For 25 years, the University of Dayton’s Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop has been one of the most sought-after literary events in the country — selling out year after year, sometimes in mere hours.
In 2024, novelist and writing coach Julie Cantrell called it “clearly the hottest ticket in town (second only to Taylor Swift, perhaps). I’m still riding the feel-good vibes from steeping in such a beautiful, joyful, happy-hearted community of creative spirits.”
A dozen years earlier, Jill Fales, a columnist for the Orange County Register, likened the scramble for online registration to the frenzy of snagging tickets for a Rolling Stones concert.
In between, the New York emergency room doctor and writer Raj Jaiswal miscalculated the time difference while traveling to India and found himself pleading with a hotel desk clerk at 2 a.m. to register him after his phone kept timing out. “It became my forbidden fruit,” he said with a laugh after the 2018 workshop.
This isn’t just a writing conference — it’s an experience. As former emcee and author Patricia Wynn Brown likes to say, “We’re putting on a show.”
A perfect blend of inspiration, camaraderie and craft, the biennial workshop feels like a family reunion — and so much more. Attendees, both longtime returnees and enthusiastic newcomers, mingle with Erma’s children throughout the three-day extravaganza. They learn from Pulitzer Prize winners, bestselling authors, seasoned comedians and top-tier writing instructors — rock stars in their own right who challenge, uplift and energize writers at every stage of their journey. Oh, and we laugh for three days straight.
“This is the most generous, supportive, loving place writers can gather,” said David Henry Sterry, prolific author, performer and co-creator of America’s Next Great Author, a reality TV show in early production.
Perhaps that’s the secret sauce. The Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop is part education, part entertainment — and 100% empowerment. That’s the spirit we attempt to bottle in an event that, largely through word of mouth, has gained national prominence and a loyal following of writers who call themselves the Erma Nation.
Ironically, the University of Dayton launched the workshop in 2000 as a one-time event to commemorate the Bombeck family’s donation of Erma’s papers to her alma mater. We never envisioned its enduring appeal a quarter of a century later, even after a once-in-a-century pandemic forced us to cancel the in-person gathering and take it virtual in 2020. Just months after the world shut down, that event drew nearly 700 writers — double our usual attendance. It included a surprise Martin Sheen cameo appearance, tap dancing, a cocktail hour with the hosts in pajamas and live keynote illustrations by New Yorker cartoonist Liza Donnelly. Humor saves us, and in that moment, across time zones, we had come together to be restored.
Over the years, a part-time staff, a cadre of volunteers and a community of writers have expanded the workshop’s reach and impact. We helped create a public television documentary about Erma’s legacy and collaborated on humor anthologies. We branched out in other ways, too, and now offer an array of virtual programs, host competitions and provide awards to writers with financial need — all in the spirit of helping aspiring and established writers improve their craft.
But our in-person workshop remains our signature event. Every two years, writers embark on a creative pilgrimage to Erma’s alma mater to laugh, learn and hear the three life-changing words her English professor told her — words that shaped her legacy and continue to inspire every writer who gathers in her name.
“You can write!”
(Registration will open in November for the March 26-28, 2026, Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop. There’s still time to register for an all-day virtual workshop on April 5, “The Virtual Erma: Stories of Our Lives Featuring Anne Lamott.”)