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The Star Island Corp. is excited to announce the launch of its 2012 conference season with themes ranging from the Arab Spring to the secret lives of birds and turtles -- among  40 events with speakers as diverse as best-selling authors to lighthouse historians. (Continued below)

Star Island welcomes such notable speakers as Al-Arabiya Washington Bureau Chief Hisham Melhem, best-selling author Anita Shreve, Director of Green Mountain College’s Farm and Food Project Philip Ackerman-Leist, Margaret Fuller biographer Megan Marshall, lighthouse historian Jeremy D’Entremont, and many other guests to this season’s calendar of events.

The International Affairs Conference will host Hisham Melhem, Washington Bureau Chief of Al-Arabiya, as its speaker in discussing the theme “The Arab Spring and Beyond” for a week in July. This gathering will focus on the reasons behind the recent uprisings in the Arab world and look towards the impact of a changing Middle East for the United States.

The inaugural Star Island Literary Festival will host Anita Shreve, author of several novels including The Weight of Water, that centered on the 1873 Smuttynose murders; local author Katherine Towler, author of The Snow Island Trilogy; and Corwin Ericson, author of Swell, in exploring the theme of islands in literature. Participants are invited to interact with authors and those inspired by literature throughout a week in August.

Back for a second year, the LGBTQ Family and Friends Conference hosts guest speaker and clinical sexologist Michele Angello, Ph.D. This gathering invites people who identify as LGBTQ and their families to enjoy a week on Star Island in July.  As with all family conferences on Star Island there are many activities for all ages, including swimming, tennis, and softball games.

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This year’s Natural History Conference focuses on the theme “The Secret Lives of Birds and Turtles.” Guest speaker Chris Swarth of Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary will lead guests in discovering more about these creatures; also joining this week are Rev. Chris Jablonski and Rev. Lauren Smith of South Church in Portsmouth, NH.

Scholars fascinated by Jungian psychology will delight in a week of discussions with Stefano Carta, Ph.D. at Life on a Star Family Conference II held in July. Carta is an Italian Jungian scholar and will focus on the particular “nature” of “human nature” through storytelling, music, film and other examples.

For people interested in playing bridge, the first Star Bridge conference offers lessons and structured play. Guests of all skill levels are welcome to take part in a relaxed environment of bridge aficionados and those new to the game.

The Historic Star Conference will focus on the stories of pirates, treasure, ghosts and murder just off the coast of Maine and New Hampshire. This conference allows guests to escape the modern world and enter the scandals of bygone eras for a week in late August.

Young adults are invited to the Yearly Adult’s Conference in June.  Activities include whiskey tasting and hula-hoop making.  This lively group will explore the topic: “2012: It’s Not the End of the World.”

These conferences and retreats are just a small part of what Star Island offers every summer. More information about all of the conferences can be found by visiting StarIsland.org.

“We are always so pleased with the varied and interesting options the conferences provide each year,” said Star Island Chief Executive Officer Vicky Hardy. “We want our community to know that a valuable vacation is just 10 miles off the coast. Why rent a car for a week this summer when you can rent a rowboat for an afternoon on Star?”

Star Island offers a valuable camp-like vacation for families and individuals with all meals and travel aboard the M/V Thomas Laighton included in room and board. Guests staying in the historic Oceanic House and adjacent buildings can also choose to sign-up for a massage, play a game of tennis, and use the computer center.

Star Island is located ten miles off the coast of New Hampshire. The nonprofit Star Island Corp. has provided affordable individual and family retreats since 1916. Star Island invites everyone to spend a day, stay a week and remember for a lifetime.