literary celebration, a combination of lectures, readings, panel discussions, --versations, and it began the first years looking at the work of ernest deming way and it grew -- ernest hemingway and it grew. there was a seminar devoted to tennessee williams and a collection of writers. they look to people like james -- james merrill. since that time, over the 30 plus years, the seminar has stuck to that same four-day format. it is an investigation of a particular literary theme. anyway you can divide contemporary american literature, we have had seminars devoted by biography an autobiography, seminars devoted to poetry as well as in a particular sense the poetry of elizabeth bishop. we have looked at the popular crime fiction genre. we did a seminar called the dark side. a lot of really wonderful big-name crime writers. we delve into nonfiction through a variety of topics. one of the things we like to do is explore how nonfiction writing and fiction talk to one another and how a biographer or historian can learn something from an all of us -- from a novelist. >> the idea that writing can restore something to us, biography is an act of recovery. it is applicable to both biography and fiction. here is another thing the two , we areve in common desperate for information about how other people live because we want to know how to live ourselves. for me, that is true of biography and also drill fiction. the amount norm is of planning goes into the seminar. we start brainstorming the idea, debating potential topics 2.5 years out. 2015 now, it is april of and we are planning our 2018 seminar. about two point five years out, we start to brainstorm and said together with our board of directors and writers and people from our community, both in key west and the national community of writers and start tossing around ideas. six months later, the board has settled and approved a topic and at that point, we start to invite writers, flesh out the topic. right now, for the last few months, we have been meeting in a program committee format to talk about our 2017 seminar which will look at clinical writing coinciding -- political writing coinciding with the inaugural -- inauguration of our next president. we settled on politics for a topic about six months ago and now we are reading books by the many great writers that are out there. starting to issue indentations invitations. we have a planning committee every year who sits down to debate and assess the writers who will fit in for a particular topic and we are looking for a combination. we want to present the best writers in the english speaking world. we are looking for the best writers we can get. we also want to introduce new writers, we are always looking for a couple of writers who are up-and-coming who can bring something new to the stage. we tried to get a balance, people who are late in their career and accomplished, people midcareer, and people on the up and up. each year, we give three awards which goes to -- three emerging writer awards. those are real up and comers who have not had a book published. we try to put on a good show and forto make it as much fun the writers on stage as it is for the audience and we tried to foster an environment of conversation, dialogue, informality, intimacy, and make it an experience that is enjoyable for everybody. our attendees come from all over the united states and we -- our capacity is limited to the number of seats in our venue. people, so we 400 get 400 passionate wonderful readers from all over the country, occasionally internationally. we get attendees from england, ireland, finland, australian. most of our audience is american. what holds them together is that they are readers. literary conferences cater to aspiring writers. but we are interested in the act of reading. we get a lot of teachers, retired teachers, people still involved in the academic world in some way or another. we certainly get lots of writers in our audience as well. everybody is a reader who comes to our event. we offer a number of scholarships each year. our audience is limited to 400 and sometimes it sells out a year and advance. -- in advance. this year, we sold out in three days. we set aside a couple of dozen scholarship spaces that are awarded to teachers and librarians from around the country who apply for the opportunity to attend the seminar. we provide some lodging support to allow teachers and librarians to benefit from what goes on on stage and hopefully return to their schools and libraries and communities and be able to give some of that back. key west does have one of the most remarkable literary traditions in the country, if not the most. key west has more per capita literary history that anywhere. more national literary landmarks in key west that anywhere outside of new york city. this is an island that is only five square miles. the tradition of writing in key west, going back to ernest hemingway and before ernest hemingway to people like john , mark twain passed through here during the civil marti was here as an activist and was writing about the cause while he was here. key west has attracted writers for a long time and has engaged the imagination of writers. hemingway certainly put it on the map. he was here concurrently with wallace stevens and they were followed by elizabeth bishop, tennessee williams, richard wilbur, james merrill, ralph ellison. just an amazing number of writers who have lived in key west and whose works have been impacted by key west. we try to make sure literary heritage in key west is not just something you read about, but something that is ongoing and a living tradition. that key west remains a place for great writers to live and work and for passionate and engaged readers to spend time and participate in that history. >> david mcconell is the author of "american honor killings." he sat down with the c-span cities tour in key west to talk about his book. isid: the title

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