Local Poet & Copywriter Delightfully Overwhelmed by Upcoming Conference

Written By Courtney Marie

Hello friends! Remember when I had a magical adventure attending AWP for the first time ever in Minneapolis last year? Well, tomorrow I embark on my journey to this year’s conference in Los Angeles!! I am currently an excited bundle of nerves and anticipation at the thought of all the writing and literary escapades ahead. Since it’s the only thing I can think about this afternoon, I give you this AWP-related blog post. Live vicariously through me as I sift through all the awesome things I’d like to see and learn and do this weekend!

ALL OF US WITCHES: AN EVENT WITH NAT. BRUT & THE SPECTACLE

We haven't made a super-public announcement about it yet, but for a little over a month I have been working very closely with the team of Nat. Brut… as their new Social Media Manager! They are an incredible group of people working hard for equal representation and responsible choices in publishing, and it’s been a really excellent experience so far. The best part is getting to help turn all their great ideas into action, for instance, I helped put together a call for applications for their very first (and very awesome) Artist in Non-Residency program, and this coming weekend we’re hosting All of Us Witches, a badass (and FREE!) event with The Spectacle during AWP! If you're out and about in the city of angels on Saturday night, come say hi and enjoy some fantastic poetry, art, film, and music with us at MaRS Gallery.

Poster design for All of Us Witches by Kayla E. of Nat. Brut.

Poster design for All of Us Witches by Kayla E. of Nat. Brut.

Other very promising events I hope to attend:

SO MUCH TO LEARN

Why can’t I be five places at once? There are always so many interesting panels at AWP, and so little time. I have been gathering the ones that are particularly relevant to my interests -- I know there is a lot of overlap on times, but if you’re going to be around and like the sound of any of these, we should meet up and learn a thing or two together! (There are so many and I would actually be really grateful to you for helping me narrow this down.) The full schedule and descriptions can be found here.

Thursday:

9:00 a.m.

  • The Active Politics of Queer/Feminist of Color and Indigenous Feminist Publishing Movements. (Lisa Moore, Felicia Montes, Audrey Castillo, Kim Tran, Casandra Lopez) Room 408 A, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level

  • Story by Design: Visual Narratives. (Zach Dodson, Keith McCleary, Stephen Farrell, Samantha Gorman, Warren Lehrer) Room 504, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level

10:30 a.m.

  • Creating Opportunities for Writers of Color: A Continued Urgency. (Reginald Flood, Diem Jones, Elmaz Abinader, Angie Chuang, Angela Narciso Torres) Gold Salon 3, JW Marriott LA, 1st Floor

  • In Case You Think You Don’t Belong Here: Imposter Syndrome and AWP. (Samantha Dunn, Jessie Carty, Aubrey Hirsch, Margaret LaFleur, Carmen Machado) Room 403 A, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level

  • Literary Orphans Presents: Burning Down the Walls: The Art and Importance of Writing Essays That Can Change the World. (Anna March, Megan Stielstra, Michele Filgate, Jamia Wilson, Ashley Ford) Scott James Bookfair Stage, LA Convention Center, Exhibit Hall Level One

Noon

  • Dynamic Duos: Art & Words Collaborations, or How Prompted Inspiration Leads to Exhibition. (Bonnie Stufflebeam, Evan Klavon, Laura Madeline Wiseman, Karen Bovenmyer, Bruce Bond) Room 410, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level

  • The Poetry of Comics. (Erica Trabold, Bianca Stone, Gabrielle Bates, Alexander Rothman, Catherine Bresner) Room 411, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level

  • Queertopia or Bust: Thoughts on Intersectional Queer Poetics. (Jason Schneiderman, Rickey Laurentiis, Julie Enszer, Viet Le, Trace Peterson) Room 407, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level

1:30 p.m.

  • The Life of the Poet in the World. (Samuel Ace, R. Erica Doyle, CA Conrad, Sueyeun Juliette Lee, Saeed Jones) Room 502 A, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level

  • So You Think You Want to Start a Lit Mag: Straight Talk from Editors About Launching Mags and Keeping Them Afloat. (Jennifer Acker, Benjamin Samuel, Jonathan Lee, Natalie Eilbert, Paul Legault) Room 518, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level

3:00 p.m.

  • Writer as Editor/Editor as Writer. (Jill Bialosky, Rob Spillman, Hannah Tinti, Major Jackson, James Yeh) Room 502 B, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level

  • Limited Resources, Big Dreams: How to Mine the Rush of Online Lit Journals. (Heather Lefebvre, Ralph Pennel, Cynthia Plascencia, Eric Blankenburg, Christopher Allen) Room 511, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level

4:30 p.m.

  • Never on Your Own: Creating Community When Writing Is Done. (Waverly Fitzgerald, Kathleen Alcala, Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo, Josephine Ensign, Kelli Russell Agodon) Gold Salon 1, JW Marriott LA, 1st Floor

  • Concentration Camps, USA: A Critical and Artistic Retrospective of Literatures of World War II Internment and Detention. (David Mura, Garrett Hongo, Tony Ardizzone, Mariko Nagai) Room 515 B, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level

  • Rejecting “Page” vs. “Stage”: A Drawbridge Reading. (Elizabeth Acevedo, Clint Smith, Amin Drew Law, Terisa Siagatonu, Pages Matam) Room 513, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level

8:30 p.m.

  • #AWP16 Keynote Address by Claudia Rankine, Sponsored by USC Dornsife English & PhD in Creative Writing and Literature, and Graywolf Press. Concourse Hall, LA Convention Center, Exhibit Hall Level One

Friday:

9:00 a.m.

  • It’s Not a Love Story: Owning the Romantic and Domestic in Literary Memoir. (Liza Monroy, Kassi Underwood, Jillian Lauren, Alison Singh Gee) Room 513, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level

10:30 a.m.

  • Let Us Live Loudly: A Dark Noise Reading. (Danez Smith, Franny Choi, Aaron Samuels, Fatimah Asghar) Room 511, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level

Noon

  • Beyond Confession: Women’s Writing and a Radical Poetics of the Personal. (Dorothea Lasky, Amber Rose Tamblyn, Rachel McKibbens, Deborah Landau, Ada Limón) AWP Bookfair Stage, LA Convention Center, Exhibit Hall Level One

  • YesYes Books 5th Anniversary Reading. (Phillip B. Williams, Tanya Olson, John Mortara, Jonterri Gadson, Aricka Foreman) Room 506, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level

1:30 p.m.

  • Reimagining Literary Spaces. (Michael Snediker, Zinzi Clemmons, Yasmin Belkhyr, Maisha Z. Johnson, Corinne Manning) Gold Salon 2, JW Marriott LA, 1st Floor

  • Korean Feminist Poetics and Translation. (Eunsong Kim, Johannes Goransson, Ji Yoon Lee, Don Mee Choi, Joyelle McSweeney) Gold Salon 3, JW Marriott LA, 1st Floor

  • Coming of Age Queer. (Amber Dawn, Mecca Jamilah Sullivan, Tom Cho, Tim Jones-Yelvington, Megan Milks) Room 410, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level

  • The Senses and Sensibility: Activities for the Creative Writing Classroom. (Angela So, Brian Brodeur, Charles Rice-González, Sebastian Paramo, Michelle Burke) Diamond Salon 6&7, JW Marriott LA, 3rd Floor

Saturday:

9:00 a.m.

  • Mayhem and More Mayhem: The World of Collaborative Writing. (Susan Finch, Tom Franklin, Joshua Shenk, Justin Petropoulos, Jessica Pitchford) Room 408 A, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level

  • The Rise of the Literary Podcast Genre: What Mistakes Not to Make in Your First Year of Starting a Podcast. (Abigail Browning, Kevin Larimer, Tom McAllister, Lindsay Garbutt, Mike Ingram) Room 511, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level

1:30 p.m.

  • The Imperfect Writing Life. (Samantha Dunn, Carol Edgarian, Dani Shapiro, Andre Dubus III, Bill Clegg) Room 502 B, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level

  • Graywolf Press Reading. (Percival Everett, Dana Gioia, Jennifer Grotz, Paul Lisicky, Diane Seuss) Room 515 A, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level

3:00 p.m.

  • Writers and the Greater Community: How to Make a Difference. (S. Kirk Walsh, Vivé Griffith, Joel Arquillos, Ami Walsh) Gold Salon 1, JW Marriott LA, 1st Floor

  • Publishing Poets of Color: The Power of Diversity and the Literary Landscape. (Jennifer Flescher, Carmen Gimenez Smith, Nate Marshall, Camille Rankine) Room 403 B, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level

  • Between Image and Text: Publishing Comics in Literary Magazines. (Aaron Burch, Killian Czuba, Amy McDaniel, Jarod Roselló) Room 411, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level

4:30 p.m.

  • Sex, Drugs, and Rock ‘n’ Roll: Poem Pairings. (Beth Bachmann, Nick Flynn, Kristin Naca, Saeed Jones) Room 411, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level

  • Beyond Neruda: Latin American Women Poets Burn Down the House. (Forrest Gander, Yvette Seigert, Jen Hofer, Jesse Lee Kercheval) Room 503, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level 

& OF COURSE THE BOOKFAIR

Books for days. Miles and miles of beautiful printed materials and design, small press chapbooks, magazines, broadsides, etc. I can't wait to peruse the tables! If you can't find me anywhere else, this is where I will be. It is likely I will come home with too many books, just like last year. 

DON’T DESPAIR IF YOU ARE STILL IN DENTON!

Because if you happen to be hanging out in Denton this weekend, you MUST go visit the Greater Denton Arts Council for their big annual Arts All Night event: this is the one thing I will regret missing while on this adventure!! My dear sweet friends will be putting on a Spiderweb Salon showcase from 7-9 in the Meadows Gallery with a superb lineup of local talent. Go check it out!

Courtney Marie
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