Timeline
The Community of Writers has been here for a long while now, fifty years. And our longevity – which nobody exactly planned on – makes us believe even more in what we do. The Community of Writers is, and has been an independent not-for-profit group, not a project of any college or university. We are run by a group of writers to help other writers, with no institution funding our operations.
And suddenly we are marking a half-century of making a home – a community– of writers. The timeline below is designed to illuminate our history and the people who have made this project what it is. It is meant to be a living document. We will continue to add items throughout the year.
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1988
1988 - Brett & Louis Get Married
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1969The Founding
1969 - The Founding
The founding of the Community of Writers (Squaw Valley Community of Writers) was the result of many laughter-filled literary dinner parties and lunches with friends who lived in San Francisco and kept summer cabins in the Valley. It was established in 1969 as a week-long writers workshop by novelists Blair Fuller and Oakley Hall, who […]
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1970The First Annual Gathering
1970 - The Non-Conference
Hall and Fuller initially rally their own resources, families, and friends to mount the first summer workshop. That first year, traditions of egalitarianism are established. Those who lead workshops are not called “teachers,” but “staff”; those who attend are not “students,” but “participants.” Adopting this nomenclature is part of a purposeful effort to level the […]
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1974Dennis and Rickman start the Screenwriting Program
1974 - The Screenwriting Workshop is Founded
The Community of Writers Screenwriting Workshop is founded by Tom Rickman and Gill Dennis. Diana Fuller, a founding board member of the Community of Writers, invites Rickman and Dennis to the workshop because she wants to add a movie component to the playwriting program. She later takes over running the screenwriting program. The three of […]
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1978The Carlisles Move West
1978 - The Carlisles
Editor and author Henry Carlisle and his wife author Olga Andreyev Carlisle move to the Bay Area from Connecticut. They join the teaching staff at the Community. Henry Carlisle, who began his career as an editor for Albert Camus, had a wide-ranging literary career and was called a “literary statesman,” by the late former State […]
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1974Anne Rice's Novel Is Discovered and Sold During the Workshop
1974 - Interview With A Vampire is Discovered
In August 1974, Anne Rice attends the Community of Writers with the manuscript of her soon-to-be-bestseller book, Interview with the Vampire. She met her future literary agent, Phyllis Seidel that week, and Seidel sold the publishing rights to Interview with the Vampire to Alfred A. Knopf before the week was over.
