WORDS AND IMAGES : Happy Ending : Seven local writers are cited for literary excellence at the 20th annual Santa Barbara Writers Conference.

More than two dozen writers from Ventura County attended last week’s 20th annual Santa Barbara Writers Conference, where seven of them were honored for literary excellence. Winning top awards at the conference--which attracts aspiring and experienced writers from as far as Fiji and Australia, Hawaii and Alaska, New York and England--is quite an achievement, particularly since much of the work is written under tremendous pressure during the weeklong event.

Students bring works-in-progress for critiquing and judging, and are given an opportunity to write fiction, poetry or nonfiction based on a word or a phrase suggested at the opening-night lecture.

This year the word was “escape,” and Polly Bee of Ojai created poetry judged best in the category. The editors of Santa Barbara Magazine will publish “Escape” as representative of the best writing at the conference.

Another Ojai resident, Bill Spellman, took top honors as a beginning fiction author. Linda Vieira of Camarillo submitted the winning juvenile manuscript.

Jacqueline Powers walked off with the prestigious screenplay award and the honorable mention went to Linda Freeny, who won the top prize last year. Both screenwriters are Ventura residents and were also honored recently by the Screenwriters Assn. of Santa Barbara.

Gloria Forsyth of Ventura and Mal King of Santa Paula received honorable mentions in the nonfiction category.

Sharan Newman of Newbury Park, who met her agent at the conference when she was a student, participated this year on the How to Get a Book Published panel. Her fifth novel, “Death Comes at Epiphany,” will be published in 1993.

PLAN AHEAD: On July 11, 10 a.m. to noon, Bernard Adinoff, a Friends of the Library board member, will teach the Introduction to IBM Compatible Computers class in the Thousand Oaks Library, 1401 E. Janss Road. Call 494-1513 for details.