Twelve noon to Seven o'clock p.m.
W100. Conference Registration.
Registration Area, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
Attendees who have registered in advance may pick up their registration materials in AWP’s preregistered check-in area, located in the registration area on Level 4 of the Washington State Convention Center. If you have not yet registered for the conference, please visit the unpaid registration area, also in the registration area on Level 4. Please consult the bookfair map in the conference planner for location details. Students must present a valid student ID to check-in or register at our student rate. Seniors must present a valid ID to register at our senior rate. A $50 fee will be charged for all replacement badges.
Twelve noon to Five-thirty p.m.
W101. Bookfair Setup, Sponsored by Hollins University: Jackson Center for Creative Writing.
North & South Exhibit Halls, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
The exhibit halls on Level 4 of the Washington State Convention Center will be open for bookfair setup. For safety and security reasons only those wearing an exhibitor access badge, or those accompanied by an individual wearing an exhibitor access badge, will be permitted inside the bookfair during setup hours. Bookfair exhibitors are welcome to pick up their registration materials in AWP’s registration area also located on Level 4.
W102. Lactation Room.
Please visit the AWP Help Desk in the registration area of the bookfair on Level 4 of the Washington State Convention Center for access to the lactation room. For reasons of privacy and security, access to the lactation room is granted with permission by AWP only.
Four-thirty p.m. to Five-forty-five p.m.
W103. WITS Membership Meeting. Room 2A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2.
Writers in the Schools (WITS) Alliance invites current and prospective members to attend a general meeting led by Robin Reagler, Executive Director of WITS-Houston.
5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
W104. CLMP & SPD Publisher Meeting. Room 400, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
The staff members of the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses and Small Press Distribution discuss issues facing CLMP and SPD publishers, goals for the organizations, and upcoming programs.
Eight o'clock a.m. to Five-thirty p.m.
R100. Conference Registration.
Registration Area, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
Attendees who have registered in advance may pick up their registration materials in AWP’s preregistered check-in area, located in the registration area on Level 4 of the Washington State Convention Center. If you have not yet registered for the conference, please visit the unpaid registration area, also in the registration area on Level 4. Please consult the bookfair map in the conference planner for location details. Students must present a valid student ID to check-in or register at our student rate. Seniors must present a valid ID to register at our senior rate. A $50 fee will be charged for all replacement badges.
Eight-thirty a.m. to Six o'clock p.m.
R101. AWP Bookfair, Sponsored by Hollins University: Jackson Center for Creative Writing.
North & South Exhibit Halls, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
With more than 650 literary exhibitors the AWP bookfair is the largest of its kind. A great way to meet authors, critics, and peers, the bookfair also provides excellent opportunities to find information about many literary magazines, presses, and organizations. Please consult the bookfair map in the conference planner for location details.
Eight o'clock a.m. to Five-thirty p.m.
R102. Bookfair Concessions, Coffee, Bars, & Lounge.
Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
Breakfast and lunch concessions are available from Eight-thirty a.m. to Four-thirty p.m. in the North and South halls of the bookfair, Level 4 of the Washington State Convention Center. There will be a bar and a coffee cart in each the North Hall and the South Lobby complete with lounge seating. Both bars serving wine, beer, and mixed drinks will be open twelve noon to Five-thirty p.m. Both coffee carts are open Eight-thirty a.m. to Five-thirty p.m. each day. Cash, debit, and credit cards are accepted at all food and beverage locations. Please consult the bookfair map in the conference planner for detailed locations.
R103. Dickinson Quiet Space.
Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
A dedicated quiet space for you to collect your thoughts, unwind, and escape the literary chaos. Please consult the bookfair map in the conference planner for detailed location. “There is a solitude of space, / A solitude of sea, / A solitude of death, but these / Society shall be, / Compared with that profounder site, / That polar privacy, / A Soul admitted to Itself: / Finite Infinity.”—Emily Dickinson
R104. Lactation Room.
Please visit the AWP Help Desk in the registration area of the bookfair on Level 4 of the Washington State Convention Center for access to the lactation room. For reasons of privacy and security, access to the lactation room is granted with permission by AWP only.
Nine o'clock a.m. to Ten-fifteen a.m.
R105. Home and Not Home: Poetries of/in a Changing Japan.
(Gregory Dunne, Alan Botsford, Bern Mulvey, Goro Takano)
Aspen Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
How do poets of/in Japan see through dangerous nostalgias and clichés and bear witness to new stories? How can poets help clear a space for learning what it means to be at home and not at home in a story that, in an accelerating, globalizing world, indeed is forever changing? Four Japan-based writers discuss the contributions of 20th-century Japanese women poets, post-war modern Japanese poets, expatriate poets in Japan, and contemporary Japanese poets writing in English.
R106. Stacking the Stacks: Getting Indie Lit Books and Journals into Libraries.
(Jeffrey Lependorf, Karen Gisonny, Meredith Walters, Brent Cunningham)
Cedar Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Independent literary publishers want their books and magazines in libraries, and librarians want that, too. However, libraries increasingly build their collections based on patron demand and economic factors. Librarians, learn how to best identify indie lit for your collections. Indie lit publishers, learn how to get noticed by librarians.
R107. Melville House 12th Anniversary Reading.
(Valerie Merians, Dennis Johnson, Christopher Boucher, Jeremy Bushnell, Rachel Cantor) Redwood Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Melville House was founded in 2001 by co-publishers Dennis Johnson and Valerie Merians and is based in Brooklyn. Over the past decade, Melville House has published leftist political reportage, avant-garde fiction, titles in translation, poetry, and cookbooks, while launching the Art of the Novella series, the Neversink Library, and the Melville House International Crime series. The publishers will join authors to present brief readings.
R108. Lives Not Our Own: The Ethics and Practice of Assuming the Voices of Others.
(Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich, Nicholas Boggs, Rebecca Morgan Frank, Courtney Maum, Justin St. Germain)
Willow Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
A novel written from the perspective of the singer John Mayer. Memoirs told by intertwining the lives of Wyatt Earp, James Baldwin, and a pedophile murderer with those of the authors. Poems crafted from the lives of internment camp detainees and the Japanese bride of a murdered Dutchman. Each of the writers on this panel brings the story of real-life strangers into their writing. Join us as we discuss the whys, hows, research, and responsibilities of the decision to take on the lives of others.
R109. Disrupting Class: Changing Pedagogical Landscapes in the Writing Classroom.
(Kate Guthrie Caruso, Andrea Spofford, Cole Cohen, Johnny Jones, Kristin Cerda)
Room 2A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2.
This panel focuses on the ways teachers can challenge and disrupt pedagogical landscapes. By employing a variety of mediums including social media, video games, and boundary-crossing genres like prose poetry and graphic novels, we create a hybrid approach to teaching writing that distills and translates the classroom experience into out-of-classroom reality. Featuring five teachers of writing (creative, performance, composition, and community), this panel presents resources for disrupting class.
R111. It’s Funny Because It’s True.
(Brangien Davis, Nicole Hardy, Suzanne Morrison, Lauren Weedman)
Room 3A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 3.
Mark Twain said humor is the great thing, the saving thing. In memoir as in life, it makes our tragedies bearable, shareable, and unifying. The well-timed joke saves the first person singular from its inevitable inward turn, exorcises the overly-earnest, and compels readers to let down their defenses just enough to feel the full force of a punch. This panel takes on yoga, sex, faith, and the perils of youth with an eye to the art of crafting humorous scenes.
R112. Project-Driven Publicity for Publishers and Writers.
(Jenni Baker, Beth Ayer, E. Kristin Anderson, Jerome Joseph Gentes)
Room 3B, Washington State Convention Center, Level 3.
In the face of declining budgets and attention spans, a well-timed project can be a low-cost solution to boost attention for publications and writers. Found Poetry Review editors will discuss two successful National Poetry Month projects, including a 2012 Kickstarter-funded campaign and a 2013 initiative that united 85 poets to produce 2,500+ poems in a single month. Project participants will detail the initiatives’ impact on their morale, practice, and exposure to new and supportive readers.
R113. Go Somewhere, Write Something: Teaching Intentional Experience.
(Luke Rolfes, Nancy Parkes, Kris Somerville, Richard Sonnenmoser, Jenny Yang Cropp)
Room 400, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
What will students produce if we ask them to sit silently in a crowd, travel on a train, reflect on a painting, or follow the bend of a river? Our panel focuses on activities that guide a student outside the classroom walls with the intention of living an experience worth writing. Panelists will discuss intentional experience as a means to stimulate creativity, encourage risks, and instill concepts such as place, character, theme, and sensory detail.
R114. Daydreaming at the Mini-Mart: The Suburbs and Literary Imagination.
(Dana Johnson, David McGlynn, Michael Downs, Tom Zoellner, Erika Meitner)
Room 602/603, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
From self-storage yards to auto-parts stores, from high school parking lots to strip malls, much of the American landscape exists in places usually considered banal, but where life is often at its most vivid. Families and money move easily through these marginal landscapes, and so should the literary imagination. Novelists, nonfiction writers, and poets discuss how their imaginations engage with the sprawling edges.
R115. Four Ways Blogging Benefits a Writer.
(Isla McKetta, Rebecca Bridge, Elissa Washuta, Ann Hedreen, Jack Remick)
Room 604, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Creation, career, promotion, and conversation. Your blog is more than a tool for creating the dreaded “platform.” It can be the hub of your online activity and a source of inspiration. Five digitally-savvy authors share stories of how their blogs inspire them to write, build relationships, and help them get published. We’ll cover Internet best practices and ways blogging gets you noticed by search engines and the people who use them. Learn how being yourself online is your very best asset.
R116. Eco-Spectacular Vision: Post-pastoral Poetics in the 21st Century.
(Ravi Shankar, G.C. Waldrep, Arielle Greenberg, Melissa Tuckey, Marcella Durand)
Room 606, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Somewhere between when Frank O’Hara wrote “it is more important to affirm the least sincere; the clouds get enough attention as it is and even they continue to pass” to Jane Griffiths writing in Orion that “a series of artifices has caused climate collapse,” a paradigm of poetics has shifted in ways that shake the roots of the pastoral away from myths of Arcadia to what William Empson has written is “the process of putting the complex into the simple.” Five vital poets and editors explore.
R117. The Raven Chronicles at 23.
(Kathleen Alcala, Anna Bálint, Matt Briggs, Donna Miscolta, Carletta Carrington Wilson)
Room 607, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
In 1991, Raven started as a multicultural magazine of art, literature, and the spoken word. Why and how has it persisted? Each reader briefly describes why Raven made a difference in their very diverse careers, covering things like: flexibility of form, openness to new writing, sense of place, and roots of storytelling. Raven is also one of the earliest magazines to have an online presence. Each participant reads from his or her work.
R118. AWP Program Directors Plenary Assembly.
(David Fenza)
Room 608, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
All AWP program directors should attend and represent their programs. The Executive Director of AWP will report on AWP’s new projects and on important statistics and academic trends that pertain to creative writing programs and to writers who teach. A discussion with the AWP board’s Regional Representatives will follow. The plenary assembly will be followed by regional breakout sessions.
R119. The Third Degree: Why Writers Pursue Additional Education Beyond the Bachelor’s and Master’s.
(Fred Leebron, Andrew Levy, Nadine Meyer, Margaret MacInnis, Brighde Mullins)
Room 609, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
In this time of shrinking job markets, a third degree, with its promise of financial support over two to six years, can seem pretty enticing. Such third degrees include: same MFA in same genre, MFA in different genre, MA plus MFA, and on to a PhD. But is a third degree worth the time and space it will take up in your brain? This panel will feature writers who have more than one graduate degree and what it did and didn’t do for them.
R120. Translating the Foreign: What Does It Mean? (Lisa Katz, Aron Aji, Mira Rosenthal, Andrea Lingenfelter, Richard Newman)
Room 611, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Translators from Turkish, Chinese, Polish, Persian, and Hebrew attempt to define the foreign element in their source texts as well as how they offer it linguistic hospitality (Paul Ricouer’s words) in their translations into English. What is this thing we call foreign?
R121. More Terrible Sonnets: Four Poets on Faith and Doubt.
(Benjamin Myers, Tania Runyan, Brett Foster, Claire Bateman)
Room 612, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
From Gerard Manley Hopkins’s Terrible Sonnets to Christian Wiman’s My Bright Abyss, our greatest poets of faith have been our greatest poets of doubt. This session will present four established poets — diverse in background and poetics but all professing Christian faith — reading poems that originate in the shadowland between faith and doubt, exploring, through reading and discussion, the poetic energy derived from religious anxiety and the role of uncertainty in poetic motivation.
R122. The Influence of Theory Upon a Creative Practice.
(Michael Shou-Yung Shum, Jaclyn Watterson, Joe Mayers, Tasha Matsumoto)
Room 613/614, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Critical theory is considered by most writers to be at best an unnecessary and at worst harmful element in their creative work. This panel of writers explores the ways in which an understanding of theory may help inform us of the motives behind our own work, why we write, and even enrich our experience of creating that work. Writers may be wary of theory because of the various schools and the need to feel like you have to belong to one of them, but, in a sense, we belong to all of them.
R123. Teaching Brief, Sudden, Flash, and Very Short Prose.
(Raul Moreno, Meagan Cass, Damian Dressick, Sara Henning, Steve Pacheco)
Room LL4, Western New England MFA Annex, Lower Level.
With The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Nonfiction now a familiar text among college-level instructors and an international anthology of very short fiction due out from Norton, questions about best approaches to attempting brief prose abound. If this can be a good way to teach writing, as anthologist Robert Shapard suggests, how do students negotiate the new horizons of genre and form? Five instructors offer lessons from workshops, grading, new media, doctoral research, and more.
R124. Male Creations and Their Female Creators.
(Naomi Long, Sharon May, Shawna Ryan, Adele Ne Jame, Pat Matsueda)
Room LL5, Western New England MFA Annex, Lower Level.
Five women authors will read their writing: work written from the point of view of men, or work in which male characters figure prominently. The women who will be reading are deeply interested in the psychological complexity of men and seek to understand what internal conflicts produce their behavior and decisions. The expression of this fascination, and the resolution of the questions it produces, are worked out in the creative writing of the authors.
R125. Structuring the Novel.
(Summer Wood, Amanda Boyden, Melissa Remark, Joseph Boyden)
Room 101, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 1.
An effective structure is critical to a novel’s success, but finding that dynamic organizing principle can be a maddeningly elusive process. Sometimes structure will emerge naturally, making connections, and suggesting appropriate narrative strategies; more often, the writer has to dive in to moderate the struggle between form and content. Three veteran novelists join an MFA candidate embarked on her own first novel to discuss their specific solutions and offer strategies for approaching the task.
R126. What Was Is: The Use of Present Tense in Creative Nonfiction.
(Kate Hopper, Hope Edelman, Bonnie Rough, Marybeth Holleman, Ryan Van Meter)
Room 202, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 2.
This panel of memoirists and essayists will consider what happens when we write about past events in the present tense. When does present tense provide needed immediacy, and when does it limit an author’s ability to write to the true story? We will explore the benefits, challenges, and drawbacks of using present tense as we craft our lives on the page, and we will discuss how tense affects craft issues, such as voice, reflection, and structure.
R127. You Are Here: A Pacific Northwest Poetry Sampler.
(Megan Snyder-Camp, C.S. Giscombe, Sean Hill, Gregory Sherl, Laura Jensen)
Room 301, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
Addressing wilderness theory, cultural displacement, memory, doubt, and desire, these Pacific Northwest-engaged poets read from recent work that explores how our idea of the frontier complicates the place we write from, and toward. Representing a spectrum of sources (archival research, experience, and the imagination) and approaches (from formal to experimental), these poets use frontiers as lines by which to claim the Pacific Northwest’s place in contemporary poetry.
R128. The Poet, the Scholar, and the Critic.
(David Baker, Kimberly Blaeser, Troy Jollimore, Julie Carr, Dean Rader)
Room 302, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
The relationship of poetry to criticism and scholarship is unique among literary genres. It is codependent, vexed, necessary, and contradictory, and it has become a central issue in today’s literary world. How does one form of expression enable, ignore, or impair the other? What intellectual, artistic, and professional issues arise in and out of the academy? Does writing about poetry have the same social function as poetry itself? In 2014, what is at stake to be a poet/critic or a poet/scholar?
R129. We’re Having a Party: Building a Literary Community Through Event Series.
(Cindy St. John, Dan Boehl, Chris Tonelli, Matthew Henriksen)
Room 305, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
Language is, in essence, a form of communication. Literary reading series provide a public space for writers to connect with the community and collaborate with each and artists of mediums. This panel focuses on creating a home for independent authors and artists who are traveling by promoting their work alongside local creative communities. Panelists will address issues of event space, curating, funding, press, hosting, and establishing a nonprofit organization.
Ten-thirty a.m. to Eleven-forty-five a.m.
R130. The Reed Way: 101 Years of Inquiry & Poetry.
(Brittney Corrigan, Lisa Steinman, Cathy Linh Che, CJ Evans)
Aspen Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
A Pacific Northwest icon and bastion of critical and creative inquiry, Reed College has long produced an exciting array of writers. From Gary Snyder and Leslie Scalapino to more recent emerging voices, Reed’s writers represent a celebration of aesthetic and cultural differences bound by a love and respect for learning and creative exploration. This reading features poets reading from their newly released books as well as poems from famous, and not as famous, Reed poets.
R131. Translation and U.S. Spanish-Language Poetry.
(Kristin Dykstra, Tina Escaja, Mariela Dreyfus, Eileen O’Connor)
Cedar Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Opening with a short reading, this panel will take up questions involving two groups of writers: Spanish-language poets residing in the U.S. and translators. Can translation help to build cultural communities that might not yet exist in reality? How might conditions differ from one place to another? How do poets perceive and seek out translators? What challenges do translators face? How and where can writer/translator teams create bilingual reading opportunities for all?
R132. AnVoice in My Mouth: Persona in Poetry and Prose.
(Holly M. Wendt, Kathryn Henion, Claire Hero, Deborah Poe, Virginia Shank) Redwood Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
This interdisciplinary panel features five writers whose work puts significant distance between speaker and writer—whether by writing across gender, setting, historical time, or conventions of language—to reimagine, challenge, and expand the writer’s or narrator’s persona. Each panelist will provide a short rhetorical and practical framework that focuses on crafting these voices before presenting representative work from inside and outside the classroom.
R133. How Many Readers is Enough? (Valerie Vogrin, Kelcey Parker, Allison Hedge Coke, Chad Simpson, Kellie Wells)
Willow Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Using this provocative question as a starting point, panelists at various stages in their writing lives will examine the idea of the writer’s career. In a world that tends to value completed, marketable products—the success of which is measured in terms of sales figures, Amazon rankings, and the awarding of prestigious prizes, etc.—how do we view our own ongoing creative work? How do we maintain our affiliation to the less tangible incentives for writing, such as connecting with readers?
R134. Writing Outside: The Importance of an Interdisciplinary Approach to Writing.
(Claire Kruesel, Stefanie Trout, Audrey McCombs, Meghan Brown, Michelle Donahue)
Room 2A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2.
Iowa State University’s unique program in creative writing and environment is also the only MFA program with its own nature reserve. All students do fieldwork and take twelve units of outside courses, ranging from restoration ecology to history of architecture. Here, ISU students will discuss how experiences outside of workshop become a necessary component to the writing life. Disciplines are important to writers; this is how one program seeks to integrate outside disciplines with writing.
R135. Is Poetry Ready for Prime Time? (Zack Rogow, Cornellus Eady, Kim Addonizio, Toby Barlow)
Room 2B, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2.
Recently poets have ventured into media for the fun of collaborating and to reach out to a wider audience. Projects include combining animation with poetry, writing plays based on the lives of poets, and using poetry as lyrics for rock and jazz bands. Is poetry ready to dive out of its literary tower and swim in the world of mass audiences? Is it possible? What are the pleasures and pains of working with artists in media? Do collaborations change the way we write or hear poetry?
R136. How Far, Imagination: Writing Characters of AnRace in Fiction.
(Christine Zilka, Mat Johnson, Patricia Engel, Randa Jarrar, Susan Ito)
Room 3A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 3.
Five writers discuss the politics behind the decisions they make about writing race and their thoughts on writing beyond one’s own ethnicity. Is writing characters of another race a matter of imagination, as some writers claim, or verboten? The diverse panel of published and award-winning novelists, essayists, and short story writers will explore topics of social responsibility, appropriation, artistic integrity, and even cultural or ethnic loyalties around the process and research of doing so.
R137. Courting the Peculiar: the Ever-Changing Queerness of Creative Nonfiction.
(Ames Hawkins, Barrie Jean Borich, Mary Cappello, K. Bradford)
Room 3B, Washington State Convention Center, Level 3.
What do we mean when we claim that creative nonfiction is a queer genre? Four queer-identified panelists collectively position creative nonfiction as a genre welcoming of writers and writing that embraces the peculiar, courts the unconventional, and opens to forms yet to be imagined. At the turn of the 20th century, Gertrude Stein in Tender Buttons proposed: “Act so that there is no use in a center”; how can practitioners of creative nonfiction today use language to express truths still to come?
R138. Double Lives: Writer/Translators.
(Susan Harris, Lawrence Schimel, Sholeh Wolpe, Geoffrey Brock, Idra Novey)
Room 400, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
Many creative writers are also accomplished translators, and they establish parallel careers; but the two pursuits, and the resulting publications, are rarely considered in tandem. Four writers discuss how translating affects their creative work, how reimagining anwriter’s fiction and poetry in English can influence one’s “own” writing in those genres, and how they move between and within their dual identities.
R139. Tumbleweeding Out of the Great Plains: A Reading by Writers from the Graduate Writing Programs at The University of South Dakota.
(Holly Baker, Sara Henning, David Levine, Jenny Yang Cropp, Jenny Ferguson)
Patricia Olson Bookfair Stage, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
Meet some of the complex mosaic of voices that comprise graduate creative writing at The University of South Dakota in this sampler reading by graduate creative writing students at USD, which will pull a number of our hardworking, volunteering South Dakota Review editors and staff members out from behind the bookfair table and onto the stage. Our graduate students come from across the nation and Canada, representing a diverse array of geographies as well as cultural and aesthetic backgrounds.
R140. Antioch University Alumni Book Launch.
(Jenn Crowell, Elizabeth Earley)
Robert Muroff Bookfair Stage, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
Graduates of the Antioch University Los Angeles MFA program will read from their recently published novels.
R141. Cutthroat, a Journal of the Arts Mentor Program Reading.
(Pamela Uschuk, Joy Harjo, Darlin Neal, Terry Hummer)
Scott James Bookfair Stage, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
Prize-winning writers and faculty members read their poetry, short fiction, and selections from memoir, as well as selections from student writings in this reading to celebrate Cutthroat magazine’s innovative One-On-One Online Writing Mentorship Program. Cutthroat has administered this writing program for a year, garnering rave reviews from writing students whose work has blossomed under the supervision of these fine writer/teachers.
R142. Once It’s Out of the Gate: Post-Publication Marketing and Platform-Building.
(Jeffrey Lependorf, Steph Opitz, Katie Freeman, Caroline Casey, Jane Friedman)
Room 602/603, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
While pre-publication marketing to trade publications and book sellers remains an important part of the life of a book, there is still a lot one can do to create buzz and multiply readers after the book is already out there.
R143. Midwest Region: AWP Program Directors’ Breakout Session. Room 604, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
If you are a program director of an AWP member creative writing program in the following states you should attend this session: Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin. This regional breakout session will begin immediately upon the conclusion of the Program Directors Plenary Meeting, so we recommend that you attend the Plenary Meeting first. Your regional representative on the AWP Board of Directors will conduct this meeting.
R144. Shouting in a Crowded Room: Challenges in Expanding Small Press Readership.
(Frances Dinger, Richard Nash, Molly Gaudry, Jacob Perkins)
Room 606, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
A publisher, publicist, and a small press librarian discuss the challenges of expanding the audience of independent literature. Often driven by love over profit, small press, and independent publishers are producing some of the most urgently interesting work on the market, but reaching new audiences is often challenging. In this panel, representatives from Red Lemonade, The Lit Pub, and Mellow Pages will discuss solutions to this problem while working with limited time and marketing budgets.
R145. West Region: AWP Program Directors’ Breakout Session. Room 607, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
If you are a program director of an AWP member creative writing program in the following states you should attend this session: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Nevada, New Mexico, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming. This regional breakout session will begin immediately upon the conclusion of the Program Directors Plenary Meeting, so we recommend that you attend the Plenary Meeting first. Your regional representative on the AWP Board of Directors will conduct this meeting.
R146. Pacific West Region: AWP Program Directors’ Breakout Session. Room 608, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
If you are a program director of an AWP member creative writing program in the following states you should attend this session: Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington. This regional breakout session will begin immediately upon the conclusion of the Program Directors Plenary Meeting, so we recommend that you attend the Plenary Meeting first. Your regional representative on the AWP Board of Directors will conduct this meeting.
R147. Northeast Region: AWP Program Directors’ Breakout Session. Room 609, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
If you are a program director of an AWP member creative writing program in the following states you should attend this session: Connecticut, District of Columbia, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont. This regional breakout session will begin immediately upon the conclusion of the Program Directors Plenary Meeting, so we recommend that you attend the Plenary Meeting first. Your regional representative on the AWP Board of Directors will conduct this meeting.
R148. Come Talk Story: Hawai`i Writers on Place, Politics, and Da Kine.
(Kristiana Kahakauwila, Keala Francis, Robert Barclay)
Room 611, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Hawai`i’s literary culture is unique in that it encompasses indigenous, local, Oceanic, and settler perspectives to create a layered, complex vision of place and politics. With their fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, the writers in this panel are working to break regional branding and push back against a touristic gaze. The reading will be followed by a lively discussion about how work by Hawai`i writers and from Hawai`i presses is shifting the genres of multicultural and American literature.
R149. Southeast Region: AWP Program Directors’ Breakout Session. Room 612, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
If you are a program director of an AWP member creative writing program in the following states you should attend this session: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. This regional breakout session will begin immediately upon the conclusion of the Program Directors Plenary Meeting, so we recommend that you attend the Plenary Meeting first. Your regional representative on the AWP Board of Directors will conduct this meeting.
R150. Don’t Hate Your Life: Redesign Your Comp Class.
(Rachel Simon, Chloe Yelena Miller, Melissa Febos, Kamilah Aisha Moon, Alex Samets)
Room 613/614, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Experienced composition writing professors share strategies for how to design a course that will engage students and not overwhelm instructors with unending piles of grading or grammar instruction. Using course texts ranging from Didion to Real Housewives, we will share practical and useful approaches for syllabus design, student success, managing your grading workload, and juggling multiple employers.
R151. Commercial Literary Fiction (Not an Oxymoron): The Place of Craft in Writing and Teaching Children’s and Young Adult Literature.
(Micol Ostow, Stephanie Kuehnert, Laurel Snyder, Sara Zarr, Nova Ren Suma)
Room 618/619/620, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Young Adult and Children’s literature are exciting, increasingly popular markets that many writers want to break into. How do you make your manuscript—or help make your students’ manuscripts—stand out... and sell? How does being commercial mean respecting the reader, not something crass? Five published YA and Children’s authors will present exercises they employ in their own writing, and in workshops they teach, to develop authentic voice, characters, and story worlds that editors will snap up.
R152. The Art of Difficulty: Challenging Poetry Students to Think Clearly, Read Smartly, Write Evocatively.
(Amorak Huey, Shaindel Beers, L.S. Klatt, Judy Halebsky, Jill Alexander Essbaum)
Room LL4, Western New England MFA Annex, Lower Level.
Poets continually negotiate and renegotiate the balance between clarity and obscurity, from Emily Dickinson’s admonition to tell it slant to Kay Ryan’s suggestion that each word we use is a step into a jungle of forking paths, making clarity through language a contradiction in terms. The panelists will discuss how this negotiation plays out in the classroom and offer strategies for helping students venture into this thicket as readers of poetry and as beginning poets.
R153. A Bag Full of God: Female Memoirists with Daddy Issues.
(Sarah Tomlinson, Alysia Abbott, Jennie Ketcham, Tracy McMillan, Alison Wearing)
Room LL5, Western New England MFA Annex, Lower Level.
Every daughter must bury her father — marble-heavy, a bag full of God — as Sylvia Plath wrote. These daughters did so in the form of memoir. The task of authoring the man who authored you is necessarily fraught, with the need to find a balance between deification and bitterness. Female memoirists discuss how they confronted the long shadows cast by their fathers, with a special focus on the craft of memoir, how to find the truth of a true story, and writing to make the personal universal.
R154. Goodbye, Lenin: Poets Write the Cold War and Its Aftermath.
(Jehanne Dubrow, Michele Chan Brown, Michael Dumanis, John Drury, Jacob Shores-Arguello)
Room 101, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 1.
2014 marks the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, a symbol of the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe. In this reading, five American poets explore landscapes of the Iron Curtain: East Germany, Poland, the Soviet Union, and the Ukraine. These poets present their direct encounters with the Eastern Bloc, exploring what it means to have witnessed firsthand the traumas of Communism and to have watched as the region made its delicate transition to democracy.
R155. Richard Hugo: Triggering Towns, Triggering Syntax.
(Stephen Corey, Gary Thompson, Frances McCue, Patricia Clark, M.L Smoker)
Room 202, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 2.
Richard Hugo (1923-1982) may have been the best-known poet of the Northwest who was actually from the Northwest. Hugo’s hardscrabble beginnings in White Center, just south of Seattle, led him to write about the downtrodden people and industrial landscapes of the Duwamish River. Later, after moving to Montana, Hugo’s poems continued to focus on overlooked people and places. The panel will discuss Hugo’s legacy as a teacher and his achingly beautiful poems set in Western Washington and Montana.
R156. Writing About Children for Adults.
(Suzanne Berne, Ann Pancake, Melanie Rae Thon, Kent Meyers)
Room 301, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
What makes for a compelling child character in literary fiction? Four authors of acclaimed novels about children share insights into creating dramatic situations based on a child’s perspective and offer suggestions for working with child narrators and adult narrators looking back at childhood. They will also discuss ways to avoid sentimentalizing and oversimplifying childhood experience and provide literary examples of dynamic, believable child characters and why they are so engaging.
R157. Peace Corps Writers Across the Genres.
(Joanna Luloff, Mark Brazaitis, Tyler McMahon, Peter Chilson, Susi Wyss)
Room 302, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
Returned Peace Corps Volunteers discuss their experiences translating volunteer service to the page. From poetry to travel writing to journalism and fiction, former volunteers reflect on the ways in which their service inspired, influenced, and shaped their work. The panelists will share the challenges and possibilities of writing about place, character, and conflict, from the position of both insider and outsider, addressing how international aid work contributes to cross-cultural exchange.
R158A. Booklift: The Author Cooperative Model for Launching New Work.
(Kelli Russell Agodon, Susan Rich, Elizabeth Austen, Sarah Callender, Janna Cawrse Esarey)
Room 303, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
What is an author to do when publishers’ marketing budgets evaporate? Many in Seattle are forming their own marketing collectives, such as Booklift, wherein authors become the promoters of one another’s work, utilizing a cooperative rather than competitive model. In this panel, fiction, poetry, and nonfiction writers will discuss author collectives and the promotional strategies they have used to lift one another’s work.
R158B. Publish it Forward: Creating the Future Together.
(Kate Pullinger, Michelle Toth, Eve Bridburg)
Room 304, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
Innovations in technology and communication have made the written word more portable, accessible, and popular than ever. It is an exciting but challenging time for writers. With the NEA-funded Publish it Forward series, Grub Street has educated, inspired, and dared writers to think creatively and optimistically about new opportunities and new models made possible by the digital age. Panelists will illustrate key lessons from the lecture series designed specifically for emerging writers.
R159. An Invisible Geography: Writing Trauma, Pain, and Loss.
(Nadine Pinede, Kim Stafford, Ana Maria Spagna, Anna Bálint, Danielle Georges)
Room 305, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
people’s pain, writes critic Elaine Scarry, is an invisible geography flickering for a moment before vanishing. Yet poets, novelists, and memoirists navigate by writing trauma, pain, and loss into stories and poems that empower us. How do we steer between loud language and a cool stance, hiding behind detachment or irony? How does a chosen genre make a hard story sing? Join us in sharing strategies for translating pain into words that shoulder sorrow with grace.
Twelve noon to One-fifteen p.m.
R160. Books About Books: A Nonfiction Conundrum.
(Brook Wilensky-Lanford, Andrea Pitzer, Ellen F. Brown, Kristin Swenson, Colin Dickey)
Aspen Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Whether it’s a biography of Gone With the Wind, travels among readers of Russian novels, or an afterlife of Lives of the Saints, great works of literature are now inspiring stories than the ones between their covers. We will discuss this trend in terms of craft: How does the book’s structure influence the new narrative? How does a nonfiction writer approach books differently from the academic or critic? What are the opportunities and pitfalls of having a book as your main character?
R161. Writing Across Borders: Bringing Real World Voices into High School Classrooms and Community Centers.
(Merna Ann Hecht, Hamdi Abdulle, Marge Pellegrino, J.L. Powers, Lyn Miller-Lachmann)
Cedar Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
The growing number of refugees that fill our urban schools suggests a need to address forced migration and displacement in high school classrooms. In this pedagogical and practical panel, we will showcase young adult literature (fiction and memoir) and poetry that deal with these themes; offer examples of writing prompts and poetry created by young Somali and Burmese refugees; and share teaching prompts for approaching the topic sensitively and thoroughly in classrooms and the larger community.
R162. Creative Composition: Incorporating Creative Writing into College Composition.
(Robby Nadler, Robby Nadler, Dan Rosenberg, Gale Thompson, Marni Ludwig) Redwood Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Creative writing graduate students often teach first-year composition, usually with little experience or formal training, but are there aspects of our creative training that suit teaching expository writing? Is good writing just good writing? This panel will address essential questions such as can creative writing students be effective writing teachers (hint, yes we can), and how can we incorporate our skills into the curriculum to address matters of social justice and identity in creative ways.
R163. Grub Street National Book Prizewinners Reading.
(Ellen Cassedy, Sheri Joseph, Rick Barot, Reiko Rizzuto, Christopher Castellani)
Willow Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
This reading features a diverse and dynamic cross-section of authors who have won Grub Street’s prestigious National Book Prize in Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry. Literary merit is the top criterion for this prize, which celebrates a variety of styles, influences, and genres and is the only significant award designed for nondebut writers from outside New England.
R164. 20 Things You Need to Know About Starting a Writers Group & 10 Things You Need to Know If You’re Already in One! (Miguel M Morales, Jose Faus, Maria Vasquez Boyd, Gabriela N. Lemmons)
Room 2A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2.
Can a writing group fulfill its mission to foster and support writers while responding to community needs for mentors, advocates, and role-models? The Latino Writers Collective will explore the balance between artist and administrator. Learn how we developed our Página reading series, educational programs for at-risk and migrant youth, our in-school and after school programs, and how we created a press, all with no paid staff. Get tips and tools for success. Learn how to avoid the diva syndrome.
R165. Like Sand to the Beach: Bringing Your Book to Market.
(Kristen Millares Young, Jonathan Evison, Karen Maeda Allman, Rachel Fershleiser, Jarret Middleton)
Room 2B, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2.
What does it take to sell a book? How can you build an ecosystem to support your work? These booksellers, social media experts, editors, and authors will answer those questions and more during an action-oriented conversation about promoting literature in print, online, and in person.
(Hint: being successful requires sustained effort.) After offering multimedia presentations and empirically tested advice, we will address your individual concerns during a Q&A session.
R166. Writing for Musical Theatre: The Collaboration & Collision of Disparate Crafts.
(Anton Dudley, Kellen Blair, Charlie Sohne)
Room 3A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 3.
Arguably, the “book musical” is America’s most original contribution to world theatre. However, few writers can agree upon how a book musical is written. With its primary focus on text, this panel will discuss ways of collaborating with colleagues who speak, necessarily, different languages of craft and ways of teaching the convergence of these crafts to create effective and polished book musicals.
R167. A Tribute to Hayden Carruth: Poet, Teacher, Editor, Critic.
(Douglas Unger, Sam Hamill, Shaun Griffin, Lee Briccetti, Malena Morling)
Room 3B, Washington State Convention Center, Level 3.
Hayden Carruth is among the most revered poets of the 20th century. His legacy will be honored as a poet of jazz, country matters, and the poetics of social utility, for his editing of Poetry magazine, his essays and criticism, and his political dissent. Panelists include editors of Carruth’s work, the editor of a new book on Carruth, the executive director of Poets House, and more for tributes.
R168. Fabulist Fiction for a Hot Planet.
(Christian Moody, Tessa Mellas, Alexander Lumans, E. Lily Yu, Matt Bell)
Room 400, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
This panel of fabulists explores how eco-conscious fabulism is changing the literary landscape and public imagination. Panelists survey this trend in a collage of eco-fabulism from Kevin Brockmeier, Paolo Bacigalupi, Julia Slavin, Blake Butler, Alissa Nutting, and others. They dissect its writerly effects, pedagogical uses, and potential political and social reach in the world. Read it. Write it. Teach it. Eco-fabulism is the future and a way that writers can help save the world.
R169. Ahsahta Press 40th Anniversary Reading.
(Heidi Lynn Staples, Lucy Ives, Kathleen Jesme, Rusty Morrison, Stephanie Strickland)
Room 609, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Ahsahta Press, publishing at Boise State University in Idaho, celebrates its 40th year by bringing together women poets from its current season. Ahsahta champions an aesthetic that embraces experimental, highly voiced writing, and each of these writers plays the language differently. At this reading, they come together to celebrate the Press and its vision as it looks toward its future.
R170. All This and More: What Form of Creative Nonfiction is the Essay/Review? (Mary Rockcastle, Stan Sanvel Rubin, David Ingle, Jocelyn Bartkevicius)
Room 607, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
In an essay published in the Manilla Review, Jennifer B. McDonald, an editor at The New York Times Book Review, wrote, “A good review introduces a book and attempts a rigorous appraisal, while demonstrating fairness, intelligence, clarity, discernment, and style.” A good essay review does all of this and more. In addition to reviewing the books (usually two or more), the essay review serves as a springboard for the author to explore ideas and probe aspects of his/her own life. The panelists, all of them editors and/or writers of the essay review—for Water~Stone Review, the Georgia Review, and Fourth Genre—will focus on what the essay review is and isn’t, what it offers the reader as well as the author of the book being reviewed, and how it contributes not only to the literary magazine but to the writer (and field) of creative nonfiction.
R171. Meet & Greet with AWP Board Members.
Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
Interested in meeting current AWP board members? Have some ideas for AWP to implement? Do you have questions, or are you looking to get more involved in the organization? If so, join us at the AWP Bookfair Booth (#100 and 102) on and Friday between Noon and 5:45pm. Please consult the bookfair map in the conference planner for detailed location.
R172. Editing the Poetry Book .
(Dominic Luxford, Kate Gale, Jeff Shotts, Joshua Edwards)
Room 602/603, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Poetry editors from five leading publishing houses discuss the unique challenges and opportunities of editing books of poetry. Discussion topics will include: establishing and maintaining a mutually beneficial author-editor relationship, best practices for editing individual poems in the context of a full collection, editing a collection qua collection, and secondary but nonetheless crucial, considerations such as the choice of font and selection of cover art.
R173. Past, Passing, & To Come: 30th Anniversary Reading, MFA at Virginia Commonwealth University.
(Gregory Donovan, Kathleen Graber, Clint McCown, Harrison Candelaria Fletcher, Sheri Reynolds)
Room 604, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
The MFA Program at Virginia Commonwealth University marks its 30th anniversary—looking to its future with new genres and faculty (including Pulitzer-winning poet Claudia Emerson and nonfiction writer Harrison Fletcher), recognizing present strengths (such as the Blackbird journal, the Cabell First Novelist Award, the Levis Reading Prize, and the Rebecca Mitchell Tarumoto Short Fiction Prize), and honoring its past—with a reading by faculty and alumni from new and forthcoming books.
R174. Walt Whitman’s Niece: Poetry and Popular Music.
(Matt Hart, Steve Dickison, Julia Bloch, Harmony Holiday, Jeffrey Sirkin)
Room 606, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Popular music and its images reflect our changing values, desires, and identities, and offer poets a rich source of material and a key into social, political, and economic realities. Taking on punk, jazz, R&B, and celebrity culture, this panel explores the possibilities and implications of engaging with popular music through poetry, thinking not only about how poetry can illuminate popular music, but how music can help us reimagine poetry as a force of resistance and transformation.
R175. Put Your Shit on Paper: Two Chicago-Based Writing Programs on Running Trauma-Informed High School Workshops.
(Rebecca Brown, Kevin Coval, Malcolm London, Elizabeth London, VersAnnette Blackman)
Room 608, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Gloria Anzaldúa calls on all writers to transform raw experience into poetic expression: “Write with your eyes like painters, with your ears like musicians, with your feet like dancers... Put your shit on paper.” Panelists from Literature for All of Us and Young Chicago Authors share how this ethos inspires their trauma-informed writing programs with Chicago youth. Each organization will present their methodology, best practices and concrete tools for educators in and out of the classroom.
R176. Translating Radical Women Poets.
(Stefania Heim, Don Mee Choi, Jen Hofer, Jennifer Scappettone, Jennifer Kronovet)
Room 611, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
This panel focuses on the historical and political importance, practical complexity, and artistic excitement of translating the work of radical women poets. Panelists explore what constitutes radical poetics in different countries and how they can be brought from one language, literary tradition, or culture to another. We also discuss how these women poets interact with larger forces, opening up new ways to speak and think here and now about poetics, politics, and gender.
R177. Literary Politics: White Guys and Everyone Else.
(Lorraine Berry, Roxane Gay, Amy Hoffman, Aimee Phan, Mat Johnson)
Room 612, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Even when women writers lean in, they’re rarely afforded equal respect. This we know, post-VIDA counts and depressing statistics. But race and sexual orientation can also brand you as an identity author constrained to talk about your people rather than the big questions of literature. Rather than the usual one-note focus on gender discrimination, this moderated panel of diverse writers discusses the challenges they’ve faced and why it’s still mostly a straight white men’s club.
R178. Don’t Just Stand There and Read: Literary Events That Go Beyond the Usual.
(Cheryl Klein, Teresa Carmody, Joshua Raab, Karen Finneyfrock)
Room 613/614, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
We’ve all been to a reading that had us checking our watches (or wishing the poet would check his). Members of this panel are offering a variety of exciting antidotes: multi-disciplinary events, participatory events, carnivals, avant-garde garden parties, and more. Find out how literary events can build audiences, build on textual work, and deliver more than just wine and cheese—not that we’re against wine and cheese.
R179. Pitching Outside the Box: How Literary-Minded People Write for Nonliterary Publications.
(Artis Henderson, Julia Cooke, Ben Davis, Claire Dederer, Suzanne Mozes)
Room 615/616/617, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Literary writing rarely pays the bills. But there are plenty of markets looking for good writers, as long as you know how and what to pitch. Panelists who have had success writing for nonliterary outlets explain how to draft a pitch and what kinds of publications to solicit. The panel examines ways to make a living from writing—art criticism, movie reviews, love advice—and how writing for nonliterary publications can help support literary pursuits in various ways.
R180. Creative Nonfiction’s 20th Anniversary Reading.
(John Edgar Wideman, Floyd Skloot, Brian Doyle, Rebecca Skloot, Elena Passarello)
Room 618/619/620, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
A reading in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Creative Nonfiction magazine. Creative Nonfiction was the first literary magazine to publish nonfiction exclusively, and for two decades the magazine has featured prominent authors such as Gay Talese, Phillip Lopate, and Adrienne Rich while helping to launch the careers of some of the genre’s most exciting emerging writers. Help us celebrate and honor Creative Nonfiction’s dedication to this still-expanding genre.
R181. The Challenges and Rewards of Cross-Genre Teaching in an MFA Program.
(Kermit Frazier, Catherine Chung, Jessica Hagedorn, Cassandra Medley, Jacqueline LaMon)
Room LL4, Western New England MFA Annex, Lower Level.
What of that developing poet with an interest in playwriting, that burgeoning fiction writer in love with exploring sonnets and sestinas, and that talented playwright moved to write a memoir? What about those students in your genre specific workshops whose thesis projects clearly won’t be of that genre? Writers who both write in and teach more than one genre will discuss not only strategies for successfully teaching cross-genre but also why such teaching is, in fact, important and necessary.
R182. Getting Your Foot in the Door: Alternatives to Traditional Children’s Book Contracts.
(Alexandra Diaz, Mimi Thebo, Kekla Magoon, Michele Corriel, Mindy Hardwick)
Room LL5, Western New England MFA Annex, Lower Level.
The road to publishing can be long and trying. Fortunately, there are more opportunities and publishing fields than a children’s writer might think. From working with book packagers and writing on commission, to online publishers, art journals, and writing nonfiction, there are multiple ways of becoming a published author in the children’s market. Join five authors, who have also had traditional book deals, as they discuss their experiences breaking into nontraditional publishing.
R183. Sounds Through the Wall: Writing about Music and Musicians.
(Phong Nguyen, A. Manette Ansay, Michael Kardos, Will Boast, Constance Squires)
Room 101, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 1.
This panel brings together writers with experience writing about music and musicians to discuss the unique challenges encountered when representing something as visceral, immediate, and sensory as music in a literary medium. How can such attention to auditory experience enhance one’s storytelling, and how do these authors evoke music without relying on abstraction, cliched language, or assumed familiarity with certain songs?
R184. The Third I: The Writer as Mediator in Memoir and Personal Narrative.
(Janice Gary, Aimee Liu, Richard Hoffman Hoffman, Jerald Walker, Meredith Hall)
Room 202, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 2.
As both subject and writer, memoirists must mediate the I of the past and the I of the present with a third I: the writer who has both lived the material and shapes it. In this session, authors of literary memoir discuss the distinct challenges of creating literature from life that is both truthful and compelling and how they use the authorial I to find the voice to narrate the story, the structure to support the narrative and selection of material from the vast archives of personal history.
R185. Canadian-Cascadian: Four Poets from British Columbia.
(Elise Partridge, Stephanie Bolster, Barbara Nickel, Christopher Patton, Matt Rader)
Room 301, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
Join us for a reading by four acclaimed Canadian poets, whose subjects range from Western red cedars to First Nations art, sonatas to logging, Japanese gardens to Vermeer. Their influences extend from Elizabethan to Irish to Objectivist, their forms from sonnet to collage. All with ties to the cross-border region of Cascadia, they will discuss how their work may or may not have been affected by local history, cultures, and landscapes, and what borders might mean in the terrain of poetry.
R186. Hired Help: Exploring the Relationship Between Author and Editor.
(Beth Jusino, Jason Black, Waverly Fitzgerald, Anne Mini, David Schlosser)
Room 302, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
An editor can be a writer’s best friend or sharpest critic (and often, both). A group of academic and trade editors from the Northwest Independent Editors Guild discuss what really happens when someone is hired or assigned to review and polish a writer’s literary work, identifying pitfalls, sharing stories of relationships that worked and those that didn’t. The panel will offer suggestions for how writers can make the most of the help they’re offered on the journey to publication.
R187. FC2 at Forty Years.
(Matthew Roberson, Luke Goebel, Michelle Richmond, Lance Olsen, Sarah Blackman)
Room 303, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
A flash fiction reading of new FC2 authors in celebration of the press’ 40th year.
R188. Writing the Monster Body.
(Carrie Shipers, Andrea Scarpino, Aaron Raz Link, Kwame Dawes, Emily Danforth)
Room 304, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
Under the bed, in the real or proverbial closet, in movies, in politics, in history, and even in our own bodies, today there are more “monsters” than ever. In this panel, five writers from three genres discuss the risks and rewards of writing the monster body. Some questions to be considered: How do we depict what’s human about what’s monstrous, and vice versa? How do we best question socially constructed monster-hood? And what does it mean when the monster is us?
R189. Not What I Was Looking For, But What I Found: Deploying Research in Creative Writing.
(Edward McPherson, Ethan Rutherford, Sandra Lim, Amy Leach, Jim Shepard)
Room 305, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
How can research enrich creative writing? Many writers collect information as a way to engage their inner lives, educate themselves about the world, look out as a means of looking in, animate the historical and political—and then deploy those findings in their work, often to strange, wonderful, and unexpected effect. This cross-genre panel composed of writers of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry will discuss the strategies, pleasures, and potential pitfalls of digging for facts to use in your art.
One-thirty p.m. to Two-forty-five p.m.
R190. From the Stage to the Page: Why Teaching Drama in the Creative Writing Classroom Improves Student Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, and Poetry.
(Peter Grandbois, Janet Burroway, Brighde Mullins, David Starkey)
Aspen Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Playwriting crystallizes many essential aspects of craft. Focusing on monologue opens revelations in voice. Shaping scene forces students to show rather than tell. Working through pacing highlights problems in plot. Yet the vast majority of creative writing classrooms ignore playwriting. This panel not only argues for the relevance of teaching playwriting in its own right but for the pedagogical importance of teaching playwriting alongside the genres.
R191. Communication is Translation: How the Act of Translating Influences the Act of Poesis.
(Iris Mahan, Barbara Carlson, Richard Jackson, Esther Allen, William Pitt Root)
Cedar Room, Sheraton Seattle,
2nd Floor.
George Steiner believes that “all acts of communication are acts of translation.” If this is fact, then why is there so often so little room in the world of translation for creative communication? Through selected readings and lively discussion, this panel of poets, prose writers, and editors will examine the validity of Steiner’s supposition by exploring the effects of traditional translation, imitation, and riff on the “making” and communication of their own bodies of creative work.
R192. The Author’s Children: The Intersection of Art, Advocacy, and Ethics in Writing About Your Kids.
(Zoe Zolbrod, Jillian Lauren, Ben Tanzer, Claire Dederer, Kerry Cohen) Redwood Room, Sheraton Seattle,
2nd Floor.
Writers of personal nonfiction often wrestle with how much to divulge about themselves and others, and the tension increases when the subject matter includes children. What are our rights, responsibilities, and imperatives as we write about our kids? How do we respond to concerns that we’re leaving a legacy that might make our children uncomfortable? In this panel, authors who have written boldly about their children and themselves will discuss these issues.
R193. Hot off the Presses: A Reading by Copper Canyon Poets.
(Michael Wiegers, Marianne Boruch, Ellen Bass, Mark Bibbins, Matthew Zapruder)
Willow Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
An event featuring the freshest work by Copper Canyon poets, with an introduction by executive editor Michael Wiegers. Hear poetry from the newest collections on the market by a diverse group of voices.
R194. What’s Next? Pressures and Opportunities in Undergraduate Writing Programs.
(Audrey Colombe, Kathlene Postma, Janet Sylvester, Lisa Norris, Abi Curtis)
Room 2A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2.
Undergraduate programs in creative writing develop student writers who will inevitably face a competitive future—in publishing and editing, MFA or graduate programs, and the job market. Directors and faculty from various writing programs (U.S. and abroad) will discuss an array of curricular choices made in recent revisions to undergraduate writing programs. The conversation will cover traditional, online, and low residency options, describe choices and outcomes, and weigh the pros and cons of the most recent developments.
R195. Reading Virginia’s Mail: Letters and Journals as Creative Nonfiction.
(S.L. ‘Sandi’ Wisenberg, Faith Adiele, Donald Morrill, Patrick Madden, Kenny Kruse)Room 2B, Washington State Convention Center,
Level 2.
What makes a letter a work of art? When does a diary become literature? How did the letter lead to the essay, and how do the two differ? We seek to expand the territory of creative nonfiction as we present and discuss the letters and journals of authors such as Michel de Montaigne, Virginia Woolf, Anais Nin, Charlotte Forten, Mary Wollstonecraft, Harriet Jacobs, Samuel Pepys, Mark Twain, Ned Rorem, Martin Luther King, Jr., and others. This is a celebration and exploration.
R196. Why Can’t We Be Friends?: Book Arts in the Digital Age.
(Meryl DePasquale, Anna Lena Phillips, MC Hyland, Drew Burk, Guy Pettit)
Room 3A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 3.
Alongside the rise of online publishing is a renaissance in the traditional art of the book. Handmade chapbooks, broadsides, artist books, and literary objects are often viewed in opposition to computers and the Internet; but in fact, the digital world and the book arts cooperate in unexpected ways. Our discussion will address practical strategies to open book arts to a wider audience online and examine what the fine arts gallery has to add to conversations in contemporary publishing.
R197. Writing Rules I Break, Presented by The Southampton Review.
(Lou Ann Walker, Susan Scarf Merrell, Dinah Lenney, Robert Wrigley, Rachel Pastan)
Room 3B, Washington State Convention Center, Level 3.
Writing workshop leaders often focus on the rules of narrative arc, point of view, characterization, and punctuation. But the rule breakers of today are the rule makers of the canon. How can we know when to stretch and bend literary principles? A craft talk by writers who know the rules and know when to circumvent them, this panel, which includes fiction writers, memoirists, literary review editors, and a poet, considers when and how rule breakers are able to create livelier, more exciting work.
R198. Development of Community-Based Creative Writing Programs in the Inland Northwest.
(Tami Haaland, Danell Jones, Dave Caserio, Amelia McDanel, Ashley Warren)
Room 400, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
In recent years, panelists have created community writing programs for female veterans, children, cancer survivors, prison inmates, and the public. They will discuss how to start and organize a writing program, how to prepare course offerings and partner with local organizations, businesses, or universities. They will also examine the interconnections among their programs, the populations they serve, the philosophies that motivate their decisions, and how they plan to develop their programs.
R199. Meet & Greet with AWP Board Members.
Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
Interested in meeting current AWP board members? Have some ideas for AWP to implement? Do you have questions, or are you looking to get more involved in the organization? If so, join us at the AWP Bookfair Booth (#100 and 102) on and Friday between Noon and 5:45pm. Please consult the bookfair map in the conference planner for detailed location.
R200. Writers Who Play.
(Ken Waldman, Garry Craig Powell, Craig Wright, Will Jennings)
Patricia Olson Bookfair Stage, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
Writers Who Play is an AWP off-site showcase featuring AWP members who are writers and also musicians and who combine their literary and musical talents. We have presented our showcases since the 2005 AWP conference in Vancouver, B.C. Come to this event to sample the music and poetry you’ll hear at our evening showcase at The Rendezvous, 6:00 - Ten o'clock p.m.
R201. Before the Door of God.
(C. Dale Young, Mary Szybist, Bruce Beasley, Mark Jarman, Jacqueline Osherow)
Room 602/603, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Before the Door of God is a poetry reading in celebration of the publication of Before the Door of God: An Anthology of Devotional Poetry, edited by Jay Hopler and Kimberly Johnson, and published by Yale University Press.
R202. Engaging Youth with Slam Poetry and Spoken Word.
(Pages Matam, Jonathan Tucker, Josh Healey, Elizabeth Acevedo)
Room 604, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
As performance poetry and slam competition grows in popularity, many organizations are using the energetic and entertaining format of slam to engage, inspire, and motivate young students. In this interactive workshop, leading youth workers will discuss the benefits and challenges of slam poetry programs and facilitate dialogue among participants about best practices and how to reach and motivate more students using poetry.
R203. Mix It Up: Teaching Hybrid Forms.
(Jeanne Heuving, Peter Streckfus, Tung-hui Hu, Elisabeth Frost, Sara Michas-Martin)
Room 606, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
This panel will address the structures and parameters of teaching hybrid forms using various creative writing genres and artistic disciplines such as film, visual art, music, and new media. Panelists will present approaches used in courses in a range of contexts (undergrad and grad, low-res, noncredit, online, etc). Subjects will include using teaching prompts across media, creating multi-disciplinary salons in the classroom, and reconceiving with students notions of both genre and medium.
R204. Writers and Dads: A Reconciliation.
(Ande Davis, Luke Rolfes, Eric McHenry, Matt Porubsky)
Room 607, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Changing societal expectations have seen fathers frequently embracing more responsibility as caregivers when it comes to parenting. When those fathers are writers, often occupied with drafting, reading, revising, and submitting work, how does that role reconcile with that of Dad? Panelists discuss the ways in which their writing lives coincide with being engaged fathers, including time and schedule management, work/family balance, and using fatherhood experiences as material for their own work.
R205. A Tribute to Vern Rutsala.
(Peter Sears, Anita Helle, Lex Runciman, Maxine Scates, Christopher Howell)
Room 608, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
This panel celebrates Vern Rutsala, a preeminent poet and native of the Pacific Northwest, whose 80th birthday is this year. Rutsala is author of over a dozen books of poems, including The Moment’s Equation — a finalist for the National Book Award. honors include the Richard Snyder Prize, Oregon Book Award, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts. This panel of colleagues and friends read from Rutsala’s poems and discusses his work and life.
R206. You Can’t Go Home Again: Post-Iraq Assimilation, Trauma, and Narrative Art.
(Arna Bontemps Hemenway, Roy Scranton, D. Jason Morris, Phil Klay)
Room 609, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
How does one write in the long shadow of the Iraq War? While the war is now largely elided in the popular consciousness, a new American postwar fiction and nonfiction is surfacing. Three author-veterans of Iraq and two civilians take up the issues of writing about PTSD, Iraq’s effect on contemporary narrative, and the intersection of national memory and creative work, as well as the struggles, advantages, and best practices of writing about the war as a civilian, or as a Veteran.
R207. Out of the Classroom: Possible Adventures in Creative Writing.
(Philip Graham, Dinty W. Moore, John Warner, Harmony Neal)
Room 611, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
This panel chronicles the strategies of four teachers of fiction and nonfiction who assign undergraduate students to go on “adventures” outside of the classroom and their comfort zone: attending roller derby games or a quarter horse competition, visiting a pet cemetery, going on a “coyote watch,” taking tango classes, etc. These assignments encourage students to see how “plot” works in real life (instead of in television narratives) and how easily they can generate material for their writing.
R208. I’m Just Not That Into You: Unsympathetic Characters in Fiction.
(Irina Reyn, Hannah Tinti, Lynne Sharon Schwartz, Ryan Harbage, Maud Newton)
Room 612, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
American readers, workshops, and editors are often partial to sympathetic characters, but where does that leave contemporary Humbert Humberts and Anna Kareninas? A panel consisting of writers, editors, and an agent will address likeability in fiction. Is it crucial that our characters be sympathetic? Do we expect more likeable characters in fiction written by female rather than male writers? How does an agent approach the submission process if the novel’s protagonist is deemed unsympathetic?
R209. The I or the Eye: The Narrator’s Role in Nonfiction.
(Phillip Lopate, Elyssa East, Robert Root, Lia Purpura, Michael Steinberg)
Room 613/614, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Be it a personal or lyric essay, memoir, a work of journalism, or criticism, writers of literary nonfiction must decide how to craft their narrators to best suit the subject at hand. Why are some narrators situated center-stage as participants (the I) while others locate themselves more offstage as observers (the Eye)? This panel of writers, teachers, and editors will offer rationales for a range of approaches and suggest strategies to determine how best to present their narrators on the page.
R210. Henry at 100: A Centenary Tribute to John Berryman.
(David Wojahn, Peter Campion, Kathleen Graber, J. Allyn Rosser, Kevin Young)
Room 615/616/617, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
This panel celebrates the lasting legacy of one of the latter 20th Century’s most original figures, John Berryman, whose epic poem, “The Dream Songs,” occupies a unique place in American literature. Yet Berryman remains a controversial figure, and our panel will commemorate his accomplishment while at the same time confronting the more fraught elements of his writing, among them matters of gender, race, and the limitations of the confessional mode.
R211. How to Do It Now: New Trends in Literary Publishing.
(Jeffrey Lependorf, Jon Fine, Rob Spillman, Rachel Fershleiser, Ira Silverberg)
Room 618/619/620, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Hear from some of America’s leading publishing experts on what’s new now and what’s likely to happen next for independent literary publishers.
R212. Beyond What You Did Last Summer: Teaching Travel Writing.
(Suzanne Roberts, Rolf Potts, Lavinia Spalding, David Miller, Ann Marie Brown)
Room LL4, Western New England MFA Annex, Lower Level.
Travel writing is becoming more popular in both destination workshops and college curriculums. But where does travel writing meet literary nonfiction? How do we move students past the where-to-go, what-to-eat mentality? How can we help students tell their own stories within the context of place? With experience in international workshops, college classrooms, and virtual courses, these panelists will share their theoretical stance, ideas on curriculum development, and practical teaching tips.
R213. Ring of Fire, New Creations: Translation on the Pacific Rim.
(Karen An-hwei Lee, Sawako Nakayasu, Srikanth Reddy, Neil Aitken)
Room LL5, Western New England MFA Annex, Lower Level.
Contemporary Asian American poets discuss their strategies and experiences in translating poetry from nations of the Pacific Rim, sharing insights on methodology, collaborative process, cross-cultural representations, and experimental forms. Transcending the conventions of fidelity or transparency, the investigations of these poet-translators go beyond the question of what is “lost in translation” to consider the potential of translations as entirely new creations. A respondent will present closing remarks prior to a question and answer session.
R214. The Floating Bridge Press 20th Anniversary Reading Featuring Washington State Poets.
(Kathleen Flenniken, Nancy Pagh, Molly Tenenbaum, Dennis Caswell, Timothy Kelly)
Room 101, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 1.
A reading by four poets celebrating the merit and variety of Floating Bridge Press, a small but respected and regionally significant all-volunteer press dedicated to publishing and publicizing emerging Washington State poets through an annual chapbook competition, the annual publication of a journal, Floating Bridge Review, public readings, and beginning in 2012, a few remarkable full-length poetry collections.
R215. South Dakota Review: A 50th Anniversary Reading and Celebration.
(Lee Ann Roripaugh, Tiffany Midge, Ira Sukrungruang, Megan Kaminski, Sean Johnston)
Room 202, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 2.
In celebration of its 50th anniversary as a national quarterly print journal, South Dakota Review showcases a small sampling of its authors, representing the magazine’s aesthetically eclectic and culturally diverse spin on its ongoing, half-century engagement with themes of ecocriticism, place, landscape, and identity.
R216. Under-the-Radar Trends in Contemporary American Poetry.
(David Roderick, Tomas Morin, Shara Lessley, Paul Otremba, Rachel Richardson)
Room 301, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
What cultural forces are shaping how younger writers compose and imagine their poems? How have recent political events, social dynamics, and technological advances influenced their aesthetic and ethical concerns? While it is impossible to map out the entire landscape of contemporary American poetry, members of this panel will report on current developments that have not yet come to our collective critical attention.
R217. From Borges to the Gnostics: Tribute to the work of Willis Barnstone.
(Sholeh Wolpe, Yusef Komunyakaa, Stanley Moss, Robert Stewart, Aliki Barnstone)
Room 302, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
For sixty years, Willis Barnstone has been opening up American poetry to the rest of the world through his more than seventy books of poetry, translation, memoir, criticism, and religious scholarship. Winner of numerous awards, mentor to generations of younger writers, Willis Barnstone is a national treasure. The panelists will share anecdotes and analyses and read from his work, followed by a reading by Willis Barnstone himself.
R218A. Beef Jerky, Bras, and Car Parts: What We Write About When We Write for Money.
(Rachel Kessler, Anastacia Tolbert, Matthew Dickman, Jan Wallace, Ryan Boundinot)
Room 303, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
F. Scott Fitzgerald did it, Salman Rushdie did it, Don DeLillo did it — it is no surprise that many serious writers have earned their rent money by writing copy for advertisements. The poets and novelists on this panel discuss their anecdotal experiences of technical and review writing (including about lingerie, car parts, and porn)—and how the peculiarities of this work sustained, flattened, inspired, or challenged their own literary writing and sense of self. Sellouts? Or workhorses? You decide.
R218B. Being Juvenile is a Good Thing: A Reading of Old Writers Inspired by Young Writers.
(Rebecca Hoogs, Terry Blackhawk, Garth Stein, Nick Flynn, Dorothea Lasky)
Room 304, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
In a recent New Yorker profile of James Salter, the writer dismissed his teenage writing as “terrible”—a common refrain for most writers of renown—yet such false modesty does damage to the public perception of what young people can do. This panel will present writers who have worked with Writers in the Schools programs to read their work and the work of the amazing young people who have inspired them. The reading will also feature a special guest appearance by a young writer from Seattle.
R219. Writing in Place: The West as Catalyst and Backdrop for Fiction.
(Susan Denning, Willy Vlautin, Patrick Dewitt, Ismet Prcic)
Room 305, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
The three most recent winners of the Oregon Book Award in fiction will discuss the ways place influences their work, both as current residents of Oregon and former residents of Bosnia, Canada, and Nevada. To what extent does Oregon and the American West act as a catalyst for character and conflict? To what extent is a writer’s location an incidental backdrop? And what effect does winning a regional book award have on a writer’s sense of being “from” or “belonging to” a certain place?
Three o'clock p.m. to Four-fifteen p.m.
R220. What’s Luso Got To Do With It? (Paula Neves, Jarita Davis, Melissa da Silveira Serpa, Marie Carvalho, Amy Sayre Baptista)
Aspen Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Issues of identity and inclusivity—in literature and life—will be addressed by members of Presence/Presença, a grassroots organization that provides a community for North American writers of the Portuguese and Lusophone diaspora. Hear about how to reach out to writers who might feel marginalized, as well as fundamental requirements for creating a not-for-profit arts organization to nurture writers within our community, a desired goal for this organization, will also be discussed.
R221. The Write to Network: Women Writers Empowering Women.
(Maria Maloney, Arisa White, JP Howard, Xanath Caraza, Erica Eller)
Cedar Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
In this panel, four women in the writing industry and from diverse segments of the country, cultural backgrounds, and literary affiliations, discuss the ways in which women writers, editors, and publishers are networking to help promote and empower women writers across the publishing industry—from women-empowering virtual gatherings and poetry salons to chain reading series and grassroots community publishing.
R222. Ghost Lives: Writing and Teaching Memoir When the Subject is Missing.
(Brian Castner, Warren Etheredge, Christa Parravani, Sonya Lea) Redwood Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Join a conversation about finding story in what has gone missing. How can we work with lapsed memory, missing subjects, and constructing reality for absent others? How can we instruct students healing from traumatic brain injury, PTSD, and memory perils? Four writers and writing teachers examine the impact of constructing a memoir with missing people, places, and events. Explore their heightened examples of what every memoir writer must face and how to recapture details that point to truth.
R223. Hidden Populations: The Working Class in the Writing Workshop.
(Lee Martin, Dorothy Allison, Karen Salyer McElmurray, Claire Vaye Watkins, Sonja Livingston)
Willow Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Frank O’Connor, in The Lonely Voice, discusses “outlawed figures” common to the short story.What happens when such “outlaws” are part of the writing workshop community?In our daily narratives of teaching and writing, the working class can be one such outsider population. Panelists will consider pedagogical and artistic issues from a socio-economic perspective with the intention of questioning how to best serve our students and the literature that will one day be part of the marketplace.
R224. Cascadia Chronicle: Integrating Writing with Digital Geo-Visualization.
(Katharine Whitcomb, Mark Auslander, Marc Thompson, Allen Braden, Tom Wayman)
Room 2A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2.
The panel showcases Cascadia Chronicle, an emerging online digital space that explores the meanings of place through the creative integration of scholarship, creative nonfiction, and poetry into geo-visualization platforms. Scholars, creative writers, and technical specialists discuss the conceptual, artistic, and technological challenges of this new kind of digital humanistic initiative. How can diverse literary and scholarly points of view be effectively embedded in a GoogleEarth environment?
R225. Behind the Scenes: Meet the Producers of the Literary Documentary.
(Laurence Veron, Jennifer Burton, Kandace Lombart, Debra Zimmerman, Allison Hedge Coke)
Room 3A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 3.
Three filmmakers discuss their unique, diverse perspectives on the production process working with or documenting contemporary writers. How did they select their respective literary figures? What are the complexities of portraying the distinct life of one National Book Award author, transforming a mother’s novel into film, or capturing a community of Canadian francophone writers?What are copyright and distribution issues? The panel concludes with limited screenings of the selected films.
R226. Writing Toward the Future: High School Creative Writing Programs.
(Monika Cassel, Jamie Figueroa, Kim Henderson, Anne-Marie Oomen, Scott Gould)
Room 2B, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2.
As writing programs multiply around the nation, high school writing majors in arts schools are the new frontier. What does such an early emphasis on the craft of writing offer young students during the high school years and beyond? What should a writer hoping to teach at such a program expect? Instructors and program directors of arts school creative writing programs across the country explore what intensive training in creative writing can offer today’s youth and today’s teachers of writing.
R227. You’re Doing It Wrong: Grantwriting for Publishers 101.
(Jeffrey Lependorf)
Room 3B, Washington State Convention Center, Level 3.
Learn the essentials—plus a number of handy tricks and strategies—for creating an effective grant proposal.
R228. Calling Your Muse When Writing for Young Adults and Children.
(Laura McGee Kvasnosky, Zu Vincent, Julie Larios, Kelly Bennett, Debby Dahl Edwardson)
Room 400, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
Fiction for younger audiences must create a sense of immediacy and an authentic voice born from a writer’s unique perspective on childhood. How do you use these elements to move from concept to dramatic narrative? Five award-winning authors writing novels, picture books, and poetry in Alaska, Trinidad, Seattle, and California discuss what it means to call up the muse and their methods of moving from inspiration to application. Theme, voice, style, and illustration will be imaginatively examined.
R229. Board Member Meet & Greet.
Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
Interested in meeting current AWP board members? Have some ideas for AWP to implement? Do you have questions, or are you looking to get more involved in the organization? If so, join us at the AWP Bookfair Booth (#100 and 102) on and Friday between Noon and 5:45pm. Please consult the bookfair map in the conference planner for detailed location.
R230. The Narration of Identity and the Cuban-American Experience with Richard Blanco and Cristina Garcia, Sponsored by Blue Flower Arts.
(Forrest Gander, Richard Blanco, Cristina Garcia)
Ballroom E, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Richard Blanco and Cristina Garcia give a rare glimpse into their forbidden country, Cuba, through the literary voice of the American immigrant experience. Reading poetry, fiction, and memoir—and in lively conversation with Forrest Gander—they each illuminate the struggles of living in-between two cultures. Throughout their search for a cultural identity, they explore issues of language, gender, family, exile, and history—and discover what it means to truly become an American.
R231. Artists in the Old-Growth: OSU’s Spring Creek Project & the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest.
(Andrew C Gottlieb, Fred Swanson, Kathleen Dean Moore, Alison Hawthorne Deming, Charles Goodrich)
Room 602/603, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
How can a residency program empower and generate inquiry and creative responses to our astonishing world? How can a long-term, place-based program affect the way we see our relation to the forest? The world? Join this discussion with the founders and participants of the Oregon State University-based Spring Creek Project that brings writers to a place of old-growth forest and ground-breaking forest science.
R232. Best-Kept Secret: The Joys of Teaching Composition at a Two-Year College.
(Lauren Smith, Jennifer Militello, Adam Penna, Lynn Kilpatrick, Ryan Stone)
Room 604, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Artist, beware: you might like teaching composition at a two-year college. Undergraduates need to practice innovation and risk-taking—hallmarks of the creative writing discipline. When we bring creative elements into the comp classroom, we reflect on our own craft. Two-year colleges promote collaboration, and our work with fellow English Studies faculty enriches us. This panel of community college writing professors shares its enthusiasm for teaching this infamous bread-and-butter course.
R233. The Legacy of Leslie Scalapino.
(Michael Cross, Alicia Cohen, Carla Harryman, Judith Goldman, Maryrose Larkin)
Room 606, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Leslie Scalapino is a literary inventor par excellence, creating essays, plays, poetry, and cross genre pieces as well as serving as a publisher and editor for more than 100 volumes. Her untimely death in 2010 left a set of acolytes as diverse as her manifest works. This panel gathers a range of responses to Scalapino’s oeuvre, honoring her literary work, her publishing, and her mentorship.
R234. Breaking Silences: Women’s Memoir as an Act of Rebellion.
(Janice Gary, Kate Hopper, Anna March, Connie May Fowler, Rosemary Daniell)
Room 607, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Pregnancy. Rape. Motherhood. Domestic violence. Tillie Olsen writes: Why are more women silenced than men? The women on this panel also ask: why, when women write about the full experience of being female in this culture are our stories seen as less worthy of literary merit than those of male counterparts? We’ll address our experiences with writing taboo subjects and discuss the conscious and unconscious biases that keep women from the transgressive act of writing honestly about their lives.
R235. How to Write a Good Bad Book Review.
(Dan Kois, Parul Sehgal, Kathryn Schulz, Sasha Weiss, Michelle Dean)
Room 608, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
How do critics write negative reviews that are not in and of themselves awful—superficially shallow, dedicated to straw men, unnecessarily cruel, or not cruel enough? Five editors and critics explore the history and practice of the negative review, looking at their own work as well as the writing of others in a freewheeling discussion of what makes a bad review bad - and what makes a bad review great.
R236. Native American Poetics: The Fourth Wave.
(Erika Wurth, Mandy Smoker-Broaddus, Marianne Broyles, Layli Long Soldier, Jennifer Foerster)
Room 609, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
This panel will discuss the way in which Native American Poetics has seen a shift from an investment in identity via content to an investment via form. Narrative, deep image, language, prose, and a hybrid kind of poetics derived from Native American language, song, and even dance have changed the landscape and aesthetic of Native American Poetics permanently. This trend mirrors the overall push away from the confessional into more experimental, contemporary free verse forms.
R237. Translation in Creative Writing Programs.
(Kaveh Bassiri, Geoffry Brock, Sidney Wade, Susan Briante, Roger Sedarat)
Room 611, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
This panel will discuss the growing role of translation in creative writing programs, as well as translation’s place in scholarly studies and American multicultural poetry. Panelists will share their pedagogical experiences and suggest different types of workshop and craft courses. They also will speak about their own work as writers and translators and how translation has helped their writing and teaching of poetry.
R238. A Poet in Exile.
(Lyn Coffin, Mohsen Emadi, Laszlo Slomovits)
Room 612, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Mohsen Emadi, a poet in exile from Iran, joins Lyn Coffin, his translator, and Laszlo Slomovits, who has set his poetry to music, in a multi-layered performance of Emadi ‘s work. This reading is set against the backdrop of classic Persian poetry, especially that of Rumi and Hafiz, whose legacy is brought into the present in Emadi’s poems. The three presenters also discuss their backgrounds (Muslim, Christian, and Jewish), and their cross-cultural collaboration.
R239. Surprising Seeds: Cultivating Poetry Across Art Practices.
(Maya Pindyck, Judy Halebsky, Giovanni Singleton, Dean Rader, Kate Ingold)
Room 613/614, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Poets share how art practices inform and shape their writing. In an exploration of the ways in which poetry can emerge through various aesthetic traditions, these poets reflect upon the art disciplines and practices (visual art, music, theatre) that inspired written works. Panelists explore the struggles and rewards of working across disciplines and consider how multidisciplinary approaches to poetry can enrich a writing practice.
R240. The DIY Book Tour: Take Your Show on the Road.
(Ron Tanner, Jessica Anya Blau, Deborah Miranda, William Trowbridge, Benjamin Busch)
Room 615/616/617, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
How can we find readers for our books? Most writers now live only online, through social media and blogs. Recently some writers have taken to the road in innovative and enterprising ways and found new readers and expanded their networks as they could not have online. These writers, representing both small and large presses, first-book and multibook authors, will share their road stories, tips, and insights about how best to take your show on the road and maximize the potential of your book.
R241. The Author—Editor Relationship.
(Sherman Alexie, Elisabeth Schmitz, Morgan Entrekin, Margaret Wrinkle, Jamie Quatro)
Room 618/619/620, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
This panel will explore the relationship between author and editor, from a book’s submission to its acquisition, publication, and beyond. Three best-selling authors and a veteran editor discuss the dynamics of writer-editor partnerships at independent and corporate houses, and at online and print magazines: Has the editorial relationship changed over time? Has technology affected communication? Do editors still edit, or are they too busy selling?
R242. Coming of Age: Young People Running Youth Literacy Programs.
(Franny Choi, Jamila Woods, Aaron Samuels, Danez Smith, Nate Marshall)
Room LL4, Western New England MFA Annex, Lower Level.
Youth literacy organizations are training the next generation of writer-educators. This panel will address how youth serviced by those organizations have started to become professional writers and teaching artists. This panel seeks to highlight best practices on how to create a youth-to-leadership pipeline and indigenous leadership in programs that are using creative writing instruction as a form of youth development. This panel will focus on high school through college-aged students.
READING R243. Writing the Midnight Sun: A Boreal Books Reading and Discussion.
(Nicole Stellon O’Donnell, Peggy Shumaker, Melina Draper, Erin Hollowell, Susanna Mishler)
Room LL5, Western New England MFA Annex, Lower Level.
Now in its 7th year, Boreal Books, an imprint of Red Hen Press, publishes literature and fine art from Alaska. Please join four Boreal poets and the imprint’s editor for a reading and discussion. You’ll hear from a lyrical lesbian electrician, a poet whose work spans both Americas, a writer whose house overlooks Kachemak Bay’s eagles and otters, and a novelist in verse whose book is set in Gold Rush days.
R244. Designed Instability: Open Endings in Short Fiction.
(Edward Porter, Robin Black, Shannon Cain, Erin Stalcup)
Room 101, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 1.
Since Chekhov, writers of literary fiction have praised the “open” ending, since life itself seldom provides us with definite resolutions to our conflicts. But if an ending doesn’t provide closure, what does it provide instead? How do writers leave readers satisfactorily unsatisfied? This panel of short story writers, teachers, and editors will examine the structure of open-ended stories and offer practical strategies to achieve their pleasures and avoid their pitfalls.
R245. The Legacy of Richard Hugo.
(Laura Scott, Lois Welch, Richard Robbins, Greg Pape)
Room 202, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 2.
The legacy of Richard Hugo is a powerful force at the University of Montana. This panel pays tribute to Hugo’s continuing influence on the creative writing program at the University, as well as the lasting impact of his career on the larger writing community.
R246. Let’s Avoid a Quick Death, Please: Starting and Sustaining a New Literary Publication.
(Stefanie Torres, Josh Raab, James R. Gapinski, Chelsea Werner-Jatzke, Matt Muth)
Room 301, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
This panel explores the process of starting and sustaining a new literary publication. Countless small presses and journals launch every year only to die after a couple issues. Let’s talk with some people who avoided that fate. This panel will discuss how to choose the right publishing medium, secure funding, attract readers, and deal with unexpected hurdles.
R247. Creating Emotional Depth: Tools and Inspiration from Various Genres.
(Laure-Anne Bosselaar, David Jauss, Tim Seibles, Karin de Weille, Robert Vivian)
Room 302, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
One of the biggest challenges a writer faces is capturing emotion—or rather evoking it in the reader or audience. This panel provides a comprehensive look at the challenge. What radical relationship to language and the creative process is required? And what panoply of techniques—drawn from the various genres, poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and playwriting, and illustrated by concrete examples in exemplary work—are available to us so that we can push our own work to its fullest potential?
R248. Get Out of Town: Fulbright Opportunities for Writers.
(Jeffrey Thomson, Christopher Bakken, Marianne Boruch, Ann Fisher-Wirth)
Room 303, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
Four writers who have received fellowships for work and study around the globe from the Fulbright Scholar Program will discuss the application process for receiving funding and share their experiences as Fulbright scholars. Panelists will provide advice on navigating the complicated world of fellowship opportunities, provide their best strategy tips for maximizing application success, talk about the realities of teaching abroad, and read work that derived from their Fulbright experiences.
R249. The Kenyon Review 75th Anniversary Reading .
(David Lynn, Kimiko Hahn, Charles Baxter, Jaquira Diaz)
Room 304, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
A reading from writers featured in the Winter 2014 issue of The Kenyon Review, our 75th anniversary issue. The Winter 2014 issue marks our ongoing commitment to publish the very best writing from established and emerging writers. Founded in 1939 at Kenyon College and first edited by poet-critic John Crowe Ransom, The Kenyon Review continues in its 75th year to celebrate writing that maps the spiritual, intellectual, and emotional tides of our contemporary culture.
Four-thirty p.m. to Five-forty-five p.m.
R250. Sonic Lit: Reaching New Communities by Lifting Writing off the Page.
(Wendy Call, Geoff Larson, Nari Baker, Judith Roche, Tina Hoggart)
Aspen Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Digital technology brings us back to the oral/aural roots of poem and story, while expanding our options for leaping off the page. A poet, nonfiction writer, musician, and two multimedia/ installation artists will describe how they have created audio recordings of poetry and prose; turned stories into songs; installed poetry as part of public art projects; incorporated oral history and storytelling into gallery installations; and created literary work for the stage, mobile app, and webpage.
R251. The Word is a Door: Contemporary Arabic Literature and the Poetics of Revolution.
(Andrea Young, Nathalie Handal, Elliot Colla, Robyn Creswell)
Cedar Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Egypt’s beloved Salah Jahin’s notion of words as doors is particularly relevant to Arabic-speaking countries today. This panel addresses the role of literature in Arab countries, particularly in light of the Arab uprisings. The panelists—among the most esteemed Arabic translators—will read from their translations, discuss the political implications of translating from Arabic, and reflect on the transformations happening in Arab countries and how they impact, and are impacted by, literature.
R252. First-Person Journalism: Tips on Telling the Truth.
(Martha Nichols, Fred Setterberg, Andrew Lam, Autumn Stephens, William Wong) Redwood Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Literary writers often assume that journalists only tell people’s stories. But journalists use a personal point of view in op-eds, essays, even traditional features. Forget objectivity. A journalistic approach can be just as artful as creative nonfiction, and first-person reporting encourages diverse perspectives. In this moderated Q&A session, a panel of journalists and editors discuss why subjectivity in fact-based stories is great—as long as it’s not an excuse for bending the truth.
R253. From Page to Stage, Performance Poetry and the WITS Process of Teaching and Learning.
(Mary Rechner, Desmond Spann, Aricka Foreman, Monica Prince, Janet Hurley)
Willow Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Competitive Poetry Slams inspire diverse youth populations to produce dynamic poetry on both the page and the stage. Panelists explore the complexities unique to teaching students to write poetry meant for performance, the socio-political history of the form, the nuts and bolts of organizing youth slams, and the expanding world of opportunities for young performance poets.
R254. Beyond Blackboard: Creating Virtual Writing Communities Inside and Outside the Academy.
(Andrew Gray, Melissa Bashor, Cori Howard, Joseph Boyden, Sara Graefe)
Room 2A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2.
With the recent explosion of social media and online learning, more and more writers are connecting in cyberspace than ever before. How can low-residency, online writing programs strive to replicate the face-to-face experience of a traditional, on-campus degree? Panelists from successful online initiatives both inside and outside the academy will discuss strategies to meaningfully engage participants and build thriving virtual writing communities.
R255. Writing Through Race.
(Santee Frazier, David Lau, T. Geronimo Johnson, Benjamin Hale, Shane Book)
Room 2B, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2.
Writers of color usually discuss their workshop experiences in private, but what they will share here are the most common signs that a white writer (of prose or verse) has failed to fully imagine life beyond the looking glass.
R256. Beyond the Memoir: a New Approach to Teaching Creative Writing to Senior Citizens.
(David Robson, Nancy McCurry, Paul Pat, Lloyd Noonan)
Room 3A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 3.
Life story workshops are prevalent in senior citizen facilities in the United States. Yet the memoir is not ideal for every older adult with a yearning to write. In fact, many aren’t ready or, more commonly, don’t have the desire to go down this road. In this panel, educators will discuss innovative practices to bring out the best creative works from this growing population. Leave with techniques to excite older students and concepts to immediately craft or expand your own program.
R257. New Fairy Tales from the North.
(Maya Sonenberg, Valerie Arvidson, Rikki Ducornet, Anca Szilagyi)
Room 3B, Washington State Convention Center, Level 3.
“It is a northern country; they have cold weather, they have cold hearts.” - Angela Carter, “The Werewolf.” What does it mean to write fairy tales now, in the 21st century? What does it mean to write them here, in the Pacific Northwest? Four northwest writers will read their contemporary tales, influenced by the old tales and by the landscape of their home.
R258. Mountain Writers Series: After 40 Years — A Nonprofit Model.
(Sandra Williams, Alice Derry, Vince Wixon, Cindy Stewart-Rinier, Jonah Bornstein)
Room 400, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
After its first tour for W.S. Merwin in 1976, Mountain Writers became a hub for a regional network presenting the finest contemporary writers, many just emerging into prominence. Join this discussion of cooperative scheduling to reach diverse, often under-served audiences — middle school to university, rural to urban, across six states — and its value to authors, publishers, and audiences. Panelists and writers share anecdotes as they discuss the strengths of nonprofit literary presenting.
R259. Meet & Greet with AWP Board Members.
Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
Interested in meeting current AWP board members? Have some ideas for AWP to implement? Do you have questions, or are you looking to get more involved in the organization? If so, join us at the AWP Bookfair Booth (#100 and 102) on Thursday and Friday between Noon and 5:45pm. Please consult the bookfair map in the conference planner for detailed location.
R260. A Reading and Conversation with David Guterson and Erik Larson, Sponsored by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and Seattle Arts & Lectures.
(David Guterson, Erik Larson, Peter Mountford)
Ballroom ABC, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Authors David Guterson and Erik Larson read from recent books and engage in a discussion moderated by Peter Mountford on their work, genre overlap, and the literary arts in the Pacific Northwest.
R261. Elizabeth Alexander and Frank Bidart, a reading and conversation, Sponsored by the Poetry Society of America.
(Alice Quinn, Elizabeth Alexander, Frank Bidart)
Ballroom E, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Two major voices in American poetry come together to offer an exciting and timely reading of new and beloved work, as well as an illuminating conversation about their work and American poetry today moderated by Poetry Society of America Executive Director, Alice Quinn.
R262. Four Novelists Celebrate Arte Público Press.
(J.L. Torres, Lyn Di Iorio, Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Roberto Fernandez)
Room 602/603, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Arte Público Press began 35 years ago as a much needed outlet for Latina/o writers who had limited access to mainstream publishing. Since then, the press has published some of the most renowned, award winning Latina/o authors in the United States. Four novelists will read from their work recently published by APP and discuss the press’ influence on their careers and its impact on Latina/o literary production, followed by a discussion on the current state of publishing for Latina/o writers.
R263. How to Write About a Murderer.
(Madge McKeithen, Jessica Handler, Arlene Kim, Kate Sweeney, Nick Twemlow)
Room 604, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Can a writer adopt an alternate persona or innovative style to explore disturbing subjects? How does altered identity or medium affect a writer’s process and a reader’s experience? Five writers who work in prose, poetry, film, audio, and visual art discuss examples of their adopted personae and structural choices and give examples of ways these applications break boundaries and add perspective in articulating story. Participants discuss one another’s work and choices that have inspired theirs.
R264. The Peculiar Yesterday: The Memoir Today.
(Debra Di Blasi, Dawn Raffel, Jane Rosenberg LaForge, Cris Mazza, Anna Joy Springer)
Room 606, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Seattle-based Jaded Ibis Press celebrates the 21st Century memoir by inviting four of its authors to discuss why and how they arrived at their own chimeric autobiographies and the cultural implications of literary transmutation. Publisher Debra Di Blasi will present her editorial preference for unorthodox memoirs and, with authors, examine its potential for mining deeper truths for writers and readers alike.
R265. It Would Of Been A Good Panel If It Had Been Somebody There To Shoot It Every Minute Of Its Life: Contemporary Writers on Teaching Flannery O’Connor.
(Daniel Orozco, Ann Joslin Williams, Bret Lott, Anthony Varallo, Doug Dorst)
Room 607, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Fifty years after Flannery O’Connor’s death, her distinctive style and unforgettable voice continue to haunt and intrigue writers and readers. She has also become a sort of patron saint of creative writing students and instructors alike, a grand irony in light of her declaration that “there is no such thing as The Writer” and her fierce suspicion of creative writing programs. Panelists will discuss how they reconcile these paradoxes and how and why they use O’Connor’s work in the classroom.
R266. New Media Beyond the Book: A How-to Session.
(Davis Schneiderman, Amaranth Borsuk, Kate Durbin, Samantha Gorman, Alexandra Chasin)
Room 608, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
This panel will demonstrate how authors might broadly adapt their work for new media environments: from iPad apps addressing questions of innovation, to websites supplanting the printed text as the primary product, to e-books moving beyond electronic doubles of the original hard copy. This panel is a “how-to” for the future of the book. From these examples, authors will leave with concrete strategies for furthering their new media projects, even when their expertise is limited to the page.
R267. CW at the U: A Poetry Reading.
(Andrew Feld, Linda Bierds, Richard Kenney, Heather McHugh, Pimone Triplett)
Room 609, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Founded in 1947 by Theodore Roethke, the University of Washington Creative Writing Program is one of America’s oldest MFA programs and the preeminent literary institution in the Pacific Northwest. Current faculty members will read their own work along with selected poems by former UW CW faculty members Theodore Roethke, Elizabeth Bishop, William Matthews, Denise Levertov, and David Wagoner.
R268. How Can You Grade a Poem? Creative Approaches to Assignments, Assessments, and Student Assumptions.
(Stephanie Lenox, Janet Bowdan, Joshua McKinney, Matthew Kelsey, Sean Prentiss)
Room 611, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
What’s the point of grading a poem? Is doing so antithetical to the creative process? This panel—comprised of college instructors, editors, and practicing writers—will examine the complexities of evaluating creative work, including assessment strategies for newer creative writing programs and innovative assignments that challenge student assumptions about writing. Panelists will share time-tested prompts and discuss methods of measuring student, instructor, and programmatic accomplishment.
R269. The AWP George Garrett Award: Who Exactly was George Garrett? (Erika Seay, Richard Bausch, Robert Bausch, Kelly Cherry, Casey Clabough)
Room 612, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
This panel, consisting of several celebrated writers who knew Garrett intimately, as well as his biographer, relates the work and life of this AWP co-founder and former president with a conceptual focus on educating younger conference participants about the person and qualities which lie behind an important AWP award. Interspersed with lively tales from Garrett’s career, topics broached include his wide-ranging writings, his tireless and prodigious support of younger writers, and his immense service to the profession (including the co-founding the Fellowship of Southern Writers). The panel hopes to articulate Garrett’s unfailing dedication to professional service and personal encouragement in the writing life as models for younger writers.
R270. Protean Poetics in the 21st Century: Redefining Poetry & Place in a Placeless World of Global Communication.
(Mark Irwin, Susan Schultz, Brynn Saito, Paul Hoover, Chad Sweeney)
Room 613/614, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
What are the advantages or disadvantages of writing about a particular place in an age of placeless, electronic communication? How do particular notions of self, place, and image become more mobile, mimicking the medium or electronic manner in which they are conveyed? How has the content and language of poetry changed through the way that we communicate place? Join these five poets for a dynamic discussion and Q/A.
R271. Homesteading on the Digital Frontier: Writers’ Blogs.
(Zack Rogow, Mark Doty, C.M. Mayo, Charles Johnson)
Room 615/616/617, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Writers present strategies on how to start a blog, where to get material, how to publicize a blog and add readers and followers, and how to sustain it over time. topics: Is blogging a new genre of literature? Why do blogs matter? To monetize, or not to monetize? What are SEO and tagging, and how do you use them? How do analytics help increase readership? How can blogging improve book sales and reading attendance? Should you react to events or pick your own blog topics?
R272. The Long Distance Race: Making a Life in Poetry.
(Dana Levin, Erin Belieu, Richard Siken, Tyehimba Jess, Carmen Gimenez Smith)
Room 618/619/620, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Poetry is a long distance race, Hayden Carruth once advised. What do you wish you’d known about professional and personal stamina when you first discovered your devotion? Five poets, some emerging, some at mid-career, discuss the difficulty of achieving and sustaining a life in poetry. Topics will include rejection, success, mentorship, community, and the kinds of negotiations poets must make to establish themselves artistically and professionally. Experiences will be shared, scrapes confessed.
R273. Flash in the Classroom: Teaching Micro Prose.
(Sophie Rosenblum, Sherrie Flick, Pamela Painter, Sean Lovelace, Sarah Einstein)
Room LL4, Western New England MFA Annex, Lower Level.
As interest in the flash form continues to develop, teachers must be ready with pedagogical approaches in mind and in hand. This panel of experts in teaching and writing flash, including faculty from Chatham University, Ball State University, and Emerson College, along with editors from Brevity and NANO Fiction, will identify the best practices for generating successful flash-based workshops while exploring effective readings and exercises for writing students.
R274. Kelsey Street Press: 40 Years of Publishing Innovative Writing by Women.
(Rena Rosenwasser, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Bhanu Kapil, Hazel White, Patricia Dienstfrey)
Room LL5, Western New England MFA Annex, Lower Level.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of Kelsey Street Press, which was created to address the marginalization of women writers by small press and mainstream publishers. Join us for a celebratory poetry reading featuring several award-winning Kelsey Street authors as well as founding members of the press.
R275. Power and Page Count: Publishing the Gender.
(Susan Yount, Kelly Boyker, Kristy Bowen, Margaret Bashaar)
Room 101, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 1.
Why is “difference” in publishing still a key word? What separates the genders on the page anyway? And where and how do women get the nerve? They keep hopping right back into the center of “Ye Old Testosterone Ring.” More importantly: after getting kicked out of the circle so many times, what does a “Ring of Their Own look like”? Four female editors of print and/or online presses and journals discuss the literary landscape.
R276. Relationship Memoir: Living through It.
(Adam O’Connor Rodriguez, Jay Ponteri, Gregory Martin, Ariel Gore, Monica Wesolowska)
Room 202, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 2.
Memoirs are often about difficult relationships and the understanding that comes with living through them. These four authors have all recently published memoirs that dig deeply into trying relationships between husband and wife, father and son, and mand daughter. They will discuss the challenges of writing their way into a deeper understanding of these relationships as well as how those whom they write about in their memoirs coped with the writing and publishing process.
R277. Literary Matriarchs: Thinking Through Our (Writerly) Mothers.
(Karen Brennan, Antonya Nelson, Alix Ohlin, Nina Swamidoss McConigley, Robin Romm)
Room 301, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
Tolstoy, Chekhov, Hemingway, Joyce, Carver, Roth... it’s not uncommon for us to discuss the patriarchs of contemporary fiction. This panel will pay homage to the women who have been just as crucial to growing and cementing our literary tradition. Who are our literary matriarchs and what debts do we owe them? Panelists will discuss Welty, Bowen, Fox, Roy, Gallant, Woolf, and others. What do we stand to learn through close study, and how do we strike out on our own?
R278. The Literary Legacy of Nirvana and Kurt Cobain.
(Matthew Batt, Melanie Thon, Ryan Boudinot, Jason Skipper, Jacob Paul)
Room 302, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
“He saved us all,” says fellow Washington native Sherman Alexie of Kurt Cobain. Though neither Cobain nor Nirvana created the “Seattle sound,” they did more than any band to lionize and catapult it, resulting in a legacy that spread beyond music and into life, politics, and literature. On this, the 20th anniversary of Cobain’s death, panelists will reflect on the literary influence of Nirvana, as well as the impact and aftermath of Cobain’s life and death.
R279. Wesleyan University Press Reading.
(Gerald Vizenor, Yusef Komunyakaa, Brenda Hillman, Peter Gizzi, Brenda Coultas)
Room 303, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
Since 1959, Wesleyan University Press has demonstrated a continued dedication to the literary arts. Best known for its award-winning poetry series, the press has also ventured into fiction and hybrid works. This reading shares the diversity of voice and style that is characteristic of Wesleyan. From jazz poetry and politically charged verse to provocative fiction and forms that blur the lines between poetry and prose, Wesleyan continues to nurture exceptional literature in a variety of forms.
R280A. Is It Really That Difficult? The Problem with “Difficult” Poetry.
(Chris Fischbach, Lightsey Darst, Amanda Nadelberg, Raymond McDaniel, Ange Mlinko)
Room 304, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
Many small presses publish poetry that is described as “experimental” and very often “difficult.” What do these monikers mean, and how are they both limiting and freeing? This panel will explore poetry’s links to these terms with Coffee House Press poets. Each poet seeks to connect with readers in diverse ways, and each is known for the experimentation and complexity of his or her work.
R280B. The New Nature of Funding.
(Andrew Proctor, Corrine Oishi, Jim McDonald, Bob Speltz)
Room 305, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
The objective of this panel is to address the question of what is changing about why and how arts nonprofits are funded. We will ask panelists to discuss how they make choices about which organizations or projects to fund, and how/why their priorities have or have not changed over the years. What is newly important to them? What is no longer important? And what has remained essential throughout the economic, technological, and social convulsions of the past five years.
Six o'clock p.m. to Seven-fifteen p.m.
R281. Two-Year College Caucus.
(Vicky Hunt, Sharon Coleman, Ryan Stone)
Room 607, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Two-year college instructors and those interested in jobs at two-year colleges should join us for our annual networking meeting. Nearly half of all students begin their college careers at two-year colleges, and an increasing number of MFA graduates are earning two-year-college teaching jobs. The future of creative writing at our campuses looks bright. We will discuss teaching creative writing at the two-year college, hold a short business meeting, and provide tangible resources for faculty.
R282. GLBTQ Caucus.
(Darrian Thomas, Judy Meiksin, Danielle Stanard, Matthew Haynes)
Room 611, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
The LGBTQ caucus is for those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer to network and discuss common issues/challenges. These concerns are related to gender fluidity and identity while teaching and writing professionally along with leading a literary and socially responsible life. We share interests, publications, and projects in order to strengthen visibility and importance to AWP, along with addressing our social/creative significance to academic/literary communities.
R283. Low-Residency MFA Program Directors’ Caucus.
(Xu Xi, Sean Nevin)
Room 612, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
This is a regular annual meeting of the directors of low-residency MFA Programs, providing a forum for discussions on program development and pedagogy particular to the low-residency model. All low-residency directors are welcome to attend and vote.
Seven o'clock p.m. to Eight-fifteen p.m.
R284A. Stephen Dunn Reception & Reading: Hosted by the Sierra Nevada College MFA Program. Cedar A Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Join program director Brian Turner and the faculty and students of the SNC MFA program in celebrating Dunn’s most recent book of poems, Lines of Defense, as well as a new anthology of essays examining the poet’s work, The Room and the World.
R284B. Saranac Review/SUNY Review Reception. Cedar B Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
R285A. Prairie Schooner/African Poetry Book Fund Reception. Juniper Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
R285B. Poetry Foundation Reception. Redwood Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
R286A. Fairleigh Dickinson University Reception. Ballard Room, Sheraton Seattle, 3rd Floor.
R286B. A Lifetime of Publishing with Northwest Institute of Literary Arts Reception. Capital Hill Room, Sheraton Seattle, 3rd Floor
The Whidbey Island Writers Association, Whidbey Writers Workshop MFA program, Soundings literary magazine, and the Whidbey Island Writers Conference celebrate writers and publishing. Author Ryan Boudinot, Scratch magazine founders Jane Friedman and Manjula Martin, guest faculty, and published alumni will meet and greet. Giveaways from NILA authors and guest faculty. Explore a lifetime of publishing.
R286C. Writers in the Schools (WITS) Reception. Greenwood Room, Sheraton Seattle, 3rd Floor
Come celebrate with the Writers in the Schools (WITS) at a reception.
R286D. Ruminate - Rock & Sling - WordFarm Reception. Kirkland Room, Sheraton Seattle, 3rd Floor.
Eight-thirty p.m. to Ten o'clock p.m.
R287. #AWP14 Keynote Address by Annie Proulx, Sponsored by the University of Washington Creative Writing Program.
(Annie Proulx)
Ballroom ABCE, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Annie Proulx is the author of eight books, including the novel The Shipping News and the story collection Close Range. Her many honors include a Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Award, the Irish Times International Fiction Prize, and a PEN/Faulkner award. Her story “Brokeback Mountain,” which originally appeared in the New Yorker, was made into an Academy Award-winning film. Her most recent book is Fine Just the Way It Is. She lives in Wyoming.
Ten o'clock p.m. to Twelve midnight
R288. AWP Public Reception & Dance Party. Grand Ballroom, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
A Dance Party with music by DJ Neza. Free beer and wine from 10:00pm to midnight.
R289. Old School Slam.
(Laura E.J. Moran, Glenis Redmond, Daemond Arrindell)
Willow Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
AWP welcomes students to return to the roots of Slam! Open mic, special guests, and then undergraduate and graduate students partake in a hardcore-break-your-heart-strut-out-the-good-stuff slam competition. Students are welcome to sign up to participate on and Friday at the Wilkes University/Etruscan Press booth and read original pieces (three minutes or less with no props) at the Slam later that night. Hosted by Wilkes University and Etruscan Press.
Eight o'clock a.m. to Five-thirty p.m.
F100. Conference Registration.
Registration Area, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
Attendees who have registered in advance may pick up their registration materials in AWP’s preregistered check-in area, located in the registration area on Level 4 of the Washington State Convention Center. If you have not yet registered for the conference, please visit the unpaid registration area, also in the registration area on Level 4. Please consult the bookfair map in the conference planner for location details. Students must present a valid student ID to check-in or register at our student rate. Seniors must present a valid ID to register at our senior rate. A $50 fee will be charged for all replacement badges.
Eight-thirty a.m. to Six o'clock p.m.
F101. AWP Bookfair, Sponsored by Hollins University: Jackson Center for Creative Writing.
North & South Exhibit Halls, Washington State Convention Center
With more than 650 literary exhibitors the AWP bookfair is the largest of its kind. A great way to meet authors, critics, and peers, the bookfair also provides excellent opportunities to find information about many literary magazines, presses, and organizations. Please consult the bookfair map in the conference planner for location details.
Eight o'clock a.m. to Five-thirty p.m.
F102. Bookfair Concessions, Coffee, Bars, & Lounge.
Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
Breakfast and lunch concessions are available from Eight-thirty a.m. to Four-thirty p.m. in the North and South halls of the bookfair, Level 4 of the Washington State Convention Center. There will be a bar and a coffee cart in each the North Hall and the South Lobby complete with lounge seating. Both bars serving wine, beer, and mixed drinks will be open twelve noon to Five-thirty p.m.. Both coffee carts are open Eight-thirty a.m. to Five-thirty p.m. each day. Cash, debit, and credit cards are accepted at all food and beverage locations. Please consult the bookfair map in the conference planner for detailed locations.
F103. Dickinson Quiet Space.
Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
A dedicated quiet space for you to collect your thoughts, unwind, and escape the literary chaos. Please consult the bookfair map in the conference planner for detailed location. “There is a solitude of space, / A solitude of sea, / A solitude of death, but these / Society shall be, / Compared with that profounder site, / That polar privacy, / A Soul admitted to Itself: / Finite Infinity.” - Emily Dickinson
F104. Lactation Room.
Please visit the AWP Help Desk in the registration area of the bookfair on Level 4 of the Washington State Convention Center for access to the lactation room. For reasons of privacy and security, access to the lactation room is granted with permission by AWP only.
Nine o'clock a.m. to Ten-fifteen a.m.
F105. Publishing Local in the Last Frontier.
(Vered Mares, Martha Amore, Kris Farmen, Buffy ‘Roberta’ McKay)
Aspen Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
A panel discussion with Alaska’s newest boutique publisher and select writers: We will talk about the challenges and successes of writing and publishing in this remote region. As a Latina woman and head of VP&D House, I encourage Alaska Natives, women, and minority voices to publish and be heard in the local community and beyond. VP&D House focuses on writers’ success through financial equality, transparent business practices, and a very hands-on editing process.
F106. The New Nature of Planning.
(Andrew Proctor, Jocelyn Hale, Janet Brown, Lyall Bush, George Thorn)
Cedar Room, Sheraton Seattle,
2nd Floor.
The nature of strategic planning has changed. As change accelerates, good planning has moved from predicting the future and projecting programs five years out, to creating resilient systems that can adapt to circumstances without losing their integrity. Program design plays a much larger role, while forecasting is diminished. Panelist will discuss their specific methods for the new “best practices” for planning — whether it be for an established organization or a new idea.
F107. Switching Genres Midstream: Searching For the Right Match.
(Richard Hoffman, Mimi Schwartz, Elizabeth Kadetsky, Renee D’Aoust, Thomas Larson) Redwood Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Consciously or not, writers will shift from one genre to anin order to make a particular piece of writing work. This panel’s five essayists and memoirists will discuss and illustrate how two of their memoirs began as novels, a third memoir started as an essay collection, a linked collection of memoirs began as a poem, and how an essay collection evolved into a memoir. Each will describe how a midstream change in genres became the catalyst for finding the form that best suits the writing.
F108. Coming of Age Tales in Fiction and Nonfiction.
(Adam O’Connor Rodriguez, D’Arcy Fallon, Lynne Sharon Schwartz, James Bernard Frost, Scott Nadelson)
Willow Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Oregon small press Hawthorne Books presents four authors reading from their respective coming of age novels and memoirs and discussing the ways in which fiction and nonfiction tackle this always-relevant narrative arc differently. Their books, set on both coasts, represent a variety of approaches to the universal journey from innocence to wisdom, from conventional retrospective to collage to hybrid graphic novel.
F109. Taking Literature Off the Page: How to Be a More Attractive Job Candidate.
(Maria Mazziotti Gillan, Vivian Shipley, Nicole Santalucia, ML Liebler, William Mohr)
Room 2A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2.
This panel, with representatives from community poetry projects and centers, will discuss how to build poetry communities within and around universities and colleges. We will discuss how to take poetry into the community and how to bring community into literary centers. Program Directors will highlight the impacts they’ve made and discuss what it takes to build a poetry community through various programs. Involvement in these projects helps make creative writers more attractive job candidates.
F110. Warning Extreme Content: Sex, Drugs, and Abuse as Themes in Young Adult Literature.
(Ann Angel, Kekla Magoon, Carrie Jones)
Room 2B, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2.
Reviewers often warn against “extreme content” in young adult literature. Writers and their readers argue that the content reflects real world problems. These writers have faced the challenge of writing about topics ranging from sex and drugs to graphic instances of abuse. They will engage their audience in a discussion of how and why they include these themes in their work and why these topics and more should be included in the literature made available to young adult readers.
F111. The New Translation: Writing through Rewriting.
(Joe Milutis, Paul Legault, Craig Dworkin, Clark Lunberry)
Room 3A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 3.
Experimental translation techniques have taken up attitudes toward the nature of the original that complicate or conflict with more dutiful notions of translation. From the carefully oblique to the wildly discrepant, we are interested in techniques of translation that seek to heighten the noise that exists at the fragile moment of cultural transfer. This panel will speak both to the long tradition of these kinds of techniques as well as incarnations potentiated by new media.
F112. The Poetic Sentence.
(Sasha Steensen, Dan Beachy-Quick, Elizabeth Robinson, Laynie Browne, Srikanth Reddy)
Room 3B, Washington State Convention Center, Level 3.
The effects of the line, as the fundamental unit of poetry, often trump those of the sentence. Yet, the sentence is so often present in the poem, albeit enjambed, interrupted, and infused with space. In recent years, poets have been investigating the tensions and energies of the sentence in fascinating ways. In this panel, poets will explore how incorporating the prose sentence into their poems works to re-envision both the formal (line, syntax, and rhythm) and semantic textures of the poem.
F113. Fiction, Memoir, and the University Press.
(Alden Jones, Douglas Bauer, Ladette Randolph)
Room 400, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
University presses are becoming more prominent in the literary landscape, providing authors an alternative to the commercial press with the stability of an institutional affiliation. What do university presses offer authors that large houses can (or will) not? Three university press authors, including a former acquiring editor at the University of Nebraska Press, read briefly from their work and discuss their experiences publishing books of fiction and literary nonfiction with university presses.
F114. Preparing for Exuberant Life Beyond the MFA.
(Michele Kotler, Lauren Berry, Peter Hyland, Jason Whitmarsh, Elizabeth Wales)
Room 602/603, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
For the writer with a fresh new MFA degree, getting a college teaching job is becoming increasingly more difficult, but there are many options available. On this panel, five writers will share their career paths to meaningful and satisfying full-time positions in the city of their choosing. The options include working with Writers in the Schools (WITS) programs, becoming a grant writer, teaching in a high school, and becoming a technical writer and a literary agent.
F115. Navigating Emptiness: Benefits and Drawbacks of Teaching the Lyric Essay.
(Kathleen Rooney, Brandon Schrand, Nicole Walker, Julie Paegle)
Room 604, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
In this panel, presenters will discuss their experience in teaching the lyric form. They will describe the challenge in teaching both introductory and advanced students how to reproduce the lyric essay’s delight in gaps, association, and the unknown. Panelists will provide practical advice and examples based on their experience, including model essays, course outlines, and approaches to this dynamic form.
F116. Digital Lit: Why Online Magazines Deserve More Respect.
(Martha Nichols, Lee Hope Betcher, J. W. Wang, Matthew Limpede)
Room 606, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Online literary sites attract more traffic than many print journals, expand audiences for literary work beyond a small circle of subscribers, and are building virtual communities of readers and writers. So why does digitally published work seldom win literary awards or make best-of anthologies? This panel of online editors will expose a number of myths about online publishing, conjure the joys of digital reading, and answer audience questions about how to take the leap off the printed page.
F117. Tupelo Press 15th Anniversary Reading.
(Jeffrey Levine, Ilya Kaminsky, C.M. Burroughs, Amaud Johnson, Stacey Waite)
Room 607, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
This showcase reading by four important American poets of diverse aesthetic, regional, and ethnic backgrounds celebrates 15 years of independent literary publishing on the part of Tupelo Press. Tupelo authors write for and speak to issues national and international and explore questions of migration and immigration, slavery, racial, gender, and national identity, and ultimately, of life in the balance.
F118. AWP Town Meeting of Individual Members. Room 608, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
AWP encourages all members of AWP to attend. The AWP Board of Directors will discuss new project and services. You will have the opportunity to elect new board members and to vote on amendments to AWP’s bylaws and articles of incorporation.
F119. Where Witness Meets the Page: Why We Write What We Write.
(Naomi Benaron, Lorraine Adams, Nayomi Munaweera, Ru Freeman, Julie Wu)
Room 609, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
To bear witness to atrocity through fiction implies a commitment to both narrative and truth. In the social media age, atrocity often reaches us in 140-character packages. Conversely, witness literature focuses a wide narrative lens on the subject. Why write fiction over nonfiction? What moral and ethical questions do writers confront along the way? How do craft and truth intersect? Five authors with varying degrees of closeness to their subjects discuss how they bear witness through fiction.
F120. A “New” Nonfiction.
(Jamie Iredell, Chloe Caldwell, Anna March, Scott McClanahan)
Room 611, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
As writers and publishers adapt to the evolving media-driven culture of which they are a part, this panel features writers whose work spans the scope of contemporary nonfiction, from literary criticism to memoir, to immersive journalism and the op ed. They have found traditional print venues for placing their writing, as well as podcasts, webzines, websites, interactive maps, and ebooks, and will discuss how nonfiction has evolved to adapt to the many venues available for its practitioners.
F121. Voices from the Outpost: Wild Words for Wallowa County, Oregon.
(Robert Michael Pyle, Ellen Waterston, Charles Goodrich, Ann Whitfield Powers, Don Witten)
Room 612, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
The remote mosaic of forest and meadow that is Wallowa County has inspired these accomplished writers to compose poetry and prose with the power to reconnect them and their audience with this culturally and environmentally important place. Members of previous Outpost writing workshops (part of the annual Summer Fishtrap gathering of writers) will read work resulting from intense periods of solitude in beautiful northeastern Oregon, a wild landscape that amply rewards such sustained focus.
F122. Passive Characters in Contemporary Fiction: Writing Problem or Literary Strategy? (Stephanie Grant, Bruce Machart, Eileen Pollack, Hanna Pylvainen, Sergio Troncoso)
Room 613/614, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Student fiction frequently features passive protagonists whose only articulated desire is not to take action. But passive characters also inhabit some of our best contemporary fiction. Does this passivity reflect a cultural malaise: a literary response to the new American Imperialism? Or is passivity simply a recurring issue in apprentice fiction? Panelists will consider whether passive characters present a writing problem or literary strategy — and how to identify the difference.
F123. How to Teach Students to Speak “Language for a New Century”.
(Nathalie Handal, Kirpal Singh, Timothy Liu, Tina Chang, Jennifer Kwon Dobbs)
Room 615/616/617, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
W.W. Norton and Co.’s Language for a New Century celebrates its five-year anniversary as a landmark anthology of world literature, and this panel will be geared at looking at how global poetry in translation and this book in particular can be used in the classroom. Want to introduce a student to anculture? Provide them the voice of their poets. Join the editor and three contributors from the anthology reading their work and others, including Tibetan, Pakistani, and Syrian poets.
F124. The Living Text: Writers on the Praxis of Performance.
(K. Bradford, Roger Sedarat, Douglas Kearney, Tracie Morris, Latasha N. Nevada Diggs)
Room 618/619/620, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Challenging the limited binary of page versus stage, this panel explores literature as a live form with rich modes of aesthetic and cultural delivery. Panelists working in multiple genres discuss techniques, experiments, and practices that cross text into song, call and response, sound, movement, and persona. Readings and micro-performances exemplify discussion and invite dialogue with the audience about vital modes of delivering hybrid text.
F125. CantoMundo Fellows and Faculty Share their Stories of Teaching Latina/o Poetry.
(Norma E. Cantu, Valerie Martinez, Barbara B. Curiel, Ruben Quesada, Diana Delgado)
Room LL4, Western New England MFA Annex, Lower Level.
Teaching Latina/o Poetry in the 21st-century demands specific strategies. The creative writing classroom is a space for innovation, discovery, and pertinent discussions on social change. Presenters will examine aspects of teaching writing and reading at the college level with a specific focus on Latina/o poetry and will include presentations on the interplay of pedagogical strategies and genres of Latina/opoetics as well as unique uses of traditional methods, and technology and social media.
F126. Poetics of Science: Meetings of the Mind.
(Lila Zemborain, Marta del Pozo Ortea, Leonard Schwartz, Zhang Er)
Room LL5, Western New England MFA Annex, Lower Level.
The historical divide between poetry and science has caused much damage to our culture, particularly after the project of the Enlightenment. However, poetry and science share a crucial endeavor: the understanding of the world. They also have a common language: metaphors (scientific theories provide nothing else but models of the world). This panel offers a poetry reading and a conversation with five poets whose work is informed by scientific concepts.
F127. Stoking the Fire: Maintaining the Passion for Writing when Success Eludes.
(Joseph Ponepinto, Q. Lindsey Barrett, Teri Carter, Kobbie Alamo)
Room 101, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 1.
Most writers start out on their literary journeys with high goals, whether that means a book deal, teaching job, publication in major literary journals, or some tangible achievement. But if personal goals are not realized, how does a writer keep going? This panel features four writers who have created writing lives and have maintained their artistic focus while dealing with rejection, lack of community, post-MFA depression, all while juggling responsibilities of family and day jobs.
F128. Happy Endings that Won’t Jerk You Around.
(Ian Stansel, Amber Dermont, Danielle Evans, Rebecca Makkai, Kyle Minor)
Room 202, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 2.
While stories of hope are often derided as contrived or suspected of emotional manipulation in workshops, they are in actuality some of the hardest to write. How do we instill glimmers of hope while remaining true to realism? How do we avoid sentimentality while still allowing a positive outcome for our characters? Five writers discuss the concept of the happy ending in contemporary and classic novels and stories and talk about their own approaches to crafting the final movements of their work.
F129. Let It Come Down: Violence in Contemporary Poetry.
(Douglas Smith, Denise Duhamel, Bruce Beasley, Kathy Fagan, John Bradley)
Room 301, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
“We sleep in language,” Robert Kelly tells us, “if language does not come to wake us with its strangeness.” Such awakening is one desired end of the use of violence in contemporary poetry. What meaning can the poet shape from the violence of human nature? What happens when violence—murder, torture, rape—enters the realm of poetry? This panel will explore these questions in the poems of Ai, Frank Bidart, Stephen Dobyns, Michael Ondaatje, and writers.
F130. The Influence of the International: Four Writers Talk.
(Edward Gauvin, Maaza Mengiste, Forrest Gander, Willis Barnstone, Susan Harris)
Room 302, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
Many writers limit their reading to English-language authors and as a result are unfamiliar with literatures. Four writers talk about how reading international literature, in both the original language and translation, has influenced and shaped their writing. Panelists will discuss various works and writers and their respective literary traditions; consider language, style, narrative conventions, and subjects; and reveal how their reading informs their writing.
F131. Science Fiction and Fantasy by Women of the Pacific Northwest: A Hydra House Reading.
(Louise Marley, KC Ball, Danika Dinsmore, Rachel Swirsky, Abbey Mei Otis)
Room 303, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
The Pacific Northwest is a hub of science fiction and fantasy writers, which in turn has generated a number of small presses. Hydra House is one such press, which in its short history has received critical acclaim and generated a Nebula nomination. Join the respected women writers of Hydra House as they read middle-grade fiction, near-future science fiction, alt-history fantasy, flash fiction, and discuss the impact that women have had on the genre.
F132. Debunking the Myths of New Publishing Models.
(Seth Harwood, Deborah Reed, Lee Goldberg, Tyler Dilts, Johnny Shaw)
Room 305, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
These writers have all found success in the new world of publishing as part of an innovative and oftentimes hybrid means of building a wide readership. Whether it’s self-publishing, print on demand, traditional publishing, a new breed of publishing house, small press, or all of the above, these authors explain what they have in common, what has worked, what has not, and why change is in everyone’s favor.
Ten-thirty a.m. to Eleven-forty-five a.m.
F133. Getting Short-Form Nonfiction to Readers: A Publication Discussion.
(Sarah Einstein, Hattie Fletcher, Chelsea Biondolillo, Kelly Sundberg)
Aspen Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Flash nonfiction is a growing genre. But where can you get it published? Join the managing editors of Brevity and Creative Nonfiction and two short-form nonfiction writers as they share trends, techniques, and strategies for finding markets for your short-form nonfiction, whether lyric, expository, or experimental.
F134. True North: Alaskan Literary Nonfiction.
(Nancy Lord, Christine Byl, Ernestine Hayes, Tom Kizzia, Sherry Simpson)
Cedar Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Recent years have brought the development of a strong field of creative nonfiction by Alaskans rooted in the land and its cultures. The result is a stranger-than-fiction literature of compelling, often dramatic truths. Five Alaskan writers will briefly posit reasons behind the genre’s northern robustness before sharing work inspired by extreme circumstances, encounters with the wild, and the challenges and opportunities of living in a rapidly-changing North.
F135. Poets on the Craft of Translation: A Conversation Between New and Established Translators.
(Gloria Munoz, Jay Hopler, Kimberly Johnson, John Talbot, Jennifer Kronovet) Redwood Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
This diverse panel of new and established translators focuses on the challenges and advantages of translation in the MFA program and beyond. Panelists address strategies and theories of translation through the following questions: How to understand, maintain, and interpret the poetics of the source language? How is a translation affected by research? How poetic elements such as music, syntax, and rhythm are considered? How to negotiate and learn from the roles of poet and translator?
F136. The Well-Feathered Nest: Family as Fodder in Southern Fiction.
(Nicole Louise Reid, Jill McCorkle, Bret Anthony Johnston, David James Poissant)
Willow Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
A survey of Southern fiction reveals a common thread. From Twain to Faulkner, from Welty to Wendell Berry, Southern writers can’t escape the anxiety, the complexity, or the gift of family. Whether blood family or the families we make for ourselves, Southerners have long been cognizant of the foundational struggle of the family unit. Five writers will explore the power and peculiarity of family in Southern fiction, observing how sometimes the best drama is the drama we find on our own doorstep.
F137. Our Bodies at Work: Women, Liminal Space, and the U.S./Mexico Border.
(Sasha Pimentel, Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Emma Pérez, Carol Brochin, Abigail Carl-Klaasen)
Room 2A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2.
Chicana, Mennonite, and Filipina writers and poets engage the parallel traumas of the Ciudad Juárez/El Paso border—which is femicide and war-ridden, but rich and permeable—with our own personal negotiations of culture, sexuality, identity, and art. We’ll discuss literacies of transition: lesbianism, labor, immigration, and migration, and how, at the threshold between body and body, between country and country, and different kinds of war, we can arrive at the imaginal and the liminal.
F138. The Subversive Spirit: Poetry Writing from the Edge of Faith.
(Thom Caraway, Marci Johnson, David Wright, Susanna Childress, Jill Essbaum)
Room 2B, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2.
Poets writing from within faith traditions feel resistance from two communities. Literary readers can dismiss faith-inflected poems as dead echoes. Our faith communities often see poetry as irrelevant decoration or as a risky dance with doubt. For the panelists, this friction proves productive. To explore how faithful poetry usefully challenges both groups, each panelist discusses a recent poem that grows from this tension and embodies the craft of cultivating a faithful and subversive poetic spirit.
F139. Rigor Mortis or Rigor Vitalis? Signs of Life in the Creative Writing Classroom.
(Mairead Byrne, Lesley Jenike, Tom Barbash, Matt Donovan, Amy Lemmon)
Room 3A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 3.
Rigor is a term writers have always grappled with, but the current climate of institutional accountability lends urgency to questions of rigor in the creative writing classroom. Are writing classes rigorous enough, and for whom? What ideals and ethics can we instill in teaching the writing process? How do we view our own craft and assess student work? Does rigor ossify language or discipline it into an instrument of dynamic efficacy and change?
F140. Magic and the Intellect.
(Lucy Corin, Rikki Ducornet, Kate Bernheimer, Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum, Anna Joy Springer)
Room 3B, Washington State Convention Center, Level 3.
In her essay “The Deep Zoo” Rikki Ducornet writes: “the work of the writer is to move beyond the simple definitions or descriptions of things… and to bring a dream to life through the alchemy of language; to move from the street—the place of received ideas—into the forest—the place of the unknown.” On this panel five fiction writers intend to describe, depict, illustrate, and otherwise expose this movement from known to unknown in order to ask: what do we mean when we say “magic”?
F141. New Generation African Women Poets: A Reading from the African Poetry Book Series.
(Tsitsi Jaji, Warsan Shire, Ladan Osman, Gabeba Baderoon, Kwame Dawes)
Room 400, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
An extension of the African Poetry Book Fund, dedicated to promoting the development and publication of poetic arts in Africa, the African Poetry Book Series presents four exciting new and established female voices writing in and outside of Zimbabwe, Somalia, and South Africa. The APBS will launch three of the authors’ chapbooks at AWP 2014; come listen to them read, along with accomplished poet Gabeba Baderoon, and hear Kwame Dawes discuss creating publishing opportunities for African poets.
F142. BooksILove Recommendation App.
(Elizabeth Dimarco, Andrew Sorkin, Brett Horvath, Kathy Weber, Ashley Murrell)
Patricia Olson Bookfair Stage, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
A presentation about our IOS7 book recommendation app for iPhone and upcoming for iPad.
F143. New Poetry from Omnidawn Publishing.
(Craig Santos Perez, Julie Carr, Gillian Conoley, Endi Bogue Hartigan, Karla Kelsey)
Robert Muroff Bookfair Stage, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
Please join us for a reading to celebrate Omnidawn’s Spring 2014 poetry titles! The Moderator will be Craig Santos Perez, who will say a few words about Omnidawn. Q&A will follow the readings.
F144. Airlie Press and Sixteen Rivers Press Poetry Reading.
(Annie Lighthart, Dawn Diez Willis, Terry Ehret, Beverly Burch, Tim Shaner)
Scott James Bookfair Stage, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
Members of two West Coast poetry publishing collectives read from their recently published works.
F145. Family Trouble: Memoirists on the Hazards and Rewards of Revealing Family.
(Joy Castro, Ralph Savarese, Sue William Silverman, Faith Adiele, Stephanie Elizondo Griest)
Room 602/603, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Writing and publishing memoir about family members can be a vexed process, rife with concerns about privacy, fairness, and exploitation. The editor of the new collection Family Trouble: Memoirists on the Hazards and Rewards of Revealing Family, together with four of its contributors, will discuss the challenges of writing about family members, share craft strategies, and offer ethical approaches for negotiating this difficult emotional and political terrain.
F146. Return to the Future: Reinventing the Book.
(Mary-Sherman Willis, Katherine McNamara, Susan Taylor Chehak, Kate Young, Brenna Humphreys)
Room 604, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
In the chaos of new e-book tablet and e-reader technology, unprecedented opportunities exist for literary publishers and their authors looking for innovative ways to publish and distribute their books. New forms like transmedia storytelling and multi-platform publishing push the limits of what a book can be and how it is sold. A panel of indie publishers and authors describe why they chose to publish this way, how they got started, their challenges and successes, and their works-in-progress.
F147. Poetry, Fiction, & Gronkfest: Celebrating Five Years of What Books Press.
(Katharine Haake, Gronk Nicandro, Lynne Thompson, Rod Moore, Ramon Garcia)
Room 606, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
With its genre-bending list of bilingual poetry, eco-fabulist science fiction, magic journalism, and graphic narrative, What Books Press was founded to assert the imperative for serious writing that reflects the diversity of literary and political cultures emerging from Los Angeles, a center of art for the globalized world. This panel celebrates the press’ first five years with readings of poetry and prose and a multimedia presentation by the visual artist Gronk, who makes all What Books art.
F148. Poetry and the Online Community: Using Digital Media to Build Audience.
(Michele Russo, Jennifer Benka, Reggie Harris, Rebecca Gambale, Catherine Halley)
Room 607, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Online outreach is a powerful tool for engaging a wider audience with poetry. Representatives from four poetry organizations discuss approaches and challenges of engaging the online community at large not only for the benefit of their own organization but for poetry as a whole. While acting as online ambassadors of poetry, organizations large and small can spread the word through their web presence via their own websites, apps, and social media.
F149. From Sea to Sea: Poets on the Power of Water.
(Laura McCullough, David St. John, John Hoppenthaler, Marie-Elizabeth Mali, Matthew Nienow)
Room 608, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Four poets and a poet/undersea photographer will explore the power of the ocean as myth, metaphor, and the great connector. Its very existence tempts us to venture out and seek the unknown, to make our way upon the surface of a world that is entirely other. We eat from its stock. We swim in it. People drown in it. We relish and fear it; we play in it. These poets will reflect on the sea, ocean, the waterways of the world, and their shores.
F150. The Road Less Taken: Alternative Forms of Distribution.
(Jeffrey Lependorf, Halimah Marcus, Matvei Yankelevich, Nicole Baxter)
Room 609, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Discover new ways to get literature into readers’ hands beyond online “e-tailers” and even local bookstores. The panel addresses print-on-demand, subscription models, digital singles, and more!
F151. Native Texts in the Workshop: Why Now (and How).
(Toni Jensen, Jennifer Foerster, Natanya Pulley, Erika Wurth)
Room 611, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Student writers often are exposed to ideas about Native people only through pop culture sources: the Twilight series, Disney’s Pocahontas, Victoria’s Secret models wearing neon headdresses. This panel advocates for the inclusion of Native people’s writing in the workshop, as models of good writing and as a necessary counterbalance to existing stereotypes. The panelists, all Native writers and teachers, will suggest texts and offer strategies for teaching Native texts in all genres.
F152. A Tribute to Kathleen Fraser.
(Brian Teare, Jeanne Heuving, Kathleen Fraser, Robin Tremblay-McGaw, Stephen Motika)
Room 612, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
This panel celebrates the life and work of San Francisco poet and editor Kathleen Fraser. Influenced by the New York School, West Coast experimental writers, visual artists, and Italian language, her poetry has evolved over the course of a dozen books. This panel showcases her dynamic body of work as well as her contributions as teacher, essayist, and editor of the feminist poetics journal (How)ever. Poet/scholars will discuss her life and work before Kathleen Fraser reads new poems.
F153. New Stories from the Southwest.
(Justin St. Germain, Claire Vaye Watkins, Paula McLain, Ron Carlson, D. Seth Horton)
Room 613/614, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Road to Nowhere and New Stories from the Southwest is the second volume in the Southwest anthology series, which was published in July 2013 by the University of New Mexico Press. Four award-winning contributors gather to read from their recently anthologized work. They will be introduced by the founder of the series.
F154. Graywolf Press 40th Anniversary.
(Tess Gallagher, Ru Freeman, Justin Hocking, Tree Swenson, Robert Boswell)
Room 615/616/617, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
In 2014, Graywolf Press celebrates forty years of publishing essential works of contemporary literature. From the Press’s beginnings in Port Townsend, Washington, in 1974, to its current roster of award-winning writers, Graywolf has been recognized as one of the leaders in independent publishing. Please join the publisher and director of Graywolf and these fiction writers, nonfiction writers, and poets for a reading in celebration of the next forty years of Graywolf Press.
F155. Grove/Atlantic Literary Salon.
(Dani Shapiro, Josh Weil, Patricia Engel, Pablo Medina, Margaret Wrinkle)
Room 618/619/620, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Founded in 1917, Grove/Atlantic is one of the last remaining major independent publishers in America. Dedicated to publishing books of artistic merit and integrity and known for taking risks, Grove/Atlantic presents five award-winning authors reading from their most recent and yet-to-be-published books.
F156. Give Me Your Vampires, Your Fae, Your Bulbous Alien Masses Yearning to Breathe Free.
(Rachel Swirsky, Cat Rambo, Rahul Kanakia, Brooke Wonders, Nick Mamatas)
Room LL4, Western New England MFA Annex, Lower Level.
Realist and experimental fiction writers often express nervousness about allowing their undergraduates to submit fantasy and science fiction to workshop. Some go so far as to ban such work outright, a tactic that can defuse young writers’ enthusiasm. Join writers whose work has appeared in both literary and genre publications as they discuss how a successful undergraduate workshop can include teaching serious genre fiction.
F157. Dwelling on the Edge: New California Writing 2013, Heyday/California Legacy.
(Kirk Glaser, Juan Velasco, Zara Raab, Alexandra Teague, Steve Gutierrez)
Room LL5, Western New England MFA Annex, Lower Level.
Culturally and geologically, California rests on shifting ground. This third annual anthology continues asking what is unique in California literature by assembling fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from publications large and small. What emerges reveals the proximity of Latin America and Asia, whose cultures clash and mix with those of Europe and Africa in ruthless and enchanting landscapes that render people as nowhere else. Join renowned contributors reading from and discussing this anthology.
F158. When a Poem Can’t Tell the Whole Story: Why Poets are Taking up Nonfiction.
(Danielle Deulen, Katharine Coles, Gregory Orr, Julia Koets, Linwood Rumney)
Room 101, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 1.
As creative nonfiction becomes more popular and expands to push against the boundaries of convention, poets increasingly adopt it as a second genre. Five poets who also write nonfiction and who are at various stages in their careers discuss nonfiction from the poet’s perspective. How does working in two genres change the way we think about craft? How does writing in a second genre open up career opportunities in a difficult job market?
F159. Lost Horse Press at 15 Hands/Years! (Christopher Howell, Melissa Kwasny, Robert McNamara, Crystal Williams, David Axelrod)
Room 202, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 2.
At 15 hands, a horse is full-grown; at 15 years, Lost Horse celebrates its stature as a full-fledged Poetry Press. Founded in 1998 by publisher, editor, and book designer Christine Holbert, Lost Horse Press—nonprofit, independent, based in Sandpoint, Idaho—publishes poetry of high literary merit and hosts cultural, educational, and socially engaged programs throughout the region. Lost Horse’s 15th anniversary readers are nationally recognized poets who live and write in the Pacific Northwest.
F160. War Stories: Truth, Fiction, and Conflict.
(Roy Scranton, Phil Klay, Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya, Peter Molin)
Room 301, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
The truth of war is always multiple. Homer’s Iliad gives us both Achilles and Hector, just as Tolstoy’s War and Peace opens up a panorama of perspectives. Fiction offers an unparalleled medium to explore the conflicting truths of war, yet also offers dangers. How do we negotiate politics, witnessing, and voyeurism? How can we highlight war’s ugliness and still write a compelling story? How do we portray war’s beauty and still write an ethical one? Our panel explores these age-old problems.
F161. Writing Inside Out: Authors’ Day Jobs.
(Jason K. Friedman, Tina Kelley, Trevino Brings Plenty, Heid E. Erdrich)
Room 302, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
Eudora Welty was a publicist. William Carlos Williams practiced medicine. How do our nonliterary day jobs enter into our writing—or do we work writing into the job? Which is more writer-friendly, the huge corporation or the nonprofit? How do we form literary alliances when our colleagues are not publishing? Four authors, some whose co-workers do not know they are writers, discuss writing outside of academia in jobs supportive, hostile, or just indifferent to their literary careers.
F162. Poetry of Wonder and Astonishment.
(Chad Sweeney, Sherwin Bitsui, Angie Estes, Sandra Alcosser, Mark Irwin)
Room 303, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
One of poetry’s powers is to awaken in us a state of wonder/awe/astonishment, as if in the sudden terrible presence of Rilke’s angels, or as Emily Dickinson phrased it, as if the top of your head were taken off. But how is this achieved? How do masters like Levertov, Harjo, Merwin, and Dickinson, as well as newer American poets, approach the craft and vision of wonder? Join this diverse panel of poets for an energetic exploration of wonder and astonishment in American poetry now.
F163. Independent Bookselling: Opportunities for Authors.
(Robert Sindelar, Pam Cady, Chuck Robinson, Rick Simonson, Janis Segress)
Room 304, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
As bookstore chains disappear and independent bookstores become even more important, what should writers and authors know about working with booksellers? This panel from Seattle-area bookstores—Elliott Bay, Village Books, Third Place Books, University Bookstore, and Queen Anne Book Company—will discuss how writers can work with independent booksellers to market a book. Topics will include author events, store placement, joint promotion, and how to spread the word to the book-buying public.
F164. Are We Latino? The Hazards of Representation.
(Daniel Borzutzky, Carmen Giménez Smith, Paul Martinez Pompa, Sandy Florian, Rodrigo Toscano)
Room 305, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
More and more, Latino literature is being canonized, often in celebration of the multicultural Americas. What happens, though, when writers who claim to be Latino don’t write directly about their heritage? We might be told we aren’t “really Latino” by peers, professors, and our own people. This panel starts a new dialogue about the poetics of identity politics in the academy and beyond. In the process, we share approaches to writing and teaching that question the “proper” embodiment of identity.
Twelve noon to One-fifteen p.m.
F165. Verses Versus Verses: Perspectives on Poetry Contests.
(Eric McHenry, Joseph Harrison, Jon Tribble, Sandra Beasley, Dora Malech)
Aspen Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
In 1950, the Yale Series of Younger Poets was the only contest for book-length poetry manuscripts in the United States. Today there are more than 300, and conventional wisdom holds that winning one is the best way to get a first or second book published. A panel of poets with vast and diverse experience founding, running, entering, winning, and losing such contests will discuss the benefits and drawbacks of the system, and offer insights into how to succeed within it, or without it.
F166. Translation in the University: Where Does It Fit? (Amalia Gladhart, Karen McPherson, Karen Emmerich, Michelle Crowson, Edward Gauvin)
Cedar Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Frequently considered too “creative” in literature departments or too derivative in creative writing programs, translation has nevertheless begun to occupy a more central place at many universities. This panel will address the complicated yet also fruitful position of literary translators in university settings. Writers, translators, and academics at different career points and working in different traditions discuss how they balance translation with creative and scholarly pursuits.
F167. Full Disclosure: How to Spill Your Guts without Making a Mess.
(Krista Bremer, Sy Safransky, Cary Tennis, Lidia Yuknavitch, Marion Winik) Redwood Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
In the era of social media and reality TV, it seems no topic is too private to be publicly shared, but what do we really learn about each from all this self-exposure? Are we telling everything while saying nothing? When an author writes about something deeply private, it should reveal our common humanity, not turn him or her into a side-show attraction. Our panel will discuss how to write about subjects such as addiction, forbidden lust, and grief in a way that serves a greater purpose.
F168. All Publishers Great and Small: Reexamining the Book Business in the 21st Century.
(Peter Mountford, Amelia Gray, Kevin Sampsell, Matt Bell, Tara Ison)
Willow Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Major publishers increasingly chase blockbusters and avoid literary authors. Smaller presses still have less money for advances and marketing, but their titles attract an ever-growing share of award and review attention. The paradigm is shifting. A unique group of authors who have straddled this hinge—they each have at least one book out from a large trade house and one from a small independent press—offer an unusually honest and intimate appraisal of the rapidly changing book business.
F169. Ergo Sum Game: Poetry as Philosophical Foray.
(Michael Morse, Catherine Barnett, Mary Szybist, Kevin Prufer, Joy Katz)
Room 2A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2.
Five poets, each of whose poetry is informed by philosophical or critical inquiry, take on a topic that informs their thinking, their feeling, and their work. Each poet will present an essence (Ambivalence, Apology, Oblivion, Reverence, and Sentimentality) and discuss its presence in critical or philosophical thinking, in the work of an influential (and influencing) poet, and in her or his own poems. Join us as we explore how a bewitched intelligence works within and towards poetry.
F170. How Twitter Works (And Doesn’t Work) For Writers.
(A. N. Devers, Sophie Rosenblum, Evan Smith Rakoff, Matthew Salesses, Maris Kreizman)
Room 2B, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2.
Writers now are expected to participate in social media, market and promote their work, and contribute to a changing and growing online literary community. This panel will look at how Twitter enhances and supports the development of a literary life. What are the benefits and nuances of using Twitter’s 140-character format? What are the pitfalls? Writers who are active Twitter users will discuss experiences and offer suggestions on how to integrate Twitter organically into daily writing routines.
F171. Transmedia: The Future Of Storytelling? (Charlotte Austin, Mark Long, Allison Williams, Tony Fasciano, Jack Cummins)
Room 3A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 3.
Transmedia storytelling is the technique of telling a single narrative across multiple platforms and technologies, with each piece of context not only linked together but also in narrative synchronization.
(Think graphic novel, e-book with embedded content, etc.) If transmedia is indeed the future of storytelling, how can writers, editors, and publishers embrace and utilize — rather than fear — these new tools?
F172. Applying for a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship.
(Amy Stolls, Eleanor Steele)
Room 3B, Washington State Convention Center, Level 3.
This session is geared toward individuals interested in applying for an NEA fellowship in poetry or prose. Staff members from the NEA’s Literature Division will discuss and advise on all aspects of the program, from submitting an application to selecting the winners. Plenty of time will be allotted for questions.
F173. Remapping the Frontier: Northwest Women Poets Writing From Archives and Experience.
(Megan Snyder-Camp, Linda Bierds, Elizabeth Bradfield, Kathleen Flenniken, Melinda Mueller)
Room 400, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
Using archival materials as a creative source, this panel of Pacific Northwest women poets directly engages the claims laid by historical male explorers and scientific pioneers, opening a conversation about the weight of desire, discovery, and what it means as a woman to write (from) this contested landscape. Panelists share how and why archival research informs their creative work, and a moderated conversation tracks these journeys in the context of historical and personal discovery and its aftermath.
F174. Meet & Greet with AWP Board Members.
Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
Interested in meeting current AWP board members? Have some ideas for AWP to implement? Do you have questions, or are you looking to get more involved in the organization? If so, join us at the AWP Bookfair Booth (#100 & 102) on Thursday and Friday between Noon and 5:45pm. Please consult the bookfair map in the conference planner for detailed location.
F175. Finishing Line Press Poetry Reading.
(Leah Maines, Kevin Maines)
Robert Muroff Bookfair Stage, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
Finishing Line Press authors read from their most recent FLP books and chapbooks and collections. Afterwards, each author will be available to sign and sell their books at the Finishing Line Press AWP table.
F176. A Shapelesse Flame: The Nature of Poetry and Desire.
(Gerard Woodward, Tim Liardet, Carrie Etter, Danielle Pafunda, Arielle Greenberg)
Scott James Bookfair Stage, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
Desire, said Coleridge, is the reflex of our earthly frame. But when it comes to the writing of contemporary poetry, exactly what is the nature of desire? Is a successful poem an example of life’s longing for itself, driven by independent will? How is the energy of a poem like human desire itself? How can human desire best be expressed in poetry? This panel of two American poets and two UK poets will attempt to engage in a dialogue on these important questions.
F177. Author & Editor: The Relationship that Builds a Book. Sponsored by The Center for Fiction.
(Noreen Tomassi, Jess Walter, Chuck Palahniuk, Gerry Howard, Calvert Morgan)
Ballroom ABC, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Award-winning authors Jess Walter and Chuck Palahniuk sit down with their longtime editors, Calvert Morgan of HarperCollins (Walter), and Gerald Howard of Doubleday (Palahniuk), to discuss the alchemy behind creating such great works of fiction as Beautiful Ruins and Doomed. More than just a conversation on the nuts and bolts of getting a book published, they will look at how the author/editor relationship affects the novel on the shelf.
F178. A Reading and Conversation by Ghassan Zaqtan and Fady Joudah.
(John Donatich, Ghassan Zaqtan, Fady Joudah, Mark Doty)
Ballroom E, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
A reading by Ghassan Zaqtan, the most important Palestinian poet writing today, and his English-language translator, Fady Joudah, will be followed by a lively discussion (moderated by John Donatich) about poetry under siege, translation, and the importance of Palestinian literature on the world stage. Zaqtan has been a major influence for the last two decades, moving away from the lush aesthetics of his giant predecessors Adonis and Darwish. Joudah will also read some of his work that highlights the natural affinity his poetry has for Zaqtan’s poetry. Mark Doty will introduce the event.
F179. Chicana/o Noir: Murder, Mayhem and Mexican Americans.
(Daniel Olivas, Lucha Corpi, Michael Nava, Manuel Ramos, Sarah Cortez)
Room 602/603, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
While many fans of noir fiction can tick off such names as Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Ross Macdonald, Chicana/o authors have emerged during the last several decades as expert practitioners of this very American literary form. Indeed, the line between literary and noir fiction has blurred virtually into extinction. The Chicana/o gumshoe is no longer new, but the panelists continue to stretch the form to include a more diverse universe of characters and subject matter.
F180. Playwriting in the Pacific Northwest: A Specialized Craft in a Unique Region.
(Bryan Wade, C.E. Gatchalian, Kevin Kerr, Cathy Rexford, Andrea Stolowitz)
Room 604, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Playwrights in the Pacific Northwest share several commonalities: weather, the ocean, striking landscapes ranging from rainforest to snowcapped mountains, great coffee, and the possibility of an earthquake at any moment. But is there a cultural commonality that exists amongst playwrights in the Pacific Northwest? If there is, how has it affected their development as playwrights and in particular, their plays? Should playwrights look North, South, or back East along traditional national faultlines?
F181. #interaction: How Social Media Changed the Conversation Between Audience and Author.
(Mei-Lu McGonigle, Julie Blumberg, Cody Rhodes, Jessica Glenn, Elle Beauregard)
Room 606, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Social media engagement, from Twitter book clubs, to live tweeting TV shows, to fansites, has changed the relationship between audience and author, opening up opportunities for conversation and collaboration between them. Audiences can take an active part not only in the experience of the art but also in helping to shape it. This panel will discuss ways in which this relationship has changed and explore what it means to be a fan and creator across genres and media in the digital age.
F182. The Researcher in the Room: The Ethics of Immersion Writing.
(Ana Maria Spagna, Jo Scott-Coe, Joe Mackall, Amanda Webster)
Room 607, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
What are the rules when nonfiction writers immerse in cultures very different from our own? Panelists will discuss their experiences and address thorny questions. How do we frame our intentions with sources, literary audiences, and ourselves? How do we resolve conflicting versions of the truth? Do we ever leave out information to protect privacy or integrity? What consequences stem from our projects? What, in the end, do we owe the people we write about?
F183. Can There Be Mercy?: On Ethically Teaching the Writing of Historical Atrocity.
(Kristiana Kahakauwila, Shawn Wong, Craig Santos Perez, Sterling Schildt, Robert Barclay)
Room 608, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
From nuclear testing in Oceania to the Japanese internment, historical atrocity in the Pacific region has affected entire communities and multiple generations. Panelists will discuss how they teach works in which historical atrocity is central as well as how they shape student writing in order to encourage emotionally honest presentation while avoiding melodrama or cliche. Finally, panelists will discuss the ethical component of writing a personal drama about community (and communal) trauma.
F184. The Kizer Legacy: 55 Years of Poetry Northwest.
(Kevin Craft, Nicky Beer, Amy Greacen, Olena Kalytiak Davis, Sierra Nelson)
Room 609, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Poetry Northwest is the region’s oldest literary magazine, founded in 1959. Carolyn Kizer served as editor until 1965. In 2011, Poetry Northwest established the Carolyn Kizer Prize to honor and expand upon her original vision of supporting emerging and neglected writers on the continental edge of wider recognition. This reading features recent Kizer Prize winners and contributors who embody the thematically innovative, formally charged “pro femina” poetics that Kizer advanced in her own work.
F185. 2013/2014 Writers’ Conferences & Centers Meeting. Room 611, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
An opportunity for members of Writers’ Conferences & Centers to meet one anand the staff of AWP to discuss issues pertinent to building a strong community of WC&C programs.
F186. A Tribute to and Celebration of Colleen McElroy.
(Remica Bingham-Risher, Amanda Johnston, Frances McCue, Al Young, Michael Faucette)
Room 612, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Colleen McElroy is a speech pathologist, poet, memoirist, playwright, editor, mentor, professor, and globetrotter extraordinaire. For more than thirty years, she taught at the University of Washington and served as the editor-in-chief of the Seattle Review from 1995 - 2006. The panelists, former colleagues, students, and friends, will celebrate her legacy, mentorship, and contributions to the world of literature. After a series of tributes, Prof. McElroy will share her work.
F187. Easy for Who?: Creative Writing Teachers Respond to Criticism of the Workshop.
(Elizabyth A. Hiscox, T. Geronimo Johnson, Laurie Ann Cedilnik, Kate Schmitt, Oindrila Mukherjee)
Room 613/614, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
The workshop model is under fire. Established in 1931 as a way to teach graduate students, the model is faulted for failing to meet the needs of beginning writers. critics contend that the model functions more as a convenience for the instructor than a service to students. Five teachers of creative writing respond to these criticisms and discuss how the workshop can be adapted to serve student writers in all genres and at all levels, from the Easy A seeker to the earnest and zealous.
F188. 25 for 25: A Lambda Literary Foundation Celebration Reading.
(Tony Valenzuela, Dorothy Allison, Nicola Griffith, Ellery Washington, Rigoberto Gonzalez)
Room 615/616/617, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
This reading celebrates Lambda Literary Foundation’s 25th anniversary by featuring four of the contributors to 25 for 25: An Anthology of Works by 25 Outstanding Contemporary LGBT Authors and Those They Inspired. As established authors in the LGBT literary community, the readers represent a full range of genres (fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction), and multiple queer subject positions.
F189. River Teeth Anniversary Reading.
(Sarah M. Wells, Steven Harvey, Jill Noel Kandel, Jon Kerstetter, Andre Dubus III)
Room 618/619/620, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
This reading celebrates River Teeth’s fifteen years of publishing the best of creative nonfiction. Four of River Teeth’s nationally recognized writers will read from work originally published in River Teeth. These essays were reprinted in Best American Essays 2013, Best Spiritual Writing 2012, and the Pushcart Prize XXXV.
F190. Using the Journal in the Classroom: Mess, Wildness, and New Sight.
(Hannah Ensor, Nels Christensen, Ryan Walsh, Nick Harp, Laura Wetherington)
Room LL4, Western New England MFA Annex, Lower Level.
Writing is a tool for thinking, but how often are students writing in the writing classroom? The New England Literature Program (NELP), a two-month living-learning program, makes journaling integral. Students write in one contiguous stream during class, on hiking trips, and everywhere else. The journal is central to NELP’s pedagogical imperatives and captures the narrative arc of intellectual growth. Hear how the panelists have integrated NELP journaling into brick-and-mortar classrooms.
F191. 45th Year Anniversary Reading: The Ashland Poetry Press.
(Stephen Haven, Nicholas Samaras, Robin Davidson, Richard Jackson, Catherine Staples)
Room LL5, Western New England MFA Annex, Lower Level.
Ashland Poetry Press (APP) authors with books forthcoming in 2013/2014 will read from their work in celebration of the more than 150 titles published since the 1969 founding of the press. The APP Director will introduce the poets and provide a brief overview of the press’s review process and publishing interests, selected poems by older poets, an annual best-manuscript publication prize (500 manuscripts submitted each year), and collections by poets over 40 with no more than one earlier book.
F192. Less is More Than Ever: A New Time for Novellas.
(Kathryn Locey, Janet Thielke, Lynn Pruett, Cary Holladay, Lorraine Lopez)
Room 101, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 1.
John Gardner defines the novella as a work shorter than a novel and longer and more episodic than a story. This definition is too simple. It elides complexities entailed in identifying a focal correlative, managing structure, and negotiating stylistic economies while drafting and leaves out problems in peer-reviewing and placing novellas. Established and emerging writers explore challenges in composing, workshopping, and publishing short novels by sharing experiences, ideas, and resources.
F193. Brevity Reading.
(Jane Ciabattari, Meg Pokrass, Pamela Painter, Bobbie Ann Mason, Grant Faulkner)
Room 202, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 2.
Brevity is big these days, attracting more and more writers and readers to a form once considered niche. Flash is the truffle of prose writing; small in word count, yet dense and satisfying. Online and print journals are embracing flash as technology advances and life’s pace quickens. Flash writing is often lyrical, much like prose poetry; laced with sensory detail. Five masters of the form read their flash fiction, essay, and memoir. Plenty of time will be left for questions and answers.
F194. From Sound to Sense: Crafting the Lyric Sentence.
(Pearl Abraham, Stephanie Grant, Elissa Schappell, Hanna Pylvainen, AJ Frustaci)
Room 301, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
Poets think in lines, prose writers in sentences; the best of both work from sound to sense, with an ear for the music in their compositions. But there is a discrepancy in how we teach poetry and prose. Even workshops in the lyric essay don’t spend much time on the play in language that makes for lyricism, on the power of compression, on how syllables can make for breath and rhythm, and more. Panelists share their favorite sentences and discuss the craft at work in them, what makes them great.
F195. William Stafford Centennial.
(Kim Stafford, Brian Turner, Toi Derricotte, Coleman Barks)
Room 302, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
William Stafford was one of the most important American poets of the last half of the 20th century. As a conscientious objector during World War II, he began a daily ritual of writing and an ongoing commitment to justice that have helped define the role of poet. He became a National Book Award winner, a Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, and a beloved teacher. In 2014, we celebrate 100 years of William Stafford. Hosted by Graywolf Press and Blue Flower Arts.
F196. Peripheral Visionaries: Taking Action to Cultivate Literary Diversity.
(Laura E. Davis, Jennifer Fitzgerald, Rob Spillman, Ross Gay, Monica Carter)
Room 303, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
If literature is to depict our humanity, it must reflect the gamut of human experiences. While there is much work ahead, what literary diversity initiatives already exist and what can they teach us? This panel of academics, editors, nonprofit leaders, and grassroots activists shares their triumphs and obstacles and inspires attendees to help bolster under-represented voices. From data research to K-12 residencies, join this dialogue on diversity efforts as varied as the writers they champion.
F197. A Tribute to Sherman Alexie.
(Erin Stalcup, Laura Da’, Bojan Louis, Santee Frazier, Tanaya Winder)
Room 304, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
As we gather in Seattle, this panel celebrates one of the most influential writers from the northwest region: Sherman Alexie. This group of poets, fiction, nonfiction writers, and teachers—who are Diné, Shawnee, Cherokee, Duckwater Shoshone, and nonindigenous—will discuss the ways Alexie’s short stories, novels, poetry, films, and nonfiction have influenced their own work, as well as how Alexie’s range and fame have influenced editors, agents, readers, and the field of American Literature.
F198. Gaming Social Media.
(Emily Warn, Cathy Halley, Erin Belieu, Brian Spears)
Room 305, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
Some poets are tapping into social networks to share, promote, and critique poetry. Others open accounts and let them languish or turn people off through constantly promoting readings or books. We’ll talk from our own experiences, addressing how you can use Facebook and Twitter to participate in a new form of criticism, build a community around an issue, expand the readership of an online magazine, effectively promote a reading or book, and just have fun.
One-thirty p.m. to Two-forty-five p.m.
F199. A Family Affair: Family Structure as Narrative Structure.
(Constance Squires, Tracy Daugherty, Chase Dearinger, Rilla Askew)
Aspen Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Tolstoy famously observed: Happy families are all alike, every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. This panel of authors will explore the ways in which they have used family as source material and subject matter in fiction and creative nonfiction. Do family relationships provide deep structure to narrative? How do real conflicts become plot, real family members become memorable characters? Does the unhappiness that, according to Tolstoy, creates uniqueness help create story as well? Whether or not a work is autobiographical, the idea of family has allowed many authors to tap into their most deeply held beliefs and fears in ways that produce risky, energized fiction and nonfiction.
F200. Once More Unto the Breach: A Multilingual Reading of War-Informed Literature in Translation.
(Nancy Naomi Carlson, John Balaban, Erica Mena, Marcela Sulak, Russell Scott Valentino)
Cedar Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Throughout the ages, war has inspired a diverse body of literature from all across the world. This panel, translating from Bosnian, French, Hebrew, Spanish, and Vietnamese, will bring to English the human experience of love and loss with a backdrop of war from such landscapes as the deserts of Djibouti to the beaches of Vieques Island, ranging in time from the rebellion leading to the start of the Nguyen Dynasty to the present-day conflict between Palestine and Israel.
F201. Alaska Voices: A Reading by Alaska Literary Series Authors.
(James Engelhardt, Sara Loewen, John Morgan, Holly Hughes, Mei Mei Evans) Redwood Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
The Alaska Literary Series began at the University of Alaska Press three years ago to showcase exciting Alaska voices and to explore the Alaska that doesn’t show up in popular media. Series authors—in poetry and nonfiction—will read from their work and discuss how to write, find community, and get published far from the literary world’s centers.
F202. From Thesis to Book: The Stretch Run.
(Mark Neely, Elena Passarello, Marcus Wicker, Celeste Ng, Bonnie Rough)
Willow Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Most MFA programs require students to produce a “publishable, book-length” thesis. Some theses go straight to publishers, but usually it takes time and hard work before these projects become published books. We’ll talk about how to turn a thesis into a successful book and about our own paths to publication. We’ll also discuss what expectations students and teachers should have for the thesis. Is a publishable manuscript realistic, or should we be thinking about the thesis in different terms?
F203. Poetic Pedagogies: Confronting the Creative Spirit in First-Year Writing.
(Nolan Chessman, Laren McClung, Normandy Sherwood, Peter Gray)
Room 2A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2.
In this session, four writer-teachers explore the role of the poetic encounter in an effort to dislodge, unsettle, and confront the dormant-lying muse in English Composition. In their attempt to return the writing classroom to what was once a happening, sensory experience, these panelists will discuss the poetry-inspired teaching practices of Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde, and Marie Ponsot alongside theories surrounding the psychology of creativity.
F204. RHINO: 37 Years of Charging Forward.
(Valerie Wallace, Ralph Hamilton, Virginia Bell, Jacob Saenz, Angela Torres)
Room 2B, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2.
Eclectic, edgy, and fiercely independent, RHINO boasts a vibrant community of readers, writers, and donors, plus a table of volunteer editors who’ve developed a unique collaborative process that works. From its roots as a writers’ group forum, RHINO has grown into a nationally-known print journal with a strong online presence. Our lively panel of editors will share what we’ve learned and how we do it, with frank discussion of the sometimes risky steps we’ve taken to showcase the work we love.
F205. Stage to Page: The Challenges and Serendipities of Publishing Performative Texts.
(Sunyoung Lee, Samantha Chanse, Denise Uyehara, Karen Tei Yamashita)
Room 3A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 3.
How do you capture the intricacies of emotion and gesture in live performance within the two-dimensional constraints of a book? This panel will showcase performers and writers who have taken the leap from Stage to Page and created innovative book projects that can be viewed as script, literary experience, artistic documentation, or poetry. Join us for dynamic performance excerpts and a discussion about how artists and publishers can collaborate to translate an experience into printed matter.
F206. Building a Space For Comics in the Creative Writing Program.
(Nathan Holic, Jeffrey Chapman, Matthew Silady, Leslie Salas, Justin Hall)
Room 3B, Washington State Convention Center, Level 3.
As comics gain recognition in the literary world, and as more students attempt text/image work, writing programs face a curriculum challenge. It’s easy to add graphic novels to a syllabus, but how can programs shape thesis requirements to allow students to create graphic novels? How can traditional-text faculty overcome a lack of experience with the genre and open workshops to comics? In this panel, teachers and students share strategies for integrating comics into college writing programs.
F207. Plotting the Realist Novel.
(Leah Stewart, Marjorie Celona, Brock Clarke, Lan Samantha Chang, Amanda Eyre Ward)
Room 400, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
What are the mechanics of plot in the realist novel, and what do they have in common with those of genres? How do you decide what kind of story you’re writing? What should happen around page 100? How do you create urgency and momentum? What’s the relationship between plot and structure? Participants describe how they’ve turned a character sketch into a plot, how to use mystery to drive a narrative, what’s necessary for a compelling first page, and plotting tips and techniques.
F208. Meet & Greet with AWP Board Members.
Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
Interested in meeting current AWP board members? Have some ideas for AWP to implement? Do you have questions, or are you looking to get more involved in the organization? If so, join us at the AWP Bookfair Booth (#100 and 102) on Thursday and Friday between Noon and 5:45pm. Please consult the bookfair map in the conference planner for detailed location.
F209. University of New Mexico Poetry Reading.
(Elise McHugh, Kate Gale, Leslie Ullman, Noah Blaustein)
Patricia Olson Bookfair Stage, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
The University of New Mexico Press is pleased to present Kate Gale, Noah Blaustein, and Leslie Ullman to the AWP stage. All published as part of UNM Press’s Mary Burritt Christiansen Poetry Series, these poets will read from their recently released collections. Elise McHugh, humanities editor, from University of New Mexico Press will act as moderator.
F210. Celebrating december.
(Nance Van Winckel, Gianna Jacobson, Peter Sears, H.L. Hix, Sally Van Doren)
Scott James Bookfair Stage, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
Celebrate the rebirth of december, a pioneer of the “little” magazine days and one of the most important and influential literary journals of its time. Resuming regular publication in 2013, december reestablished its role in the literary world. The current editor/publisher will outline the process of bringing december back to life, with readings by several contributors to december’s revival issue.
F211. Words by the Women of Minerva Rising.
(Kim Brown, Annalee Dunn, Lynn Grant)
Robert Muroff Bookfair Stage, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
Minerva Rising is an independent literary journal celebrating the creativity and wisdom in every woman. We publish thought-provoking fiction, nonfiction, photography, poetry, and essays by new and established women writers and artists from across the country. Our talented contributors will read their published work on the themes of Beginnings, Winter, Rebellion, Mothers, and Turning Points.
F212. A Reading and Conversation with Chris Abani and Chang-rae Lee, Sponsored by the University of Washington Bothell MFA in Creative Writing & Poetics.
(Chris Abani, Chang-rae Lee, Steph Opitz)
Ballroom ABC, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Chris Abani, author of numerous works of prose and poetry, and Chang-rae Lee, author of the novels Native Speaker and The Surrendered, will present readings of their award-winning work, followed by a discussion moderated by Steph Opitz.
F213. Bob Dylan and the Very Words, a Lecture and Conversation with Christopher Ricks, Sponsored by the Poetry Foundation.
(Robert Polito, Christopher Ricks)
Ballroom E, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
“I am a poet first and a musician second,” Bob Dylan once said. Christopher Ricks, among our most eminent scholars, is an ardent Dylan fan and gifted reader of his lyrics, as shown in his bestselling study, Dylan’s Visions of Sin. An absorbing lecturer, Ricks illuminates Dylan’s work—still new, tender, quick—and demonstrate that poetry, criticism, and pop culture have much to share. A conversation with anavid Dylan fan and scholar, Poetry Foundation President Robert Polito, follows.
F214. Wayward: An Examination of the Modern Flaneur.
(Matthew Batt, David Shields, Robin Hemley, Vanessa Vaselka, Leigh Newman)
Room 602/603, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Walter Benjamin suggests “empathy is the nature of the intoxication to which the flaneur abandons himself in the crowd.” Part of the seduction of the concept is that it’s a chance to physically interact with a living text, but it’s also a concept freighted with the baggage of European male privilege. Panelists will address and contest the intellectual as well as physical ways of the modern flaneur, covering city streets and wilderness paths, national highways and international flight patterns.
F215. Ekphrasis as Edge: Moving Beyond Description of Visual Art When Writers Engage Paintings and Photos.
(Jennifer Sinor, Christopher Cokinos, Paisley Rekdal)
Room 604, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
In this panel, writers explore the joys and challenges of bridging the visual and the literary. Taking inspiration from visual artists (Rene Magritte, Edward Curtis, and Georgia O’Keeffe), these panelists are not writing about art as much as they are using the visual to leap into the imaginary, the personal, and past. Poets and prose writers who are working in both narrative and lyric modes, they will share both their process and their results.
F216. A Reading by the 2012 AWP Award Series Winners.
(Andrew Ladd, Joan Naviyuk Kane, Lucas Southworth, Julian Hoffman)
Room 606, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
A reading featuring the 2012 AWP Award Series winners Julian Hoffman, Joan Naviyuk Kane, Andrew Ladd, and Lucas Southworth.
F217. The Art of the Book Review.
(Tony Leuzzi, Michael Klein, Craig Teicher, Darcey Steinke, Joseph Salvatore)
Room 607, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Thousands of books are published each year. We are lead to many of them by engaging, knowing reviews. A well-written review will investigate the mysteries deep reading affords, and it will please as well as inform, because it has style. The five widely published writers/critics on this panel will discuss the review as a genre in its own right, a unique artistic form that contributes to the formation of taste, raises the level of public discourse, and establishes critical reputation.
F218. Building Communities Through Poetry: A Celebration of America’s Favorite Poem Project.
(Elise Partridge, Maggie Dietz, Chris Higashi, Robert Pinsky, Tree Swenson)
Room 608, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
In 1997, Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky started the Favorite Poem Project, dedicated to celebrating, documenting, and encouraging poetry’s role in Americans’ lives. During the call for submissions, 18,000 Americans of varying ages, backgrounds, and occupations wrote in about their favorite poems. This panel explores how the Project has contributed to building communities through poetry via anthologies, an expanding video archive, a teaching institute, and innovative events all over the nation.
F219. The Art of Juggling: How to Publish, Present, and Everything Else with a Teeny-Tiny Staff.
(Jeffrey Lependorf, Erika Goldman, Maribeth Batcha, Eric Lorberer)
Room 609, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Learn tricks of the trade from masters of doing everything, from publishing books and magazines to running literary festivals, hosting readings to raising money, and everything else.
F220. University of Montana Faculty Reading.
(Robert Stubblefield, Greg Pape, Kevin Canty, Karen Volkman)
Room 611, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
The faculty at the University of Montana continues a legacy of excellence begun by program founders, Richard Hugo and William Kittredge. This reading showcases three genres taught in UM’s MFA program—poetry, fiction, and nonfiction.
F221. A Celebration of the Life and Work of Kurt Brown.
(Wyn Cooper, Steven Huff, Dara Wier, M.L. Williams, Christopher Merrill)
Room 612, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Kurt Brown was the author of six books of poetry, a memoir, and the editor of ten anthologies. He was also a critic, translator, teacher, mentor, and founder of both the Aspen Writers Conference and Writers’ Conferences and Centers. We will pay tribute to his life and work by talking about his many contributions to contemporary poetry and to the larger world of letters as well. The panelists will also read and discuss some of his poems.
F222. 25th Anniversary of Tia Chucha Press: The Coiled Serpent.
(Patricia Smith, Chiwan Choi, Diane Glancy, Luivette Resto, Michael Warr)
Room 613/614, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
A reading by five Tia Chucha Press poets, many of whom have gone on to great literary careers. They will also speak on how this small but powerful press helped their writing life as well as impacted this country’s vast cross-cultural poetic outpouring. For twenty-five years, TCP books have been beautifully designed by Menominee native Jane Brunette and edited by Chicano writer Luis J. Rodriguez. This press has been like the Quetzacoatl coiled serpent, in deep earth, fount of words, wisdom, and inspiration.
F223. In Your Next Letter I Wish You’d Say: Epistolary Impulse and Innovation.
(Jenny Browne, Mark Jarman, Paul Guest, Laynie Browne, Idra Novey)
Room 615/616/617, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
While Congress and the U.S. Postal Service debate ending Saturday delivery and many mourn the lost art of letter writing, contemporary poets continue to explore and expand the artful possibilities of writing in the epistolary mode. These panelists investigate exciting variations of poetic correspondence, including collaboration, homage, and performance, as well as discuss their own epistolary processes, influences, and teaching strategies.
F224. Approaches to Publishing.
(Jon Fine, Laura Caldwell, Hugh Howey, Lawrence Block, Neal Thompson)
Room 618/619/620, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Independent, Hybrid, Traditional, eBook only… The approaches to publishing are growing. Authors share their perspectives and insights on approaching publishing today.
F225. Writing in the Margins.
(Jorja Leap, Christine Byl, Jill McDonough, Ruth Rohde, Fred Marchant)
Room LL4, Western New England MFA Annex, Lower Level.
Many people in this country have very difficult lives. What can reading and writing offer them? Are creative arts only for those who can afford to seek them out? Five writers discuss teaching in prisons, homeless shelters, gang rehab programs, with veterans, and in poor rural areas. When students are given tools, space, and encouragement to write, story becomes both an escape from difficult circumstances and a deep entry into human potential. How does such teaching change the teacher as well?
F226. What’s Your Problem: Adolescents in Danger and the Novels that Tell Their Stories.
(Pamela Laskin, Jacqueline Woodson, Suzanne Weyn, Matia Burnett, Brendan Kiely)
Room LL5, Western New England MFA Annex, Lower Level.
Growing up is hard enough, but in today’s world, many teens navigate this journey of self-discovery while coping with the trauma of abuse, drug addiction, and confusion about their sexual or gender identity. This panel, comprised of an agent, three writers, and a professor in the field, will explore the renaissance of YA literature that addresses with scathing honesty the real-world problems teens face today as they try to survive into adulthood.
F227. Narrative and So-Called Lapsed and Retrograde Forms of Lyric Expression: A Post-Mortem.
(Lynn Emanuel, Amy Gerstler, Lisa Lewis, Adrian Blevins)
Room 101, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 1.
In Cooling Time, C.D. Wright says, “Exceptional intellection is being exercised to decry narrative. I am not learning much from that line of refutation.” This panel of diverse poets will interrogate narrative, “confessional,” and coherent syntactical moves in their own work and in American poetry today. Has narrative really gone by way of the chastity belt? The risks of too much story and coherence are well-known. What are the risks of too little?
F228. Women Writing Violence.
(Aimee Parkison, Alissa Nutting, Gretchen Henderson, Lily Hoang)
Room 202, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 2.
Studies of violent literature often focus on the world of masculine literature, the so-called literature for men. But the trend of women writing violence is often ignored. This discussion of violent literature by women writers focuses on female violence in fiction and questions how violent literature by women compares to violent literature by men. In the trend of women writing violence, does the role of the victim change based on gender? Or, is it the reader’s perception that changes?
F229. Poets in Nonprofits: How Changing The World Can Change Your Work.
(Michele Battiste, Deborah Ager, Samiya Bashir, Kristen Hanlon, Shin Yu Pai)
Room 301, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
More and more poets are moving into the nonprofit realm to find jobs to sustain themselves and their families. For many of them, they find that nonprofit work sustains something else: their writing. Five poets will discuss how their experiences in social justice, community organizations, advocacy, and national nonprofits impact their creative work and vice versa. The panel will also examine the benefits of nonprofit employment for poets and creative writers.
F230. Mixed Methods: Collaboration Between Visual Art and Contemporary Poetry.
(Allison Campbell, Cole Swensen, Timothy Liu, Bianca Stone, Brandon Downing)
Room 302, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
When poetry and image intersect, what changes occur in both art forms? How is the artist’s process, and the reader’s experience altered when poetry and image enter into conversation with each other? Panelists will explore these questions and discuss how the two art forms can compliment, complete, and even translate each other. Poets who have published collaborative projects, or created poetry that incorporates self-made visuals, will discuss their work.
F231. Beyond the “Axis of Evil:” Shattering the Stereotypes of Iran and Iranians Through Fiction.
(Persis Karim, Anita Amirrezvani, Omid Fallahazad, Jasmin Darznik, Marjan Kamali)
Room 303, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
The anthology Tremors collects the work of Iranian-American fiction writers for the first time. Four Iranian writers will present work that reflects some of the pain of history in Iran and the US but also offers a bracing counter-narrative to prevailing political discourse and a tenacious spirit of resilience. Discussion topics will include minorities, the Green Revolution, the post 9/11 climate, the challenges of assimilation, and the complications of otherness.
F232. Calling all Poets! You’ve Found Your Voice; Now Find Your Audience.
(Kim Dower, Brendan Constantine, Lillian-Yvonne Bertram, Nickole Brown)
Room 304, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
Tips and tricks, best practices and methodologies from poets who know how to make themselves heard (and read). We may write in silence, but we want people in the noisy, larger world to read our work. Outgoing or shy, there’s an action plan for you, and these poets will help you find it. Topics will include: literary citizenship, getting and staying organized, and defining your goals, among others.
F233. Organizing the Truth: Building the Nonfiction Canon.
(Colin Rafferty, Patricia Foster, Judith Kitchen, Sheryl St. Germain, Jill Talbot)
Room 305, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
The introduction of creative nonfiction to the creative writing classroom has been followed by an exponential growth in the number of anthologies collecting the genre. For every essay chosen for an anthology, hundreds of others don’t make it through the gate. Four editors of nonfiction anthologies discuss the selection process, editorial goals, and whether they believe their projects best capture the genre’s breadth and depth—or if that’s even possible.
Three o'clock p.m. to Four-fifteen p.m.
F234. BLOOM turns 10.
(Celeste Gainey, Jericho Brown, Miguel Murphy, Ely Shipley, Elizabeth Bradfield)
Aspen Room, Sheraton Seattle,
2nd Floor.
Join BLOOM for its 10th Anniversary reading with five diverse poets at various stages of their careers. Launched in 2004, BLOOM has been praised by Edmund White as the “most exciting new queer literary publication to emerge in years.” Since its launch, BLOOM has published over 240 LGBT poets, writers, and artists, with the editorial policy of “BLOOM does not discriminate against the imagination.”
F235. Storytelling for a Cause.
(Kate Brennan, Karen Lewis, Lisa Murphy-Lamb, Philip Shaw, Lisa Howe Verhovek)
Cedar Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Make a difference through the art of storytelling. Led by members of the Writers in the Schools Alliance, this panel discusses how to craft meaningful stories that further the work of a charitable cause. With experts from the nonprofit sector, the philanthropic community, and the marketing industry, hear what makes an effective story and how to best share that story with targeted constituents. This panel will also touch on topics such as cause marketing and guerrilla marketing.
F236. Like a Novel: Creative Nonfiction and the Question of Characters.
(Donovan Hohn, Jennifer Percy, Jeanne Marie Laskas, Jeff Sharlet) Redwood Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
In blurbs for creative nonfiction, one often sees a curious phrase: like a novel. And yet writers who make stories out of facts can never know the people they write about in the same way novelists know their characters. How, then, does one practice the art of nonfiction portraiture? And what are the challenges, implications, and risks—ethical, reportorial, aesthetic—of writing about real people using the characterizing techniques of fiction?
F237. Arriba Baseball!: A Collection of Latino/a Baseball Fiction.
(Kathryn Lane, Pete Cava, Thomas de la Cruz, Robert P. Moreira, Norma E. Cantu)
Willow Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Arriba Baseball!: A Collection of Latino/a Baseball Fiction challenges established paradigms within literary baseball fiction, a genre traditionally sustained by works from predominantly white, male authors and one which has historically excluded women and writers of color. This reading will showcase five authors and their baseball short stories that both celebrate and complicate the American pastime through the prism of the Latino/a experience.
F238. To Wear Every Color of the Heart: Going Beyond Craft to Teach Youth in Hospital Settings.
(Ann Teplick, Sierra Nelson, Samar Abulhassan, Eric Elshtain, Evan Cleveland)
Room 2A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2.
This panel of professional teaching artists addresses the deep benefits and unique challenges (logistical, pedagogical, emotional) of working with K-12 students in a range of settings such as dialysis, palliative care, psych departments, hospital classrooms, and treatment center classrooms for family members. Learning to be vibrantly present, we reach beyond craft and style of delivery, allowing youth whose bravery and legacy inspires and touches us beyond the words we’ve come to gather. The panel provides hands-on advice and encouragement for anyone teaching or considering teaching in this setting.
F239. Writing Comics the AWP Way.
(Justin Hall, Nathan Holic, Rich Shivenner, Claire Stephens, Jeffrey Chapman)
Room 2B, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2.
How do we write comics? Comics and graphic novels tend to be thought of, first and foremost, as a visual medium. But more and more people are coming to comics from writing backgrounds and creative writing programs. Are all the tools we learn writing prose and poetry relevant? How do we translate our skills as writers into the graphic medium? This panel will examine the challenges facing a writer in a graphic world and different ways to navigate these challenges.
F240. A Tribute to and Celebration of David Wagoner.
(Suzanne Matson, Derek Sheffield, Christopher Merrill, Dan Lamberton, Martha Silano)
Room 3A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 3.
David Wagoner, a preeminent poet of the Pacific Northwest and a towering American literary voice, is the author of twenty-four books of poetry and ten novels. Five poets who studied with him at the University of Washington where he began teaching in 1954, and who drew on his wisdom and example as they pursued their own writing and teaching, will share appreciations of his poetry and recollections of his workshops. David Wagoner will read a few poems at the end of the panel remarks.
F241. Uncovering Hip Hop Poetry.
(Victorio Reyes, Adrian Matejka, Roger Reeves, Pamela Taylor, Tara Betts)
Room 3B, Washington State Convention Center, Level 3.
Since Kool Herc put his two turntables together in the South Bronx back in 1973, Hip Hop has evolved into an international phenomenon. As with the Black Arts Movement and the Harlem Renaissance, Hip Hop is a multi-disciplinary artistic enterprise. Yet the poetics of Hip Hop have not received the same attention as aspects of the art-form. Five poets will discuss Hip Hop poetics, exploring form, aesthetics, messaging, and Hip Hop’s position in the literary poetic conversation.
F242. Labor of Love: Working with Volunteer Staff.
(Jennifer Schomburg Kanke, Catherine Cortese, Damien Cowger, J.W. Wang, KMA Sullivan)
Room 400, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
Sometimes the old adage “you get what you pay for” feels painfully true when working with volunteer staff in the literary world. It doesn’t have to. Experienced editors will share their tips and tricks for successfully engaging volunteers in everything from reading the slush pile for literary journals to serving as editorial assistants at small publishing houses.
F243. Meet & Greet with AWP Board Members.
Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
Interested in meeting current AWP board members? Have some ideas for AWP to implement? Do you have questions, or are you looking to get more involved in the organization? If so, join us at the AWP Bookfair Booth (#100 and 102) on Thursday and Friday between Noon and 5:45pm. Please consult the bookfair map in the conference planner for detailed location.
F244. Randall Jarrell’s 100th Birthday.
(Stuart Dischell, David Roderick, Rachel Richardson, Terry Kennedy, Rebecca Black)
Patricia Olson Bookfair Stage, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
Join the faculty, alumni, and friends of the UNC Greensboro MFA Program for a rousing reading/tribute to Randall Jarrell and his poetry on his 100th birthday. Sponsored by the UNCG Class of 1952 Distinguished Professorship.
F245. Celebrating Northwest Poets: Crab Creek Review’s 30th Anniversary Reading.
(Peter Pereira, Nancy Pagh, Molly Tenenbaum, Marjorie Manwaring, Michael Schmeltzer)
Scott James Bookfair Stage, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
Five outstanding Northwest poets, featured in the special 30th anniversary issue of Crab Creek Review, read their work. Crab Creek Review is one of Seattle’s most prominent print journals, publishing both local and national writers. Started in 1984 by Linda Clifton, Crab Creek Review has published William Stafford, Madeline DeFrees, Rebecca Wells, and David Wagoner, among notable Northwest writers and poets. Get a taste of Seattle poetry and discover why so many writers call this area home.
F246. A Reading and Conversation with Ben Fountain and Amy Tan, Sponsored by the National Book Critics Circle.
(Jane Ciabattari, Amy Tan, Ben Fountain)
Ballroom ABC, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Two National Book Critics Circle award-honored novelists, Ben Fountain and Amy Tan, read from their work and talk with NBCC Vice President/Online Jane Ciabattari about inspiration, research, readers, awards, the unique challenges of first novels, and the imaginative process that gives their work originality. Since 1974, the National Book Critics Circle awards have honored the best literature published in English. These are the only awards chosen by the critics themselves.
F247. Natalie Diaz, Lucia Perillo, and Dean Young: Reading and Conversation, Sponsored by Copper Canyon Press.
(Michael Wiegers, Natalie Diaz, Lucia Perillo, Dean Young)
Ballroom E, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Natalie Diaz, author of When My Brother Was an Aztec, joins two of contemporary literature's leading poets, Lucia Perillo and Dean Young, for a reading and conversation. Perillo is a Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award winner and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Young is the current Texas Poet Laureate, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and Griffin Poetry Prize. The event concludes with a conversation between the poets, moderated by the Executive Editor of Copper Canyon Press, Michael Wiegers.
F248. A Memoir with a View: On Bringing the Outside In.
(Sue Silverman, Lee Martin, Sonya Huber, Joy Castro, Harrison Candelaria Fletcher)
Room 602/603, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Some critics label memoirs mere navel gazing. However, the memoirists on this panel will show why it’s anything but. In memoir the “I” is a strong presence, guiding and shaping the narrative, but the broader perspective is that of someone gazing out a window rather than peering into a mirror. The “I” reflects an image in a windowpane as we superimpose ourselves upon the wider world. We will explore ways in which personal stories engage with social, cultural, and political realities.
F249. Graduate Programs in Publishing.
(Per Henningsgaard, Alison Baverstock, Anne Willkomm, Lisa Diercks, Andrea Chambers)
Room 604, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Graduate programs in publishing have sprung up at universities around the world in the last couple decades. Panelists will discuss how the very best of these programs recruit students and faculty, develop curriculum, adapt to the latest changes in digital publishing, and ensure the professional success of their graduates. They will also consider how these programs, which represent a profession-based discipline, relate to creative writing programs and more traditional university subjects.
F250. The Haiti I Know.
(M.J. Fievre, Joanne Hyppolite, Barbara Ellen Sorensen, Danielle Legros-Georges, Mahalia Solages)
Room 606, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
A trilingual reading from So Spoke the Earth, a collection of prose and poetry about pre- and post-earthquake Haiti and published by the Women Writers of Haitian Descent. Authors will share first and third-person accounts and visions of Haiti through various periods of time, and of the moments following the tragedy, exploring stories of the search for survivors and different shapes of grief and hope. Presentations in English, with some French and Haitian Creole (with translations).
F251. The Parent-Writer: Can We Really Have It All? (Ava Chin, Jane Delury, Jessica Blau, Matt Briggs, Molly Wizenberg)
Room 607, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Writing a book is challenging, but what if you’re also raising a bawling newborn, a demanding toddler, or a difficult tween? Our panel of fiction writers, food bloggers, and journalists discusses the challenges of being both serious writers and good parents, including how to hit your deadlines while managing kid’s schedules. Can today’s writer—who is expected to tweet, blog, and have a million Facebook friends, while simultaneously crafting great prose and nurturing children—really have it all?
F252. Language in the Air: Taking Writing off the Page with Audio.
(Chelsea Werner-Jatzke, Joan Rabinowitz, Kathleen Kyllo, Jay McAleer, Mark Cull)
Room 608, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Podcasts, radio, audio journals, QR Codes, in this multimedia age writing often integrates audio. This panel discusses ways audio expands the writing market through accessibility, craft, performance, production, and publication. The publishing market continues to change; what can audio mean for your work? Do new ways of reading impact ways of writing? Discover audio as an outlet for, and an element of, craft. Writing lives in language, lift your words off the page and get your language in the air.
F253. Making Certain It Goes On: A Tribute to Richard Hugo.
(Wyn Cooper, Andrea Hollander, Stanley Plumly, Ed Skoog)
Room 609, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Richard Hugo is Seattle’s most important native poet, and his legacy is passed to the many students across the country who read The Triggering Town: Lectures and Essays on Poetry and Writing. Instrumental in building the writing program at the University of Montana, Hugo is honored by the Seattle writers center carrying his name. This panel celebrates Hugo as a poet, with readings and discussions of his poetry, which was the most important of his many contributions to the literary world.
F254. Science and Fake Science in Fiction.
(Rene Steinke, David Grand, James Weatherall, H.L. Hix)
Room 611, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
In fiction, how do you write about science without bogging down the narrative or confusing the nonscientist reader? How does fake science work differently from “real” science in prose? How can scientific fact ground the story? How can outlandish scientific discoveries take a narrative in a new direction? The panel features a physicist and philosopher who writes about science and two fiction writers as they discuss new approaches to these questions.
F255. Found in Translation: How Translators and Authors Translate the Untranslatable.
(María-José Zubieta, Mariela Dreyfus, Daniel Alarcón, Jorge Cornejo, Eileen Mary O’Connor)
Room 612, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
The topic of untranslatability has been discussed by many theorists, but most of these reflections stem from one perspective only, namely, the translator’s. This panel offers a multidimensional discussion between a Peruvian poet and a Peruvian American narrator and their respective translators, concerning the challenges of the untranslatable, a discussion made all the more relevant and poignant by the fact that both authors are fluent in the target language.
F256. When Workshop Doesn’t Work: Alternative Models of Creative Writing Instruction.
(John Fried, Craig Bernier, Jim Zervanos, Hoa Nguyen, Irina Reyn)
Room 613/614, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
The dominant model for creative writing instruction is the workshop, the ever satirized roundtable discussion of a writer’s work. While such a method might make sense for the self-selecting members of an MFA program, is it the best teaching method for undergraduate or high school students with little or no experience? Experienced poetry and fiction writing instructors will consider the value of the workshop and offer successful alternative strategies for the classroom.
F257. 20 Years After: A Poetry Reading by University of Oregon Alumni.
(Stacey Lynn Brown, Brian Turner, Major Jackson, Elyse Fenton, Keetje Kuipers)
Room 615/616/617, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
With its origins in the 1960s, the creative writing program at the University of Oregon is one of the oldest in the country, jumpstarting the careers of dozens of successful young writers. Join five award-winning poets/alumni as they look back on their time in the MFA program at Oregon, read from the work that had its genesis and inspiration in the landscape and unique literary climate of the Pacific Northwest, and discuss the impact of the program on their careers. A Q&A will follow.
F258. What I Wish I’d Known Before I Started Writing for Kids and Young Adults.
(Heather Bouwman, Kirstin Cronn-Mills, Sheila O’Connor, Shelley Tougas, Rebecca Fjelland Davis)
Room 618/619/620, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
This panel features middle-grade and young adult novelists who—before starting to write kidlit—also held roles as poets, professors, journalists, and/or authors of literary novels. In this moderated discussion, they’ll answer questions about the surprises they faced when they began writing for children and young adults: craft issues, audience questions, marketing dilemmas, and unexpected wrinkles in professional relationships
F259. When Genres Collide: Teaching Prose Poetry and Flash Fiction.
(Katie Manning, Hadara Bar-Nadav, Forrest Roth, Tyrone Jaeger, John Talbird)
Room LL4, Western New England MFA Annex, Lower Level.
The collision of prose poetry and flash fiction can provide productive and challenging points of discussion and inspiration in the multi-genre classroom. What can prose poetry teach flash fiction? How can theories of narrative inform understandings of prose poetry? Join our panel of writer-teachers for a discussion about how to navigate the sometimes blurry boundary between prose poetry and flash fiction in the undergraduate classroom.
F260. The Bellingham Review.
(Brenda Miller, Jacob Appel, Lauri Anderson Alford, Jennifer Militello, Angela Tung)
Room LL5, Western New England MFA Annex, Lower Level.
Past winners of the Bellingham Review’s three literary contests, the Annie Dillard Award in Creative Nonfiction, the 49th Parallel Poetry Award, and the Tobias Wolff Award in Fiction, will read samples of their work. The Bellingham Review is an award-winning literary journal that has been published by Western Washington University for the past thirty-seven years.
F261. The (She) Devil Inside: Unlikable Women in Fiction.
(Rebecca Johns, Julia Fierro, Samantha Chang, Marie Myung-ok Lee)
Room 101, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 1.
“Bad men get to be king. Bad women get to swallow poison and die,” wrote Lisa Santoro in the Huffington Post. But why should we settle for such a fate for our female characters, as readers and especially as writers? Do fictional women always have to be sympathetic to be worth reading? Using examples from multiple genres, this panel will examine how bad women can make for good storytelling.
F262. Weaving Stories from Strands of Truth: Native Writers on Nonfiction.
(Elissa Washuta, Debra Magpie Earling, Deborah Miranda, Ernestine Hayes)
Room 202, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 2.
Many Native American writers are currently working within the genres of poetry and fiction; fewer writers work in nonfiction. This panel considers the complicated history of Native self-telling alongside contemporary memoir, essay, and forms in order to examine where nonfiction is situated among the recently published literary works by Native writers. The history of Euro-American influence on the oral storytelling tradition creates a distinct set of issues within Native nonfiction.
F263. Pigeonhole or Portal? (Evan Fallenberg, Kwame Dawes, Sarah Van Arsdale, Xu Xi, Matthew Shenoda)
Room 301, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
Black writer, gay writer, Jewish writer, Asian writer, woman writer, sci-fi writer. These are just a few of the labels that readers, editors, or publishers assign writers, or that writers themselves assume. But exactly what do such labels do to us? Do they shut or open doors for what we write and publish? Panelists will discuss their own experience of how such labels affect their writing and publishing lives.
F264. Crossing the Veil: Engaging the Editor who Rejects your Work.
(Marianne Kunkel, Jennine Capó Crucet, Tim Johnston, Stacey Waite)
Room 302, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
The editor may always be right but, more importantly, he or she always has the final say. Two poets and two prose writers open up about personalized rejection notes—glimpses into literary journals’ behind-the-scenes discussions—and instances in which editors wrestled with publishing their somewhat risky work. This panel will showcase accomplished authors speaking frankly about respectfully talking back to editors and will promote a submission culture of professionalism, transparency, and candor.
F265. How Readers Read: A Report from the Stacks of Submissions.
(Lisa Mecham, Jeffery Hess, Dawn Raffel, Erin Harris, Erika Goldman)
Room 303, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
This panel will examine all the ways that prose writers get read over the course of their literary careers, from magazine submissions to submitting to agents, to submitting to contests, book editors, and anthology editors. This panel will cover the whole range of submissions from the reader’s point of view, and at all levels of the selection process. This isn’t just about the slush level submission or the high level placement of a manuscript; this panel will address all levels.
F266. West Chester University Poetry Conference Twentieth-Anniversary Panel.
(Kim Bridgford, Dana Gioia, Julie Kane, Catherine Tufariello, David Yezzi)
Room 304, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
The West Chester University Poetry Conference, the symbolic home of New Formalism, is the largest all-poetry writing conference in the United States. Featuring poets such as Richard Wilbur, Rhina P. Espaillat, Marilyn Nelson, and A. E. Stallings, it has played a significant role in the literary conversation during the last twenty years. Panelists will speak about the role of the conference in their own lives and do a brief reading.
F267. Literary Entourage: Agents and More.
(Linda Friedman, Elizabeth Wales, Betsy Amster)
Room 305, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
The changing universe of publishing means that authors need dramatically new and innovative forms of representation to survive in the literary marketplace. This panel of seasoned publishing professionals will discuss their latest strategies to help authors get published, or self-publish successfully, and connect with readers online, offline, and through active networks of book groups and literary events. The moderator is a literary agent based in Portland and Los Angeles.
F268. This Assignment Is So Gay: Managing Your Queerness in Your Classroom.
(Megan Volpert, Meg Day, Edward Madden, Daniel Nathan Terry, Arielle Greenberg)
Aspen Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
This panel brings together a diverse bunch of self-identified LGBTIQ teachers to discuss how that identity operates within pedagogical spaces. When is it appropriate to come out to students or administrators? Is this facet of one’s identity helpful or hurtful in applying for teaching positions or in mentoring students? How does it dialogue with a teacher’s own writing practices or aspects of a teacher’s public persona? The panelists will turn a queer eye to their professional success.
Four-thirty p.m. to Five-forty-five p.m.
F269. The Re-Emergence of Book Arts: A Conversation Between Book Designers and the Authors They Publish.
(Claire Stephens, Gloria Munoz, Patti White, Brent House, Brian Oliu)
Cedar Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
To illuminate the particulars of publishing handmade books, Sweet: A Literary Confection and Slashpine Press speak with their authors. What should authors expect during the publication process? What are the pros and cons of publishing a handmade book versus an e-book or using a printing service? How do artists design a handmade book and collaborate with the writer? How does a small press navigate financial and technological obstacles along the road to publication?
F270. Forbidden Forms: Beyond the Plot Triangle.
(Maya Sonenberg, Tina Hall, Lily Hoang, Lynn Crawford, Alice Mattison) Redwood Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
While rising action, climax, and denouement—the plot triangle—shape much fiction, these panelists have all experimented with forms usually reserved for genres. What happens when the writer crosses a formal border and uses a crown of sonnets, a sestina, a five-paragraph essay, or the I Ching to generate fiction? We’ll reflect on the benefits of writing prose through these forms, discuss philosophical issues, and provide practical advice for those who might want to try similar experiments.
F271. Aphrodite’s Daughter: Rhetoric in Contemporary Poetry.
(Sharon Dolin, Linda Gregerson, Phillis Levin, Vijay Seshadri, Rosanna Warren)
Willow Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
“Persuasion is Aphrodite’s daughter: it is she who beguiles our mortal hearts.” So wrote Sappho 2,600 years ago, and rhetorical figures continue to be the structural foundation of many of the most memorable lines of poetry: from Dante to Shakespeare to Elizabeth Bishop to Anne Carson. Five contemporary poets will discuss individual rhetorical figures in poetry such as: anaphora, aporia, occupatio, chiasmus, and periphrasis, which underpin their own poems and the work of poets they admire.
F272. Hong Kong and Taiwan: Writing in Chinese but not in China.
(Andrea Lingenfelter, Jennifer Feeley, Steve Bradbury, Christopher Mattison)
Room 2A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2.
When people think of current Chinese literature they likely think of the People’s Republic. This mental shortcut bypasses some of the most vital Chinese-language writing today. While culturally and linguistically Chinese, Hong Kong and Taiwan possess distinct cultures and historical experiences that differentiate them from China proper. Four translator/editors discuss Hong Kong and Taiwan writers whose works are marked by innovative language and perspectives that reflect their unique societies.
F273. To E, or Not to E: Journals in the 21st Century.
(Eric Greenwell, Marianne Kunkel, Neil Aitken, Michael Meyerhofer, Nate Liederbach)
Room 2B, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2.
Managing a journal isn’t as uniform as it was just five years ago. Due to new services and innovations, editors now have many options to help their journal grow, even in the face of economic pressure. This panel gathers writers and editors from five journals that operate from all online to hard copy only, and everything in between. They will discuss the benefits and pitfalls of their methods, how writers have responded, and how varying methods affect the quality of work they receive for publication.
F274. Writing Across the Generations: Youth and Senior Pen Pals.
(Steve Siden, Susan Kostick, Alicia Craven, Esther Flannery, Mimi Zekaryas)
Room 3A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 3.
This will be a presentation on the history of the Pen Pal writing club at 826 Seattle, a nonprofit youth writing and tutoring center. Now in its fourth year of operation, the club pairs students ages 6-13 with residents of the University House retirement home. The pen pals exchange letters weekly, telling stories of their lives, and getting to know one anthrough the writing process. The letters have inspired creative writing activities to be discussed at the event.
F275. Smuggling Words: Writers Subverting Borders.
(Judith Hertog, Ewa Chrusciel, Gazmend Kapllani, Devi Laskar)
Room 3B, Washington State Convention Center, Level 3.
Literature has long been associated with national identity. Writers are neatly categorized by nation and language. But immigrant/international writers sneak across borders, smuggle culture, mix languages, and subvert the accepted order. This panel, with writers from a variety of international backgrounds, presents multiple approaches on writing in exile and on transcending culture.
F276. There She Goes Again: Women Writing Travel.
(Suzanne Roberts, Pam Houston, Stephanie Elizondo Griest, Tracy Ross, Lavinia Spalding)
Room 400, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
In this year’s The Best American Travel Writing, three of the 19 essays were written by women. Why such disparity? Are women writing travel and adventure judged under a different set of aesthetics? If so, how does this translate into writing and publishing place-based narratives? These women panelists—memoirists, novelists, poets, and journalists—will discuss the challenges and joys, as well as the doubts and criticism they face in writing and publishing travel and adventure stories.
F277. Meet & Greet with AWP Board Members.
Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
Interested in meeting current AWP board members? Have some ideas for AWP to implement? Do you have questions, or are you looking to get more involved in the organization? If so, join us at the AWP Bookfair Booth (#100 and 102) on Thursday and Friday between Noon and 5:45pm. Please consult the bookfair map in the conference planner for detailed location.
F278. A Celebration of New Work: A Reading by Faculty of Spalding University’s brief-residency MFA in Writing Program.
(Katy Yocom, Kathleen Driskell, Sena Jeter Naslund, K.L. Cook, Greg Pape)
Scott James Bookfair Stage, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
At this celebratory event, Spalding MFA faculty read from recently published work. Come enjoy a drink, listen to readings, and celebrate with us! Spalding alumni, students, faculty, and friends old and new are invited.
F279. Image & Idea: Rachel Kushner & Colm Tóibín, a Reading and Conversation, Sponsored by The Center for Fiction.
(Noreen Tomassi, Colm Tóibín, Rachel Kushner)
Ballroom ABC, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Colm Tóibín (The Testament of Mary) described Rachel Kushner’s The Flamethrowers as, “an ambitious and serious American novel. The scope is wide. The political and the personal are locked in a deep and fascinating embrace.” And in Tóibín’s latest novel he takes on nothing less than the mof Christ. Hear these two authors read and speak about the larger ideas that inspired them and the need for scope in the contemporary novel.
F280. Roads (Not) Taken: Joy Harjo, Harryette Mullen, and Carl Phillips on Craft, Sponsored by Cave Canem.
(Camille T. Dungy, Harryette Mullen, Joy Harjo, Carl Phillips)
Ballroom E, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Three prize-winning poets give brief readings of their innovative work, followed by a moderated conversation on a range of topics, including cultural influences, legacy, shifts in traditional aesthetics, and the contemporary poet’s evolving role and responsibilities. Attention is paid to the particular challenges and rewards of being minority poetic voices within a literary landscape at once predominantly Eurocentric and rapidly diversifying.
F281. How to Write a Nonfiction Book Proposal.
(Joe Miller, Nicole Hardy, Ayesha Pande, Nicholas Boggs)
Room 602/603, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Publishers pay for nonfiction books before they’re written. In fact, they often pay more than they do for finished novels. All you need is a good proposal. It sounds easy, but it’s not; a proposal is in many ways harder to write than a book itself. It’s an entire book, a sales pitch, an audition of writing talent and skills, all wrapped up in a mere handful of pages. In this panel discussion, four authors and an agent offer practical tips for tackling this immense challenge.
F282. Beg, Borrow, Steal: Twenty-five Best Teaching Practices from Teachers Who Write for Writers Who Teach.
(Caroline M. Mar, Paul Rankin, Xochiquetzal Candelaria, Nick Vagnoni, Denise Delgado)
Room 604, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Effective teaching requires training, yet few writing programs include a pedagogical focus. This interactive workshop demonstrates methods begged, borrowed, and stolen from successful classes. We’ll model best practices for developing: student engagement; classroom community; thoughtful craft discussions; dynamic, even fearless writing; useful peer workshops; and meaningful revision for every teaching level and institutional context——things you can use in your next class.
F283. Teaching in Two-Year Colleges.
(Robert Haight, Elizabeth Kerlikowske, David James, Dennis Hinrichsen)
Room 606, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Creative writers at community colleges get little respect, in general, but there are benefits to working in the two-year system. This event will focus on explaining job duties, requirements, as well as the perks and pleasures found in teaching at the community college level where more students enroll than at all four-year public universities combined. The future need for more collaboration, connection, and articulation between university writing programs and community colleges will be discussed.
F284. Just the Facts: Effective Research Strategies in Creative Nonfiction.
(Gail Folkins, Toni Jensen, Kurt Caswell, Jill Patterson, Dennis Covington)
Room 607, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Creative nonfiction demands not only a literary component but also a researched and factual one. Highlighting research gives voice to the processes nonfiction writers use in gathering information, from interviews and archives to the art of immersion. Topics such as integrating and attributing research shed additional light on this genre, focusing on best practices rather than lapses in accuracy and ethics.
F285. From Finding Your Muse to Finding Your Readers: Book Promotion in the 21st Century.
(Midge Raymond, Kelli Russell Agodon, Wendy Call, Janna Cawrse Esarey, Susan Rich)
Room 608, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Panelists from a variety of genres—poetry, fiction, narrative nonfiction, and memoir—will discuss the unique challenges and opportunities of transitioning from writer to published book author. Through specific experiences and using real-world examples, panelists will offer tips for finding one’s natural niche and audience and how to reach out to readers authentically and generously. Topics include book promotion through conferences, book clubs, social media, awards, blogs, events, and salons.
F286. McSweeney’s Poetry Series Launch: A Reading and Discussion.
(Victoria Chang, W.S. Di Piero, Carl Adamshick, Zubair Ahmed, Dan Chelotti)
Room 609, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
This reading and discussion will feature the diverse and talented line-up of poets whose books have been published as part of the newly launched McSweeney’s Poetry Series. Award-winning authors will read from new collections. A Q&A will follow on poems, editing poetry, and publishing with McSweeney’s.
F287. Submitting Translations: The Literary Magazine as the Back Door to Fame and Fortune.
(Minna Proctor, Carolyn Kuebler, Thomas Kennedy, Josh Edwin, Erica Mena)
Room 611, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Historically, literary translators are the wallflowers of publishing; they engage in labors of love within academia and set their sights on the limited prospects of book publication. Meanwhile, literary magazines, the champions of high art and no commerce, are eager to publish translations but don’t know how to solicit, edit, and market translations. This panel will dismantle perceived obstacles of publishing literary translations through a practical discussion of submission and editing strategies.
F288. Don’t Call Me Inspirational: A Readings by Three Writers with CP.
(Michael Northen, Ona Gritz, Harilyn Rousso, Sheila Black, Anne Kaier)
Room 612, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Building on the theme of the recent bestselling book, Don’t Call Me Inspirational, three successful women writers with cerebral palsy will read from their work including poetry, memoir, and literary columns. Readings will highlight the diversity of their writings while countering stereotypes and illuminating the multi-faceted nature of a literary life with CP.
F289. The Middle Matters: How Fiction Writers Approach the Middle of their Stories.
(Elizabeth Poliner, Cathryn Hankla, David Huddle, Marjorie Sandor)
Room 613/614, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
With so much attention to the beginning and ending of stories, this panel will focus on the neglected middle. By examining a variety of works of fiction by acclaimed writers, we will explore interesting and innovative choices writers have made in the middle of their work. What can a writer accomplish in the middle? What formal choices have writers made in the middle? Hinges, turns, crucial scenes, character growth, and means of developing a work of fiction will be discussed.
F290. A Tribute to William S. Burroughs.
(Ira Silverberg, Elissa Schappell, Anne Waldman, Chuck Palahniuk, Alex Dimitrov)
Room 615/616/617, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
This is a tribute to honor William S. Burroughs, one of the most notable American novelists of the 20th century, on the 100th anniversary of his birth. Burroughs was an influential member of the Beat Generation and Postmodernist movement. He wrote eighteen novels including his most well-known and controversial novel, Naked Lunch, which was published in 1959. His work has continued to shape popular culture in music, television, film, and literature.
F291. A Story Larger Than My Own: A Reading.
(Janet Burroway, Madeleine Blais, Jane Smiley, Laura Tohe)
Room 618/619/620, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Following the AWP panels Women Writers of a Certain Age in 2008, ‘09, and ‘12, essays by older woman writers have been collected in A Story Larger Than My Own, published by the University of Chicago Press. This reading will feature contributors to the book who were not heard from on those earlier panels, on such topics as: breaking into journalism in the time of Mad Men; the songs of the sixties as models for life and lit; and leaving the rez and carrying its stories.
F292. Teaching and Writing Overseas.
(Kathy Flann, Jane Delury, Garrard Conley, Glen Retief, Garth Greenwell)
Room LL4, Western New England MFA Annex, Lower Level.
Ernest Hemingway did it. Richard Wright did it. Wouldn’t we all head to Paris to sip espresso and scribble all day if we could? Writers crave the expatriate experience. Perhaps in order to see the homes that shaped us, we must step away and gaze back. But with shrinking incomes and ballooning debts, can we? Writers on this panel secured teaching jobs in Bulgaria, France, the UK, Spain, and Ukraine. They’ll discuss how they landed these jobs, as well as the years that followed.
F293. Place and Ethnicity in Literary Nonfiction.
(Allen Gee, Geeta Kothari, Ruben Martinez, Neela Vaswani, Mark O’Connor)
Room LL5, Western New England MFA Annex, Lower Level.
What occurs when ethnicity intersects with writing about varying locales? This diverse panel will discuss several of the issues that arise when writers contemplate and examine different spaces, such as rural borders, countries, the suburbs, or urban neighborhoods. We’ll speak to what extent protest can figure into one’s work, how we portray specific immigrant cultures and communities, and share observations we’ve made about assimilation and alienation in America.
F294. UBC Creative Writing Celebrates 50 Years.
(Annabel Lyon, Steven Galloway, Bryan Wade, Sara Graefe)
Room 101, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 1.
This event is a multi-genre reading paying tribute to the University of British Columbia Creative Writing program’s 50 year history. This reading will feature current faculty reading works showcasing the program’s diversity and offering anecdotes and insights into the program’s history and many successes.
F295. Using the Gifts of the Region in an Era of Globalization.
(Keya Mitra, Tiphanie Yanique, Shann Ray Ferch, Cristina Henriquez, Matthew Burgess)
Room 202, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 2.
This panel features five authors, writing about regions as distinct as the Virgin Islands, Panama, New York, India, and Montana, who have effectively incorporated what Flannery O’Connor refers to in Mystery and Manners as the gifts of the region in their work through inclusion of local color, dialect, and history. These writers will explore how writers convey the complexity of territories transformed by colonization, globalization, cultural hybridity, and power struggles.
F296. Poets with a Press Pass.
(Tina Kelley, Susan Cohen, Don Colburn, Dana Goodyear, Eliza Griswold)
Room 301, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
Since Whitman, journalists have worked as poets, either on days off or as a second career. Beat reporting or magazine writing provides adventures that inspire poetry. Panelists share poems inspired by news they’ve covered and discuss how they decide what material becomes poetry. Journalistic skills — finding what’s new, choosing telling details, weaving narratives, cutting flab, engaging readers, revising, and making deadlines — are crucial for poets, even those who never walk into a newsroom.
F297. Tribute to Margarita Donnelly and Calyx, One of the Nation’s Oldest Feminist Presses.
(Olga Broumas, Elizabeth Woody, Marianne Villanueva, Angela Narciso Torres, Margarita Donnelly)
Room 302, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
This Tribute event honors Margarita Donnelly for her thirty-six years as Director and Managing Editor of Calyx, the first feminist press on the West Coast. Calyx Journal, begun in Corvallis, Oregon in 1976, and Calyx Books in 1986, are known for discovering women writers early in their careers and opening the eyes of mainstream publishers. Four prominent writers, published early on by Calyx, celebrate one of publishing’s literary treasures and consider the continued importance of Calyx today.
F298. Readings Beyond Campus.
(Jaimie Gusman, Tyler McMahon, Mia Lipman, Jim Ruland, Tara Atkinson)
Room 305, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
In this session, writers and editors from various disciplines will discuss the organization and promotion of readings and literary events without the current support of an academic institution. Some panelists have organized a successful reading series in their communities; others have done so at commuter institutions without a strong literary culture. The panel will support and educate individuals who are currently facilitating literary events or are interested in starting new ones.
Six o'clock p.m. to Seven-fifteen p.m.
F299. FUSE Caucus (Forum of Undergraduate Student Editors).
(Rebecca Godwin, Paul Miller, Michael Cocchiarale, Bethany Slear, Catherine Dent)
Room 2A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2.
Calling all undergraduate faculty and students engaged in editing and publishing literary journals, literary websites, chapbooks, and small presses. Come join FUSE for its annual caucus, which includes FUSE chapter updates followed by a roundtable discussion. This year’s two topics will be “Conferences and Networking” and “The Mission of the Mission Statement.” Bring ideas and journals to exchange.
F300. Indigenous-Aboriginal American Writers Caucus.
(Alexandria Delcourt, Laura Da, M L Smoker, Craig Santos Perez, Roberta Hill)
Room 604, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Indigenous writers and scholars participate fluidly in AWP, teaching and directing affiliated programs, or working as independent writers/scholars, and/or in language revitalization and community programing. Annually imparting field-related craft, pedagogy, celebrations, and concerns as understood by Indigenous-Native writers from the Americas and surrounding island nations is necessary.
F301. Women’s Caucus.
(Susan Kushner Resnick, Honoree Fanonne Jeffers, Alyss Dixson, Sarah Busse, Sheila Bender)
Room 607, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Where is the place for women writers within AWP and within the greater literary community? The women’s caucus discusses questions of continuing inequities in creative writing publication and literature, issues of cultural obstacles in the form of active oppression, stereotypes, lack of access to literary power structures, and the historical marginalization of women’s writing. The caucus also explores perspectives and the diverse voices of women and offers networking opportunities.
F302. Art School Writing Faculty Caucus.
(Hugh Behm-Steinberg, Monica Drake, Ariana-Sophia Kartsonis, Grant Hier, Ryan G. Van Cleave)
Room 611, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Annual meeting of Art School Faculty members to discuss pedagogy, programming, administration, and best practices particular to Art School writing classes and programs.
Seven o'clock p.m. to Eight-fifteen p.m.
F303. Western Washington University Reception.
Aspen Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Western Washington University invites you to a reception in recognition of our esteemed alumni as well as our newly minted MFA Program. Come and celebrate the Creative Writing Community with our faculty.
F304. New York University Reception.
Cedar Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
F305. Image 25th Anniversary Reception. Juniper/Madrona Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
F306. The Writing Program at the University of Pittsburgh Reception. Redwood A & B Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Please join the faculty and students in the Writing Program at the University of Pittsburgh for a reception. Alumni, prospective applicants, and friends are all welcome to join us for food and drinks.
F307. Anhinga Press 40th Anniversary Reception. Ballard Room, Sheraton Seattle, 3rd Floor.
F308. The Solstice Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing Program & ECWC: Writers in Paradise. Capital Hill Room, Sheraton Seattle, 3rd Floor
Join the Solstice Low-Residency MFA Program and ECWC: Writers in Paradise for a celebration featuring drinks, appetizers, and short readings by faculty and alumni of two uniquely engaging programs.
F309. California College of Arts Reception. Issaquah Room, Sheraton Seattle, 3rd Floor.
F310A. Salmon Poetry: A Reception and Reading to Celebrate our Spring Poetry Collections. Kirkland Room, Sheraton Seattle, 3rd Floor
Our Spring Poetry Collections: Featuring Raina Leone, Cameron Conaway, Stephen Powers, Philip Fried, Jean Kavanagh, Kelly Moffit, Lex Runciman, John Menaghan, John Fitzgerald, Kevin Higgins, Jo Slade, Ed Madden, Joseph P. Woods, Jo Pitkin, Mary Pinard, Dan Moran, Robert McDowell, Alan Jude Moore, Jacqueline Kolosov-Wenthe, and Laura-Grey Street.
F310B. Sewanee Writers’ Conference Reception. Ravenna Room, Sheraton Seattle, 3rd Floor.
Eight-thirty p.m. to Ten o'clock p.m.
F311. A Reading and Conversation with Gretel Ehrlich and Barry Lopez, Sponsored by the Western Washington University MFA in Creative Writing.
(Gretel Ehrlich, Barry Lopez, Neal Conan)
Ballroom ABC, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Gretel Ehrlich, author of The Solace of Open Spaces and In the Empire of Ice, and Barry Lopez, author of Arctic Dreams and Of Wolves and Men, will present readings of their award-winning work, followed by a moderated discussion. The event will be moderated by award-winning journalist and former host of NPR’s “Talk of the Nation,” Neal Conan.
F312. Robert Hass, Eva Saulitis, and Gary Snyder: Writing Nature in a Scientific Age, Sponsored by Red Hen Press.
(Peggy Shumaker, Gary Snyder, Eva Saulitis, Robert Hass)
Ballroom E, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Author and marine biologist Eva Saulitis joins legendary poets Robert Hass and Gary Snyder for a reading followed by a conversation, moderated by Peggy Shumaker, about the task of writing about nature in a culture that often prizes easily commodifiable academic achievement over messier ways of knowing: the lyric, the spiritual, the sublime.
Ten o'clock p.m. to Twelve midnight.
F313. AWP Public Reception & Dance Party. Grand Ballroom, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
A Dance Party with music by DJ Neza. Free beer and wine from ten o'clock to eleven o'clock p.m. Cash bar from eleven o'clock pm to midnight.
F314. Old School Slam.
(Laura E.J. Moran, Glenis Redmond, Daemond Arrindell)
Willow Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
AWP welcomes students to return to the roots of Slam! Open mic, special guests, and then undergraduate and graduate students partake in a hardcore-break-your-heart-strut-out-the-good-stuff slam competition. Students are welcome to sign up to participate on Thursday and at the Wilkes University/Etruscan Press booth and read original pieces (three minutes or less with no props) at the Slam later that night. Hosted by Wilkes University and Etruscan Press.
Eight o'clock a.m. to Twelve noon.
S100. Conference Registration.
Registration Area, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
Attendees who have registered in advance may pick up their registration materials in AWP’s preregistered check-in area, located in the registration area on Level 4 of the Washington State Convention Center. If you have not yet registered for the conference, please visit the unpaid registration area, also in the registration area on Level 4. Please consult the bookfair map in the conference planner for location details. Students must present a valid student ID to check-in or register at our student rate. Seniors must present a valid ID to register at our senior rate. A $50 fee will be charged for all replacement badges.
Eight-thirty a.m. to Six o'clock p.m.
S101. AWP Bookfair, Sponsored by Hollins University: Jackson Center for Creative Writing.
North & South Exhibit Halls, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
With more than 650 literary exhibitors the AWP bookfair is the largest of its kind. A great way to meet authors, critics, and peers, the bookfair also provides excellent opportunities to find information about many literary magazines, presses, and organizations. Please consult the bookfair map in the conference planner for location details.
Eight-thirty a.m. to Five-thirty p.m.
S102. Bookfair Concessions, Coffee, Bars, & Lounge.
Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
Breakfast and lunch concessions are available from Eight-thirty a.m. to Four-thirty p.m. in the North and South halls of the bookfair, Level 4 of the Washington State Convention Center. There will be a bar and a coffee cart in each the North Hall and the South Lobby complete with lounge seating. Both bars serving wine, beer, and mixed drinks will be open twelve noon to Five-thirty p.m. Both coffee carts are open Eight-thirty a.m. to Five-thirty p.m. each day. Cash, debit, and credit cards are accepted at all food and beverage locations. Please consult the bookfair map in the conference planner for detailed locations.
S103. Dickinson Quiet Space.
Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
A dedicated quiet space for you to collect your thoughts, unwind, and escape the literary chaos. Please consult the bookfair map in the conference planner for detailed location. “There is a solitude of space, / A solitude of sea, / A solitude of death, but these / Society shall be, / Compared with that profounder site, / That polar privacy, / A Soul admitted to Itself: / Finite Infinity.” - Emily Dickinson
S104. Lactation Room.
Please visit the AWP Help Desk in the registration area of the bookfair on Level 4 of the Washington State Convention Center for access to the lactation room. For reasons of privacy and security, access to the lactation room is granted with permission by AWP only.
Nine o'clock a.m. to Ten-fifteen a.m.
S105. Novels-in-Stories or Story Cycles.
(Garry Craig Powell, Sybil Baker, Anis Shivani, Nami Mun)
Aspen Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Ever since Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio, story cycles have been a major feature of the American literary landscape; in recent years examples by Louise Erdrich, Sandra Cisneros, Tim O’ Brien, Robert Olen Butler, Jennifer Egan, and others have kept them at the forefront. Still, they are rarely taught or discussed as a distinct form. A panel of accomplished practitioners considers the advantages of this hybrid and suggests why the whole can be so much more than the sum of its parts.
S106. Translation as Pure Writing.
(Russell Scott Valentino, Esther Allen, Bill Johnston, Elizabeth Harris, Susan Bernofsky)
Cedar Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
When asked whether he wasn’t worried that his Spanish might be inadequate to translate Gabriel Garcia Marquez into English, Gregary Rabassa famously quipped that the real question wasn’t whether his Spanish was good enough; it was whether his English was good enough. This panel will explore the pleasures and virtues of translation as pure writing, where the writers are not distracted by what their characters might do next, where to place a scene, or how in the world to end, begin, or transition.
S107. Transitioning into the Future: Sustaining the Collective Poetry Press.
(Carter McKenzie, Donna Henderson, Terry Ehret, Murray Silverstein, Annie Lighthart) Redwood Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
In order to thrive, consensus-based publishing ventures must find ways to be both stable and dynamic over time. Representatives from Airlie Press and Sixteen Rivers Press will discuss their experiences as established poetry collectives and will exchange ideas about how the collaborative work of authors, mentors, and publishers may allow presses to maintain continuity while envisioning sustainable transitions.
S108. Write Bloody Publishing 10th Anniversary Reading and Honkytonk Badonkadonk.
(Derrick Brown, Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz, Jon Sands, Mindy Nettifee, Taylor Mali)
Willow Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Four of Write Bloody’s most celebrated poets come together to honor and commemorate the press’s phenomenal success bringing poetry to nontraditional audiences through heavy author touring, creative social media promotion, and a D.I.Y. rock-and-roll business model. There will also be a Q&A with press founder Derrick Brown.
S109. Drawing Out the Poet: Visual Art in the Writing Workshop.
(Matthew Burgess, Joanna Fuhrman, Thomas Devaney, Sara Jane Stoner, Abraham Avnisan)
Room 2A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2.
A Grecian Urn set Keats’s imagination in motion, and Brancusi’s golden bird triggered Mina Loy’s flight of words. Writing in response to visual art and incorporating visual media into our poetic practice engages the imagination in exciting ways: it can quicken our attention, free us of familiar modes, and stimulate some of our best work. The poet-teachers on this panel examine the role of visual art in their own practice, and they share innovative techniques for inspiring student writing.
S110. Lifelong Community: Launching and Activating an MFA Alumni Organization.
(Michael Bayer, Michael White, Erin Corriveau, Ashley Andersen Zantop, Adele Annesi)
Room 2B, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2.
After leaving behind classmates and mentors, how can MFA graduates extend that sense of community into a lifetime of collective inspiration and productivity? Few MFA programs have formal alumni associations, and those that do often limit their scope to a Facebook page. Panelists from the Fairfield University MFA Alumni Association will discuss their group’s formation, mission, and ambitious project to engage alumni in writing and publishing a full-length guide on “post-MFA survival.”
S111. Geeks, Punks and Freaks: Writing from the Cultural Fringe.
(Steven Lee Beeber, Peter Bebergal, Ethan Gilsdorf)
Room 3A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 3.
Fringe subcultures such as gaming, Dungeons & Dragons, punk rock, comic books, the occult, and fandom communities can be ideal portals through which to examine the self, construct narratives, and comment on the culture at large. In this session, three panelists whose books mix memoir, pop culture, and ethnography discuss best practices for breaking into subcultures, conducting fringe culture reportage, and using that research to tell powerful and poignant stories about the human condition.
S112. Orchestration for Writers 101.
(Jeff Minton, Joseph Schwartzburt, Nancy McKinley, Zach Powers)
Room 3B, Washington State Convention Center, Level 3.
Writers use terms like lyricism, tone, and cadence to describe how a book feels or sings. Are these musical terms mere analogies, or can the inherent musical traits in language be quantified and employed by writers and teachers? Through examination of narrative voices as instruments used to interweave intricate lines of thought, this panel asserts that educators can teach students to score a narrative symphonically.
S113. Navigating the ‘60s: The Publishing World and the Post-Sixty Writer.
(Valerie Sayers, William O’Rourke, David Matlin)
Room 400, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
American literature has a few notable second acts, but what is the usual experience of writers later in life? How does one sustain a literary career over many decades? The pitfalls and practices of writers who have been down a long road will be examined, as will the question of why “mid-list author” is just anname for a writer who isn’t a celebrity. Is there ageism in commercial publishing? Elsewhere? And does it matter?
S114. A University of Kansas & Beecher’s Reading.
(Ashley Ortiz, Katie Savage, Kelly Barth, Anne Royston, Mary Stone Dockery)
Robert Muroff Bookfair Stage, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
Sponsored by the University of Kansas and Beecher’s, the graduate journal out of KU, this multi-genre reading will feature writers affiliated with KU, published in Beecher’s, or with connections to the state of Kansas. This reading celebrates the rich literary community across Kansas and beyond.
S115. The Creative Writer as Critic.
(Steve Woodward, Sven Birkerts, Stephen Burt, Leslie Jamison, Kevin Young)
Room 602/603, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Criticism is vital to the literary community, and an increasing number of authors also act as critics. How does their own writing practice and experience as authors inform their work as critics? What is their responsibility to authors, critics, and readers? How can such dual engagement enrich the conversation about literature? Four respected author/critics of diverse backgrounds discuss the convergence of authorship and criticism in their own lives across fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.
S116. Handling Words: Books Arts and the Creative Process.
(Meryl DePasquale, Kyle Schlesinger, Matvei Yankelevich, Aaron Cohick, Amelia Bird)
Room 604, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
From Milton to Woolf, literary history abounds with writers who divided their time between desk and print shop. Four contemporary writers, who are also book artists and fine press publishers, reflect upon how their creative process is influenced by the alteration between these roles. Can tactile experiences with printing and binding affect writers’ relationship to language? When the act of writing is made physical through the book arts, how is a writer’s perception of his/her work also changed?
S117. Secondary Orality in the US.
(Tim Kahl, Laura Wetherington, Harmony Holiday, Albert Abonado, Jeff Simpson)
Room 606, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Secondary orality refers to how technology has allowed oral traditions to re-establish their primacy with respect to printed literature. Panelists will discuss how technology has enhanced the page with elements of sound, music, and video that reinforce the transition back to oral tradition. In the US this is done primarily through online literary magazines and project databases which promote distribution and coordinate musical, theatrical, and spoken elements as though derived from ritual.
S118. The Longer View: Long Poems from The Seattle Review, A Poetry Reading.
(Andrew Feld, Susan McCabe, Barbara Claire Freeman, H.L. Hix, Peter Streckfus)
Room 607, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
In 2011, The Seattle Review became the only print journal in America wholly dedicated to longer works of poetry and prose. The extended, ambitious works writers have always found almost impossible to publish now have a home in our pages. Editor-in-Chief Andrew Feld will introduce four poets whose contributions to the Seattle Review testify to the astonishing range, vitality, and necessity of the contemporary long poem.
S119. Beyond Pessoa, the New Landscape of Portuguese American Literature.
(Luis Gonçalves, Paula Neves, Millicent Borges Accardi, Amy Sayre Baptista, Carlo Matos)
Room 608, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
In recent years, there has been a surge in the visibility of Portuguese American literature. From early immigrant tales of fishermen, whalers, carpenters, and factory workers, to modern day poetry and fiction about ethnicity, politics, and identity, this panel will discuss the landscape of Portuguese American writing in the 21st century.
S120. War Zones: Youth & Violence in Writing.
(Aaron Samuel, Fatimah Asghar, Nate Marshall, Franny Choi)
Room 609, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Violence impacts young people in important developmental ways that are evident in the writing they produce. This panel will allow a few of those young writers to discuss their thinking about violence and its impact on their craft. These writers will discuss how violence in its various forms (genocide, gang violence, sexual violence, domestic violence, etc.) is rendered in the form and content of their work.
S121. What the Dog Said: Writing in Unusual Points of View.
(Lydia Ship, Anthony Varallo, Amina Gautier, Cara Blue Adams)
Room 611, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Four prize-winning fiction writers read and share the unorthodox points of view they’ve used and how they’ve used them to achieve fresh effects and perspectives. Many points of view used in uncommon ways, from the disruptive second-person, to the unreliable first-person plural, to the epistolary first-person will be read and discussed, including advice about how to take full advantage of each and avoid common mistakes.
S122. Cascadia: Reading (and Writing) the Bioregion.
(Trevor Carolan, Frank Stewart, Judith Roche, Rex Weyler, Lee Maracle)
Room 612, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
This event celebrates Manoa Journal’s publication of Cascadia: The Life and Breath of the World, a pathbreaking anthology of literature from the Pacific Coast’s Cascadia region. The reading will showcase authors from the cross-border region in which the 2014 conference is being held, articulate how Cascadia’s literary aesthetics and poetics are ecologically grounded; and explore the role of contemporary Cascadian writing in community building, citizenship, and spirituality.
S123. So You Want to Change the World? Literary Editors on Writing with a Social Purpose.
(Simmons Buntin, Michael Archer, Michele Johnson, Elizabeth Murphy, Jennifer Sahn)
Room 613/614, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Are you interested in crafting literature that speaks to the world’s larger social issues? Do you know where to publish and what editors are looking for? Gain insight from five leading literary publications that focus on the social context, from class to environment, feminism to race. The editors of Guernica, Orion, So to Speak, the Straddler, and Terrain.org will share their experiences, insight, and wisdom on writing and publishing with a social purpose.
S124. New America.
(Wang Ping, Joan Silber, Jason England, Carlos Hernandez, Holly Messitt)
Room 615/616/617, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
We frequently see celebrations of American diversity through readings of individual ethnic or identity literature. This panel will gather contemporary fiction writers from New America: Contemporary Literature for a Changing Society to celebrate the diversity of American literature by featuring a polyglot of voices from across the spectrum that reflects a range of experiences and backgrounds and frames a contemporary American literature that is at once inclusive, substantial, and well-written.
S125. Hip Lit: How Innovative Reading Series Are Revamping the Literary Scene.
(Melissa Stein, Stephen Elliott, Eric Lorberer, Adrian Todd Zuniga, Marie-Elizabeth Mali)
Room 618/619/620, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
How can literature hold its own against mass media and pop culture? Reading series that showcase fine work in inventive ways can build dynamic arts communities and help authors promote and popularize their books among diverse new audiences. In this lively panel, curators and hosts of wildly popular series such as Literary Death Match, The Rumpus, Page Meets Stage, and Rain Taxi discuss how to deploy ingenious PR strategies, curate creatively, turn events into hip hangouts, and keep things fresh.
S126. Teaching From the Stolen Purse.
(Bruce Holland Rogers, JT Stewart, Judy Kronenfeld, Stephanie Hammer, Jo Scott-Coe)
Room LL4, Western New England MFA Annex, Lower Level.
Let’s help our students learn to read like writers, that is, with literary larceny in mind! This panel examines the use of published work as a springboard for ideas or a hoard of useful techniques. If anwriter’s work is a stolen purse that we rifle through for the stuff we want to keep, how do we know what we can legitimately appropriate with a clear conscience? How do we know inspiration and instruction from mere imitation? How do we keep track of all that these texts teach us?
S127. Women’s Voices Matter—A Reading from Lost Orchard: Prose and Poetry from the Kirkland College Community.
(Jo Pitkin, Maria Theresa Stadtmueller, Jane Summer, Nin Andrews, Gwynn O’Gara)
Room LL5, Western New England MFA Annex, Lower Level.
Kirkland College pioneered the undergraduate creative writing major in the 1970s. Lost Orchard, just published by SUNY Press, culls work from Kirkland’s alumnae and faculty and is a testament to the vision of the last women’s college chartered in the United States. Contributors will read from this anthology and share insights about their legacy of supporting women writers, forging independent writing lives with few models, and casting the mold for today’s undergraduate writing programs.
S128. Editors as Readers as Writers.
(Kathleen Livingston, Kate Carroll de Gutes, Eric Walters, Jordan Wiklund, Ana Holguin)
Room 101, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 1.
As manuscript reviewers for Fourth Genre, we find some essays particularly appealing because they strike a writerly chord, inviting us to read as writers, and to enter into conversations by writing our own creative nonfiction for which these manuscripts are touchstones. Two essayists whose work will appear in Fourth Genre will read; members of Fourth Genre’s editorial board will make this conversation visible by reading the pieces that were thus inspired.
S129. Reported Poem, Lyric Truth.
(Tess Taylor, Shane Book, Rachel Richardson, Craig Teicher, Martha Collins)
Room 202, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 2.
Walt Whitman was both a poet and a journalist, and from Rukeyser to Lowell to Forché, American poetry contains deep traditions of using reported material to craft lyric expression. How do current poets report their work? How do they they use journalistic techniques to gather poetic material? And what are the differences between lyric and journalistic truths? Five contemporary poets who use research, reporting, and documentary methods talk about their means, modes, and crafts.
S130. The Promises and Perils of Publicity.
(Susan Kushner Resnick, Mary Ann Gwinn, Jessica Glenn, Deborah Reed, Marion Winik)
Room 301, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
We all know how important publicity is in today’s publishing climate, but do you know how to hire the right independent publicist? How to work with your in-house marketing staff? How to make sure you don’t get taken advantage of? How to be your own publicist? A novelist who got it right, a nonfictionist with a cautionary tale, an independent publicist, and a book review editor will discuss how to successfully bring your work to readers no matter what your budget.
S131. Never Grow Up: Building a Life in Children’s and Young Adult Fiction.
(E. Lockhart, Robin Wasserman, Adele Griffin, Sarah Mlynowski)
Room 302, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
How do you build a long-term career in children’s publishing when your readers just won’t stop growing up? It takes passion, patience, and perpetual reinvention. These four writers have fifty-two years of publishing experience and 114 published books between them. They will offer strategies for rejuvenating creative energies, nurturing industry relationships, riding out highs and lows, and sustaining a career that will last a lifetime.
S132. Good Luck with That: Writers Paying Bills.
(Gerald Richards, Leona Sevick, Clifford Garstang, Dustin Ballard, Ann Baxter)
Room 303, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
Five writers with diverse backgrounds will speak on their nontraditional career paths in nonprofit management, medicine, law, administration, and media, and on sustaining the writing life outside of the workshop and classroom. When it comes to the real-world mundanity of paying the bills, the professional world offers a multitude of often-overlooked opportunities for the application of literary training and sensibilities.
S133. Poetics of Generosity: The Fine Art of Constructive Praise.
(Alden Jones, Lisa Borders, Kate Racculia, Ron MacLean, Christopher Castellani)
Room 305, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
Itemizing flaws tends to dominate workshop discussion. It’s a reflex that may make us feel smart as teachers, but it’s not what’s most helpful — or most rigorous. The real value in feedback is to articulate possibilities toward which that writer is reaching, and help them identify ways to realize those possibilities. In this panel, four Grub Street instructors will discuss how they’ve used constructive praise to help students improve their work and to build community within and beyond class.
S134. New Kids on the Block: Emerging Latino Voices Engage in Discourse on Poetry, Community, and Craft.
(Francisco Aragon, Lauren Espinoza, Nayelly Barrios, Lauro Vasquez Rueda, Marcelo Hernandez Castillo)
Aspen Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Latino/as are underrepresented in writing programs. The Letras Latinas Poets Initiative aims to create space for those Latino/as enrolled in MFA programs in order to dialogue with one anin online roundtable forums, as well as at weekend retreats. This panel consists of four poets who are part of this initiative’s inaugural cohort. They will discuss what participation has meant to them and seek to publicize the program to prospective participants at the conference.
Ten-thirty a.m. to Eleven-forty-five a.m.
S135. The Wreckage of Reason: Contemporary Experimental Prose by Women Writers.
(Aimee Parkison, Alexandra Chasin, Danielle Alexander, Cyndi Reeves, Nava Renek)
Cedar Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Writers from Wreckage of Reason 2, an anthology of contemporary experimental prose by women, discuss challenging traditional modes of storytelling, subverting narrative and language, and exploring provocative subject matter as they follow in the footsteps of Gertrude Stein, Virginia Woolf, and Djuna Barnes at a time when experimental writing by women has been virtually shut out of the mainstream publishing market.
S136. Resisting Rise, Fall, Resolve: Strategies for the Anti-Memoir.
(Elizabeth Kadetsky, Robin Romm, David MacLean, Joanna Smth Rakoff, Liz Scarboro) Redwood Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Traditional memoir suggests a journey from tragedy to redemption with a sane narrator who provides a handrail through chaos. This panel discusses possibilities for disrupting the classic rise-fall arc of the confession, exploring ways to rough up the memoir genre. Authors can create danger through form: 2nd and 3rd person, graphics and text/image hybrid, novelization, fractured narrative, scrambled chronology, meta-textual deconstruction, or, simply, falling deeper and deeper as narrative arc.
S137. Writing on the Great Plains: A Celebration of 40 Years of Creative Writing at Wichita State University.
(Josh Barkan, Sam Taylor, Albert Goldbarth, Margaret Dawe)
Willow Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Wichita State University’s MFA Program celebrates its 40th anniversary with a reading by current faculty presenting their own work as well as highlights from a celebrated group of alumni.
S138. MFA Students as TAs at Community College: Two Models.
(Kris Bigalk, Denise Hill, Amy Fladeboe)
Room 2A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2.
Most MFA students who intend to teach struggle to gain the necessary experience before applying for that first job. This session will outline two models that embed MFA students into community college creative writing classrooms and English departments, and discuss the benefits to all involved: teaching experience and mentoring for the MFA students, assistance in and out of the classroom for the community college faculty, and an enhanced learning experience for community college students.
S139. Research in the Workshop: Teaching Documentary Literature.
(Joseph Harrington, Cole Swensen, Jena Osman, Eleni Sikelianos, Susan M. Schultz)
Room 2B, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2.
Historical literature has become more popular in recent years in all genres, and it is showing up in more college literature courses. But how can we integrate historical research into the workshop? How does such work change our understanding of the nature of conducting research and of creative writing pedagogy? These questions will be addressed by panelists who are teachers and writers of research-based literature.
S140. FUSION: International Collaborations of Poetry and Art.
(Nikola Madzirov, Mahnaz Badihian, TJ Dema)
Room 3A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 3.
Digital technology, visual arts, internationalism: together they can expand the visibility of poetry in exciting, innovative ways. This panel will demonstrate through the example of FUSION, a new online series from the eighty-eight-year-old American journal Prairie Schooner. These themed collaborations blend poetry and art from single countries with poems from the journal’s archives and Nebraska art. FUSION curators from Macedonia, Iran, and Botswana will discuss the worldwide impact of such projects.
S141. Advice to Nonprofit Organizations Seeking Funding from the NEA.
(Amy Stolls, Eleanor Steele)
Room 3B, Washington State Convention Center, Level 3.
Staff members from the Literature Division of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) will address your questions and provide a status update on a range of topics, including grant opportunities, eligibility, the review process, tips for an effective proposal, policy trends, funding levels, and the future outlook for the agency and the field of literature. Both publishers and presenters are welcome.
S142. The Long Run: Anhinga Press 40th Anniversary Reading.
(Erika Meitner, Diane Wakoski, Keith Ratzlaff, Frank Gaspar)
Room 400, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
This group represents the full spectrum of Anhinga’s rich catalog. Four of these poets won the Anhinga Prize for Poetry as emerging poets, Diane Wakoski came to Anhinga after she had become one of the most famous poets in the country. All of them are certainly among the best poets writing today.
S143. A Sense of Place: The Washington State Geospatial Poetry Anthology.
(Katharine Whitcomb, Elizabeth Austen, Alice Derry, Christianne Balk)
Patricia Olson Bookfair Stage, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
This reading celebrates the 2nd edition of A Sense of Place. The seventy poems in A Sense Of Place are each written about a particular location in Washington state by Washington poets. The poems evoke the atmosphere of place: air, water or lack of water, smells, sounds, interiors, landscapes, landmarks, heritage, and history of places in Washington. The reading of these geographically distinct poems will be enhanced by geospatial imaging and photographs.
S144. Publication Studio Authors: Howard W. Robertson and Matt Briggs.
(Margaret Robertson, Howard W. Robertson, Matt Briggs)
Robert Muroff Bookfair Stage, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
Publication Studio authors Howard W. Robertson and Matt Briggs will read from their books of poems and stories. Publication Studio is located in Portland, Oregon.
S145. Poetry from WordTech.
(Mary Sherman Willis, Marcene Gandolfo, Aimee Suzara, Zara Raab, Roy Mash)
Scott James Bookfair Stage, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
Poets published by WordTech Communications read from their new books.
S146. What We Talk About When We Talk About Subtext.
(Catherine Brady, Marlon James, Thaisa Frank, Ilie Ruby, Pablo Medina)
Room 602/603, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Fiction writers from within and outside the traditional bounds of realism consider how elements of craft are orchestrated to generate subtext, examining how standard formulas for depicting character in conflict leave out essential dimensions of the relationship between the literal and the figurative, how the narrative arc can be exploited to generate subtext, and how patterns of imagery and diction are welded to plot development.
S147. Literary Adventures in Paradise: Celebrating FLAC’s 10th Anniversary.
(Elisabeth Lanser-Rose, James Wilson, Rick Campbell, Terri Witek)
Room 604, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
On its 10th anniversary, the Florida Literary Arts Coalition recounts how a nonprofit network dedicated to writing and independent publishing grew to serve college students, writers, faculty, program directors, editors, publishers, and K-12 teachers and students. FLAC hosts the annual Words Conference and the Florida Writer’s Circuit. The panel discusses how to raise funds, advertise, build, and serve a culturally and artistically diverse region.
S148. What Are We Projecting?: American Poetry and Poetics in the Era of the Project.
(Sasha Steensen, Catherine Wagner, Rodrigo Toscano, Ronaldo Wilson, Bhanu Kapil)
Room 606, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Whatever happened to books of poems in which each poem was separate and distinct? Increasingly, American poets with a range of aesthetic sensibilities have begun to describe their writing in terms of the “project.” This panel will investigate the predominance of the “project” poem and examine the social demands to frame poetics as project. By exploring limitations and advantages of projects and critiquing their own “projects,” panelists will propose alternatives to project-modeled inquiry.
S149. Ain’t From Around Here: Travel Writers on Writing the Place You Know and the Place You Don’t.
(Annie Nguyen, Evan Balkan, Brian Kevin, Thomas Swick, Rolf Potts)
Room 607, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
For a travel writer, expertise, and naïveté are tools in the same quiver. Often, one’s work calls upon a well of intimacy and a deep connection to place. In instances, a writer trades on his or her outsider status. How do these approaches differ? What techniques and perspectives characterize the experience of writing the familiar versus the foreign? Panelists will contrast their experiences to examine how writers in all genres approach place, narrative authority, and the value of local ken.
S150. So You Want to Build a Platform: But What is It & Why Do You Need One? Women Writers & Editors Speak Out.
(Sheila McMullin, Molly Gaudry, Rosebud Ben-Oni, Sheryl Rivett, Arisa White)
Room 608, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
While women’s voices are underrepresented in print publishing, online activism can balance the scales. Cultivating an online presence is not as easy as DIY and shameless self-promotion tales make it look. Creative thinkers, to highlight minority and emerging voices, develop unique online resources to build ever-expanding communities and celebrate accomplishments. Panelists explore empowerment, utility of web-based writing, maintaining professionalism, and ways to keep viewers returning and sharing.
S151. Fractious Art: The Palestine/Israel Poetry Anthology.
(Edward Morin, Joan Dobbie, Ibrahim Muhawi, Willa Schneberg, Ingrid Wendt)
Room 609, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
The 65-year-long Palestine-Israel conflict has generated outstanding poems by Amichai, Darwish and many contemporary poets. Before There is Nowhere To Stand: Palestine/Israel: Poets Respond to the Struggle gathers work by seventy Arab, Jewish, and poets who express compassion and anger tempered with bursts of humor and irony. Editors and contributors discuss the book’s artistic merits, the adventure of producing it, and various audiences’ problematic reception.
S152. Best Practices for Submitting an AWP Panel Proposal.
Room 611, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Come join AWP conference committee members and staff for a best practices discussion about submitting a panel proposal for the 2015 Conference & Bookfair in Minneapolis. Discussion will include an overview of the proposal system and tips for submitting a more effective proposal.
S153. Queer Translation.
(Joyelle McSweeney, Johannes Goransson, Don Mee Choi, Lucas DeLima, Jeffrey Angles)
Room 612, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
As translators, artists, scholars, and performers, we’ll consider how ‘queer translation’ might host a queer interaction or strange meeting; how it might undermine nationalist demarcations of the body, including binaries separating male and female, able and disabled, human and inhuman, whole and partial bodies; the force of translation as a ‘political uncanny’; and whether translation itself might figure a queer or middle body, an activist body, a political resource.
S154. Crossing Over to Children’s Literature.
(Lois Peterson, Sarah Nickerson, Glen Huser, Alison Acheson, Danika Dinsmore)
Room 613/614, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Many writers begin in one form and cross over to another. Poets become screenwriters become novelists. But the rapidly expanding field of children’s literature is an industry with its own particular quirks and challenges. On this panel, we will discuss the author impetus for the shift into “kid lit,” how the challenges of the industry differ from avenues of publishing, and how the panelists’ previous creative work has served (or hindered) them in this realm.
S155. Hyphenated Poets: Ethnic American Writing Against Type.
(Kaveh Bassiri, Barbara Jane Reyes, Cathy Park Hong, Farid Matuk, Solmaz Sharif)
Room 615/616/617, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
While immigrant poets have long sought to recover and celebrate their ethnic identity, a new generation is problematizing the notion of identity and what it means to be American. These poets respond to socially constructed types that marginalize them to fulfill diversity quotas, and they seize the English language to interrogate the myth of American essentialism. In this reading and discussion, we will hear four writers respond to these challenges with poetry.
S156. Rethinking the Poetry Workshop: Innovating and Subverting Traditional Creative Writing Pedagogy.
(Michael Dumanis, Mark Wunderlich, April Bernard, Kazim Ali, Joshua Marie Wilkinson)
Room 618/619/620, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
The poetry workshop, essentially a moderated session of peer critique of student drafts in which the writer stays largely silent, has been the trusted model in creative writing pedagogy since the advent of creative writing programs. Five professors of poetry discuss the pros and cons of the traditional workshop as the primary teaching tool in the poetry writing classroom, suggest unconventional workshop techniques, and consider alternate ways to approach the teaching of creative writing.
S157. The Soldier’s Perspective: How Creative Writing Serves Vets & They Serve Each Other.
(Kathryn Trueblood, Shawn Wong, Christine Leche, Will Borego, Clayton Swansen)
Room LL4, Western New England MFA Annex, Lower Level.
This panel features soldiers who are enrolled in or have completed writing programs alongside their teachers. It gives vets with creative writing degrees the chance to talk about how they were mentored and how that has carried into their own teaching—whether it be on campus, on base, or in community vet centers. What subjects and styles of teaching are the most productive for the soldier-writer in the creative writing classroom? What enables them to carry the mission forward?
S158. “Doubt is my Revelation”: Creative Nonfiction On Religion.
(Jeff Sharlet, Nathan Schneider, Kaya Oakes, Brook Wilensky-Lanford)
Room LL5, Western New England MFA Annex, Lower Level.
Philip Lopate has written that the essay as a form is all about doubt. But what if you’re an essayist obsessed with religion? How does a skeptic engage with devout subjects? Or alternately, how does a writer of faith reach across the divide to unbelievers? Editors of and contributors to Killing the Buddha, an online literary magazine specializing in “first person dispatches from the margins of faith,” share their experiences and discuss the essential role of doubt in writing about faith.
S159. My Life is a Fiction: Writing Fiction From Autobiography.
(Jodi Angel, Pam Houston, Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum, Greg Spatz, Josh Weil)
Room 101, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 1.
We’re all familiar with the debate over the ethics of fictionalizing elements of one’s memoir, but what about using your life as a foundation for your fiction? Are we committing imaginative fraud when our fiction steps too directly over the border into literary autobiography? Where, for that matter, does that border even lie? On this panel, five writers re-frame the discussion on genre division and discuss the ways in which the details of their lives stir and shape their fiction.
S160. The Human Heart Hasn’t Changed: Celebrating 40 Years of The Sun.
(Sy Safransky, Rachel Yoder, Cary Tennis, Danusha Lameris, Molly Herboth)
Room 202, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 2.
The Sun is an independent, ad-free, monthly magazine that for forty years has explored the splendor and heartache of the human condition. From its inception in 1974, The Sun has attempted to marry the personal and the political, honor the transcendent as well as the irreverent, and explore the transformative moments of our daily lives. This reading features editor and founder, Sy Safransky, and three writers whose courageous personal writing has appeared in The Sun.
S161. Sam Hamill & Friends.
(Bruce Weigl, Rebecca Seiferle, Sam Hamill, Steve Kuusisto, Cyrus Cassells)
Room 301, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
A reading in honor of renowned poet, translator, editor, and activist, Sam Hamill who, for nearly half a century has been at the center of American poetry, as a student of Kenneth Rexroth, founder of Copper Canyon Press, founder of Poets Against the War, translator of classic Japanese poetry, and author of dozens of collections of poetry. Joining Hamill are four poets whose work and lives have been influenced by his dedication.
S162. Parts Toward a Whole: Tackling the Series of Linked Stories or Poems.
(Clare Rossini, Benjamin Grossberg, Alan Michael Parker, Alix Ohlin)
Room 302, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
Four writers of book-length sequences—both poems and short fiction—will discuss their models, and the creative and practical challenges of composing such a series. How do we answer the need for range while creating a cohesive whole? How do we sustain such projects over time? What approaches to titles and order work best, and how do repeated forms and textures shape a series? The panelists will discuss their own projects, along with work by Bell, Komunyakaa, Porter, and Calvino, among others.
S163. This is Not Your Country: Creating Characters Outside the Landscape of Our Lives.
(Q Lindsey Barrett, Caitlin Horrocks, Donna Miscolta, Benjamin K. Drevlow, Sharisse Tracey Smith)
Room 303, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
To whom does the literary landscape belong? Memoirs of a Geisha, The Education of Little Tree, Patty’s memoir within Freedom: who gets to write about the female experience, indigenous people, an ethnicity or religion not the writer’s own? There are ethical considerations, yes, when memoirists speak for others, when fiction characters’ lives are quite unlike their creator’s personal history, but should there be taboos? Or is the quality of the writing what truly matters in our interwoven world?
S164. The Short Story is Dead, Long Live the Short Story: A Reading from Prize-Winning Story Collections.
(Xhenet Aliu, Marie-Helene Bertino, E.J. Levy, Hugh Sheehy, Chad Simpson)
Room 304, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
Join the winners of three prestigious short story awards, The Iowa Short Fiction Award, the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, and the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction, as they read selections from their debut collections and discuss publishing via the contest circuit rather than through traditional publishing channels.
S165. Writing, Rumpus, and Community.
(Brian Spears, Cheryl Strayed, Stephen Elliott, Roxane Gay, Isaac Fitzgerald)
Room 305, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
Since going live in 2009, the Rumpus has been a place for unknown writers to find an audience and for established writers to find new ones. It redefined the advice column and has become one of the foremost publishers of personal narratives and book reviews online. This panel will discuss the Rumpus’ first five years and its plans for the future.
Twelve noon to One-fifteen p.m.
S166. The Greening of Literature: Eco-Fiction and Poetry to Enlighten and Inspire.
(John Yunker, JoeAnn Hart, Mindy Mejia, Ann Pancake, Gretchen Primack)
Aspen Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
From mountaintop removal to ocean plastic to endangered species, ecological issues are increasingly on writers’ minds. Authors on this panel discuss how their ecologically themed fiction and poetry engages readers in powerful ways that nonfiction can’t. Panelists discuss writing in these emerging sub-genres as well as their readers’ responses and offer tips for writing about the environment in ways that are galvanizing and instructive without sacrificing creativity to polemics.
S168. Strange Families: Domestic Stories Illuminating Social Issues.
(Liza Monroy, John Christian Sevcik, Brian Gresko, Kassi Underwood) Redwood Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Memoirists have the unique ability to explore the intersection of their personal and family lives with high-stakes issues: a gay immigration marriage leads to questioning the institution and laws, a son sent to Samoa examines privatized camps for difficult teens, and a stay-at-home father faces gender discrimination. How do memoirists parlay their domestic lives into discussion of larger social issues? We will also offer techniques on how to mine this potential in your own family story.
S169. Pacific Northwest Authors Speak About Their Landscape.
(Kim Barnes, Bharti Kirchner, Joe Wilkins, William Dietrich, Claire Davis)
Willow Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
How important is geography when pursuing literary work, be it poetry, fiction, or nonfiction? Accomplished Pacific Northwest authors who are known to derive inspiration from their scenic land will answer that question. This diverse group will read short selections to illustrate how the setting, combined with imagination, memory, and personal interpretation, plays a large role in their stories. To be followed by a moderated discussion detailing tips and techniques that can make the landscape come alive on your pages.
S170. Report and Readings from the Afghan Women’s Writing Project.
(Stacy Parker Le Melle, Richelle McClain, Lori Noack, Marzia Marzia, Susan Postlewaite)
Room 2A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2.
AWWP provides a platform for Afghan women to write. From 10 writers in 2009 to more than 170 in 2013, over 750 poems and journalistic essays are published on awwproject.org. New projects include an oral history initiative with disabled and nonliterate women and a monthly radio series. From the act of writing as a basic right to the high-stakes 2014 election, from love poems to war diaries, chosen highlights will be read by audience members, editors, and an Afghan participant in the program.
S171. How to Market Your Book on a Shoestring.
(Thaddeus Rutkowski, Debra Di Blasi, Valerie Fox, Jeffrey Ethan Lee, Koon Woon)
Room 2B, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2.
What do you do when you have a new book but only a small budget to get the word out? Writers and small press publishers tell how to generate more visibility for less. This discussion will cover setting up readings and interviews, finding book reviewers, and getting books into stores and classrooms. Also on the table are new-media options such as blogs, Facebook, Amazon, and Goodreads. Panelists are experienced writers and small-press publishers who have developed successful marketing strategies.
S172. Out of History: Transforming Research into Literature.
(Micheline Marcom, Christina Baker Kline, Aimee Liu)
Room 3A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 3.
Family archives and historical documents can be compelling resources for novelists, but they come with pitfalls and responsibilities. How can fiction honor the truth of the past? How do we walk the line between basing our work on facts and falling into research rapture or, worse, inadvertent plagiarism? Three established authors of historically-based novels will discuss strategies for creating original new work that builds on the past without submitting to, or merely repeating, history.
S173. Pushing Boundaries in YA Literature: Civil Disobedience, Violence, and War.
(Ann Angel, Zu Vincent, Jessica Powers, Lynn Miller-Lachman)
Room 3B, Washington State Convention Center, Level 3.
Themes in young adult literature often reflect real world conflict. Topics these writers have tackled range from the Black Panther Movement, Vietnam War protests, racism, sexism, Africa’s civil strife, and violent relationships that might end in murder or suicide. This panel will focus on the many ways their work engages readers with strong and fallible characters while pushing the boundaries to explore real world conflict.
S174. Profile Writing: Telling Peoples’ Stories.
(Abe Streep, Leslie Jamison, Julia Cooke, Mark Sundeen, Jennifer Percy)
Room 400, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
This panel will explore the art of the nonfiction profile across a range of genres, from the journalistic article to the essayistic portrait. In addition to tackling questions of craft, the excitement of sculpting fully realized characters, we will address aspects of the profiling process (researching and interviewing) as well as its emotional challenges and rewards.
S175. Amazon for Authors.
(Jon Fine, Jason Ojalvo, Caroline Carr, Philip Patrick)
Scott James Bookfair Stage, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
This session explores the broad services Amazon offers as authors evaluate publishing opportunities to breathe life into the book. The discussion will range from digital rights, to reaching customers through format options, and more to help inform your publishing decisions.
S176. Stellarondo & Rick Bass: Scored Short Stories and Music.
(Rick Bass, Caroline Keys, Travis Yost, Bethany Joyce, Gibson Hartwell)
Ballroom E, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Stellarondo, a Montana band named for the character in Eudora Welty’s story, “Why I Live at the P.O.,” has composed original scores to accompany Rick Bass’s award-winning stories, read by Bass himself. Luminous, graceful, and hypnotic in sweep and timing, the collaboration is like no spoken word performance. The group has been invited to perform at the Ryman in Nashville with Emmylou Harris’s Music Saves Mountains campaign.
S177. Encouraging Emerging Poets.
(Eduardo Corral, Arda Collins, Fady Joudah, John Donatich, Richard Siken)
Room 602/603, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Finding mentors, applying for artist-in-residence programs, winning competitions, and getting published can make the difference between obscurity and renown for a younger poet. The challenges, opportunities, and successes in attempting to obtain recognition will be discussed by a panel including a successful, established poet with a passion for mentoring, a faculty member at a famed writing program, a publisher of emerging poets, and several younger poets who have taken advantage of such help at pivotal points in their careers.
S178. Poetry as Sound’s Potential.
(Karla Kelsey, Sueyeun Juliette Lee, Zach Savich, Michelle Taransky, G.C. Waldrep)
Room 604, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Poets will discuss sound’s potential to act as a continuous thread that meaningfully links multiple poems into series, individual volumes, and across books. Dialogue, ambient sound occurring in the poem’s setting, formal patterning, song, and performance are among the sounds of interest to the panelists. In addition to offering attendees craft-based ideas for employing sound as part of their process, panelists will discuss sound’s tradition in poetries of a variety of aesthetics and cultures.
S179. Poetry Flash at 42: Four Decades of Chronicling and Reviewing the West’s Literary Scene.
(Alan Soldofsky, Jana Harris, Joyce Jenkins, Rusty Morrison, Richard Silberg)
Room 606, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Current and former Poetry Flash editors and contributors will discuss the Flash’s four decades of chronicling the dynamic literary scene in the West, beginning in the San Francisco Bay Area, then expanding to Southern California, Southwest, and Pacific Northwest. Covering significant controversies and trends, the Flash has been both forum and catalyst for the development of Western literary communities, remaining open to all forms of poetics. Panelists will relive this history, theory, and debate.
S180. A Memorial Reading for Kofi Awoonor, Hosted by The African Poetry Book Fund and Blue Flower Arts.
(Matthew Shenoda, Chris Abani, Gabeba Baderoon, TJ Dema, Warsan Shire)
Room 607, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
A reading in celebration of the life and work of Ghanaian poet and novelist, Kofi Awoonor, who was killed in the September 2013 terrorists attacks in Nairobi, Kenya. The reading features five writers from across the African continent and diaspora who have come to admire Awoonor’s work as one of the leading poets of Africa. Poets will read works by Kofi Awoonor as well as poems written in honor of him.
S181. Brave New Media: The Promises and Pitfalls of Teaching Creative Writing for Digital Environments.
(Cara Diaconoff, Christa Fraser, DaMaris Hill, Adam Koehler, Amy Letter)
Room 608, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Twitter poems, PowerPoint stories, chat-room novels, blogged memoirs...today, creative writing for digital spaces has established itself as more than a novelty. The rise of new media has in turn given rise to fascinating questions about genre, audience, and the cultural roles played by storytelling and literary art forms. Our panel—teachers, writers, media artists, and scholars—will discuss the challenges and possibilities of teaching writing courses centered on new media.
S182. Creativity and the Future of K-12 Education.
(Jack McBride, Cecily Sailer, Harold Terezón, Tina Cane, Sheila Black)
Room 609, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
According to creativity advocate Ken Robinson, schools are “killing creativity.” As schools struggle to reinvent themselves and become more relevant, what is the role of the arts in the classroom? How can the teaching artist enhance education in the age of the data-driven? Four Writers in the Schools teaching artists and administrators discuss the precarious position of creative writing and the arts in the K-12 classroom.
S183. 2015 Minneapolis AWP Conference & Bookfair Forum. Room 611, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Join the AWP 2015 conference chair and AWP staff for an open forum to discuss topics of interest and relevance to AWP’s upcoming conference in Minneapolis.
S184. Celebrating the First Fifteen: A Crab Orchard Series in Poetry Reading.
(Jon Tribble, Honorée Jeffers, Jennifer Richter, Jeffrey Skinnner, Jason Sommer)
Room 612, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Since the spring of 1999, the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry from Southern Illinois University Press has worked to publish some of the best new collections by established and new voices in American poetry. Our efforts have resulted in more than fifty books and counting. Come join us and four of our authors in celebrating fifteen years.
S185. Telling it All: Boundaries in Creative Nonfiction.
(Allen Gee, Ann McCutchan, Peter Selgin, Margaret Macinnis, Emily Fox Gordon)
Room 613/614, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Five writers will read brief excerpts and explain why this published work contains their most personally revealing material. What will follow is a discussion about what each writer won’t write about and why. Our panel will attempt to answer these questions: While we often seek to maintain or nurture a sense of privacy for ourselves, what are the writer’s obligations? Does one’s art trump any and all ethical considerations? Should we be mindful of secrets, or is nothing sacred anymore?
S186. Coming to Light: Evaluating Poetry Manuscripts.
(Joan Houlihan, Jeffrey Levine, Ellen Watson, Jeff Shotts, Martha Rhodes)
Room 615/616/617, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Book publication is a goal for most poets and a must for securing MFA teaching positions, but there is little information on how a poetry manuscript is evaluated by a publisher/editor. A rejection slip rarely contains any useful feedback. This panel will discuss teaching methods that demystify the editorial evaluation process and empower the author. Come with questions and expect a lively Q&A. Graduate level and above.
S187. The Supernatural School of Poetry.
(Emily Warn, Brenda Hillman, Robert Polito, Dana Levin, Norman Fischer)
Room 618/619/620, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Poets have long turned to the supernatural as muse and as source for symbolic systems which shape their work; such poets include Blake, Yeats, James Merrill, Margaret Walker, and H.D. to name just a few. Hear from a Merrill scholar and from contemporary poets who are writing in this tradition, using symbols, rituals, magic, and automatic writing to investigate the relationship between spirit and our worlds.
S188. Here We Gather: History and Advice on Setting Up a Writers Conference, Festival, or Colloquium at a Two-Year College.
(John Bell, Evan Balkan, Michael Spurgeon, Sharon Coleman, Sandy Longhorn)
Room LL4, Western New England MFA Annex, Lower Level.
As creative writing offerings continue to expand at two-year colleges, faculty and administrators wish to host literary events, such as festivals and readings, economically serving both the college and the surrounding community. As faculty of two-year colleges, we have all organized events and will offer stories of our successes and failures, happy circumstances, and budget woes. We will offer our advice and experience as well as ask the audience to do the same.
S189. The Latino Short Story: Continuity, Innovation, and the Voices of Story Writing.
(Fred Arroyo, Lorraine Lopez, Benjamin Alíre Sáenz, Jennine Capó Crucet, Daniel Chacón)
Room LL5, Western New England MFA Annex, Lower Level.
The short story is a vital American literary form. Through its continuity and innovation, the short story hears and reflects the individual and collective voices of culture and history. This panel of Latin@ short story writers, who have recently published collections, will consider the problems and possibilities—aesthetically, traditionally, ideologically, and culturally—of publishing short story collections, while also exploring the tensions and joys of publishing with smaller presses.
S190. The Myth of the Inaccessible: Teaching Experimental Poetry in the Community.
(Laura Walker, Dana Teen Lomax, Douglas Kearney, Hoa Nguyen, Sarah Vap)
Room 101, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 1.
Poetry that may refuse a coherent I, eschew narrative, play with language as material, or otherwise subvert notions of traditional poetry is often deemed “inaccessible” or “academic.” What happens when these poetries are taught in community or K-12 programs? Five poets will talk about their great success teaching innovative poetry outside the academy, their pedagogy, student responses, and their compelling rationales for their practice.
S191. Playwriting: the Bastard Child of Literature? (Lisa Schlesinger, Ezzat Goushegir, Ruth Margraff, Kenneth Prestininzi)
Room 202, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 2.
Brander Matthews, the first to teach playwriting as its own discipline in the American university wrote his essay, The Relation of Drama to Literature, in 1897. In the 21st century, with splits between performance studies, theatre, and English, and further divides between the avant-garde, poetic, realistic, traditional, and commercial theaters, where does playwriting live in the culture and the academy? How should we teach it, critique it, and ultimately keep it a growing, enlivening art form?
S192. Intense/Beautiful/Devoted: Poems of Provocation & Witness.
(Sarah Browning, Natalie Diaz, Danez Smith, Patricia Smith, Wang Ping)
Room 301, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
Leonard Bernstein wrote, “This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.” Poets today are looking without flinching at our world of drones, evictions, gun shows, and violence to the earth, as they tell the many stories of our lives. Happily, too, they are imagining alternatives and provoking change. A reading of intense and striking music, in the spirit of Split This Rock, with Patricia Smith providing opening remarks.
S193. Outlaw Aesthetics and Publishing the Sprawl: How LA Indie Presses are Changing the Face of Publishing.
(Neelanjana Banerjee, Chiwan Choi, Luis Rodriguez, Lisa Pearson, Teresa Carmody)
Room 302, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
Think people in LA don’t read? Wrong! Indie presses are not only flourishing in LA, they are working to create a vibrant literary metropolis from inside the sprawl. From Kaya’s collaborative book booths to Writ Large’s plans for an LA Literary Walk to Tia Chucha’s literacy hub to the aesthetic conversations between artists and writers encouraged by both Les Figues and Siglio, these presses are changing the culture of literary LA—and in the process, innovating new models for publishing.
S194. A Reading from Flash Fiction Funny.
(Kim Addonizio, Kirk Nesset, Tom Hazuka, Frances Lefkowitz)
Room 303, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
Flash Fiction Funny, edited by Tom Hazuka and published by Blue Light Press in 2013, provides a unique perspective on the flash fiction genre: working within a 750-word limit, each story is designed to make readers laugh. Satire, burlesque, farce, slapstick, witty wordplay—all in nuggets of 1-3 pages. Panelists will read their own stories from the book, as well as favorite pieces by different authors from the anthology.
S195. A Reading by Hugo House Writers-In-Residence, Past and Present.
(Peter Mountford, Ed Skoog, Karen Finneyfrock, Ryan Boudinot, Angela Fountas)
Room 304, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
Hugo House, Seattle’s writing center, is the nexus of the city’s bustling literary community. Every year, two published writers—a poet and a prose writer—are selected to be Hugo House’s writers-in-residence. They hold free weekly office hours for anyone who’s seeking feedback on their writing. Five recent appointees will read their work and discuss this vital program that serves a hundreds of writers—of all ages and experience levels—in Seattle.
S196. Translation as Transformation, Language as Skin: Some Perspectives on Creative Process.
(Hélène Cardona, Sidney Wade, Betty De Shong Meador, Donald Revell, Willis Barnstone)
Room 305, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
Beyond decoding, what does translation as creative process entail? Working with Sumerian, Chinese, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Turkish, French, and Spanish, this panel’s poets, translators, and scholars discuss their roles as intermediaries, technicians, magicians, and alchemists working between languages to create inspired texts spanning cultural differences, geographic distances, and time periods. More than extending the life of original works, they make possible their renewal.
One-thirty p.m. to Two-forty-five p.m.
S197. Literary Players: Former Winners of the Playboy College Fiction Contest Share their Work.
(Don Peteroy, David James Possiant, Chris Arnold, Michael Knight, Stuart Dearnley)
Aspen Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Since 1986, Playboy magazine has sponsored the College Fiction Contest. Each year, Playboy’s editors read thousands of entries and choose one undergraduate or graduate student’s story for inclusion in the October issue. Numerous winners and finalists have gone on to successful careers in writing. Join five previous winners for a look back at the award and a celebratory reading showcasing their work.
S198. Lead From the Front: Best Practices for Working With Veterans in the Writing Classroom.
(Derek Malone-France, Alexis Hart, Ron Capps)
Cedar Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
As 2.5 million American men and women return from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, some of them will wind up in your writing classroom. Are you prepared to publish an essay in which the author admits he misses the thrill of killing the enemy? How will you deal with a young writer who expresses suicidal thoughts in a creative writing class? The panelists, two of whom are veterans, are part of a three year university seminar asking and answering these types of questions and more.
S199. Crossing the Bridge to Nowhere.
(Don Rearden, Seth Kantner, Bryan Fierro, Leigh Newman) Redwood Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Seth Kantner’s award-winning novel Ordinary Wolves established Alaska on the literary map. He broke ground for a new generation of authors writing about the Alaska that you don’t see on Discovery’s reality shows. In this cross-genre reading you’ll hear from four talented and award winning authors who don’t fit the Jack London image of Alaskan authors.
S200. Reading Stevens for Writers: The Mind at the End of the Palm.
(Linda Gregerson, Stanley Plumly, David Baker, Carl Phillips)
Willow Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
“We think by feeling,” writes Roethke, but Wallace Stevens proposes more complex methods of inquiry. Our panel of poet-critics reads the poems, essays, and letters of this “philosophical” poet through contemporary workshop practices as well as both romantic and post-structural language theories to interrogate how this heady Modernist speculates, meditates, and reflects. We hope our examination will reveal how Stevens helps us sharpen and sustain our own ability to think in lyric poems.
S201. Only Connect: Building Community in Low-Residency Programs.
(Mardi Jo Link, Anne-Marie Oomen, Donna Kaz, Jenny Robertson)
Room 2A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2.
The biggest criticism of Low-Residency programs is that they cannot duplicate the sense of community that residential programs offer. So how do you build community among graduate students and instructors when that community only gathers twice a year? Use the intensity of the brief residency to spur unlimited connection creativity. Chain letters, book grabs, dual writers’ colony applications, and even a low-residency Greek society are just some of the ideas which will be discussed.
S202. The Weight of Displacement: Latino Writings from the Heartland.
(Jose Faus, Gabriela Lemmons, Miguel M. Morales, Maria Vasquez Boyd)
Room 2B, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2.
Middle of the Map-Latino Writers Collective members will read and discuss the challenges and success of writing from the Heartland, maintaining diversity of culture, and examining issues of displacement. Members capture individual experiences as political or social commentary, reflective, semi-autobiographical, humorous, or entertaining. Their craft reveals and examines the many facets of this unique cultural identity that includes class, gender roles, sexual identity, and immigration status.
S203. The Alaskan Legacy of John Haines.
(Nancy Lord, Carolyn Kremers, John Kooistra, Joan Kane, Tom Kizzia)
Room 3A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 3.
John Haines (1924-2011) is considered a major American voice as well as a poet and essayist associated with—as Dana Gioia put it—an integrity of life and work. Haines’s ability to evoke and embody the North, in his writing and life, influenced many who followed. On this panel, five Alaskan writers at various career stages will comment on Haines’s influence, discuss how they’re challenged by (and challenge) his standards and assumptions, and probe their own connections to Alaska and the land.
S204. We Need to Talk: Editors Discuss How They Communicate with Writers and How Writers Can Improve the Channels of Communication.
(Aviya Kushner, Jennifer Barber, Allison Devers, Joshua Rolnick, Ian Stansel)
Room 3B, Washington State Convention Center, Level 3.
Accepting a piece is the easy part—the hard part is suggesting changes in an effective way. In this panel, four editors will discuss their strategies, old and new, for communicating with writers and translators in order to improve a piece—including the snail-mail editor’s letter, Skype, a volley of track-changes comments, and of course, the long lunch in New York. Specific situations like dramatically expanding or shortening a piece and working with literature in translation will be discussed.
S205. A Pitt Poetry Series Reading: The Northwest Connection.
(Charles Harper Webb, Colleen J. McElroy, Laura Read, Paisley Rekdal)
Room 400, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
Four poets with ties to the Northwest and recent books in the Pitt Poetry Series read from their work.
S206. Jack Kerouac School 40th Anniversary Reading.
(Andrea Rexilius, Michelle Naka Pierce, J’Lyn Chapman, Anne Waldman)
Patricia Olson Bookfair Stage, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
Come celebrate the 40th anniversary of Naropa University’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics!
S207. What about God? Memoirists Discuss Faith and Writing.
(Krista Bremer, Cheryl Strayed, Sara Miles, Emily Rapp, G. Willow Wilson)
Room 602/603, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Faith is understood to be the opposite of the intellect, and religion to be at odds with literature, which thrives on ambiguity. But if life is a journey, then memoir is travel writing. The author is no tourist seeking souvenirs; she’s a pilgrim who wanders the wilderness of memory in search of meaning. How do an author’s beliefs shape her quest, both her process and her finished work? Five memoirists will discuss spirituality and writing and explore how their beliefs shape their work.
S208. News from Nowhere: Writing Through Difficulty with Marginalized Middle and High School Populations.
(Laura Gamache, Ann Teplick, Cameron Scott, Merna Hecht)
Room 604, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
How do you reach middle and high school students who expect to be ignored? Drawing on experiences working with teens from the Klamath Tribes, in a state psychiatric hospital, and from Karen and Chin ethnic groups recently arrived from Burma, panelists will share strategies for engaging diverse groups of students, present student work, and discuss the importance of helping students bring themselves into visibility through creative writing.
S209. Lessons from The Grind: Fostering an Online Writing Community.
(Ross White, Michael Broek, Suzanne Parker, Jamaal May, Matthew Olzmann)
Room 606, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Even the most isolated of writers must find community. The Grind has been one such online space, including now scores of writers, each committed to one demand—writing one complete piece every day and then sharing with each other. Over the last six years, writers in The Grind have produced dozens of published books and fostered exploration, innovation, and practice. Five participants share their work completed during the Grind and discuss how to (and not to) create online writing communities.
S210. Rethinking Linking: Stories and Novels, Structure and Beyond.
(Anne Sanow, Dylan Landis, Clifford Garstang, Imad Rahman, Mary Akers)
Room 607, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Linked stories and novels in stories continue to grow in popularity, and they have opened up new possibilities in terms of considering how connections and structure work within and across not only what we might traditionally consider stories, but chapters and novel sections, too. Join us for a discussion of linking through character, setting, language, and more. Beyond the basics, we’ll address ways to consider what kind of structural form your links call for and offer tips for experimentation.
S211. But Is It Any Good? Appropriation and Evaluation.
(Jessica Burstein, Brian Reed, Marjorie Perloff, Danny Snelson, Craig Dworkin)
Room 608, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Contemporary poets frequently “borrow” people’s words. They employ appropriation, collage, sampling, and outright plagiarism. What do we make, though, of all this copying, cutting, and pasting? Is lifting text from a Web page or retyping a novel over Twitter in any way comparable to sitting down and trying to put “the best words in the best order” (Coleridge)? And when writers “steal” instead of “write,” how can we tell a good poem from a bad one? What criteria should we use?
S212. Writing God: Craft, Language, and Sacred Experience.
(Nathaniel Hansen, Michael Olin-Hitt, Kathleen Norris, Brett Foster, Nan Phifer)
Room 609, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Mystical awareness, spiritual insight, and religious experience offer challenges to the writer, which push the creative process to the limits of language, imagination, religious tradition, and cultural acceptance. Panelists will address issues of inspiration, craft, and publication from perspectives of the editor, poet, fiction writer, memoirist, and teacher. Panelists represent eclectic perspectives from the Christian literary tradition; however, the discussion will extend beyond Christianity.
S213. CantoMundo: 5th Year Anniversary Reading Celebrating Latina/o Poetics.
(Celeste Guzman Mendoza, Raina Leon, Urayoan Noel, Amalia Ortiz, Benjamin Alire Saenz)
Room 611, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
CantoMundo will celebrate its 5th Year Anniversary in 2014. Inspired by the culturally-rooted visions of Cave Canem and Kundiman, CantoMundo builds on the aesthetically, culturally, and linguistically diverse work of Latina/o poets. The reading will feature CantoMundo co-founders, faculty, and fellows.
S215. Queer Double Agents: Writing & Publishing Between Communities.
(Ellery Washington, David Groff, Carla Trujillo, Jacob Anderson-Minshall, Michelle Tea)
Room 613/614, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Do you struggle to reconcile the often conflicting allegiances between your queer literary vocation and the summons of anidentity, community, or commitment? In a publishing world that pigeonholes us as homonormative and is confused by the multiple realities of LGBTQ people around race, religion, and ethnic and gender identity, how can we communicate our complexities? This panel explores the creative and practical challenges—to paraphrase Whitman—of being vast and containing multitudes.
S216. Rivers and Tides: Balancing Leadership with the Writing Life.
(Amy Swauger, Jeanine Walker, Jennifer Benka, David Hassler, Stephen Young)
Room 615/616/617, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
The desire to make a difference in the world does not always coexist peacefully with the desire to write poetry. Many writers struggle with balancing the demands of being literary and being a leader. These panelists hail from five different literary organizations, and they discuss how their careers and their poetry have fed (and sometimes bled into) one another.
S217. Celebrating 20 Years of Extraordinary Fiction at Riverhead Books.
(Jynne Martin, Manuel Gonzales, Jess Row, Danielle Evans, Nami Mun)
Room 618/619/620, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Since its founding, Riverhead Books has published the freshest, most memorable and diverse new voices in literary fiction. Riverhead authors have won Pulitzer Prizes, National Book Critics Circle Awards, Story Prizes, and been named to Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists, the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35, and the New Yorker’s 20 Under 40, among many distinctions. Four of Riverhead’s acclaimed writers will read and discuss their work with Riverhead’s director of publicity.
S218. The Sincerest Form of Poetry.
(Nickole Brown, James Harms, John Hoppenthaler, Carol Frost, Sasha Pimentel)
Room LL4, Western New England MFA Annex, Lower Level.
Imitation is not just the sincerest form of flattery—it’s the sincerest form of learning, wrote George Bernard Shaw, and Alan Shapiro said, poets have always pursued their individual talent by absorbing, assimilating and in some cases subverting the lessons of the traditions they inherit. Five poetry teachers discuss strategies whereby, through imitation assignments in the workshop, they make it possible for students to develop their own voices and aesthetic engagements with poetry.
S219. In Sickness and in Health: Writing about Illness and Loss for Young Adults.
(Roberta Borger, Megan Bostic, Selene Castrovilla, Jolene Perry, Katherine Ayres)
Room LL5, Western New England MFA Annex, Lower Level.
Illness and death. We may try to hide or pretend, but everyone faces these issues, regardless of age, nationality, or religion. So how can we prepare teenagers to be ready for loss? Can literature teach and help young adults accept the saddest aspects of life? In this panel, award-winning authors, an experienced professor, and an international grad student discuss how YA novels approach these challenging topics, what role religion plays, and different techniques writers can adopt in their work.
S220. The LongISH Poem: a Reading of Poems and Sequences 3-9 Pages Long.
(Andrew McFadyen-Ketchum, Lisa Lewis, Simone Muench, Robert Wrigley)
Room 101, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 1.
When we talk about poetry, we tend to think in terms of long and short, but what about the mid-length poem, the longISH poem—verses too large to call economical yet too small to venerate as epic? Ironically, while writers and readers expect (and perhaps demand) mid-length poems in a collection, such verses are rarely included in journals, readings, or the classroom. This reading will celebrate the pleasure and power of the mid-length poem while arguing for its revival in American Letters.
S221. Please Mind the Gap: Innovative Approaches to Writing Historical Figures.
(Kelcey Parker, Caitlin Horrocks, Kathleen Rooney, Gretchen Henderson, Cathy Day)
Room 202, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 2.
The past, says Jessamyn West, is as much a work of the imagination as the future. Inspired by writers like Italo Calvino and Anne Carson, the writers on this panel embrace the fragmented nature of history and approach the depiction of historical figures more as collagists than as traditional portraitists. Panelists share literary examples, research strategies, and practical methods for portraying famous and obscure historical figures in prose, in poetry, and in the classroom.
S222. Comedy, and Errors.
(Peter Turchi, Antonya Nelson, Steven Schwartz, CJ Hribal)
Room 301, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
Comedy isn’t easy, and characters conceived in comedy often have the dual task of being both amusing and serious, either alternately or simultaneously. Their stories often achieve sharpest focus at the intersection of the comic and the solemn, and it’s the author’s job to make sure one quality works in tandem with the other. The panel will discuss how a variety of such characters come to reach their fullest serio-comic potential.
S223. It’s About Time: A Tribute to Philip Levine.
(Consuelo Marshall, David St. John, David Wojahn, Kathy Fagan, B. H. Boston)
Room 302, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
Philip Levine is one of America’s most revered and influential poets. Often referred to as a voice for the voiceless, Levine’s work is also known for its emotional intensity tempered with the control and concentration of a master. Five poet/teachers discuss Levine’s impact on the literary world and beyond and will read their favorite Levine poems.
S224. Published! From Poetry Manuscript to First Book.
(Sarah Browning, Melissa Tuckey, Emma Trelles, Lauren K. Alleyne, Yvette Neisser Moreno)
Room 303, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
Finding a publisher for your first book of poetry can take years of submissions, revisions, and countless questions. How do you structure a manuscript? Where to submit? After the contract is signed, what is your role in the editorial and marketing process? What happens after the book comes out? Five award-winning poets who recently published their first full-length books will share their diverse paths to publication and advice on how to navigate the world of contests and small presses.
S225. The Naked I: Nonfiction’s Exposed Voice.
(Barrie Jean Borich, Ira Sukrungruang, Margot Singer, Dinah Lenney, Judith Kitchen)
Room 304, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
Authentic voice. Inner voice. Essayistic voice. Unmasked voice. However we describe the sound and texture of that slip-slide between our actual lives and the versions of ourselves we create for the page, this palpable human presence is what distinguishes creative nonfiction from the genres. This panel of nonfiction writers will discuss the intimacy, intellect, and identity of this naked I—part actuality, part construction, always individual, and wholly what the genre is all about.
S226. Writing Feminism in Creative Nonfiction.
(Sarah Lenz, Marcia Aldrich, Kristen Iversen, Sonja Livingston, Mary Kay McBrayer)
Room 305, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
Five women writers speak about how feminism influences their CNF writing. In our post-feminism era how do women memoirists and journalists fit in? What effect does feminism have on the MFA program from the professors’ and students’ viewpoint? Who are the feminists CNF writers can look to these days? Are Simone de Beauvoir and Betty Friedan still relevant? Where does feminism intersect with publishing? How helpful is the VIDA count in raising awareness to these issues?
Three o'clock p.m. to Four-fifteen p.m.
S227. The Uncanny West, or How to Conjure the Real West through the Fantastic.
(Adrianne Harun, Debra Magpie Earling, Sharma Shields, Kent Meyers)
Aspen Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Western writers traditionally have been tethered to a narrow definition of realism, replete with hardship and routine. Yet myth and legend pervade, even conjure the West and when embraced can instigate stories that transcend stereotypes of Western fiction. This panel of Western and Northwestern writers will present and discuss forms of the Western Uncanny, including Southern Gothic’s kin, the “Natural Grotesque,” Native American witches, and the rise of Northwestern magical realism.
S228. Writing about Nature in an Unnatural World.
(Stefanie Trout, Tony Quick, Claire Kruesel, Audrey McCombs, Nicholas Bogdanich)
Cedar Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
In the 21st century, few landscapes are entirely natural. The human impact on our world touches even remote ecosystems. As artists, we have a responsibility to investigate the implications of our species’ actions. How do writers accurately portray nature in an increasingly unnatural world? As poetry, fiction, and nonfiction writers and editors, our panel discussion examines a spectrum of environments, from the few pristine wilderness regions to urban landscapes and the ecotones inbetween.
S229. Beyond Kimchi: Writing Through Ethnicity.
(Katherine Min, Marie Myung-Ok Lee, Cathy Chung, Matthew Salesses, Krys Lee) Redwood Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Four novelists and a poet, all of Korean descent, will read from current work, followed by a discussion of how their work has evolved with respect to ethnicity, theme, and aesthetic vision. With changing publishing trends and readers’ attitudes toward “ethnic” writing, panelists will also discuss various perspectives of writing toward ethnicity, of writing “beyond” it, and of ways to approach the gift/challenge of “double consciousness.”
S230. Lightening Up the Dark: The Role of Humor in Memoir.
(Mimi Schwartz, Joe Mackall, Phillip Lopate, Suzanne Greenberg, Daniel Stolar)
Willow Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Too often we see our lives as simply funny or sad and write in that single mode, limiting the emotional complexity of our narratives. Humor is a powerful tool for changing that—and no need to be Jon Stewart to use it effectively. Our panel of five explores how humor works for them as writers and teachers of memoir and essay. We address how humor deepens perspective, how it seduces readers to our side, and how, by marrying dark material with humor, we create a powerful tension between the two.
S231. Social Action Writing: Our Words in the World.
(Aimee Suzara, Debra Busman, Elmaz Abinader, David Mura, Lee Herrick)
Room 2A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2.
“The writer cannot be a mere storyteller… He or she must be actively involved shaping its present and its future,” said Ken Saro-Wiwa. What is the role of the writer in naming and shattering silences? How does the writer make change? Writers from diverse identities and genres, from poetry, memoir, drama, and performance, discuss their work as writers engaged with the world and the responsibility of the artist as seer, as critical voice, as witnesses to the past and shapers of the future.
S232. Design Junkie: Curb Appeal, Visual Intelligence, and Reading.
(Minna Proctor, Richard Nash, Chad Post, Bud Parr, Russ Spitkovsky)
Room 2B, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2.
We read and choose our reading materials across so many different and vibrant platforms now. What is the value of the pure aesthetic pleasure of a book object or a literary presentation? How much is marketing; how much is typesetting? How do you analyze the digital reading experience? Is reading fundamentally different in the stripped down primitive environment of a Kindle? What qualitative judgments can we bring to bear on our endeavors as publishers in the new, visual-dominated world order?
S233. Freedom in Translation: Finding Ourselves a New Poetics.
(Brad Crenshaw, Gary Young, Stephen Haven, James Brasfield)
Room 3A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 3.
Translation re-imagines how language works, revising postmodern poetics that emphasizes conventions linking words to things in the world. Translation insists upon a pluralism of linguistic aims. Panelists working in Asian and Slavic languages will discuss translation, weigh the virtue of literal paraphrase against the value of ambiguity, measure the advantage of cognitive knowledge against the profit gained by an escape from conventional meaning, and exchange control for delight in literary play.
S234. Who Wears Short Shorts? (We Do): Revitalizing the Fiction Workshop.
(Leah McCormack, Dietrik Vanderhill, Tessa Mellas, Peter Grimes, Suzanne Warren)
Room 3B, Washington State Convention Center, Level 3.
Beginning fictionists often make conservative—even hackneyed—writing choices. How can we encourage exploring the craft more boldly while removing the fear of wasting effort on a longer “failed” story? The short short can foster creativity in the classroom by lowering the stakes. Panelists will share best practices teaching the shorter form, including introducing the genre, analyzing the form’s unique reader expectations and flexibility, as well as implementing productive writing exercises.
S235A. Vonnegut’s Legacy: Writing about War and Debacles of the Human Condition.
(Suzanne McConnell, Julia Whitehead, Dan Wakefield, Helen Benedict, Jim O’Loughlin)
Room 400, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
This panel will discuss Kurt Vonnegut’s work and concerns, how and why his influence continues, and what we might, as writers, learn from him. Vonnegut’s experiences as a prisoner of war fueled his work, and he honed the art of black humor. The speakers will explore writing about humanitarian and traumatic personal issues through fiction, particularly about war, and the uses of humor and techniques to do so entertainingly and persuasively. The audience will be invited to participate.
S235B. Writopia Lab: Fun and Productive Creative Writing Workshops for Kids and Teens.
(Rebecca Wallace-Segall, Taylor Sykes)
Patricia Olson Bookfair Stage, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
Writopia Lab’s founder and Executive Director leads a discussion on the value of story, honesty, and reflection in college essays; and why children and teens need to tell and write true and fictional stories for their own intellectual and emotional development. She takes us through some of the college essays and creative works recently written by Writopia’s young authors, poets and playwrights. The event culminates in an audience-participation writing exercise followed by an open mic.
S236. Song of the Reed: The Poetry of Rumi, Sponsored by Poets House.
(Anne Waldman, Brad Gooch, Coleman Barks)
Ballroom ABC, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Thirteenth-century Persian poet Rumi is now the most popular poet in the United States. In this event, leading Rumi interpreter, Coleman Barks, reads his beloved versions of the Sufi poet’s verse, biographer Brad Gooch shares research into Rumi’s lived experience, and poet Anne Waldman reflects on Rumi’s contribution to poetry’s ecstatic tradition.
S237. A Reading and Conversation with Molly Gloss and Ursula K. Le Guin, Sponsored by Literary Arts and the Lyceum Agency.
(Andrew Proctor, Ursula LeGuin, Molly Gloss)
Ballroom E, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Molly Gloss and Ursula Le Guin are two of the greatest living writers and chroniclers of the American West. They will read from their most recent work and discuss craft, the writing life, and the role of place in their work. Moderated by Andrew Proctor.
S238. Race and Belonging: Navigating the MFA Program as a Writer of Color.
(Sejal Shah, Eduardo C. Corral, Crystal Ann Williams, Jon Pineda, Tim Seibles)
Room 602/603, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
How does one navigate the literary world as a writer of color? Often, the MFA and the publishing world exclude, exoticize, tokenize, and even deride the experiences of writers of color. This panel—with representatives from Kundiman, CantoMundo, and Cave Canem—will provide a place to air out and discuss systemic problems but also will serve as a space to discuss solutions.
S239. From Silver to Gold: A Case Study in Planning for the Next 25 Years of a Regional Writers’ Center and Its International Press.
(Jo Ann Clark, Melanie Hulse, Margo Stever, Jim Tilley, Sergio Troncoso)
Room 604, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
How did a derelict railroad station in Sleepy Hollow become the internationally-renowned, regional hub for literary arts that is The Hudson Valley Writers’ Center and its Slapering Hol Press? And how, after weathering leadership clashes, the economic collapse, and two hurricanes, does HVWC intend to thrive in the coming decades? By candidly addressing such questions, key HVWC constituents, including its founder, will share secrets—and cautionary tales—of their remarkable history and success.
S240. Planning for Surprise: Teaching the Unexpected in Personal Narrative.
(Patrick Madden, Michael Steinberg, Renee D’Aoust, Thomas Larson, Desirae Matherly)
Room 606, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
This panel focuses on the vital role that surprise, serendipity, and experimentation play in writing and teaching personal narratives. We’ll explore how we and writers utilize the surprises that arise while drafting and, in turn, how we teach these strategies to graduates and undergraduates. In place of relying on preset stories and structures, we’ll offer examples designed to help nonfiction writers learn to trust their instincts and intuitions as they compose their personal narratives.
S241. New Recruits: How Literary Organizations Train and Motivate Students and Volunteers.
(Phong Nguyen, Jennifer Luebbers, Ron Mitchell, Marcus Wicker, Carolyn Kuebler)
Room 607, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Program directors from Indiana Review, New Harmony Writers Workshop, New England Review, Pleiades, Pleiades Press, Southern Indiana Review, and SIR Press will address strategies for the vision and implementation of an effective student or volunteer workforce, a fiscal necessity in the current climate of staff cuts and budget reductions, including recruitment, motivation, best practices, assessment, and unexpected challenges. Topics will include production, funding, web design, and marketing.
S242. Jack Kerouac School 40th Anniversary Reading: Feminism & Antiwar Writings.
(HR Hegnauer, Tracie Morris, Eileen Myles, Andrea Rexilius)
Room 608, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
In celebration of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics 40th Anniversary, core faculty, alumni, and guests of the renowned Summer Writing Program will read and perform their work. Utilizing audio, video, and performance, this reading will present a focus on feminist, antiwar writings.
S243. A Reading from Obsession: Sestinas in the 21st Century.
(Carolyn Beard Whitlow, Marilyn Nelson, Herman Beavers, Dana Gioia, Robin Becker)
Room 609, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Come celebrate this anthology offering a hundred examples of the sestina’s versatility from poets of the Sixties to the present. Experience through this form and the editors’ cogent commentary our fascination with Americana, and with politics, sex, love, hate, art, nature, memory, contemplation, and death. What shape does obsession take when run through the sestina’s rigorous pattern? Contributing poets will read from the anthology and engage in discussion with the audience.
S244. Bilingual Writing or Self-Translation.
(Wei Shao, Ewa Chrusciel, Valzhyna Mort, Michael Gray, Jonathan Stalling)
Room 611, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
This event includes a group of writers, poets, professors, and graduate students who are studying the issue of translation, self-translation, and bilingual writing. We’ll address this issue from our perspective, understanding, practicing, and experience dealing with translation and self-translation. In the contemporary work literature, there are Samuel Beckett and Joseph Brodsky who did bilingual writing and self-translation. We want to explore or propose many questions related to bilingualism and self-translation.
S245. Small Town Girls.
(Caroline Patterson, Leslee Becker, Beverly Lowry, Tami Haaland)
Room 612, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Small towns are places where life is lived up close. Four writers of poetry, nonfiction, and fiction from across the United States will explore their lives as girls in small towns—the restrictiveness versus the freedom, censure versus the subterrannean social life, and the freedom of the natural world versus the restrictiveness of the social world.
S246. Gifted and Giving: A Celebration of Judith Kitchen.
(Kevin Clark, Jennifer Culkin, Majorie Sandor, Gabriel Blackwell, Stephen Corey)
Room 613/614, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Does anyone excel in four genres—not to mention teaching—more than Judith Kitchen? Founder of the legendary State Street Press, co-director of the Rainier Writing Workshop, and regular critic for the Georgia Review, Kitchen received Pushcart Prizes for creative nonfiction, the Fairchild Award and the Gable Prize for the novel, the Anhinga Prize for poetry, and an NEA Award. A panel representing all four genres will detail the significance of Kitchen’s influential career thus far.
S247. Modernism and the Lyric Essay.
(Joey Franklin, Dinty W. Moore, Mary Cappello, David Shields, Lia Purpura)
Room 615/616/617, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
What can Joyce, Woolf, Pound, Eliot, and modernists teach us about the poetics of the lyric essay? And can answering such a question help the lyric essay find its aesthetic roots? Join us as we discuss how modernist preoccupations with impressionism, self-consciousness, fragmentation, and free association (among things) can not only inform the way we read, write, and teach lyric essays, but can also help us place this popular genre in the larger tradition of western poetics.
S248. The Business of Literary Publishing in the Twenty-First Century.
(Elisabeth Schmitz, Morgan Entrekin, Jill Bialosky, Dani Shapiro, Rick Simonson)
Room 618/619/620, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Leading industry professionals discuss the business of literary publishing today. A legendary independent publisher, a successful literary agent, and an award-winning executive editor talk about the nuts and bolts of the publishing industry. From conception and submission through editing, production, marketing, and beyond, these four will demystify the process from the inside out.
S249. “Ain’t She a Woman?” Creative Writing, Gender Equity, and Justice in the Multicultural School, University, and Learning Communities.
(Noel Pabillo Mariano, Nadine Pinede, Stephanie Hammer, Jill Davidson)
Room LL4, Western New England MFA Annex, Lower Level.
This panel uses Sojourner Truth’s famous speech as a jumping off point to present viewpoints as well as practical wisdom from a rich spectrum of voices. Panelists from psychology, memoir, poetry, comparative literature, college administration, and LGBT studies will share both their own experiences with writing as a means to express a minority-identity perspective on what womanhood means and actual strategies, approaches, and practices to help audience members teach and learn more effectively.
S250. Crafting Heartbreak: Handling Grief Issues in Novels for Children and Young Adults.
(Joy Preble, Janet Fox, Rosanne Parry, Denise Jaden)
Room LL5, Western New England MFA Annex, Lower Level.
Struggling with a moment of grief and loss is one of the event horizons in a young person’s life. Whether the loss is that of a friend, family member, devoted pet, or first love, tweens and teens need books that reassure and aid the process. How do writers handle these issues with sensitivity and nuance? Four authors of books for young readers will discuss approaches and techniques in crafting novels that help heal wounds of the heart.
S251. Firsts: A Look at the Art of Debut Books by Copper Canyon Poets.
(Tonaya Thompson, Natalie Diaz, Roger Reeves, Kerry James Evans, James Arthur)
Room 101, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 1.
Although well-known for publishing award-winning poets from around the globe, since its inception, Copper Canyon has been steadfastly dedicated to introducing new voices by publishing first books every year. These accomplished young writers will offer a brief discussion of their varying journeys toward first-book publication, including contests, manuscript preparation, and working with their poetry mentors. Each author will share their experience about what it takes to stand out from the crowd.
S252. What’s a Creative Writing PhD Worth? (Edward Porter, Adam Peterson, Joseph Scapellato, William Donnelly, Rebecca Lehmann)
Room 202, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 2.
Four to five years of schooling is expensive, both in terms of time and money, when tacked on to what most schools and conferences already consider to be the terminal degree in the field of creative writing. This panel includes several writing instructors who have PhDs and one who does not, all of whom have recently been applying for academic jobs, and will work to help current and former MFA students decide whether those additional years of school are worth their potential costs.
S253. The Irony of the Internet: Reevaluating & Redefining Business & Creativity in the Digital Age.
(Melissa Lucken, William Hastings, Mike Miner, Matt Williamson)
Room 301, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
The literary world is experiencing what the music industry has been for years: expanded audience access, revised distribution channels, and pressure from business giants. We all know business is done differently, but the digital age also requires us to think differently. This panel of editors, authors, and an agent will explore these aspects of the digital age as well as how the internet and electronic media alter attitudes on creativity and the perceived value of artistic endeavors.
S254. A Tribute to the Poetry of Raymond Carver.
(Justin Bigos, Rick Ryan, Ashley Reis, Jynne Dilling Martin, Carol Sklenicka)
Room 302, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
Raymond Carver is widely considered a master of the short story form, and yet Carver was also, from the time he began writing in 1957 and until his death in 1988, a poet. Carver’s partner, Tess Gallagher, describes the poems as the spiritual current running through the stories. While this is true, the poems also ask to be reckoned with in their own right. This panel gathers three poets, a poet/eco-critic, and Carver’s biographer in order to praise the poetry of Raymond Carver.
S255. Wrath, Greed, Sloth, Pride, Lust, Envy, and Depression: Troubleshooting the Seven (Deadly?) Sins of the Writing Life.
(Ethan Gilsdorf, Henriette Power, William Orem, Becky Tuch, Ted Weesner, Jr.)
Room 303, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
How do you stay inspired and hopeful without succumbing to envy of your fellow writers’ successes? How, over your career, do you recharge your batteries, deal with rejection, and not be thrown off by early successes? Is ambition a bad thing? How do you deal with disappointment and despair? In this panel, a diverse group of writers working in many genres discusses the perils of these “Seven (Deadly?) Sins of the Writing Life.” Attendees are invited to share issues for the panel to troubleshoot.
S256. Image Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Reading.
(Gina Franco, Bret Lott, Khaled Mattawa, Scott Cairns, Alicia Ostriker)
Room 304, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
This reading celebrates twenty-five years of Image Journal, a unique forum for the best writing and artwork that are informed by—or grapple with—religious faith. Panelists will read work that explores the intersection of art and faith from a diversity of religious backgrounds: Islam, Judaism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and Protestantism. The panel will be introduced by Image’s editor, Gregory Wolfe.
Four-thirty p.m. to Five-forty-five p.m.
S257. How Far Do You Go: Sex in YA Fiction.
(Sarah Mlynowski, Robin Wasserman, Adele Griffin, E. Lockhart)
Aspen Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
The only thing more awkward than adolescent sex is writing about it. These writers have published an extensive, wide-ranging variety of books for teenagers that touch on themes of early sexual experience and all its attendant issues. From the question of age-appropriate content to technical points of writing a thrilling kiss to the challenges of exploring the implications of a sexual awakening, the panel is sure to engender lively, candid conversation.
S258. Keeping the Original Voice through Changing.
(Martha Cooley, Marta del Pozo Ortea, Eleanor Goodman, Anastasiya Lyubas, YU-TING HUANG)
Cedar Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Listening to works in several languages, are they alike or different in taste? Can translation keep the music, meaning, and subtext of the original work? To discuss these questions and challenge your ears and minds, the panelists will read the same poem in Chinese, English, Italian, Spanish, and Ukrainian, and discuss their own work in two languages to explore the issue of change in translation.
S259. All About Skin: A Discussion of Short Fiction by Women Writers of Color.
(Rochelle Spencer, Jasmine Jina Ortiz, Raphael Kadushin, Xu Xi, Amina Gautier) Redwood Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
This panel will examine women’s short fiction and why the short story is such an intriguing genre for women writers. Inspired by the forthcoming collection All About Skin: Short Fiction by Award-Winning Women Writers of Color, this panel will be particularly interested women writers of color’s recent achievements in short fiction, the diversity of that short fiction, and their on-going efforts to reach broader audiences.
S260. Where are We Now?: The State of GLBTQ Small Press Publishing.
(Matthew Haynes, Charles Flowers, Bryan Borland, LeAnna Crawford, Lawrence Schimel)
Willow Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Over the last ten years GLBTQ presses have appeared, disappeared, and reappeared. With the emergence and increasing popularity of online publications and eBooks, the opportunity for marginalized writers/writings has increased exponentially. This begs the question: what is the current state of GLBTQ publishing? This panel, representing four GLBTQ presses, will explore this topic and discuss what kind of writing they are looking for, concluding with audience Q&A.
S261. “Breaking Bread with the Dead”: 60 Years at the Poetry Center Digital Archive.
(Elise Ficarra, Steve Dickison, Melissa Eleftherion Carr, Sara Wingate Gray)
Room 2A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2.
As the Poetry Center at SFSU celebrates its 60th anniversary, we remark its unique collection of historic original recordings and highlight new artistic production and digital publication emanating from the Poetry Center Digital Archive. Reflecting on the state of the archive of one of the country’s most long-standing literary organizations, panelists critically engage themes of archive as public space, gaps and presences within archives, and archive as resource for the creation of new works.
S262. Nothing to Prove, Nothing to Lose: Introducing People to Poetry without Scaring Them Away.
(Michele Russo, J. C. Todd, Crystal Bacon, Renee Ashley, Martin Farawell)
Room 2B, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2.
What keeps people from embracing poetry? Were they taught it in a way that made it seem an intellectual puzzle they weren’t smart enough to solve? Did the poetry they were exposed to seem irrelevant to their lives? The Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Program staff and poets will share an approach for engaging newcomers in poetry that reduces their fear and values their individual response. The program has introduced thousands of teachers and students to the pleasure of reading and hearing poetry.
S263. Social Responsibility, Creative Writing, and the Urban-Serving University.
(Liam Callanan, Julie Marie Wade, Nicole Cooley, Michael Kula)
Room 3A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 3.
Urban-serving universities, which serve a high percentage of diverse, first generational students, place high value on workforce development. This presents challenges and opportunities for Creative Writing programs in these contexts, and this panel will address questions such as: How can we balance a practical-minded mission with our artistic pursuits? What can our diverse classrooms teach us about authorship? What role can our programs play in serving the wide audience of an urban environment?
S264. The Power of Perspective: Teaching Memoir and Creating Community Among Older Writers.
(Michelle Seaton, Judah Leblang, Kerrie Kemperman, Kathryn Kay)
Room 3B, Washington State Convention Center, Level 3.
Many of the tens of millions of older Baby Boomers in this country yearn for quality creative writing instruction. In Boston, Grub Street has created a program to teach memoir to retirees and has published four anthologies of their work. In this panel, instructors and administrators will discuss how the program evolved, its teaching and workshop philosophy, and how it handles the publishing process, so that communities can reach this vital but underserved population.
S265. Uncreative & Unoriginal: Notes on Conceptual Writing.
(Devon Wootten, Catherine Wagner, Marie Buck, Noah Eli Gordon, K. Silem Mohammad)
Room 400, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4.
The poet Kenneth Goldsmith posits conceptual writing as a response to the digitization of language. For Goldsmith, the unparalleled linguistic materiality of our digital age necessitates a different conception of the “poetic.” In contrast to more traditional poetics, conceptual writing de-centers the writing subject with strategies such as collage, excision, and appropriation. This panel asks what conceptual writing might teach us about beauty, originality, and the creative process.
S266. A Reading and Conversation with Gish Jen and Tobias Wolff, Sponsored by the Oregon State University School of Writing, Literature, and Film.
(Gish Jen, Tobias Wolff, Jess Walter)
Ballroom ABC, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Gish Jen, author of The Love Wife and Typical American, and Tobias Wolff, author of This Boy’s Life and In Pharaoh’s Army, will present readings of their award-winning work, followed by a discussion moderated by Jess Walter.
S267. Ecstatic Lyric: A Reading and Conversation with Mary Ruefle and Brenda Shaughnessy, Sponsored by Kundiman and Wave Books.
(Matthew Zapruder, Brenda Shaughnessy, Mary Ruefle)
Ballroom E, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Two of the country’s preeminent poets read from their work and discuss the lyric sensibility, obsessions (poetic and otherwise), and what American poetry needs the most. Moderated by poet and editor Matthew Zapruder.
S268. Isolation and Community: How We Write It, How We Live It.
(Deb Vanasse, Don Rearden, Melinda Moustakis, Leigh Newman, Seth Kantner)
Room 602/603, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Writing may be a lonely pursuit, but the tension between isolation and community evokes larger truths that emerge in our stories. What is the distinction between solitude and loneliness? In what ways does a survival culture both isolate and unify? How does self-reliance impact one’s life and work? How do isolation and community contribute to the re-imagining of frontier literature? Panelists with ties to Alaska explore the ways these issues play out in their writing lives and in their books.
S269. The Play’s the Thing: Teaching Classical Literature Through Adapted Writing.
(Teri Hein, Alicia Craven, Miriam Reed, Eric Magnuson)
Room 604, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
This event will be useful to writing teachers who wish to learn techniques to inspire young students to write while enjoying the rich language of classic writings such as those by Shakespeare. Drawing on the experience of a partnership between First Place School, 826 Seattle, and Young Shakespeare Workshop, attendees will learn how to walk students through grasping the language and then rewriting the work into modern English, finishing with a performance.
S270. Risking More Than Your Own Story: The Challenges of Researching and Writing Others’ Lives.
(Gregory Martin, Debra Gwartney, Mark Sundeen, Jennifer Sinor)
Room 606, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Panelists consider the ethical questions that arise when we bring others—both living and dead—into our literary nonfiction. What is a writer’s responsibility to his or her subject? What are the possibilities for harm, inaccuracy, or success? In addition, the apparent ease of gathering information through modern technology can make it difficult to know where and how to begin. These writers will give both practical advice and critical reflection on the challenges of writing about others.
S271. Collaboration & Emergence: Chapbooks at the Crossroads.
(B. K. Fischer, Sean Nevin, Suzanne Cleary, Liz Ahl, Amy Lemmon)
Room 607, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Chapbooks are a vital locus of collaboration, a dynamic form where poets, editors, artists, and bookmakers co-produce an object that allows careers to emerge and audiences to expand. A form distinguished by compression, innovation, and local relevance, the chapbook is also a fulcrum in the process of developing the scope of a literary career. Writers and editors from Slapering Hol Press, the small press imprint of the Hudson Valley Writers’ Center, explore the potential of this creative nexus.
S272. Mountain Writers Series 40th Anniversary Reading.
(Sandra Williams, David James Duncan, Joseph Millar, Maxine Scates)
Room 608, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
This reading features three prominent Northwest writers who have participated over the years in Mountain Writers’ readings, workshops, low-residency MFA program, festivals, or workshops. These authors commemorate Mountain Writers by sharing their own work and by paying tribute to some of those writers no longer with us who also make up the rich legacy of the past four decades of literary excellence. Brief audio of Jack Gilbert, Richard Hugo, William Stafford, James Welch, and others.
S273. Page Meets Stage.
(Taylor Mali, Nick Flynn, Tara Hardy, Jamaal May, Rachel McKibbens)
Room 609, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
“Where the Pulitzer Prize meets the Poetry Slam.” Taylor Mali returns to AWP for the third year in a row with aniteration of this popular New York City reading series. Four poets, from “page” and “stage,” are paired in several different ways to read back and forth, poem for poem, in an ongoing “verse conversation” on craft. Neither a competition nor an ivory circle, Page Meets Stage has built a vital bridge between two camps that keep forgetting they live under the same tent.
S274. Weird Girls (Fabulous Ladies of Fabulist Fiction).
(Christine Vines, Marie-Helene Bertino, Amelia Gray, Karen Thompson Walker, Deb Olin Unferth)
Room 611, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Female writers have been marginalized as have genre writers, so Fabulist female writers are, in essence, writing from the margins of the margins. Four Fabulist writers will share their origin stories and inspirations. They will address the specific rules of writing “weird” and the challenges and/or surprise perks they’ve encountered as risk-takers. They will offer practical advice for writers in any stage of the process who wish to learn more about the Fabulist realm.
S275. Northwest Writers Showcase: A Reading of Pacific Northwest-based Novels.
(Adam O’Connor Rodriguez, Peter Donahue, Michael Strelow, Loretta Stinson, Lidia Yuknavitch)
Room 612, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Since 2001, independent press Hawthorne Books in Portland, Oregon has been publishing literary fiction and nonfiction with a national scope and deep regional roots. These four Hawthorne Books author panelists, along with the moderator, Hawthorne’s senior editor, all hail from the Pacific Northwest and will read from their Pacific Northwest-based novels.
S276. Rounding the Human Corners: Writing the Truth about the Changing World.
(Marybeth Holleman, Linda Hogan, Ann Fisher-Wirth, Eva Saulitis, Juan Carlos Galeano)
Room 613/614, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Straddling mass extinctions and shifting ecosystems, how do we write about the more-than-human in a way that avoids simple metaphor? And how do we write of degradation and extinction in language that engages the (human) reader and remains truthful to these “nations?” Discussing a diversity of approaches are five authors of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction about horses, wolves, birch trees, killer whales, polar bears—the depth and range of the world just beyond our human skin.
S277. A Political Engagement: A Tribute to Jack Hirschman.
(Kimiko Hahn, Luis Rodriguez, Michael Warr, Jack Hirschman)
Room 615/616/617, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Bronx born, Hirschman made California his home after UCLA fired him for 1970 anti-war activities. Known for the innovative form, the arcane, and for political engagement, the former San Francisco poet laureate has been compared to Whitman and Neruda. A prolific author and editor of Art on the Line, essays by writers that explore the political nature of poetry, he is a member of Union of Street Poets, a group that distributes leaflets of poems to people on the street.
S278. Translation as Current Event.
(Kyoko Yoshida, Donald Revell, Robert Baker, Sylvain Gallais, Ken Keegan)
Room 618/619/620, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
In a world torn apart by conflict, it is more important than ever to read widely across languages. Translators from Omnidawn’s award-winning series will read and discuss the work of René Char, leader in the French resistance; Virginie Lalucq and philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy, whose collaborative poem responds to a photograph of a Zapatista lieutenant facing a firing squad; Jules Laforgue and Paul Verlaine, modernist innovators; and Kiwao Nomura, one of Japan’s most influential contemporary poets.
S279. Where Your Life Still Matters: Richard Hugo’s The Triggering Town and the Creative Writing Classroom.
(Susanna Childress, Sandra Alcosser, Jane Springer, Darin Ciccotelli, Georgia Popoff)
Room LL4, Western New England MFA Annex, Lower Level.
Thirty-five years ago, Richard Hugo’s The Triggering Town offered not only an approach to writing but a reminder of what a creative writing class can be. Five poets, one a student of Hugo’s and each award-winning writers with their own classrooms, explore our pedagogical and literary debt to this luminous text at once sly and wise, wild and practical, and illuminate how Hugo’s understanding of linguistic play, leaping subjects, revision, and readers have nurtured generations of poets and their teaching.
S280. Beyond the Gild: Lyric Imperatives in the Personal Essay.
(Robert Root, Kathryn Winograd, Laura Julier, Steve Harvey, Jocelyn Bartkevicius)
Room LL5, Western New England MFA Annex, Lower Level.
Personal and lyric essays are sometimes perceived as antithetical by novice writers in creative nonfiction, the personal essay conscripted to linear narrative and the lyric essay to experimental poetics. The personal essayist may embrace poetic language, yet leave untapped elements such as metaphor, symbol, deep image, and associative logic. Writers, mentors, and editors discuss how to discover these “doorways” to broaden and deepen the revelatory journey into self and world.
S281. Ecopoetics, Ekphrasis, Ethics.
(Karla Kelsey, Bin Ramke, Sally Keith, Brian Teare, Forrest Gander)
Room 101, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 1.
Recent thoughts on ecopoetics have concluded that nature writing is problematic because it treats ecosystems as though they are art objects. This panel operates at the junction between ekphrasis, ecopoetics, and ethics asking poets to respond to questions concerning the tension between forms of representation inherently necessarily to the act of writing and an ethical approach to engaging the world as more than mere object.
S282. The Debts We Owe: Undergraduate Writing Programs Respond.
(Martha Perkins, Chris Haven, Beth Myers, L.S. Klatt, Pablo Peschiera)
Room 202, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 2.
As massive student loans spur government and parental scrutiny of college degrees, how should writing programs adapt? What curriculum best prepares students for employment after graduation? “Immediate employment” will likely become a benchmark for government funding: are writing programs doing enough to prepare graduates? This faculty-led panel will discuss how internal and external pressures are driving curriculum changes at private colleges and public universities in Michigan.
S283A. Small is the New Big: Publishing Story Collections with Independent Presses.
(Anne Valente, Molly Patterson, Alissa Nutting, Tim Horvath, Gabriel Blackwell)
Room 301, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3.
Despite the rumors, story collections do sell. The contemporary publishing world is a rich marketplace for fiction writers, with independent presses taking up where the New York houses have left off. This panel explores the benefits of publishing story collections with small presses, the various paths to doing so, the process throughout, and the many opportunities offered for where to go next. Writers publishing with Bellevue, Dzanc, Five Chapters, Press 53, and Starcherone will present.
Seven o'clock p.m. to Eight-fifteen p.m.
S283B. Mountain Writers Series: A Reception & Reading to Celebrate 40 Years.
Aspen Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Join us to meet and greet award-winning poets and writers from our past four decades.
S283C. Inland Northwest Center for Writers at Eastern Washington University Reception.
Cedar Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
Eight-thirty p.m. to Ten o'clock p.m.
S284. A Reading by Jane Hirshfield and Sharon Olds, Sponsored by the Academy of American Poets.
(Jennifer Benka, Jane Hirshfield, Sharon Olds)
Ballroom E, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
The Academy of American Poets presents a reading by award-winning poets Jane Hirshfield and Sharon Olds who will read from their respective works. Hirshfield received the Donald Hall-Jane Kenyon Award in American Poetry in 2012. Her book Given Sugar, Given Salt was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award. Olds is the author of Stag’s Leap, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2013. Jennifer Benka, Executive Director of the Academy of American Poets, will introduce the readers.
S285. Sherman Alexie and Timothy Egan: A Reading Sponsored by Hugo House.
(Tree Swenson, Sherman Alexie, Timothy Egan)
Ballroom ABC, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6.
Sherman Alexie is the National Book Award-winning author of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, as well as a dozen books of poetry and prose. Timothy Egan is the National Book Award-winning author of The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl as well as six nonfiction books. Introduced by Tree Swenson, executive director of Richard Hugo House.
Ten o'clock p.m. to Twelve midnight
S286. AWP Public Reception & Dance Party. Grand Ballroom, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.
A Dance Party with music by DJ Neza. Free beer and wine from ten o'clock to eleven o'clock p.m. Cash bar from eleven o'clock pm to midnight.