I’m delighted to have received my copy of this new book by Snakeskin poet Jane Blanchard. She’s often observational and witty. Here’s a brief taste of her work:
Breviary
Ten days into
A writers’ conference,
I think that monks
Did right by silence.
Yes, I definitely get the point of that one.
Snakeskin's Blog 
August 3, 2020 at 8:38 pm
In the second line of Jane’s piece, the apostrophe should be before the ‘s’, not after: should it not?
August 3, 2020 at 9:13 pm
Definitely not. She means the kind of conference where many writers get together, and all have plenty to say. Hence the preference for Trappism.
August 3, 2020 at 11:54 pm
Well, I must confess to being mildly startled by your assertion. I’ve always assumed it should be “a writer’s conference” or “writers’ conferences”; in the same way that we use “writer’s block” or “writers’ blocks”.. “a writer’s desk” or “writers’ desks”.
Is it the case that if more than one writer is attending such a conference, we use “a writers’ conference”?
August 4, 2020 at 6:53 am
It wouldn’t be much of a conference with just one writer there.
August 13, 2020 at 11:53 am
It certainly wouldn’t. And because of your witty, but telling, response, I can now see where I was going wrong. If one writer owns something, it’s the writer’s (something); but if more than one writer owns that thing, it’s the writers’ (thing). Cheers for the heads-up.