KEY WEST HOSTS WRITERS' WORKSHOPS THROUGH JAN. 16, FOLLOWING LITERARY SEMINAR

KEY WEST, Florida Keys - The island that was a favorite retreat of Pulitzer Prize-winning poets Robert Frost and Wallace Stevens is to several writers' workshops through Jan. 16. The workshops follow the four-day Key West Literary Seminar where 21 nationally and internationally esteemed poets read from and discussed their works.

Presenters at the 2003 seminar included Nobel Prize - winning poet Derek Walcott, Wilbur and legendary beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Other scheduled panelists and presenters are Kim Addonizio, John Ashbery, Lucille Clifton, U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins, Robert Creeley, Martín Espada, Carolyn Forché, Forrest Gander, Dan Gerber, Jane Hirshfield, Carolyn Kizer, Dorianne Laux, Semezdin Mehmedinovic, Sharon Olds, Charles Simic, James Tate, Quincy Troupe and C. D. Wright.

Key West's reputation as a haven and inspiration for poets dates back to the 1920s, when Wallace Stevens visited and subsequently described it as "a summer without end" in his "The Idea of Order in Key West." He began wintering in Key West in 1934.

Robert Frost, who first visited Key West that same year, wrote one of his best-known poems, "The Gift Outright," on the island. He became a friend of local hostess and preservationist Jessie Porter, spending winter sojourns from 1945 to 1960 in a shuttered cottage behind her home.

Key West also was home to poet Elizabeth Bishop, who spent her non-writing hours painting and fishing; as well as other legendary poets including John Malcolm Brinnin, John Ciardi and James Merrill.

After the literary seminar itself, seven writers' workshops are scheduled Monday through Thursday, Jan. 13-16. Participants will be given an opportunity to examine the writing of poetry under the guidance of renowned writers and writing teachers Paulette Bates Alden, Alan Cheuse, Sam Hamill, Judith Kazantzis, E. J. Miller Laino, Judith Minty and Rebecca Seiferle. Each multi-day session is set to feature intensive morning workshops, private afternoon consultations and evening events. Like the seminar, the workshops are sold out.

For more information about the Key West Literary Seminar, call the seminar's executive director, Miles Frieden, at 1-888-293-9291. Further information is also available on-line at www.KeyWestLiterarySeminar.org.

To find out about area accommodations, call the Key West Chamber of Commerce at 1-800-527-8539 or (305) 294-2587, or explore this Web site.