Saturday, February 1, 2014

AWP Seattle 2014: A Preview

New this year at the conference of the Associated Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) is a full schedule of events on Saturday. In the past, Saturdays at AWP have mostly been for winding down, packing up, and saying goodbye to friends. No more. This year, Saturday is jammed with events, including readings in the evening by poets Sharon Olds and Jane Hirshfield, as well as by prose writers Sherman Alexie and Timothy Egan. If you haven’t already made your travel plans, try to stay at least till Sunday morning, so you can catch all the Saturday activity.

AWP is rightfully proud of this year’s line-up. According to AWP Director of Conferences Christian Teresi, “I’m really excited about the programming this year. I think this is arguably the best overall slate of events we’ve ever had.”

AWP has also added a number of services to make things easier for conference attendees. There are maps of the venues, bookfair, and downtown Seattle on the main conference webpage: https://www.awpwriter.org/awp_conference/overview

“Attendees are also now able to personalize the online schedule,” Teresi notes. Instructions can be found on the main schedule page: https://www.awpwriter.org/awp_conference/schedule_overview

This year, registration will not be closing between the end of preregistration and onsite registration. There is a new will-call registration system that hopefully will bypass the long lines. “As always, we encourage attendees who have not registered to do so now, as using the will-call system will be faster than registering onsite,” adds Teresi. 

Some of my favorite writers will be attending AWP. Each day of the conference I’ll be posting highlights that I find interesting. Look for events with these writers:

Kim Addonizio
Anita Amirrezvani
Richard Blanco
Catherine Brady
Mark Doty
Cornelius Eady
Nick Flynn
Thaisa Frank
Robert Hass
Ernestine Hayes
Tyehimba Jess
Charles Johnson
Phillip Lopate
Nancy Lord
Bobbie Ann Mason
C.M. Mayo
Robert Pinsky
Eva Saulitis
Patricia Smith
Gary Snyder
Carla Trujillo
David Wojahn
Sholeh Wolpe
Matthew Zapruder


“Seattle is a great city with great facilities, and we’re really looking forward to hosting the conference there,” Teresi sums up.

Other posts on the AWP conference:

Zack Rogow will be chairing two panels at the AWP conference in Seattle on Thursday, February 27: Is Poetry Ready for Prime Time? with Cornelius EadyKim Addonizio, and Toby Barlow, from 10:30 to 11:45 a.m.; and Homesteading on the Digital Frontier: Writers' Blogswith Mark Doty, C.M. Mayo, and Charles Johnson, from 4:30 to 5:45 p.m.

Other recent posts about writing topics: 
How to Get Published: Part 1Part 2Part 3Part 4 
Getting the Most from Your Writing Workshop: Part 1Part 2Part 3Part 4Part 5Part 6Part 7
How Not to Become a Literary Dropout, Part 1Part 2Part 3Part 4Part 5Part 6Part 7Part 8Part 9Part 10
Putting Together a Book Manuscript, Part 1Part 2Part 3Part 4Part 5Part 6Part 7
Working with a Writing Mentor: Part 1Part 2Part 3Part 4Part 5
Does the Muse Have a Cell Phone?: Part 1Part 2Part 3Part 4Part 5
How to Deliver Your Message: Part 1Part 2, Part 3Part 4Part 5Part 6
Why Write Poetry? Part 1Part 2Part 3Part 4
Using Poetic Forms, Part 1: Introduction; Part 2: The Sonnet; Part 3, The Sestina;
Part 4, The Ghazal; Part 5, The Tanka

1 comment:

  1. Hola Zack, I am really looking forward to our panel. Writers' blogs is a subject that, fashion-wise, seems to me to have taken a rollercoaster ride. My take: the whole concept of blogging is far more interesting and complex than we often recognize. I've been blogging since 2006 and am still trying to get my mind around it.

    PS Here's a post with some thoughts about Google Analytics and comments. http://madammayo.blogspot.mx/2014/02/homesteading-on-digital-frontier-my.html

    hasta pronto!

    ReplyDelete