The Chattahoochee Valley Writers' first conference is scheduled for Sept. 29 in the Columbus Public Library, 3000 Macon Road.

Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. At 9:30 a.m., the CVW will honor Clason Kyle, Nunnally Johnson and Carson McCullers. The keynote speaker is Shay Youngblood.

The workshops begin at 11:15 a.m. with Sue Brannan Walker, poet laureate of Alabama, "Lives Like Lines or Life Lines of the Serial Killer Poem (not Poetry) (Writing the Poem to Die For)"; science fiction writer Michael Bishop, "Interstitial Dreams: Fantasy, Magic, Realism, Science Fiction and Other Fruitfully Mutating Categories" and Peter Bowerman, "The Well-Fed Self-Publisher: How to Turn One Book into a Full-Time Living." The fourth workshop features my colleagues Dusty Nix and Allison Kennedy, "Writing for the Newspaper."

At 2 p.m., the workshops are Maggi Vaughn, poet laureate of Tennessee, "Image, Image, Image: What I Learned from Country Music that Made Me a People's Poet," Niles Reddick, "Creative Fiction: Wrestling with an Oxymoron," Brian Jay Corrigan, "Crafting Character Through Dialog and Description" and Neil Wilkerson, "Copyrights, Licensing and Other Intellectual Property Issues with Which Writers Must Wrestle."

At 3:25 p.m., the workshops are Esther Luttrell, "Screenwriting -- Selling Scripts to Today's Hollywood," Michael Smith, "Short Stories for the Age of Electronic Entertainment," Patricia Sprinkle, "The Town That Isn't There: Creating Believable Protagonists and Settings Good for Story After Story" and David Muschell, "No Compromise: Heightening Conflict in Your Writing."

Registration is $45 and must be received by Sept. 15. Late registration fees at the door may be added later.

For more information, call John Frandsen at 334-821-2036 or Linda Ames at 706-323-4014 or go to www.chattwriters.org