A popular writers' gathering on the southern Kenai Peninsula is going on a one-year-hiatus. Next year, there will be no Kachemak Bay Writers' Conference. Kachemak Bay Campus announced this week that it is cancelling next summer’s event in order to review its purpose, scope and future.
Reid Brewer is the director of the campus, and he said taking a step back is necessary due to the state’s budget cuts and funding uncertainty surrounding the Alaska University System.
“We've had a stressful time with the budget going on and are looking at how campuses and universities could be re-envisioned in the future,” he said.
He adds that this will allow the university to make sure the writers' event is sustainable moving forward. The conference began in 2002, and its workshops, panels and readings has drawn in writers from across the country and around the world.
Writer Nancy Lord expressed deep disappointment in the temporary cancelation. She's been involved in the conference since its beginning.
“Over these 18 years, the writing community in Alaska has grown enormously and a lot of it has had to do with people coming together for the June conference and networking; they're learning, they're being inspired,” she said.
But she’s confident in the conference’s future even though its next iteration may not look exactly the same as it did in the past.