Point Reyes Books

MARCH 18–20 — The 2011 Geography of Hope Conference celebrates “Reflections on Water” with literary conversations, art, and field trips to farms, wetlands, and wilderness areas in the West Marin countryside. The Conference is co-chaired by award-winning poet Brenda Hillman and former United States Poet Laureate Robert Hass who bring a wealth of literary inspiration and personal magnetism to the event. It also features other established and emerging writers including Michael Ondaatje, William Least Heat-Moon, Tom Farber, Eddy L. Harris, Julia Whitty, Peter Gleick, Philip Fradkin, Alex Fradkin, Tim Palmer, Linda Spalding, Pamela Michael, Claire Peaslee, eco-poets Evelyn Reilly and Jonathan Skinner, and Heyday Books publisher Malcolm Margolin.

Conference Attendee Options:

The authors will participate in lively panels and more intimate lunchtime and field trip conversations with participants. Meals made with Marin’s most delicious farm products will be served at two dinners at Toby’s Feed Barn during the conference. The conference is a showcase for the work of individual writers who have used water as inspiration in their work as well as an opportunity for them to engage in panel conversations with each other before an audience of the public. Question-and-answer periods follow.

ABOUT THE CONFERENCE: Founded in 2008,  the Geography of Hope Conference has quickly become one of Northern California’s most exceptional literary and arts events. It takes its name from Wallace Stegner’s famous “Wilderness Letter” in which he described wild landscapes as part of our “geography of hope.” Held in western Marin County where many of Stegner’s land conservation visions have come to fruition, the conference explores the relationship between people and the landscape through the voices of authors, environmentalists, farmers, artists, and filmmakers.