About the ASU Writers Conference

About ASU and Tempe
Arizona State University is one of the premier metropolitan public research universities in the nation. Enrolling more than 57,000 undergraduate, graduate, and professional students on three campuses in metropolitan Phoenix, ASU maintains a tradition of academic excellence in core disciplines, and has become an important global center for innovative interdisciplinary teaching and research. ASU offers outstanding resources for study and research, including libraries and museums with important collections, studios and performing arts spaces for creative endeavor, and unsurpassed state-of-the-art scientific and technological laboratories and research facilities.

"A" Mountain on the ASU Campus

ASU's main campus is located in the heart of Tempe where more than 47,000 students are enrolled in daytime and evening classes. The main campus offers 87 bachelor's, 95 master's, 48 doctoral or terminal degree programs, and one law degree program. The Arizona State University campus is large and sprawling, extending more than a mile in every direction.

Palm Walk, ASU's main pedestrian thoroughfare

The City of Tempe is Arizona's seventh largest city, with a population of 160,000. Tempe is located in the center of the Valley of the Sun, bordered by Phoenix, Scottsdale, Mesa and Chandler. Tempe offers more than 300 days a year of sunshine to its residents and visitors and annual rainfall amounts to approximately 7.36 inches per year.

About the Writers Conference Site
The Virginia G. Piper Center is thrilled to host the 2005 ASU Writers Conference on campus, in Arizona State University's historic quarter. The 2005 Writers Conference workshops, readings, and booksignings will largely take place in four buildings near College Street and University Drive, on the north end of the main campus.

Old Main
In 1898, when Tempe was a village and Arizona a territory, the growing Tempe Normal School moved into a new home: an impressive, three-story edifice called the Main Building. For decades this dignified Victorian structure was the heart of the institution that would mature into Arizona State University. President Teddy Roosevelt spoke from her front stairway, and generations of students relaxed in the afternoon shade of her balconies. Today, Old Main still has a special place in ASU's history and spirit. The oldest building on campus, Old Main was just restored to its original grandeur. The Alumni Association now makes this building its home.

The University Club
The University Club, part of the collection of campus buildings dating back to ASU's early period, was first built as a Science Hall in 1908. Today the building is a dining and meeting facility for members of its club. Membership is available to alumni, faculty, staff, corporate and community members, and parents of continuing students. The University Club is one of ASU's buildings on Arizona's and the national Register of Historical Places, a designation it earned in 1987.

The Virginia G. Piper Writers House*
The historic President's Cottage on the ASU Main Campus will become home to the Piper Center for Creative Writing in fall 2004. Located on the corner of Palm Walk and Tyler Mall, the house was constructed in 1907 and served as the home of the university's president until 1959. Since that time, it has been used by the ASU Alumni Association for administrative offices (1961 to 1972) and as the home of the University Archives (1972 to 1995). The house, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is especially fitting as a home for the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing, as Robert Frost visited there twice as the guest of then-President Grady Gammage.

The Piper House and its grounds offer a vibrant, nurturing environment in which writers, faculty, students and community members exchange ideas and share an appreciation for literature and writing. The facility provides essential space for classes, seminars, two formal reception areas, administrative offices, a library, an archive for ASU literary history, as well as an outdoor-performance area and writers garden. While the Piper House evokes the particular warm atmosphere, deep historical roots and imaginative energy that characterize the ASU Creative Writing Program, it also serves as the launching ground for new initiatives that connect diverse communities.

*Please note: the Piper House will still be listed as the "Archives House" on many campus maps.

G. Homer Durham Languages & Literatures Building
The G. Homer Durham Languages and Literatures Building offers a mix of traditional lecture style rooms as well as many modern style classrooms that offer conference tables for small group discussion and work. As one would expect from the name, the English Department and the Department of Languages and Literatures (foreign languages) are located in this building.