Empty coffee cups were strewn beside leftover pastries and forgotten papers, as writers from all over New England shuffled out the doors of the UMass Dartmouth College of Visual and Performing Arts Star Store Campus.

What began as a hope to create both a residency combined with a conference ultimately turned into the desire for Dominic Perri, founder of the Hollihock Writers Conference, to establish a three-day workshop in downtown New Bedford.

“This had been an absolutely amazing opportunity,” said Patricia Gomes, current Poet Laureate of New Bedford. “We’ve come together as a community to share our resources and advance our writing careers.”

Over the three-day conference, which ran from Aug. 21 to 23, writers were able to take part in discussions about the literary world of creative writing, poetry and non-fiction. Participants could attend panels to learn tips on finding an agent and writing query letters. Professional writers were there to share their work.

Perri, along with co-founder Dena Haden, collaborated with Groundwork Coworking, UMass Dartmouth's College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Visual and Performing Arts to develop the conference.

“I run Groundwork, a co-working space in New Bedford,” said Haden. “We promote partnerships and host a collaborative workspace.”

Both Haden and Perri asked their colleagues and friends to volunteer their time to run workshops and give presentations.

“This is my first writing conference, and I expected it to be a lot like grad school,” said Jeffrey Simonds, a Professor at Hartwick College. “It’s a little bigger than what I thought. There are a fun group of classes to choose from.”

Simonds said he hoped people felt confident leaving the conference.

“There are other people slogging along doing the same impossible task,” said Simonds. “There is safety in numbers.”

Writers in any phase of their literary life were welcomed at the Hollihock Writers Conference, from “beginners intimidated by the blank page, to published professionals looking for a network of fellow creative thinkers to share ideas.”

Perri hopes that the conference will grow and would like to include more sessions next year for people to write.

“I would also like to add a residency,” said Perri. “[The residency] was going to be too much this year with the conference as well.”

E.B. Moore, author of "An Unseemly Wife," said that she enjoyed the conference because it was small and intimate.

“They’ve done an amazing job in a very short amount of time,” said Moore. “It is also remarkably inexpensive.”

The three-day conference cost $39 for students and $69 for the public.

While Moore mentioned that the writers weren't big names in the industry, she said they were still interesting people who knew what they were talking about and were informative.

“[Hollihock] was very professionally organized,” said Elaine Dimopoulos, an adjunct professor at Boston University and author of "Material Girls." “It’s great for people with a book coming out.”

UMass Dartmouth student Marissa Matton, who is working toward her masters in professional writing, works on the UMass Dartmouth website and used the Hollihock Conference as the feature story.

“I think next time there should be more of an advanced notice for people,” said Matton.

Sara Williams, Professor at Mount Wachusett, taught a workshop discussing Journal Keeping in the Age of Social Media.

“Our social media is so public. Journal writing is so private,” said Williams. “I came into this workshop open ended. You let your audience take control.”