Issue date: 7/24/08 Section: NEWS

University of North Texas associate professor George Getschow, Texas Monthly staff writer Pamela Colloff and Texas Monthly editor Brian Sweany participate in a panel discussion during the 2008 Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference. - Photo courtesy of the Mayborn School

GRAPEVINE - UNT President Gretchen Bataille announced the name of the university's new journalism school at the fourth annual Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Writers Conference of the Southwest.

The conference took place July 18-20, at the Hilton DFW Lakes Executive Conference Center in Grapevine, and drew about 425 attendees.

In Saturday's keynote speech, Bataille announced the name of the journalism school, which will be the Frank W. and Sue Mayborn School of Journalism. The creation of the school is still pending approval from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

"We are elated and honored that the new school will be named after Frank W. and Sue Mayborn, and this school culminates decades of work to establish a journalism school at North Texas," said Mitch Land, director of the Mayborn Graduate School of Journalism.

"This affirms publicly the support of the administration for the journalism department."

The conference was created to promote the values and principles of the Mayborn Graduate School of Journalism, which hosts the event. The conference brings together nationally acclaimed writers, literary agents, and other current and future journalists to share thoughts and ideas on nonfiction writing.

"If journalists don't tell people the truth of our times, who will?" Mitch Land, director of the Mayborn Graduate School of Journalism said.

Teachers at the graduate school strive to find a way to train writers to tell stories in a compelling way that is both relevant and meaningful to readers, to find the absolute truth and report the facts, according to Land.

Friday's keynote speaker was Bob Sacochis, a nonfiction writer and contributing editor for Harper's Magazine, Outside and a columnist for Gentleman's Quarterly. Shacochis discussed how some writers sensationalize taboo topics to gain attention, fame or money. He said some writers also use other people's misery and shame to their advantage without giving a thought as to how it will affect them personally. He calls these writers "cheap, vulgar profiteers."

"Sometimes there is sin in silence, sometimes there is grace," Shacochis said.

On Sunday afternoon, Candice Millard, author and former writer and editor for National Geographic magazine, contributing writer to Time magazine and The New York Times, shared her five "humble rules' for writing non-fiction: have something to say, know that a subject is not a story, let the idea do the work, everyone loves to learn and to be brutal in writing.

"We've all heard the saying, 'write what you know,' but first you have to know something," Millard said. "You have to look hard enough at a different perspective."

"The success of this event in fostering a culture of factual storytelling has been demonstrated in a variety of ways," said Sue Mayborn of the Frank W. and Sue Mayborn Foundation Advise and Consult Firm, which awards about $400,000 a year to the Mayborn Graduate School of Journalism.

Contributing writers Aubri Workman and Megan Yates, News Editor Arlinda Arriaga and Photo Editor David Minton contributed to this report.