Santa Barbara Writers Conference Announces New Book and Film

Santa Barbara Writers Conference co-founder Mary Conrad and her creative literary and film team, will launch a book and film titled, "Santa Barbara Writers Conference Scrapbook," in early 2017. Each project uncovers the conference's early days at the Miramar Hotel, and its untold tales and photos of literary Who's Whos, during their annual pilgrimage to the beachside writing retreat. Conrad, the quick-witted wife of the late Barnaby Conrad, author of "Matador" (the book Hemingway said he wished he'd written), organized a team of creative pros to see her project to fruition. The book is due for a first quarter publishing launch and the film has been submitted to the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

To get an idea of how much international prestige and success the conference brought to Santa Barbara, in 1983 Santa Barbara Mayor Sheila Lodge issued a proclamation making June 17th - 25th Santa Barbara Writers Conference Week.

From its simple beginnings at the Cate School in 1972, the Santa Barbara Writers Conference quickly established itself under the landmark blue roofs of the Miramar Hotel in Montecito. During the magical week of the conference, the classy, old-fashioned Miramar resort became a world unto itself where upon any given day you might find Ray Bradbury, Charles (Sparky) Schulz, Jonathan Winters, Robert Mitchum, Elmore Leonard, Eudora Welty, Alex Haley, Gore Vidal, William F. Buckley, William Styron, Fannie Flagg, and many other literary lights who defined the last half of the twentieth century.

Couple those stellar talents with beach front cottages, tennis courts, trains that barrelled through the property at all hours of the day and night, and a stationary railroad club car restaurant by the tracks, and you had the perfect setting for a gathering of creative talent dedicated to nurturing and celebrating their shared love of writing.

The Miramar was the home of the Santa Barbara Writers Conference for the last quarter of the twentieth century, until the hotel closed, and the conference moved to another venue. This ended the Miramar's enchanted era of hosting the historic conference of American literary greats.

The Santa Barbara Writers Conference Scrapbook documentary starts with a short history of the founding of the conference, but the real focus is on writers who discovered their writing voices while attending. Over twenty-five interviews of writers telling their stories comprise the film, including bestselling authors Fannie Flagg, Catherine Ryan Hyde, and Gayle Lynds, as well as screenwriter/actor Christopher Mitchum, and local celeb Poet Laureate Emeritus Perie Longo, humor columnists Ernie Witham, and Grace Rachow, the present reigning director of the Santa Barbara Writers Conference. Many other noted Santa Barbara locals also make appearances. Sprinkled among the interviews are photos and news articles from SBWC archives held by conference co-founder Mary Conrad, plus audio clips from archival taped lectures by Ray Bradbury, Jonathan Winters, Elmore Leonard, Charles Schulz, Alex Haley, and Joseph Wambaugh.

The Santa Barbara Writers Conference Scrapbook is a Mystic Ink Publishing Production in cooperation with Ninety Degrees Media.

Canadian recording artist André Nobels also contributed his considerable talents to the film's soundtrack along with the magical talents of Hollywood special effects guru Andras Kavalecz.

A trailer for the upcoming documentary can be viewed by clicking HERE.

The 45th Annual Santa Barbara Writers Conference (SBWC) continues to attract famous authors and is now held at the beachfront Hyatt. Early Bird Registration opened this week for the June 18-23, 2017 conference.

An intimate conference of fewer than 300 students, it is recommended to sign up by February 15th to take advantage of early bird prices to reserve a spot.

Registration for the full week of events, including workshops, panels, famous author speakers and access to publishing and screenwriting power players is available now at $575.

The detailed SBWC 2017 schedule, including workshop descriptions, is now available at sbwriters.com. For more information, please contact info (at) sbwriters (dot) com, "Like" us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

Based in Santa Barbara, CA, the Santa Barbara Writers Conference (SBWC) has been connecting writers with authors, mentors, agents and editors since 1972.The conference is now owned and hosted by literary author/composer Monte Schulz, "Crossing Eden" and "Seraphonium," and son of Peanuts creator, Charles M. Schulz.

Based out of Santa Barbara, CA, since 2008, Innovative Creative is a PR company producing successful content and campaigns for music, film, publishing and non-profits. Visit innovativecreativeco (dot) com.

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