NWPW News: 

• Annual Conference April 24-26 at Ghost Ranch Retreat Center

New Mexico Press Women will present its annual conference, “The Power of Storytelling,” April 24-26 at the Ghost Ranch Retreat Center in Abiquiu.

It is geared for all journalism, marketing and media professionals.

“This conference in the unique setting of Ghost Ranch promises to be one of the most interesting and fun,” 2015 Conference Chair Sherri Burr said.

Conference attendees can stay at Ghost Ranch with room rates ranging from $40 to $92 a night.

The weekend will kick off Friday, April 24, with a dinner, included in the Ghost Ranch room rate, followed by a Dessert Reception with Valerie Plame and Sarah Lovett, co-authors of the books Blowback and Burned. The title of their session is “Joint Ventures in Storytelling.” Plame’s career with the CIA effectively ended when Washington Post journalist Robert Novak revealed in his column her identity as a covert CIA operative.

Saturday will feature several panels. The first is “The Art of Crafting Fictional Stories” with Anne Hillerman (author of Spider Woman’s Daughter), Steve Murray (translator of The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo series) and Tina Nunnally (who was knighted by the King of Norway for her translation work).

Presenting at the second panel, “Using Techniques to Write Books,” is Loretta Hall (author of Space Pioneers), Sherry Robinson (author of I Fought a Good Fight: A History of the Lipan Apaches) and Judith Avila (co-author of Code Talker).

Burr, author of A Short & Happy Guide to Financial Well-Being, will chair both sessions.

Two breakout sessions will be on “Mindfulness & Creativity” with Margaret Cheasbro and “Social Media” with Ellen Jaffe Castello.

An outstanding New Mexican writer will be honored at the Saturday lunch for her work in non-fiction book when the prestigious Zia Award will be presented. The conference concludes with an awards banquet that includes a keynote speech by Bruce McKenna on “The Challenges of Storytelling in an Audiovisual Medium.” McKenna wrote several episodes of the HBO series Band of Brothers and The Pacific. With the latter, he also served as executive producer.

Conference sponsors are University of New Mexico School of Law and Los Alamos National Bank. Information on conference and hotel registration can be found at http://newmexicopresswomen.org/conference-2. Early bird registration ends March 11.

For more information about the conference, contact Burr at burr@law.unm.edu.