Sirenland Writers Conference
[[Category:AfC submissions by date/<0031Fri, 14 Aug 2026 15:55:00 +0000202683 2026-08-14T15:55:00+00:00Fridaypm0000=error>EpFri, 14 Aug 2026 15:55:00 +0000UTC00005520268 UTCFri, 14 Aug 2026 15:55:00 +0000Fri, 14 Aug 2026 15:55:00 +00002026Fri, 14 Aug 2026 15:55:00 +0000: 17867229008Fri, 14 Aug 2026 15:55:00 +0000UTC2026-08-14T15:55:00+00:0020263855225UTC14 pu82026-08-14T15:55:00+00:0031upm315520268 2026-08-14T15:55:00+00:0003pmFri, 14 Aug 2026 15:55:00 +0000pm2026-08-14T15:55:00+00:0031UTCFri, 14 Aug 2026 15:55:00 +0000 &qu202631;:&qu202631;.</0031Fri, 14 Aug 2026 15:55:00 +0000202683>August 2026|Sirenland Writers Conference]]
Comment: largely primary sourced and we have little interest in what they say about themselves. Theroadislong (talk) 16:47, 14 August 2026 (UTC)
| Sirenland Writers Conference | |
|---|---|
| Status | Active |
| Genre | Literary writers' conference |
| Frequency | Annual (spring) |
| Venue | Le Sirenuse Hotel |
| Location(s) | Positano, Italy |
| Country | Italy |
| Website | sirenland |
Sirenland Writers Conference is an annual literary retreat held each spring in Positano, Italy, at the Le Sirenuse Hotel on the Amalfi Coast. Founded in 2007 by memoirist and novelist Dani Shapiro, journalist and screenwriter Michael Maren, and author and editor Hannah Tinti, the conference brings together a small cohort of writers for intensive workshops, craft discussions, and literary community.[1]
Sirenland receives approximately 200 applications annually for roughly 40 participant spots, and has been named Best International Writers Conference by Poets & Writers magazine.[2][3]
Background and founding
Sirenland traces its origins to a dinner party in 2006, at which Nancy Novogrod, then editor of Travel & Leisure magazine, introduced Antonio and Carla Sersale — owners of the celebrated Le Sirenuse Hotel in Positano — to writers Dani Shapiro and Michael Maren. The Sersales, described as longtime bibliophiles, had long dreamed of bringing the literary world to Positano.[1]
Shortly after the introduction, Shapiro received an email from Positano with the subject line "Ciao from Positano!", inviting her to bring a group of writers to Le Sirenuse for a week the following spring. Shapiro and Maren then contacted Hannah Tinti, co-founder of the literary magazine One Story, to ask if she would help organize the conference. Tinti's response was: "Do I get to come?" When told yes, she agreed, and the three have run Sirenland together ever since.[1]
The first conference took place in March 2007 with eleven students, in a single workshop led by Dani Shapiro. In 2008, the conference expanded its enrollment and began hosting additional workshops. By 2010, novelists Jim Shepard and Karen Shepard joined as faculty and have returned nearly every year since.[1]
Format and programming
Each day at Sirenland begins with intensive writing workshops focused on fiction or memoir, with participation limited to ten students per workshop. Afternoons include generative writing sessions, craft lectures, and free time for writing, resting, or exploring Positano. Evenings feature student and instructor readings, presentations, meals, and an open mic night.[4]
The conference does not invite literary agents or editors, a deliberate philosophical choice. As the conference states: "When agents and editors are in the room there is naturally some competition among writers for their attention. Competition among writers should happen in the marketplace, but not at a writers conference."[5]
Faculty
Workshops are led by the three co-founders alongside invited guest faculty. Hannah Tinti, in addition to her organizational role, leads fiction workshops; she is the author of the novels The Good Thief, winner of The Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize, and The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley, a national bestseller in development with Netflix, and co-founder of One Story magazine.[6] Dani Shapiro is the author of several memoirs and novels, including Hourglass, Inheritance, and Signal Fires. Michael Maren is the author of The Road to Hell: The Ravaging Effects of Foreign Aid and International Charity (1997), which The New Yorker called "the seminal critique of foreign aid," and has written scripts for HBO, Sony Pictures, and Killer Films.[6]
Jim Shepard and Karen Shepard have been recurring faculty members since 2010. Over the years Sirenland has hosted many guest instructors, including Meg Wolitzer, Richard Russo, Tobias Wolff, Karen Russell, Anthony Doerr, Andrew Sean Greer, Andre Dubus III, Susan Orlean, Alexander Chee, André Aciman, Jess Walter, and Elizabeth Gilbert, among others.[1]
Location
Positano is a coastal village on the western edge of the Amalfi Coast in the Campania region of southern Italy. The conference is hosted at Le Sirenuse, a family-owned hotel operated by Antonio and Carla Sersale, whose partnership with the founders was central to the conference's creation. Nearby lie the Islands of Li Galli, historically referred to in classical mythology as the Islands of the Sirens — the setting from which both the hotel and the conference take their names.[7]
John Steinbeck wrote of Positano in a 1953 essay for Harper's Bazaar, and the village has long attracted artists and writers.[3] Air Mail, the digital weekly founded by Graydon Carter, covered Sirenland in April 2023, noting that Le Sirenuse "maintains its literary roots" through the annual conference, seventy years after Steinbeck visited the Amalfi Coast.[3]
Recognition
Sirenland has been named Best International Writers Conference by Poets & Writers magazine, one of the leading publications covering the American literary community.[2] The conference has also been covered by the Financial Times and Air Mail.[3][8]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "The Story of Sirenland". Sirenland Writers Conference. Retrieved 2026. Check date values in:
|access-date=(help) - ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Sirenland named Best International Writers Conference". Poets & Writers. Retrieved 2026. Check date values in:
|access-date=(help) - ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "Inside Sirenland, the Tony Writers' Retreat at Positano's Le Sirenuse Hotel". Air Mail. April 15, 2023. Retrieved 2026. Check date values in:
|access-date=(help) - ↑ "Workshops". Sirenland Writers Conference. Retrieved 2026. Check date values in:
|access-date=(help) - ↑ "News & Events". Sirenland Writers Conference. Retrieved 2026. Check date values in:
|access-date=(help) - ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Instructors". Sirenland Writers Conference. Retrieved 2026. Check date values in:
|access-date=(help) - ↑ "Positano". Sirenland Writers Conference. Retrieved 2026. Check date values in:
|access-date=(help) - ↑ Shollenbarger, Maria. Financial Times. Missing or empty
|title=(help);|section=ignored (help)
External links
Category:Writers' conferences Category:Literary festivals in Italy Category:Annual events in Italy Category:2007 establishments in Italy Category:Positano
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