Headliners include the top names in the literary and entertainment fields. Headlining the event this year are 2007 Academy Award Winner for best original screenplay Michael Arndt ("Little Miss Sunshine"), Bobby Moresco ("Crash"), Pamela Wallace ("Witness"), Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize Winner W. S. Merwin ("The Corner of Ladders"), Pulitzer Prize Winner and New York Times best selling author/producer Buzz Bissinger ("Friday Night Lights") and New York Times best selling authors John Lescroart ("The Suspect"), Luane Rice ("Beach Girls"), John Saul ("The Manhattan Hunt Club"), Jacquelyn Mitchard ("The Deep End of the Ocean"), Karen Joy Fowler ("The Jane Austen Book Club"), Dorothy Allison ("Bastard Out of Carolina"), Dan Millman ("The Way of the Peaceful Warrior") and James Rollins ("Map of Bones").

Screenwriter/producer Michael Palmieri (USC School of Cinema-Television), screenwriter Diane Lake (the Academy Award-winning film "Frida") and bestselling author Lisa Nichols ("The Secret") round out the lineup for a weekend of over 100 panels and workshops in fiction, non-fiction, screenwriting, publishing, inspirational writing, food writing, poetry, children's and young adult literature.

The Maui Writers Conference and its six-day Writers Retreat in fiction, non-fiction and screenwriting which runs before the event (Aug. 25-31) offers an opportunity to meet agents, editors, publishers and studio executives who could help launch careers.

Signature sponsors include Hawaii Tourism Authority, Writers Digest, Hawaiian Airlines, the County of Maui Film Office and the Austin Film Festival.

Fees for the Maui Writers Conference are $695 and Retreat fees are $1,295 if purchased by July 15th. Hawaii residents with valid ID qualify for kama'aina rates. A new Ohana Club membership with exclusive MWC benefits to online content and exclusive events is also available.