Tips for the AWP Conference, Picks for Friday, March 2

These are one poet’s personal and quirky picks for events for the AWP conference in Chicago in 2012. I’ve highlighted presenters I’ve seen in the past or topics that seem interesting to me.

9:00–10:15 AM. Literature and the Internet in 2012. The panelists are all editors of Internet magazines, so this might have substance. Grand Ballroom, Palmer House.

10:30–11:45 AM. Graywolf Press Reading. Includes D.A. Powell and Albert Goldbarth, both very worth hearing. International Ballroom South, Hilton Chicago.

10:30–11:45 AM. On the Move: Contemporary African American Women’s Literary Fiction. I don’t know the panelists, but it sounds promising. State Ballroom, Palmer House Hilton.

Noon–1:15. Why We Need a WPA for the 21^st Century. It’s probably a pipe dream, but hey, pass the pipe! Wabash Room, Palmer House Hilton.

1:30–2:45 PM. National Book Critics Circle Celebrates Award-Winning Writers. You get to hear Jane Smiley and Jennifer Egan. Hard to beat. Grand Ballroom, Hilton Chicago.

3:00–4:15 PM. A Reading and Conversation with Luis J. Rodriguez and Dagoberto Gilb. Luis Rodriguez is a wonderful reader. I bet this will be a winner. Grand Ballroom, Hilton Chicago.

4:30–5:45 PM. Arab and Arab American Feminism. Good topic, and it features Youmna Chlala, who is very worth hearing. Lake Erie, Hilton Chicago.

4:30–5:45 PM. A Reading and Conversation with C.K. Williams. Hugely original poet who doesn’t appear that often in the U.S. Grand Ballroom, Hilton Chicago.

8:30–10:00 PM. A Reading and Conversation with U.K. and U.S. Poets Laureate Carol Ann Duffy and Philip Levine. Sounds terrific. Philip Levine is a living legend. International Ballroom North and South, Hilton Chicago.

Zack Rogow will be signing copies of his new book, My Mother and the Ceiling Dancers, at the Kattywompus Press table (bookfair booth 721) at the AWP conference in Chicago on Friday, March 2, 2012 from noon to 1:00 p.m. His play, Things I Didn’t Know I Loved, about the Turkish writer Nazim Hikmet, will be given a staged reading at AWP on Saturday, March 3 from 1:30 to 2:45 p.m. in room Wiliford A, Hilton Chicago, 3^rd floor.