New home for writing conference booted off campus over 'sex' talk
A writing conference kicked off the College of the Ozarks campus after topics were deemed too racy has found a new home.
The Ozarks Writers League scheduled a conference on the campus, as it has annually for decades, only to find out a couple of weeks before it was to happen that it was no longer welcome.
College of the Ozarks backed out of hosting the league's "A Celebration of Women in Writing" conference Feb. 4 after reviewing the sessions and deciding some were too sexual in nature. A college spokeswoman said session topics, including one titled "You're Never Too Old for Sex," were not consistent with the Christian values promoted by the college.
Left without a location, the league approached the Ozarks Technical Community College about using its Table Rock Campus.
Mark Miller, the OTC's director of communications, said the request was met with a quick "yes."
"This isn't a controversial event," he said. "This is a writing conference."
League officials said they were caught off-guard this year because the college had not questioned the appropriateness of topics in previous years. At the time, league president Casey Cowen said the decision severed a relationship started in the mid-1980s.
"We were very upset, but we have been talking for years about finding a different place," said Jeanie Horn, board member with the league. "I'm just disappointed the way it happened."
Miller said the OTC Table Rock campus was built to accommodate such events and community groups on its fourth floor. He said when any group approaches the college, it's about availability, not about making a "value judgment" on the topics.
"We're all about freedom of speech," he said.
The writing conference will feature nationally known authors August McLaughlin, a former model who has written extensively about body image issues including "ways to keep porn from damaging your life and relationships," and Velda Brotherton, who writes contemporary romances, among other genres, and plans to discuss love and sex scenes in fiction at the conference.
The session "You're Never Too Old for Sex" has been renamed "You're Never Too Old for Love" and a session called "The Ancient Art of Cursing" has been renamed "Pardon My French."
The conference will be 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Table Rock campus. Registration is available at the door.
The league will be charged a small fee, as would any community group using the facility on a weekend, but couldn't recall the exact amount. The fee covers the extra security and cleanup associated with hosting any group.
The league started hosting writing workshops at the College of the Ozarks in the mid-1980s because it was a convenient location for its members in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas. In a typical year, when the weather is nice, the conference will draw up to 90 writers.