Southampton - The days of the writer as misanthrope, scrawling pages of angst-ridden, troubadorian verse inside a lowly hermitage, are over. According to Robert Reeves, director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing and Literature at Stony Brook Southampton College, as well as the visionary founder of the Southampton Writer's Conference, boldly and brightly announced the emergence of a new generation of iPad-toting literary artists, complete with an "entrepreneurial spirit," fostering a "community of collaboration," Reeves said.

"When I was in college, everyone was striving to write the next Great American Novel. Now, the stakes are not as high," said a stately, white-haired Reeves, relishing the widespread democratization of art as per the YouTube generation. This comes as no surprise: yellow legal pads and pencils have been usurped for BlackBerry notes, NYU student Luke Matheny's Thesis Project won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short, "God of Love." EBooks are offered for instant download, and physical film is as antiquated a notion as mix-tape cassettes, and kerosene lamps. There is an undeniable shift in the marketplace for artists - a move from solitary to synergic, from gradual success to instant stardom. And the Southampton Writer's Conference has their ears to the ground in the midst of this cultural revolution, offering an annual program that fosters the hands-on spirit of the post-post-modern scribe and movie-making mogul.

"Integration" and "interdisciplinary" were keywords of the day at the on-campus press conference announcing the Southampton Writer's Conference's 26th annual "Writer's Summer," boasting expanded workshop courses in Playwriting, Screenwriting, Children's Literature, and more recently, Theatre Directing and Digital Filmmaking. The conference, deemed "the best in the country" by famed fiction writer Tom Wolfe, spans from July 6 through July 24, featuring a "who's-who" of literary and filmmaking legends, including key-note speaker Jim Salter ("The Hunters," "The Arm of Flesh") Oscar-winning screenwriter Andrew Bienen ("Boy's Don't Cry"), director Alexander Payne ("Sideways," "About Schmidt"), Pulitzer-prized playwright Marsha Norman ("'Night Mother," "The Secret Garden"), former Poet Laureate Billy Collins ("The Art of Drowning," "Taking Off Emily Dickinson's Clothes"), and members of the esteemed Ensemble Studio Theatre, the resident theatre company at the Writer's Conference.


Emmy award-winning and Director's Guild of America award-winning writer and producer, Mitchell Kriegman ("Clarissa Explains It All," "Rugrats," "Doug"), will spearhead the Digital Filmmaking Conference, extending this spirit of revision across platforms, from script to screen. Offering an immersive, rigorous workshop schedule from development to digital production, Kriegman announced, "The business of filmmaking has completely changed." Whereas major studios are hell-bent on manufacturing million-dollar movie franchises, "Tranformers 6, and Pirates 7," Kriegman quipped, there is a new stirring among independent filmmakers and boutique production companies, a term he coined "0-Budget Filmmaking: no budget, just expenses." The crowd chuckled in consensus, as Kriegman elaborated, "Due to advances in digital technology, people use their iPhones for instant filmmaking."

However, in the ceaseless flux of technological prowess, one thing remains constant: an emphasis on "visual storytelling," that Kriegman promises in his "DIY-indie-filmmaking school."

Another constant that remains beneath the bells-and-whistles of Red One Cameras and Final Cut Pro: founder Reeves' commitment to his MFA students, and the instilling of an irreverent-reverence to craft within one of the country's fastest-growing Creative Writing graduate programs. According to Reeves, creativity is the most illuminating connection to the human experience. "Science knows how to give life, but we know what makes it worth living." And with near-instant access to the urban arts epicenter that is New York City, the East End offers artists that unique opportunity to release themselves from the "grind," and relish the periphery in this ever-growing arts community.

"Where else in the country can you see E.L. Doctorow walking in one direction, and Kurt Vonnegut in the other? Only at the Bridgehampton Commons," interjected Theatre Department faculty member, Nick Mangano.

"Don't try this in North Dakota," said Reeves.

For more information on the Southampton Writer's Conference, including registration, call 631-632-5016, or visit the website below.