The Roanoke Regional Writers Conference III is scheduled Jan. 22-23 at Hollins University in Roanoke and features National Public Radio essayist Janis Jaquith (pictured) of Charlottesville as its keynote speaker. Among those teaching classes will be John Anderson, whose new book on working through cancer with his wife, Stand by Her: A Breast Cancer Guide for Men, has become something of a national sensation.

The conference, which opens Friday evening with a wine reception at Hollins, features 23 classes and two round-table discussions on Saturday. The conference is aimed at vocational and avocational writers who want to become better at their craft and to network with other writers from the region. The cost—which includes the reception, coffee all day Saturday, lunch, 23 classes and two roundtable discussions—is $50.

One of the roundtable discussions will be on self-publishing and will feature four writers who have published their own works, including two who have published books in the Publish on Demand (POD) format, meaning books are printed individually as ordered. This alternative is being chosen by people who are not necessarily publishing books in order to make money.

There are two sets of classes on social media and translating your written work for stage or screen in addition to a range of other classes.

Among the other presenters will be Roanoke Times columnist Dan Casey and two-time Pulitzer Prize-nominated reporter Rex Bowman, Blue Ridge Country editor Cara Modisett, Leisure Publishing Editor in Chief Kurt Rheinheimer, local historian and columnist Darrell Laurent of Lynchburg, writer-educators Roland Lazenby and Jeanne Larsen, former Omni Magazine editor Keith Ferrell (who has written 18 books), poet Melanie Almeder, author and educator Doug Cumming (The Southern Press: Literary Legacies and the Challenge of Modernity), and filmmaker Sara Elizabeth Timmins of Smith Mountain Lake, among others.

A complete schedule, registration information and biographies of the teachers can be found at www.hollins.edu/news-events/writers/writers.htm. For more information, e-mail conference organizer Dan Smith at editrdan@msn.com or call 540.556.8510.