IWWG returns to Skidmore for its annual summer conference

Opening remarks by broadcast journalist Amy Goodman and a commemoration of the late Anne Frank on what would have been the diarist?s 80th birthday are keynote events for the opening weekend of the 32nd annual International Women?s Writing Guild summer conference at Skidmore College.

Titled ?Remember the Magic? and open to all women who are interested in writing, the conference is scheduled June 12-19 on the Saratoga Springs campus. Opening events for the first weekend are as follows:

? 7 p.m. Friday, June 12?Maureen McNeil, director of education at the Anne Frank Center in New York City, will lead an 80th birthday tribute to the young woman whose book, The Diary of a Young Girl, is one of the best-known books ever published. Admission on Friday is free.

? 7:30 p.m. Saturday, June 13?Award-winning journalist Amy Goodman, host of the radio program Democracy Now, will deliver the keynote address. The evening?s program will include special readings by two young writers: 10-year-old New Jersey resident Julia Louizides, and 14-year-old Caitlin Marie Dwyer of Huntington, N.Y., an award-winning author whose short story will appear this fall in the book Sweet Thirteen, to be published by Simon and Schuster. Saturday?s admission will be a sliding-scale fee, payable at the door.

Both events will be in Gannett Auditorium of Palamountain Hall on the Skidmore campus. The public is welcome.

According to its web site, the Anne Frank Center USA, founded in 1977 as a partner organization of the Anne Frank House, uses the diary and spirit of Anne Frank as unique tools to advance her legacy; to educate young people and communities about the consequences of intolerance, racism, and discrimination; and to inspire the next generation to build a world based on mutual respect.

Since it was first published in 1947, Anne Frank's diary has become one of the most powerful memoirs of the Holocaust. Its message of tolerance, courage, and hope in the face of adversity has reached millions. The diary has been translated into approximately 67 languages with more than 30 million copies sold.

Anne Frank was given a diary by her father, Otto, on June 12, 1942, and began writing in it almost immediately. Her father oversaw publication of the volume, which combines entries from the original diary as well as entries that were rewritten by the author while she and her family were in hiding during World War II.

Journalist Goodman and Juan Gonzalez host Democracy Now, a national daily news program broadcast on the Pacifica and NPR networks, as well as on numerous college and community stations and the web. The program shuns traditional advertisers and is supported by contributions from listeners, viewers, and foundations.

Goodman is the inaugural winner of the Right Livelihood Award, often called the ?alternative Nobel Prize? for ?developing an innovative model of independent grassroots journalism.? She also is the recipient of the I.F. Stone ?Izzy? Award from the Park Center for Independent Media, the American Women in Radio and Television?s ?Gracie? Award, and the Puffin Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship.

With her brother, David, Goodman is co-author of the following books: Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times (2008), Static: Government Liars, Media Cheerleaders, and the People who Fight Back (2006), and The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media that Love Them (2004).

The International Women?s Writing Guild was founded in 1976 by Hannelore Hahn, a German native whose family fled their homeland in 1937. Last year Hahn?s memoir On the Way to Feed the Swans was selected by the Hannah Arendt Institute as its holocaust memoir annual selection.

For more than three decades, the IWWG has had a summer conference at Skidmore, with workshops, seminars, and events dedicated to celebrating the process of writing. Attendees may choose to attend all or part of the conference, and last-minute ?commuting? students are especially welcome. Click here for details on the conference and registration information.