written at a bankrupt Borders somewhere on L Street because the conference site is void of free WiFi. By now you’ve noticed a few reoccurring things about AWP panels: There’s never enough water or coffee or candy nearby There are never enough handouts The presenters mostly seemed surprised to be Read More ...
Best line of the morning. Spoken during a panel on the Nitty Gritty of Publishing. One of the panelists was talking about how many writers think that their audience is just other writers. To paraphrase: “Don’t think that. All the writers in the country are in this building. I hope Read More ...
I go. But: For introverts and malcontents, like myself, competitive and conspiratorial introverts, conferences are a test of wills. I find the entire enterprise to be exhausting on so many levels I often chide a higher-ranking myself in mid-conference stream for having fooled a lower-ranking myself once again in attending. Read More ...
Awaiting a flight to take me to the AWP conference in DC, I can’t help but think about the place of airports in my writing life. To me, airports present one ginormous prompt or at the very least a bunch of micro-prompts. Arrival and departures. All the people and their Read More ...
Wi-Fi on a plane is the greatest thing since sliced bread…bread that communicates to other loaves of sliced bread via a wireless internet connection. So, after worrying the night away watching newscasts spike ratings with tales of snow-mageddon, the ride to the airport this morning (and the current flight) has Read More ...
..can keep us from AWP. One look out the window and it’s difficult to imagine spring will ever arrive, despite what the Groundhog predicts. I am in upstate New York and will leave soon with a fellow writer to drive south to DC. The weather here isn’t nearly as bad Read More ...
Poet Honorée Fanonne Jeffers examines the poet as critic on her panel called Changing Chords: The African American Poet as Critic at this year's conference.
