AWP13: Much Love

Post Road's Invitation to LIR.

Gulf Coast’s tiny bombshell business cards. 

That New Delta Review now has poetry and fiction chapbook contests – yes! 

The big black bear on the cover of Passages North’s latest issue! 

Cover artist: Jennifer Burton

The Panel: “What We Talk About When We Don't Talk About War?” - with presenters: Siobhan Fallon, George Kovach, Laura Harrington, Bob Shacocis, and Catherine Parnell 

Kissing Chaney Kwak on both cheeks yet again. 

The tiny button with the giant live oak of The Southern Review. 

Brooklyn Poets. 

This image gallery first posted at Hothouse Magazine.

AWP13: Hothouse Interview with Natalie Young of Sugar House Review

Natalie Young is a poet, graphic artist, and an editor for Sugar House Review. She’s a Utah girl, down to earth, whimsical, creative, compassionate, with a genuine and sly sense of humor. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in “Rattle,” “Tampa Review,” “South Dakota Review,” “Tar River,” and elsewhere. 

Natalie and I both graduated from Lesley University’s MFA Program in 2009, and it has been incredible to spend time with her at AWP — her third, my first. Over lunch, we talked about the differences in her AWP experiences. Her first two times at the conference, she spent her days at the Sugar House Review table at the Bookfair. This time she has been able to attend panel presentations, readings, tributes, the keynote conversation between Seamus Heaney and Derek Walcott, and more.

I asked her three questions, short and sweet.

KARIN C. DAVIDSON: So, Natalie, how would you describe the difference of being here for Sugar House at the Bookfair and here for the events?

NATALIE YOUNG: Well, at the Bookfair, I’m here mostly as an editor. People know where to find us, and so we can meet our contributors. And as a participant, I can go to panels, visit other reviews’ tables at Bookfair, go to readings.

DAVIDSON: How has AWP influenced magazine submissions for Sugar House?

YOUNG: It has definitely increased them. There is always an influx of submissions after having the table at AWP’s Bookfair. The volume is affected, as well as the quality.

DAVIDSON: What is the importance of AWP to a small literary magazine?

YOUNG: AWP is a good marketing outlet. We get to meet people that we wouldn’t normally meet, especially since the review’s home base is in Utah. (In fact, SHR is the only independent print literary review in Utah). We also get ideas from other people, including editors and publishers. Spending time at AWP is productive in many ways. On the east coast there is a higher concentration of writers than in the west, where they are more spread out. Networking is important for a small journal.

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This interview first posted at Hothouse Magazine.

AWP13: From Arc and Architecture to Falling Apart at the Seams

So take a day. Call it Day One.

Head to a tiny room crammed with participants and panel members. Give it shape, design, but not necessarily enough room. Fill the audience, every seat taken, every nook, every cranny, every inch. Security closes off hopeful participants from leaning in at the door. There is no more room, no entrance, no way. The fabulous five—Mary Kay Zuravleff, Lan Samantha Chang, Bich Minh Nguyen, Porter Shreve, and Hannah Tinti—sneak in from the fire exit. Ready, set? 

Porter says straight ahead, cross country. Sam says 10 pages a day. Bich says TK! To come! Hannah looks at the crowd and says, I don’t know, then pulls out five skeins of yarn and plots her novel back and forth across the crowded room. Mary Kay promises lightning strikes. In other words, How to Keep Track of Your Novel!

Wander through poems and essays of the Afghan Women Writers Project and be moved by the courage of women giving voice to their cause.

Meander through the Hynes Conference Center and stare at the blowing snow outside.

Rave at the readings of the poets of The Darkroom Collective! Roger Reeves, Sharon Strange, John Keene, Tisa Bryant, Kevin Young, Thomas Sayers Ellis with saxophone! And Tracy K. Smith. Add Natasha Trethewey to introduce and shake!

No, you’re not done yet.

Pay tribute. Jake Adam York is honored beyond belief, so beautifully, so bravely. Take it to heart: fall apart at the seams.

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First posted at Hothouse Magazine.

AWP13: Writers by the Thousands

Overwhelming, energizing, and inspiring, the 2013 Association of Writers & Writing Programs conference steamed straight ahead through a long March weekend. I added to the already crammed schedule by writing for Newfound Journal's blog Hothouse, which was kind of crazy, mostly fun. (The posts are included here at Thunder on a Thursday as well). Now that the AWP experience is said and done, many of us (the ten-eleven-or-twelve thousand writers who attended: the number is still being debated) are trying to catch up on sleep and reading and writing.

At the Hynes Convention Center on Boylston Street (aptly named "The Snow Globe" by Lee Martin), I spent time with friends who are poets, fiction writers, memoirists, essayists. We laughed until we cried, tried not to get locked out of yet another panel, and witnessed Seamus Heaney and Derek Walcott recite their own poems and speak of poetry. By the end of the weekend, some of us had new books and journals in hand, and we'd been able to meet and thank the editors who had accepted and published our stories and poems. We'd also been able to introduce ourselves to writers we admired--Siobhan Fallon, Bich Minh Nguyen, Andrew Lam, Myfanwy Collins, Michael Martone, Sharon Strange, Rita Dove!--and to small press publishers, like Victoria Barrett of Engine Books, Mark E. Cull of Red Hen Press, and Kevin Morgan Watson of Press 53.

For me, the experience was incredibly positive, especially in terms of meeting writers I'd only known in the virtual sense (Facebook, emails, etc.) and in attending panels like "Keeping Track of Your Novel," "The Darkroom Collective" poetry readings, "What We Talk About When We Talk About War," and the VIDA-sponsored readings and discussion with Elissa Schapell, Meg Wolitzer, and Cheryl Strayed. Engaging in literati-type venues is not always helpful for writers, those of us accustomed to being alone at our desks. But a literary conference like AWP13 can also be a window into the world of writing, one in which writers can experience the wit and shine of words, moments and sometimes hours with new and rediscovered writing friends, tables and tables lined with buttons and matchbooks, postcards and books--the physical graffiti of journals and presses--and the allowance of abstractions, lofty, floating from panels and ballrooms down the wide corridors and right out the revolving doors.

And one more sweet AWP13 moment: Ru Freeman's Huffington Post piece, 13 Bests of AWP 2013!