PORT TOWNSEND — Poet Sam Hamill’s absence from Centrum’s 2004 Writers’ Conference is casting a shadow across the nine-day event stretching across two weekends until Saturday at Fort Worden State Park.

Hamill, director of the Writers’ Conference and founding editor of Copper Canyon Press of Port Townsend, was notified in June that he was being terminated by Centrum after this year’s conference.

Jazz saxophonist Bud Shank was also dismissed from Centrum’s jazz festival that bears his name after this year’s event.

Centrum Executive Director Thatcher Bailey said the changes were being made after a “change in philosophy” by the board overseeing operation of the arts and education foundation.

Hamill disputed Bailey’s announced reasoning, saying the two men “had a history” of personal discord. He resigned immediately.

Shank said he would stay on through the upcoming jazz workshop, but he plans to move it to an out-of-state location next year because of the way his Centrum termination was handled.

‘Airing’ with director

On Wednesday, as many as 50 Writers’ Conference attendees met with Bailey for what one person called “an airing” of the Hamill situation.

Although Centrum receives state government funding and the meeting was held in a publicly owned building at Fort Worden State Park, members of the news media were excluded from attending the session.

Afterward, some of the people who attended the hour-long session shared their feelings about Hamill’s absence and the conference in general.