Fall dates scheduled.

AAN’s fifth annual Medill Alternative Journalism Writing Workshop is scheduled for Sept. 21-23 in Evanston, Ill., and the second Classified Conference is booked for Minneapolis Nov. 2-3.

The writers’ conference, held at the Medill School of Journalism on Northwestern University’s campus in Evanston, brings alternative newsweekly staff writers and editors together for an intensive weekend of wordsmithing. Distinguished writers and editors lead sessions on honing an alternative-journalistic edge from 2 p.m. Friday, Sept 21 through noon Sunday, Sept. 23.

Since its inception in 1997, attendance at the workshop has increased every year, reaching 57 in 2000.

Tuition for the workshop is $175 for AAN members and $250 for non-members. Tuition includes dinner on Friday night; lunch and a cocktail party on Saturday; and a continental breakfast Saturday and Sunday mornings. For this year’s conference, AAN has booked 30 rooms at the Omni Orrington Hotel in downtown Evanston for $129 a night.

Registration materials and the program schedule will be mailed in August.

Meanwhile, the second Classified Conference is set for Nov. 2-3 in Minneapolis. Last year’s conference was a huge success, with over 80 AAN members attending. In the post-conference survey, 89% of the respondents rated the primary programming “excellent.”

One free registration will be offered to AAN member papers. Additional member registrations are $150; the non-member fee is $300.

AAN has booked 55 rooms at the Hilton Minneapolis for the conference. The room rate is $109. Last year, AAN asked members to choose between Dallas and Minneapolis as a location for the first conference, and when they chose Dallas in a close vote, AAN made a commitment to hold the 2001 event in Minneapolis.

Registration materials will be mailed by September.