Why It's So Difficult to Write about Dreams

Many great works of literature have been inspired by dreams, or dream-like visions. Two of my favorites are Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem “Kubla Khan: or, A Vision in a Dream: A Fragment” and Gabriela Mistral’s “The Flower of Air,” (“La Flor de aire”) just to name a couple. There are great poems and works of prose that recount dreams, but in general, for me, most pieces of creative writing based closely on actual dreams fail to recreate the magic that the vision had for the writer. Why?

Self-portrait collage by André Breton

I’ll give you an example. A couple of nights ago I went to sleep with the thought on my mind that I wanted to write something about dreams. I had a long and often interrupted dream that I kept returning to, a dream that concerned writing. There was a phrase that I and the other characters in the dream kept repeating: “Kicking the wall so hard, the paint falls.” I remember someone, maybe me, actually kicking a door in the dream, and chips of red paint breaking off of it. This phrase and action were supposed to summarize in a nutshell all the great teachings of an important literary figure, someone who was my mentor in the dream.

Well, I don’t think you’ll be surprised that when I woke up, that phrase turned out not to be as profound or as earth shattering as it seemed in my dream. In fact, it doesn’t make an awful lot of sense. It has something to do with anger—the kicking—and anger as a force for change, or at least for damaging the status quo.

The difficulty in conveying the depth and urgency of a dream to a reader is that the dream seems to supply its own depth and saturated color. When the dreamer recounts the action and tries to depict that aura for a reader, it rarely has quite the same profundity or significance. It’s like having a conversation where one person has the light behind him, and sees the other person in all dimensions and in full color, while the other person is looking into the light, and sees only a vague outline of the person she is talking to. The dreamer sees the dream clearly, with all its perspective and vibrancy, while the reader only sees a silhouette and is irritated at having to try to make out all the obscure details.

There are times when dreams can be the basis of good literature, but this sometimes works best when the writer is aware that dreams are notoriously unreliable in their claims of depth. I’m thinking, for instance, of the surrealist André Breton’s prose poems entitled “Five Dreams” from his book Earthlight, which I co-translated with Bill Zavatsky. Even though Breton was one of the first writers to offer a blow-by-blow description of his dreams as literature, he seemed to know intuitively that dreams were by nature best recounted with a grain of salt. Here’s an excerpt from the fourth of his “Five Dreams”:

“A part of my morning had been spent conjugating a new tense of the verb to be—because a new tense of the verb to be had just been invented. In the course of the afternoon I had written an article that, as far as I can remember, I found shallow but fairly brilliant. A little later I went back to work on a novel I was writing. This last enterprise had led me to do some research in my library. This soon led to the discovery of a work in octavo, composed of several volumes, that I didn’t know I owned. I opened one of them at random. The book claimed to be a philosophical treatise, but in one section, instead of Logic or Ethics, the heading read: Enigmatic. The text completely escapes me, I have only the memory of illustrations invariably rep­resenting an eccle­siastical or mythological character in the middle of an immense waxed room that looked like the Apollo Gallery [in the Versailles Palace].”

Breton is recounting a dream that almost has the quality of a revelation: he discovers a new tense of the verb to be and a mysterious lost treatise on philosophy. But he still is not willing to make any claim of profundity for his revelations—he finds his own article “shallow but fairly brilliant.” And the new volume of philosophy is called, fittingly, Enigmatic, and offers not universal pronouncements but only strange illustrations. The truths we come upon in dreams may be lightning bolts, Breton seems to be saying, but appreciate the irony and humor in the reality that the more they claim to be extremely profound, the more they give us mostly puzzles.


Zack’s most recent book of poems, Irreverent Litanies
Zack’s most recent translation, Bérénice 1934–44: An Actress in Occupied Paris by Isabelle Stibbe

How to Get Published
Getting the Most from Your Writing Workshop
How Not to Become a Literary Dropout
Putting Together a Book Manuscript
Working with a Writing Mentor
How to Deliver Your Message
Does the Muse Have a Cell Phone?
Why Write Poetry? 
Poetic Forms: Introduction; The Sonnet, The Sestina, The Ghazal, The Tanka, The Villanelle
Praise and Lament
How to Be an American Writer
Writers and Collaboration
Types of Closure in Poetry

AWP Picks for Saturday, April 11, 2015

Here are the events at the conference of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs that look interesting to me for Saturday, April 11, 2015:

9:00 am to 10:15 am

Room 200 D&E, Level 2

S113. Yes, Writing Is a Job: People Who Get Paid to Write. (Joy Lanzendorfer,  Marcia Simmons,  Nora Maynard,  Ken Weaver) Believe it or not, it’s possible to make a living writing. Four working writers from diverse backgrounds will talk about how they make ends meet through article writing, blogging, nonfiction books, and other projects. Panelists will discuss how we get work, the financial realities of the publishing world, and our struggle to balance writing for money with creative endeavors that are closer to our hearts (but harder on our pocketbooks). Another panel on the important topic of the practical side of making ends meet as a writer.

Room 211 A&B, Level 2

S120. Straight Talk: What the MFA Promises & What It Delivers. (Lee Martin, Sonja Livingston,  Carter Sickels,  Claire Vaye Watkins,  Karen Salyer McElmurray) A 2013 Poets & Writers index says that full-time teaching positions at the university level are available, on average, for well less than one percent of creative writing program graduates. This roundtable will discuss expectations and realities of why we enter creative programs in the first place and our futures afterwards. How can programs be more forthcoming about these realities and what actions can faculty take? What does risk really mean when you choose the path of the MFA? Good subject. I know a lot of MFA students and alums are concerned about whether that degree is a good investment of time and money.

Room M100 B&C, Mezzanine Level

S123. Latina/o Poets as Publishers: A CantoMundo Roundtable. (Deborah Paredez,  Carmen Gimenez Smith,  Juan Morales,  Rosebud Ben-Oni,  Casandra Lopez) How are Latina/o poets occupying and transforming the roles of publishers and editors today? This panel convenes CantoMundo founders and fellows to discuss their work as publishers of small presses, editors of literary magazines and blogs, and founders of new media platforms. Our roundtable conversation explores the particular challenges, visions, and contributions of Latina/o publishers and editors. Looks interesting.

10:30 am to 11:45 am

Room 211 A&B, Level 2

S151. Building Communities: How to Develop Partnerships and Collaborations. (Sarah Gambito, Francisco Aragón, Cornelius Eady,  Joan Kane,  Diem Jones) This panel gathers representatives of five organizations serving writers of color: Cave Canem, Institute of American Indian Arts, Kundiman, Letras Latinas, and Voices of Our Nation Arts Foundation. We will discuss best practices and possibilities for collaboration—across organizations; with presses, residencies, and university affiliations; and beyond. Panelists will discuss how partnerships promote cross-cultural solidarity and foster organizational sustainability, growth, and inspiration. Excellent panel and worthwhile topic.

Room M100 J, Mezzanine Level

S158. Teaching Translated Texts in the Writing Program. (Nadia Kalman,  Geoffrey Brock,  Elizabeth Harris,  Douglas Unger,  Russell Valentino) Creative writing programs incorporate the reading and study of literature, but often focus on English-language writers. Four writing professors, all of whom translate, talk about teaching international literature in their programs. Panelists discuss the use of various works and writers and their respective literary traditions; consider pedagogical approaches to language, style, narrative conventions, and subjects; and reveal how their own work as writer/translators informs their teaching. Important subject for exposing students to more world literature.

12:00 pm to 1:15 pm

Room 200 B&C, Level 2

S175. From the Thickets of Translation: How and Why We Should Teach Contemporary World Literature in the Creative Writing Classroom. (Jia Oak Baker,  Ravi Shankar,  Forrest Gander,  Wayne Miller,  Carolyne Wright) In the 21st century, any conversation about literature must expand beyond the Western tradition, reflecting the globalization intensifying around us. But the MFA classroom is often limited to the same few canonical examples of international writers. Join editors from highly acclaimed anthologies of contemporary world literature as they discuss pedagogical strategies and the necessity for enlarging the perspective used in classrooms today by infusing new voices into the conversation. Similar and important topic on world lit in the MFA.

Room L100 D&E, Lower Level

S193. Writing into the World: Memoir, History, and Private Life. (Honor Moore,  Carolyn Forche,  Catina Bacote,  Alysia Abbott,  Garth Greenwell) Memory drives memoir, but it can take writing to realize that while we thought we were just living, history was unfolding. Contemporary memoir has been ridiculed as MEmoir, but where would history be without the testimony of individuals, whose memories of “how it was” bring into focus, add nuance, even contradict received accounts? Even what seems private is subject to the dynamics of political, economic, and cultural change. How do we bring the larger world into our autobiographical writing while retaining the intimacy of the personal voice and affirming the uniqueness of each life? Strong panel in the memoir area.

1:30 pm to 2:45 pm

Auditorium Room 1, Level 1

S197. Disappearance and Forgetting: Geeshie Wiley and Last Kind Words Blues, A Lecture by Greil Marcus, Sponsored by the Poetry Foundation. (Robert Polito, Greil Marcus) In 1930 a blues singer and guitarist named Geeshie Wiley recorded a song that opened up the deepest crevices of the American imagination. Then she fell off the map. While recent research has, for the first time, tracked the outlines of her life, she remains in the mist—and in this talk, the song writes the singer's adventures in the long years after she once spoke in public to describe life as she knew it. A conversation with Poetry Foundation president Robert Polito follows. Greil Marcus is a fascinating speaker and thinker.

3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Auditorium Room 1, Level 1

S229. Keeping Our Small Boat Afloat: A Tribute to Robert Bly, Sponsored by Blue Flower Arts . (Tom Verner,  Tony Hoagland,  Marie Howe,  Jill Bialosky) A tribute to honor and celebrate the life and literary work of groundbreaking poet, writer, translator, storyteller, and cultural critic Robert Bly. Bly has changed the American literary landscape with pioneering translations of Neruda, Transtromer, Machado, Hafez, and Rilke. His own poetry permeates the space between the conscious and unconscious, and finds rich meaning in mythology. An icon of American letters, Bly's many awards include the Frost Medal. He has lived in Minnesota for 80+ years. Great group of readers to honor a seminal poet/translator.

Room 101 F&G, Level 1

S235. Revisiting Highway 61. (Mark Conway, Olena Kalytiak Davis, Dessa, James Allen Hall ) Fifty-five years after Minnesota’s native son Bob Dylan came down from the Iron Range on Highway 61, four poets will respond to his pervasive influence. They will read their own work and explore how it reflects and deflects powerful elements in Dylan including Blake, the blues, the Bible and the North Country. How can you have AWP in Minnesota and not talk about the immortal Bob D.?

Room 205 A&B, Level 2

S242. Speculating Darkly: A Poetry Reading . (Bianca Spriggs,  Keith Wilson,  Kenyatta Rogers, Ladan Osman,  Airea Matthews) Taking its title and spirit from a series of essays written by poet Roger Reeves (published on the Poetry Foundation's "Harriet the Blog"), and subsequent reading series curated by poet and visual artist Krista Franklin, "Speculating Darkly, or The Folk Surreal Future," is a poetry reading that features some of the Midwest's emerging African Diaspora writers who focus on the Black Fantastic, the Grotesque, the Afro-Surreal, the Gothic, the speculative, and science fiction. Looks like a strong reading. Make sure you hear Ladan Osman.

4:30 pm to 5:45 pm

Room 211 A&B, Level 2

S277. Persimmon Tree Poets Read. (Wendy Barker, Chana Bloch, Tori Derricotte,  Sandra M. Gilbert, Fleda Brown) A reading by poets featured in past issues of Persimmon Tree: An Online Journal of the Arts for Women Over Sixty, a magazine that has showcased many of the most significant women poets of our era. The founding poetry editor and current poetry editor will also briefly review the history and direction of this highly successful journal that now reaches 12,000 unique readers each month from across the globe. Good group. I’ve heard Alicia Ostriker might read Chana Bloch’s poems, since Chana is recovering from an illness.

Room M100 H&I, Mezzanine Level

S283. Everything I Know about Poetry I Learned from Li Po and Tu Fu: The Influence of Classical Chinese Poetry . (John Bradley, Sam Hamill,  George Kalamaras,  Ken Letko) Once, Li Po was stepping over a puddle, and a wood splinter fell from his shoe sole into the water, making ripples that will be felt at this AWP Conference. These ripples, in fact, have formed Modernist poetry. Join the conversation so you can practice splitting firewood by moonlight. Good topic and panel.

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

AWP Picks for Friday, April 10, 2015

Here are the events on the program of the conference of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) in Minneapolis in the U.S. that sound interesting to me.

Offsite events listed at the end.

Bookfair: Check out Broadsided Press, Booth 1822, where you can use an old school ViewMaster to click through writings and images while listening to related sounds with earphones. The choices include a Road Trip, Hit the Beach, Into the Wild, etc. The writers whose work is featured include Jane Hirshfield, Dorianne Laux, Gabrielle Calvacoressi, Zachary Savich, and many, many more. 

Friday, April 10, 2015

9:00 am to 10:15 am

Auditorium Room 3, Level 1

F106. Preparing Students of Color for the MFA: Advice, Reflections, and Methodologies. (Tonya Hegamin,  Joanna Sit,  Marcelo Hernandez Castillo,  Patrick Rosal,  Leah Vernon) Writers of various ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds discuss their experience in MFA programs as students and teachers of creative writing. The panel will share their experiences, discuss coping mechanisms and insights they learned about themselves as writers and finally how those experiences influence their teaching pedagogy. Important topic on diversity in MFA programs.

Room 205 C&D, Level 2

F116. Writing is Rewriting: Teaching Revision in the Creative Writing Workshop. (Charlotte Gullick,  Doug Dorst,  Joe Hoppe,  Mary Helen Specht,   Jen McClanaghan) Creative writing students love to write; so why, then, is it often like pulling teeth to get them to revise? Drawing on their experiences teaching graduate, undergraduate, and nontraditional students, the writer-professors on this panel will discuss why students are resistant to revision and offer classroom-tested strategies and assignments that can help students revise everything from structure to language, fiction to poetry. This is a topic many students want to know more about.

Room M100 B&C, Mezzanine Level

F122. Literature as Visual Art: A Conversation on Collaboration. (Kate Shuknecht,  Deborah Keenan,  Regula Russelle,  Jean Larson,  Charles Jones) Book arts, art books, broadsides, collage, sculpture. These are but some of the ways literature and visual art collide. With writers, publishers, and artists utilizing a variety of texts and images, this panel explores a world of collaborative possibilities. From fine press limited editions to small press multiples, from traditional letterpress to evolving 3-D forms, from paper and ink to found media, panelists will discuss not just the gorgeous array of made objects, but the community around them. I have a particular interest in collaborating with artists, so I personally find this interesting.

10:30 am to 11:45 am

Auditorium Room 1, Level 1

F133. Four Weddings and an Inauguration: The Occasional Poem. (Liz Ahl,  Richard Blanco,  CM Burroughs,  Rita Dove,  Ann Hudson) Your sister asks you to write a poem for her wedding. Your president asks you to write a poem for his inauguration. How might your work in response to requests of such seemingly different weight or scope be somewhat similar with respect to audience, performance, and aesthetic? Why have certain poems endured beyond the occasions for which they were written? This panel, featuring an editor, an inaugural poet, and a former poet laureate, examines the occasional poem from a variety of perspectives. Stellar lineup with Rita Dove and Richard Blanco.

Room 101 F&G, Level 1

F140. Principled Protest in Academia: The National Significance of the University of Houston Sit-in. (Ashley Wurzbacher,  Kay Cosgrove,  Jameelah Lang,  Kevin Prufer,  Alexander Parsons) In 2013 graduate students and faculty in the University of Houston creative writing program staged a sit-in and other collective actions to protest teaching stipends that had not been increased in at least twenty years. Their efforts received national attention and resulted in a raise of over fifty-five percent. This panel will provide student, faculty, and administrative perspectives on the sit-in and will discuss its national implications at a time when funding for the arts is at an all-time low. Who knew? This is a positive development, worth spreading.

Room 208 A&B, Level 2

F149. Opting out of the Pyramid Scheme: In Praise of Teaching High School. (Scott Gould,  Kim Henderson,  Margaret Funkhouser,  Monika Cassel,  David Griffith) In a pyramid scheme-like job market where hundreds of newly-minted MFAs vie for poorly paying adjunct positions and no-pay internships at nonprofits, there is astonishingly very little discussion around teaching high school. A panel of writer-educators from the top arts high schools in the country discuss the huge upside to teaching writing outside of the Academy, from the impact on the future of literary culture, to the ways that early exposure creates a healthy, lasting relationship to writing. Teaching younger students is such a rewarding experience—worth exploring for many.

12:00 pm to 1:15 pm

Auditorium Room 1, Level 1

F165. From Page to Stage: How to Engage with an Audience. (Stacie Williams, Amber Tamblyn,  Adam Wilson, Justin Taylor,  Jessica Anya Blau) Four authors discuss what they’ve learned from their time on the road. Sharing experiences from their most memorable events, whether reading to a crowd of three or three hundred, participating in a nudist colony’s book club discussion, poetry readings, or a dramatic performance, these authors will reinforce the importance of having an engaging and personal experience regardless of audience size, venue, or awareness. For those who like performing poetry.

Room M100 H&I, Mezzanine Level

F188. Cream City Review Celebrates Returning the Gift Native American Writers. (Kimberly Blaeser,  Janet McAdams,  Margaret Noodin,  Laura Tohe, b: william bearhart) In 1992, 500 years after Columbus, more than 300 Native American writers gathered at the first Returning the Gift Festival, bringing together more Native writers than at any other point in history. Cream City Review celebrated the legacy of this now annual gathering with a special issue entitled “Returning the Gift: Indigenous Futures.” Please join us for our Gathering of Words with a poetry and fiction reading from emerging and established Native American writers published in this issue. One of the few panels focusing on Native American writers at AWP.

1:30 pm to 2:45 pm

Auditorium Room 3, Level 1

F198. I Know This is You: What Happens When Student Writing Reveals Too Much . (Luke Rolfes, Christie Hodgen, Bronson Lemer, Diana Joseph,  Richard Sonnenmoser) Teachers often receive nonfiction thinly disguised as stories or poems. Sometimes the skeleton closet swings open, and words and paragraphs spill out—a cathartic overflowing, a painful regret, an admission of guilt, a secret that has never seen the light of day. How do instructors handle these sudden outbursts of truth without jeopardizing the dignity of the writer or the workshop’s integrity? What obligation do teachers have when the workshop ends and the revelation still sits on the table? Good topic for creative writing teachers. Always an interesting subject, how to balance confession and literature.

Room 101 D&E, Level 1

F203. Readings from Every Father’s Daughter, a New Anthology of Personal Essays by Women about Their Fathers . (Phillip Lopate, Joyce Maynard, Ann Hood, Jayne Anne Phillips,  Jill McCorkle) Some of this century’s finest women writers from all over the country will read from Every Father’s Daughter, a new anthology of personal essays by diverse women about their fathers. The anthology is being published in April 2015 on the occasion of McPherson & Company's 41st anniversary. One of the most stellar event lineups at AWP.

3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Ballroom A, Level 1

F230. Three Decades, Four Poets: Cave Canem Presents Whiting Award Winners. (Alison Meyers,  Thylias Moss,  John Keene,  Tyehimba Jess,  Atsuro Riley) Poets Tyehimba Jess, John Keene, Thylias Moss, and Atsuro Riley read selections from their original work, including poems that earned them recognition as Whiting Award winners. Their presentation represents three decades of excellence and the diverse aesthetics that resonate with Cave Canem Foundation’s mission and values. Any reading with Tyehimba Jess and Thylias Moss is going to be great.

Room 101 D&E, Level 1

F237. Embracing the Unlikeable: How To Write and Teach Unsympathetic Characters. (Christopher Castellani,  Maud Casey,  Alix Ohlin,  Stacey D'Erasmo) Fiction rises or falls on the believability of its characters. Recently, media attention has been paid to whether those characters have to be "likeable," and what role, if any, the "unlikeable" sort should play in stories and novels. In this panel, four authors explore what this demand for likeability really means for writers of literary fiction, examine the craft of creating complex but compelling characters, and explore how to teach students confused by misleading publishing trends. This is a topic I would like to know more about.

Room 200 H&I, Level 2

F244. How to Survive as an Independent Literary Organization in an Age of University Monopolies. (Richard Newman, Tanner Curl,  Maribeth Batcha,  Gianna Jacobson) How does one start up or sustain a literary organization without university funding? Why are independent literary organizations vital to the literary landscape? december, One Story, River Styx, and the Loft Literary Center will discuss founding an organization, funding projects, building community relationships, and sustaining a nonprofit’s viability. Good topic in this day and age.

Room M100 B&C, Mezzanine Level

F252. Mentor/Mentee: Paying It Forward. (Julie Schumacher,  Edward McPherson,  Yuko Taniguchi,  Patricia Hampl,  Stephanie Vaughn) The teaching of writing involves close attention to the writer—to  his/her process, foibles, and development—as well as the work. What sort of mentoring should a student writer expect, and an adviser provide? Is mentoring purely professional/artistic, or is there a personal component? Faculty mentors debate these questions with former students who went on to become mentors themselves. How is mentoring paid forward? What do former mentees hope to bring to the next generation? An important subject for both students and professors.

4:30 pm to 5:45 pm

Room 101 D&E, Level 1

F269. Writing the Broken Body: A Reading. (Peggy Shumaker, Judith Barrington, Anne Caston,  Cynthia Hogue, Eva Saulitis) Most cultures glorify the perfect physique, the lithe and lively body. Transforming disability, disease, trauma, and pain into art takes tremendous focus and skill. Come hear award-winning writers who demonstrate how the honest treatment of physical life is vital to a literature that includes all, whether or not they are fit and well. Each writer will read from relevant work and comment on the process of finding a form and voice for this difficult material. Great topic, great group.

Room 101 F&G, Level 1

F270. Translating Brazil. (Tiffany Higgins, Ellen Dore Watson, Hilary Kaplan, Alexis Levitin) Opening with a short reading, this panel will take up questions of how to transmit aesthetics and culture in poetry from an enormous nation with a complex history of race and class. What challenges does the translator of contemporary Brazilian writing face? The panelists will address the "Braziilianness" of the works they translate, and the issues that arise in bringing it to English. Eu amo a Brazil—I love Brazil, and these are some of the leading translators of contemporary Brazilian writers.

Room 101 H&I, Level 1

F271. This Poem Has Multiple Issues: Reimagining Political Poetry . (Kathryn Levy,  Samiya Bashir,  Sarah Browning,  Mark Doty,  Dan Vera) Wikipedia’s entry for Political Poetry begins, "This article has multiple issues." Precisely. Such lack of consensus could stem from the contentiousness of politics itself, but it might also be a product of conceptual neglect: when we think of a conventional political poem, what example springs to mind? And how current is it? This panel considers a diversity of approaches to the political poem—in its subject, poetics, or call to action—to update our understanding of its multiple issues. It’s always interesting to hear about new ways to do political poetry. And with Mark Doty.

Room L100 B&C, Lower Level

F277A. Mixing and Matching Languages for Narrative Riches. (Denise Low, DaMaris Hill,  Xanath Caraza,  Ruben Quesada) All writers encounter diverse, coded vocabularies. Here, panelists discuss use of Nahuatl, Spanish, Cherokee, and African American terms in English-language writings. What techniques weave translation into a single text? What stories require languages other than standard English? Published writers of African American, Costa Rican-Los Angelino, Mexican Indigenous, and Midwest mixed-blood Indigenous heritage share ideas. Thought-provoking topic, worth exploring.

Room 208 A&B, Level 2

F279. Making Diversity Happen: Editors Can Change the Literary Landscape. (Lee Hope, Martha Nichols, Danielle Georges,  J.W. Wang,  Margaret Elysia Garcia) Many literary editors now acknowledge the lack of diversity in the writers they publish. Yet the debate often turns into female and minority authors blaming the editing “guys”—and editors, male and female, wringing their hands but offering few solutions. This panel will focus on what editors and writers need to do to make diversity happen, be it networking outside their comfort zones, hiring editors of color, or running online social media campaigns to promote a truly diverse literary world. Important subject with a good panel.

Room 211 C&D, Level 2

F282. Ethno-Representations of War & Violence. (Nomi Stone, Tarfia Faizullah,  Jehanne Dubrow, Solmaz Sharif) Drawing on Carolyn Forché’s notion of a third space of the social, which bridges the personal and political, we interrogate and enlarge methodologies, languages, and source-worlds in writing poetry about war/violence. Panelists will engage poems drawn from interviews of Bangladeshi victims of wartime rape; of Iraq War refugees who reenact war in US pre-deployment simulations; and of Jews in Honduras after the Holocaust, as well as poems that re-imagine the Department of Defense’s security dictionary. Intriguing subject. Looks worthwhile.

OFFSITE EVENT

7:00 pm to 8:30 pm

Bust Magazine and the Loft Present Roxane Gay and Others
The Loft Literary Center, 1011 Washington Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55415

Cost: Suggested Admission $5, no one turned away
URL: https://loft.secure.force.com/portal/EventDetails?event.id=a1EG0000007WjTJMA0
BUST Magazine and The Loft Literary Center present a reading with Patricia Smith, xTx, Roxane Gay, Amber Tamblyn, Franny Choi and host Margaret Cho. Free and open to the public. First-come, first-served seating. Overflow rooms with live feeds will be available. This is one of the most high-profile events at the conference. Patricia Smith is a stand-out, and hosted by Margaret Cho! 

On Friday, April 10, 2015, from noon to 1 pm, Zack Rogow will be signing copies of Talking with the Radio: poems inspired by jazz and popular music at the Kattywompus Press table, Booth 307.

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

AWP Picks: Thursday, April 9, 2015

Here are my picks for events at the Associated Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) conference in Minneapolis in the U.S. from April 9 to 11. Below are events for the first full day of the conference, Thursday, April 9. Offsite events at the end of this post.

9:00 am to 10:15 am

Room 200 F&G, Level 2

R110. So You’re a Writer. (Sha na na na, sha na na na na) Get a Job!. (Beth Concepcion, L.P. Griffith,  James Lough,  Jonathan Segura) What job am I going to get with my degree? Administrators hear that question and often answer, “Teaching.” But not all writers want to teach. For those who do, full-time positions are dwindling. Fortunately, there are more creative job opportunities than ever before for talented writers. This panel discussion will show poets, storytellers, and essayists how to earn a paycheck by channeling their expertise into careers such as reviewing, copywriting, news, social media, and promotional writing. A practical topic of interest to anyone hoping to make a living in a field related to writing.

Room L100 F&G, Lower Level

R126A. Discovering the Diverse Voices in Blue Lyra Review. (Matthew Silverman, Lucille Lang Day,  EJ Koh,  Ken Lamberton,  Tim Tomlinson) The poetry editor and four contributors to Blue Lyra Review, an online and print journal founded in 2012, will read their work. Coming from California, South Korea, New York, Arizona, and Georgia, writing in the fields in poetry, fiction, translation, and nonfiction, they exemplify the journal’s mission to feature writers from ethnically, culturally, and geographically diverse backgrounds, paying special homage to Jewish writers and other underrepresented communities. BLR has published more than 200 writers and growing. I don’t know all these writers, but any magazine that publishes Lucy Lang Day is on to something.

10:30 am to 11:45 am

Auditorium Room 2, Level 1

R129. Rejection! Everything You Always Wanted to Know (but Were Afraid to Ask). (Jill Bialosky,  Rob Spillman,  Melissa Stein,  MB Caschetta,  David Baker) Top editors from W. W. Norton, Tin House, and the Kenyon Review join emerging writers (including a literary-rejection blog author) to dish about exactly how submissions are evaluated, what it’s like to rebuff so many labors of love, the mysterious hierarchy of rejection slips, whether and how the best work really gets published, tips to avoid surefire rejection—and how to maintain faith in your work and your voice even when rejections keep piling up. Audience questions encouraged! Another practical session on a topic of interest.

Room 211 A&B, Level 2

R145. Flat Lands and Open Waters: Reading Hybridity into the Midwest. (Nickole Brown,  Re'Lynn Hansen,  Madelon Sprengnether,  Alison Townsend,  Rochelle Hurt) The paradigm of form has shifted to include hybrid works such as the poem novella, the lyric essay, the prose poem, and flash nonfiction. How do the challenges and rewards of living in the flatlands yield to a fluidity and hybridity in writing? These Midwestern authors, all published by the White Pine Press Marie Alexander series featuring prose poem and hybrid forms, will read work and discuss the confluence of aesthetics between living/writing from the midlands and having an openness to form. Nickole Brown is an important poet to hear, and the topic is very relevant to this conference’s setting.

12:00 pm to 1:15 pm

Room 200 D&E, Level 2

R169. A Lifetime of Experience in One Hour: The Art of the Craft Talk. (Zack Rogow, Wilton Barnhardt,  Sena Jeter Naslund,  Wesley Brown) With the rise of low-residency programs and writing institutes, craft talks have become an important medium to inspire and to transmit methods to the next generation of writers. Experienced faculty members from low-residency programs will discuss their ideas on what makes a compelling craft talk. How do you generate a theme or question? What techniques, aids, or tools help in presentation? How do you create a talk that is dynamic and useful to students and stays with them in their lives as writers? A panel I organized with three faculty from low-residency programs who are renowned for virtuoso craft talks.

Room 101 J, Level 1

R167. Page Meets Stage Tenth Anniversary Showdown Hosted by Taylor Mali. (Taylor Mali,  Mahogany Browne,  Nikola Madzirov,  Richard Blanco,  Bao Phi) Academic poets can’t read, and slam poets can’t write. For ten years, the Page Meets Stage reading series in NYC has been refuting that tired claim. Taylor Mali returns to AWP for the fourth year in a row with a new combination of poets—ostensibly two each from page and stage—who will answer one another, poem for poem, in an ongoing effort to prove, as Horace said over 2,000 years ago, that the poetry most deserving of our approbation is that which can delight and instruct at the same time. Richard Blanco is amazing, and Page Meets Stage is always a strong event.

Room 200 H&I, Level 2

R171. Adaptation. (Shawn Otto, Thomas Pope) A panel whose members have a dozen film adaptations between them talk about the process: what filmmakers look for, the differences between novels and films, and the business side of how movies do and don't get made. Is there something a novelist can do to improve the chances of selling movie rights? What sorts of novels make good and bad movies? Should you try adapting your novel for film? Should you take the money and run? How does the narrative structure of film differ from novels? Not many AWP panels on screenplays, so worth a try.

1:30 pm to 2:45 pm

Ballroom A, Level 1

R190. The Pink Tuxedos. (Carol Muske-Dukes, Rita Dove,  Sophie Cabot Black) The poem-doo-wop singers, The Pink Tuxedos, appeared as a special event at AWP in Palm Springs in 2001. Their new, re-styled performance will reprise that earlier presentation (Great Poems sung to doo-wop melodies—i.e. Donne's, "Batter My Heart, Three Person'd God" to the tune of "One Summer Night", etc.). New arrangements by composer Reena Esmail include Plath's "Daddy" sung to "Dream Lover", Wordsworth's "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" to Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," and beyond. The performance will feature a guest appearance by Marilyn Nelson. This sounds really fun!

Scott James Bookfair Stage, Level 1

R195. Word and Music with Kim Addonizio, Peter Kline, Sam Ligon, Gary Copeland Lilley, and Brittany Perham. (Kim Addonizio,  Brittany Perham,  Sam Ligon,  Peter Kline) Nonstop Beautiful Ladies, a word and music group featuring poet and fiction writer Kim Addonizio; poets Peter Kline, Gary Copeland Lilley, and Brittany Perham; and fiction writer Sam Ligon performs intersections of language, music, and song to celebrate their latest books. Blues, spoken word, guitars, harmonica, and bringing down the holy spirit! Another fun event, with the inimitable Kim Addonizio.

Room 200 F&G, Level 2

R203. The Making of Originals: Translation as a Form of Editing. (Susan Harris, Karen Emmerich,  Bill Johnston, Valzhyna Mort, Rowan Ricardo Phillips) When is translation a form of editing? For various reasons—multiple versions of texts, different standards in editing, needs of publishers—translators often find themselves in the position of revising and shaping the original text. Four translators discuss their experiences in rewriting and editing, collaborating with authors, and establishing definitive texts, and suggest approaches to producing a “new original.” Good topic, good panel.

Room L100 H&I, Lower Level

R221. The Big No: Taboo and Black Sexuality in Contemporary American Poetry. (Kyle Dargan,  Kima Jones,  Chet'la Sebree,  Kevin Simmonds,  Lamar Wilson) Historically, African American artists’ depictions of sexuality have conformed to or been forced to confront what scholar Evelyn Higginbotham refers to as the politics of respectability. This panel will examine how contemporary African American poets, though clearly writing on the other side of the sexual revolution, continue to wrestle with the ways in which their work troubles the political divisions between honest, expansive sexual expression and the idea of social respectability. Provocative topic, sounds worthwhile.

3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Room L100 A, Lower Level

R249. Intimate Communities: How to Form and Keep a Writing Group That Works . (Daisy Hernandez,  Minal Hajratwala,  Kristin Naca,  Lorraine Lopez,  Julie Iromuanya) While writing groups are often seen as pit stops on the way to the MFA or as a post-MFA transition experience, they can be challenging to create and sustain. Five authors in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction share practical strategies for forming an in-person or online group, dividing time wisely, and critiquing fairly. They discuss how groups were essential in drafting, revising, and publishing their books, and how to create a stellar mini-community even if you live far from a literary epicenter. Writing groups are key to sustaining a career for many authors, and this sounds useful.

4:30 pm to 5:45 pm

Ballroom A, Level 1

R256. When Poetry is About Something: Evaristo, Ostriker, and Weaver, Sponsored by the African Poetry Book Fund / Prairie Schooner . (Chris Abani,  Alicia Ostriker,  Afaa Michael Weaver,  Bernardine Evaristo) There's poetry, and then there's important and necessary poetry. Bernardine Evaristo, Alicia Ostriker, and Afaa Michael Weaver will read work that has emerged from an engaged and intensely felt awareness of the world around them—within their national borders and without. This work has earned them the respect of readers around the world. Following the readings, there will be a conversation moderated by Nigerian poet and fiction writer Chris Abani. This panel seems like it’s going to be informative.

Room M100 J, Mezzanine Level

R280. Ut Cinéma Poesis: Using Film in Poetry Workshops . (James Pate,  Sandra Lim,  Lisa Fishman,  Arda Collins,  James Shea) Pasolini wrote poetry. Frank O’Hara made a film. Poetry and film have long found inspiration in one another. This panel of five poets explores ways to use film (Bergman, Eisenstein, Maya Deren, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Trecartin) in poetry workshops. How can film lead to writing exercises and discussions about poetic form, image, repetition, sound, and juxtaposition? We also address new, evolving technologies, such as iMovie and the iPhone, and consider how they might be used in a poetry class. Interesting topic on how poetry can reach a different audience.

6:30 pm to 8:00 pm

Room 203 A, Level 2

R293. African Poetry Book Fund and Prairie Schooner Reception. The African Poetry Book Fund celebrates its new publications, Ladan Osman's The Kitchen Dweller's Testimony and the Eight New Generation African Poets chapbook boxset. University of Nebraska-Lincoln Creative Writing faculty, including Ted Kooser, Kwame Dawes, and Jonis Agee, will also read excerpts from their work. Ladan Osman gave a terrific reading at last year’s AWP in Seattle, introduced by Kwame Dawes. Also former U.S Poet Laureate Ted Kooser will read.

OFFSITE EVENTS

6:30 to 9:30 pm

C'mere Honey: A Live Performance, Book Launch & Party!

Honey, 205 E Hennepin Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55414

URL: http://www.honeympls.com/

Join Calypso Editions, Carolina Wren Press, Drunken Boat, LNC, Manor House, Midway Journal, Poetry International & Small Po[r]tions for a live performance & worldwide book launch just blocks from the conference hotel. Join Marilyn Chin, Patrick Rosal & Forrest Gander, among others. Good readers.

8:00 pm to 10 pm

Kattywompus Press reading

Kieran’s Pub, Poetry Corner
85 N 6th St., Minneapolis

This reading features new releases from Cornelius Eady and his band, Rough Magic; a new play and prose poems by Christopher Shipman; poetry about music by Zack Rogow; Leah Umansky‘s Mad Men poems; Robin Messing’s gentle wisdom; with drinks and dinner available throughout the show.

On Thursday, April 9, 2015, from 3 to 4 pm, Zack Rogow will be signing copies of Shipwrecked on a Traffic Island and Other Previously Untranslated Gems by the French author Colette at the SUNY Press table, Booth 325. The book is cotranslated by Zack and by Renée Morel

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