The third annual Mississippi Writers Guild Writers Conference is making a return to Vicksburg.

If you go

The third annual Mississippi Writers Guild Writers Conference will be Friday and Aug. 15 at Riverwalk Casino. Registration begins at 3:30 p.m. Friday, and will continue Saturday morning. Industry professionals will hold workshops beginning at 8:15 a.m. Saturday. Cost for both days is $125 for MWG members, $144 for nonmembers, $94 for senior/student members and $112 for senior/student nonmembers. For information, call 601-638-7235 or visit wwww.mississippiwritersguild.com.

The event — set for next weekend, Friday and Aug. 15, at Vicksburg’s newest casino, Riverwalk — will bring industry professionals and their advice to the River City. The conference made its Vicksburg debut in 2008.

“We’re hoping to make Vicksburg the home of the conference,” said Teresa Lynn, head of the guild’s Vicksburg chapter.

The goal, she said, is to connect writers who would not otherwise have the opportunity to meet literary professionals, who are mainly based in larger cities such as New York or Los Angeles.

“It’s very hard to get a hold of these people, so we bring them here,” Lynn said. “It gives people in the area the opportunity to meet them. Mississippi has a lot of talent.”

With a theme of poetry, the two-day conference will feature a main session with Angel Ball, the poetry editor for the Mississippi Review, and workshops by literary agent Paul Levine, poet and novelist Irene Latham, screenwriter William Akers, editor Faith Black and professor and editor Jeanne Leiby.

Ball, who also teaches at the Center for Writers in Hattiesburg, was the recipient of an individual writer’s grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and has represented the United States at the Poetry International Festival in the Netherlands.

Levine opened the Paul S. Levine Literary Agency in 1996 and works for Warner Bros. Television in the business and legal affairs department. Black, the editor of Avalon Books, will offer advice in her workshop for short stories.

Leiby is an associate professor of English at Louisiana State University and editor of The Southern Review. Latham, who lives and works in Birmingham, was named 2006 Poet of the Year and has received other awards.

Akers has written screenplays for MGM, Disney and Universal Studios.

The speakers will be also be on site to discuss with participants their works, which must be submitted in advance. Also, a  roundtable discussion during Saturday’s session will allow fellow writers the chance to critique one another. And, a casual meet and greet will be Friday night. Registration will open Friday afternoon and continue Saturday morning.

The MWG was formed in 2005 and has 109 members, its Web site says.

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Contact Manivanh Chanprasith at mchan@vicksburgpost.com