Robert J. Conley, acclaimed for his writings about the Cherokee Indians, will be the featured speaker at the closing session of the Will Rogers Writers’ Workshop in Oklahoma City. He will speak at a dinner on Saturday, March 17, 2007 at the Renaissance Convention Center Hotel.
Conley is the author of some 40 novels and also is an accomplished poet and short story writer. Most of his writing deals with Cherokee history, culture and characters. His novel, “Mountain Windsong”, focuses on the Trail of Tears, the Cherokee removal from Georgia to Oklahoma. His poems and short stories have been published in several foreign languages.
In 1997 Conley was inducted into the Oklahoma Professional Writers Hall of Fame. The Cushing, Okla., native lived for many years in Tahlequah, the historic capital of the Cherokee nation. He and his wife Evelyn recently moved to Norman.
At the March 17 dinner program, writers from all across the country will get a taste of Oklahoma’s Indian culture, said Robert L. Haught, workshop director. “Will Rogers was proud of his Cherokee Indian heritage and that came through often in his writings and speeches,” he said.
“We are very fortunate to have someone of Robert Conley’s stature in the literary world and the Indian community joining the workshop faculty and sharing his knowledge and wisdom with other writers,” Haught said.
“His appearance provides a perfect ending for a workshop that earlier features a panel on expanding opportunities for writers of color headed by Ray Chavez, Director of the Oklahoma Institute for Diversity in Journalism,” Haught added.
Registrations are still being accepted through the workshop Web site: www.willrogersok.org.