the resources they need to fulfill whatever dream they may have.

"We realized that there was not a comparable conference in Georgia. We saw this as a way to pull the Athens' writing community together," Connor said. "Through the annual conference, local writers are able to meet people in publishing, make contacts,  and receive critiques of their writing from professionals in the publishing business," he said.

The year 2000 marks the first year of collaboration with the Mystery Writers of America. The Southeast Chapter of the MWA is working closely with the Harriette Austin Writers Conference to put together an outstanding mystery thread for the conference. In addition to featured speakers and workshops, the MWA will be bringing an offering of its current published authors to the conference for panels, appearances, and book signings. For more information, contact MWA Southeast Chapter President, Evelyn Coleman.

This year will mark the second year of association with Authorlink, the online information service for the publishing industry. Doris Booth, Editor-in-chief of Authorlink, will preside over ceremonies to announce and present winners in the Authorlink International New Author Awards Competition. Doris is also President of Authorlink Press, the publishing imprint of Authorlink.com.

This year's conference will be held July 14 - 15, 2000, at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education on the University of Georgia campus in Athens, Georgia. For more information, contact  Dr. Charles Connor. E-mail hawc@coe.uga.edu. The College of Education, G-4 Aderhold, UGA, Athens, GA 30602-7101. Phone 706-542-3876, Fax 706-542-0360.