SLS Georgia 2019 will be the last program—after 21 years and 32 successful events on 3 continents. Come join us for what will be a fantastic farewell experience!
About SLS
Summer Literary Seminars (SLS)
is one of the world’s foremost and largest, one-of-a-kind, independent (not affiliated with any university) international literary and cultural organizations.
Founded in 1998, SLS spent 10 years running its groundbreaking series of seminars in St. Petersburg, Russia. In 2008, it established its flagship programs in Nairobi-Lamu, Kenya; in Vilnius, Lithuania; in Montreal, Quebec (its home base) and, as of July 2017, a large-scale program in Tbilisi, Georgia — a complex and beautiful ancient city in a remarkably fascinating country.
Throughout its 20+-year history, SLS has brought more than 1200 emerging writers to Russia, Kenya, Lithuania, Georgia, and Montreal.
SLS operates
on 3 continents:
- North America
(Montreal, Quebec, Canada) - Europe (Tbilisi, Georgia)
- Africa (Nairobi-Lamu, Kenya)

SLS’s mission is to increase the literary and cultural visibility of every locale it visits.
Over the decades, SLS has played, and continues to play, a pivotal role in bringing together the North American and international literary and cultural communities, fostering the artistic cooperation between the two and serving to increase mutual understanding across the cultural and geographic divides. It connects prominent and emerging writers from all walks of life for a richly variegated array of literary and cultural offerings.
Past faculty members of the SLS programs include Poet Laureates of the US, winners of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the MacArthur Foundation Genius Award — such luminaries as:

Jonathan Ames
Jami Attenberg
Jonathan Baumbach
Aimee Bender
Andre Bernard
Jill Bialosky
Christian Bok
Amy Bloom
Kevin Canty
Laura Maria Censabella
George Elliot Clarke
Billy Collins
Robert Coover
Robert Creeley
Toi Derricotte
Stephen Dobyns
John Dufresne
Cornelius Eady
Dave Eggers
Stephen Elliot
Tibor Fisher
Mary Gaitskill
Vivian Gornick
Saskia Hamilton
Robert Hass
Steve Heighton
Robin Hemley
Brenda Hillman
Edward Hirsch
Tony Hoagland
Fanny Howe
Denis Johnson
Wayne Johnston
Radhika Jones
Ilya Kaminsky
Elizabeth Kendall
Joe Kertes
Sam Lipsyte
Phillip Lopate
Glyn Maxwell
Fiona McCrae
William Meredith
Erin Moure
Eileen Myles
Josip Novakovich
Wayne Johnston
Radhika Jones
Ilya Kaminsky
Elizabeth Kendall
Joe Kertes
Sam Lipsyte
Phillip Lopate
Glyn Maxwell
Fiona McCrae
William Meredith
Erin Moure
Eileen Myles
Josip Novakovich
Padgett Powell
Francine Prose
Claudia Rankine
Dawn Raffel
Ariana Reines
Rachel Resnick
George Saunders
Lynne Shareon Schwartz
Rebecca Seiferle
Gary Shteyngart
Johanna Skibsrud
Christopher Sorrentino
Anthony Swofford
Catherine Tice
Lynne Tillman
Deborah Treisman
Paula Vogel
William T. Vollman
Binyavanga Wainaina
Mac Wellman
C.K. Williams
Lawrence Wright
SLS enjoys its place as one of the most dynamic and innovative program of its kind, one profoundly affecting everyone who participates in its programs. Many of its participants over the years have cited the SLS programs as a life-changing experience:
"SLS… offers an intense intellectual, artistic and human experience unlike any other… an outstanding and transformative enterprise."
"I truly will remember SLS as one of the greatest moments in my life."
"I have attended several writing conferences, and they were all very interesting and helpful. Yet, SLS was so much more than that.
Most conferences pride themselves on having approachable faculty, but yours act as mentors and friends. How pleasant it was to have lunch with an accomplished writer. Even more commendable was that SLS faculty were present and politely attentive for hours of student readings.
I have not experienced anything close to this level of involvement at other conferences."
"SLS is one of the most exciting and important intellectual venues in the world right now; absolutely the most important seminar of its kind… SLS is at the center of a discussion I am hearing more and more in the US, about the moral role of fiction… well, what I’ve heard students say is that they have never felt more artistically alive, more convinced of their own potential to find the beauty in life and write about it… The beauty of the program is that it makes for a kind of two-way diplomacy."