29th ASU Writers Conference in Honor of Elmer Kelton
1910 Rosemont Dr
San Angelo TX, 76909
((32) 5) -486-6155
Price: Free
Date: March 26, 2026 to March 27, 2026
Time: 9:30 am - 1:00 pm
The conference is held every year in honor of the late Elmer Kelton, who wrote more than 40 books. This year’s conference will celebrate what would have been Elmer Kelton’s 100th birthday, as well as his artistic legacy and influence on Texas writing.
We are pleased to announce this year’s featured writer is No. 1 New York Times best-selling author Colson Whitehead. Whitehead is the author of “The Underground Railroad” (an Oprah’s Book Club selection and winner of the 2016 National Book Award and 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction), “The Noble Hustle,” “Zone One,” “Sag Harbor,” “The Intuitionist,” “John Henry Days,” “Apex Hides the Hurt” and one collection of essays, “The Colossus of New York.” He was named New York’s 11th State Author in 2018. His New York Times bestseller, “The Nickel Boys,” won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (making him only the fourth writer to win two Pulitzers in the Fiction category), the 2019 Kirkus Prize for Fiction and the 2020 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction. His latest bestselling novels are “Harlem Shuffle” and “Crook Manifesto.”
Whitehead will deliver presentations on March 26 at 9:30AM and 5PM in the C.J. Davidson Conference Center located in ASU’s Houston Harte University Center.
Additionally, local and regional writers will showcase their works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry and prose through a series of organized panels on March 26 and 27. The detailed program can be found on the Conference website.
The event is hosted by the Natalie Zan Ryan Department of English and Modern Languages and sponsored by the university with support from the ASU Alumni Association, the College of Arts and Humanities, and Guy and Eva Choate.
Our two-day conference is one of the few in the state that requires no registration or attendance fees for presenters and guests.