Not a Biopic, but a Biopoem

I think most people know what a biopic is. But have you ever heard of a biopoem? 

The biopoem is the verse equivalent of a biopic. Here’s my own definition of a biopic:

 

A biopic is a feature-length film that tells the story of a real, famous person’s life, including the full arc of that individual’s story from youth to death.

 

To me, a biopoem also summarizes the life of a well-known person. But a biopoem is only one-to-four pages long.

 

Clearly, there’s a big difference between a biopic and a biopoem. A biopic takes somewhere between an hour and a half to three and a half hours to watch. That’s enough time to show many scenes from a lifetime. A poem, though, takes only several minutes to read. A biopoem is more like a quick drawing, a sketch that stretches across the fourth dimension, time.

 

The idea of a biopoem will be clearer if I give an example. One of my favorite biopoems is “Life and Times, Erik Satie,” by Jack Marshall.

Poet Jack Marshall (1936–  )

This poem is part of a series Jack Marshall wrote to encapsulate the lives of innovative modern composers: Erik Satie, Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, and Béla Bartók. Marshall called this sequence of four poems “Quartet.” It appears in his collection Arriving on the Playing Fields of Paradise (Jazz Press, 1983).

“Life and Times: Erik Satie” doesn’t attempt to summarize an entire biography. Instead, Jack Marshall cherry-picks moments from Satie’s life that typify the composer’s temperament. One example is the comment Satie made to his friend Claude Debussy right after the debut performance of one of Debussy’s masterpieces:

 

After the premiere of “La Mer,” Satie murmured

“Cher ami, there was a little bit

between half past ten and a quarter to eleven, I thought,

terrific.”

 

This episode in the poem is not a fully described scene, though it does have an implied setting: presumably a concert hall in Paris, around 1900. Jack Marshall doesn’t bother to describe the setting, but lets the reader reconstruct it based on a few bits of information. But even that quick snapshot masterfully gives the reader a taste of Satie’s eccentricity, his wit, and also his exacting personality.

 

Another section of “Life and Times, Erik Satie” talks about the composer’s grooming habits:

 

… bathing, which he never did, but scrubbed

methodically—each week a different part—his body with pumice stone.

“It’s cleaner and goes further, dear lady, than soap.”

 

Here Jack Marshall tells us all we need to know about Satie’s antisocial but highly original character. And Satie’s biting sense of humor.

Composer Erik Satie

There is almost a plot to Jack Marshall’s biopoem. Satie comes to embrace his poverty to protect the purity of his art, unlike some of his contemporaries:

Once, when a fee for music to accompany a sports illustration was refused

by the fur-coated hypochondriac Firebird, Stravinsky, as too low,

it was offered to Satie, who refused it

as too high. … In the end

Satie was pacified by a suitably low fee.

 

I love that last sentence! It communicates both the sadness and irony in Satie’s fate. Even though there’s never a dramatic dialogue in “Erik Satie, Life and Times,” unlike a biopic, readers end up satisfied by the end of the poem that they know what sets that composer apart from all others.

 

So, what can we learn about the successful biopoem from Jack Marshall’s work?

• The writer has to choose a subject who has a story, identity, or destiny unique enough that it can be distilled in a few pages.
• The poet has to be choosy about picking incidents or quotes from their subject’s life that spotlight that person’s individuality.
• The author has to keep the language taut, crisp, and imaginative at the same time.
• It works well to sprinkle in comedy and/or tragedy when jotting down a full life.
• It can be useful to use actual quotes in a biopoem, as long as they’re not already trite or well-known citations.
• The setting or context of an event can be inferred by the reader, with only a few hints from the poet.

I hope this brief summary of the brief biopoem will inspire others to attempt this genre. It might seem like a narrow space to cultivate, but there are delicious fruits to be grown there.

 

A few biopoems I greatly enjoy:

 

Jack Marshall: “Life and Times, Erik Satie” from Arriving on the Playing Fields of Paradise

Cornelius Eady, “Chuck Berry,” from The Autobiography of a Jukebox

Robert Penn Warren, “Homage to Theodore Dreiser,” from Selected Poems, 1923–1975

and may I recommend my own, “For Chaim Soutine,” from my book The Kama Sutra for Senior Citizens and Other Poems on Aging

_________________________________

Zack’s new book of poetry, The Kama Sutra for Senior Citizens and Other Poems on Aging. Order in the USA    Order in the UK

Zack’s most recent translation: The Water Drinkers and Other Sketches of Paris in the Romantic Era by Henry Murger

Other posts of interest:

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: 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

AWP Seattle 2014: Day-by-Day Highlights

This is a very quirky and personal selection of the events at AWP 2014 that I think will be interesting. If there are readers or panelists I don’t mention, it’s out of my own ignorance.

AWP Seattle 2014

Conference Highlights

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Offsite event:

6:00 – 8:00 pm
Cave Canem Fellows Off-Site Reading

Headlined by Seattle poets Colleen J. McElroy & Gloria Burgess, 20 Cave Canem fellows raise the roof & raise funds for North America's premier home for black poetry. Cave Canem fellow Robin Coste Lewis will host. Cash bar to follow. $10 donation at the door to benefit Cave Canem.

Richard Hugo House, 1634 11th Avenue, Seattle, WA

Sounds like an excellent reading.

Thursday, February 27, 2014

9:00 to 10:15 a.m.

R120. Translating the Foreign: What Does It Mean? . (Lisa Katz, Aron Aji, Mira Rosenthal, Andrea Lingenfelter, Poupeh Missaghi) Translators from Turkish, Chinese, Polish, Persian, and Hebrew attempt to define the foreign element in their source texts as well as how they offer it linguistic hospitality (Paul Ricouer's words) in their translations into English. What is this thing we call foreign? Room 611, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6. Aron Aji is an important translator of contemporary Turkish writing, I expect there will be many worthwhile moments in this panel.

10:30 to 11:45 a.m.

R135. Is Poetry Ready for Prime Time?. (Zack Rogow, Cornelius Eady, Kim Addonizio, Toby Barlow) Recently poets have ventured into other media for the fun of collaborating and to reach out to a wider audience. Projects include combining animation with poetry, writing plays based on the lives of poets, and using poetry as lyrics for rock and jazz bands. Is poetry ready to dive out of its literary tower and swim in the world of mass audiences? Is it possible? What are the pleasures and pains of working with artists in other media? Do collaborations change the way we write or hear poetry? Room 2B, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2. Shameless self-promotion, but the panelists I’m appearing with really know their stuff, including the guy who coordinated the animation of the poems in Billy Collins’s TED talk, and two of the best performers I know.

R136. How Far, Imagination: Writing Characters of Another Race in Fiction. (Christine Zilka, Mat Johnson, Patricia Engel, Randa Jarrar, Susan Ito) Five writers discuss the politics behind the decisions they make about writing race and their thoughts on writing beyond one’s own ethnicity. Is writing characters of another race a matter of imagination, as some writers claim, or verboten? The diverse panel of published and award-winning novelists, essayists, and short story writers will explore topics of social responsibility, appropriation, artistic integrity, and even cultural or ethnic loyalties around the process and research of doing so. Room 3A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2. Provocative subject, worth exploring. 

R138. Double Lives: Writer/Translators. (Susan Harris, Lawrence Schimel, Sholeh Wolpe, Geoffrey Brock, Idra Novey) Many creative writers are also accomplished translators, and they establish parallel careers; but the two pursuits, and the resulting publications, are rarely considered in tandem. Four writers discuss how translating affects their other creative work, how reimagining another writer’s fiction and poetry in English can influence one’s “own” writing in those genres, and how they move between and within their dual identities. Room 400, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4. Good panel—writers who are good at both their own work and their translating.

Sholeh Wolpe

12:00 noon to 1:15 p.m.

R166. Writing for Musical Theatre: The Collaboration & Collision of Disparate Crafts. (Anton Dudley, Kellen Blair, Charlie Sohne) Arguably, the “book musical” is America’s most original contribution to world theatre. However, few writers can agree upon how a book musical is written. With its primary focus on text, this panel will discuss ways of collaborating with colleagues who speak, necessarily, different languages of craft and ways of teaching the convergence of these crafts to create effective and polished book musicals. Room 3A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2. Kudos for a great topic that I’ve never seen at AWP before.

1:30 to 2:45 p.m.

R193. Hot off the Presses: A Reading by Copper Canyon Poets. (Michael Wiegers, Marianne Boruch, Ellen Bass, Mark Bibbins, Matthew Zapruder) An event featuring the freshest work by Copper Canyon poets, with an introduction by executive editor Michael Wiegers. Hear poetry from the newest collections on the market by a diverse group of voices. Willow Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor. Good line-up. There are bound to be many strong poems here.

R208. I’m Just Not That Into You: Unsympathetic Characters in Fiction. (Irina Reyn, Hannah Tinti, Lynne Sharon Schwartz, Ryan Harbage, Maud Newton) American readers, workshops, and editors are often partial to sympathetic characters, but where does that leave contemporary Humbert Humberts and Anna Kareninas? A panel consisting of writers, editors, and an agent will address likeability in fiction. Is it crucial that our characters be sympathetic? Do we expect more likeable characters in fiction written by female rather than male writers? How does an agent approach the submission process if the novel’s protagonist is deemed unsympathetic? Room 612, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6. I like this topic—it’s one that isn’t discussed enough, in my opinion. Personally, I have a problem with novels where the main character is largely unsympathetic or has a flaw that I can’t overlook.

R209. The I or the Eye: The Narrator's Role in Nonfiction. (Phillip Lopate, Elyssa East, Robert Root, Lia Purpura, Michael Steinberg) Be it a personal or lyric essay, memoir, a work of journalism, or criticism, writers of literary nonfiction must decide how to craft their narrators to best suit the subject at hand. Why are some narrators situated center-stage as participants (the I) while others locate themselves more offstage as observers (the Eye)? This panel of writers, teachers, and editors will offer rationales for a range of approaches and suggest strategies to determine how best to present their narrators on the page. Room 613/614, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6. Phillip Lopate is always worth hearing.

3:00 to 4:15 p.m.

R230. The Narration of Identity and the Cuban-American Experience with Richard Blanco and Cristina Garcia, Sponsored by Blue Flower Arts. (Forrest Gander, Richard Blanco, Cristina Garcia) Richard Blanco and Cristina Garcia give a rare glimpse into their forbidden country, Cuba, through the literary voice of the American immigrant experience. Reading poetry, fiction, and memoir—and in lively conversation with Forrest Gander—they each illuminate the struggles of living in-between two cultures. Throughout their search for a cultural identity, they explore issues of language, gender, family, exile, and history—and discover what it means to truly become an American. Ballroom E, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6. I’ll always love Richard Blanco’s work for that terrific poem he read at Obama’s second inauguration. Also an important topic.

4:30 to 5:45 p.m.

R271. Homesteading on the Digital Frontier: Writers' Blogs. (Zack Rogow, Mark Doty, C.M. Mayo, Charles Johnson) Writers present strategies on how to start a blog, where to get material, how to publicize a blog and add readers and followers, and how to sustain it over time. Other topics: Is blogging a new genre of literature? Why do blogs matter? To monetize, or not to monetize? What are SEO and tagging, and how do you use them? How do analytics help increase readership? How can blogging improve book sales and reading attendance? Should you react to events or pick your own blog topics? Room 615/616/617, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6. More shameless self promotion. But let me at least mention that C.M. Mayo has an MBA in marketing, and she’s an accomplished writer and translator. Mark Doty always surprises me. Charles Johnson is a National Book Award-winning novelist who enjoys blogging.

R272. The Long Distance Race: Making a Life in Poetry (Dana Levin, Richard Siken, Tyehimba Jess, Carmen Gimenez Smith, Cate Marvin) Poetry is a long distance race, Hayden Carruth once advised. What do you wish you’d known about professional and personal stamina when you first discovered your devotion? Five poets, some emerging, some at mid-career, discuss the difficulty of achieving and sustaining a life in poetry. Topics will include rejection, success, mentorship, community, and the kinds of negotiations poets must make to establish themselves artistically and professionally. Experiences will be shared, scrapes confessed. Room 618/619/620, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6. Tyehimba Jess is very worth hearing on any topic.

Tyehimba Jess

8:00 to 11:45 p.m.

Chop Suey w/ Tin House, Wave Books, & Tumblr 
Cost: Free
URL: https://www.facebook.com/events/715336358484185/
Come to Capitol Hill's Chop Suey for a night of readings, dancing, and (free!) drinking. Readings from Matthew Zapruder, Dorothea Lasky, Peter Mountford, and Bianca Stone. DJ sets from Mas y Menos and New Dadz. Drinks (while they last) kindly provided by our pals at Tumblr. Chop Suey, 1325 E. Madison St. Seattle, WA 98122. Offsite reading that sounds fun, and hey! they have free drinks.

Friday, February 28, 2014

9:00 to 10:15 a.m.

F105. Publishing Local in the Last Frontier. (Vered Mares, Martha Amore, Kris Farmen, Buffy (Roberta) McKay) A panel discussion with Alaska’s newest boutique publisher and select writers: We will talk about the challenges and successes of writing and publishing in this remote region. As a Latina woman and head of VP&D House, I encourage Alaska Natives, women, and other minority voices to publish and be heard in the local community and beyond. VP&D House focuses on writers’ success through financial equality, transparent business practices, and a very hands-on editing process. Aspen Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor. Vered Mares has quietly been doing important work as a publisher in Alaska for several years. Her press, VP&D House, deserves attention.

F116. Digital Lit: Why Online Magazines Deserve More Respect. (Martha Nichols, Lee Hope Betcher, J. W. Wang, Matthew Limpede, Michael Garriga) Online literary sites attract more traffic than many print journals, expand audiences for literary work beyond a small circle of subscribers, and are building virtual communities of readers and writers. So why does digitally published work seldom win literary awards or make best-of anthologies? This panel of online editors will expose a number of myths about online publishing, conjure the joys of digital reading, and answer audience questions about how to take the leap off the printed page. Room 606, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6. Provocative topic, worth hearing about.

10:30 to 11:45 p.m.

F134. True North: Alaskan Literary Nonfiction. (Nancy Lord, Christine Byl, Ernestine Hayes, Tom Kizzia, Sherry Simpson) Recent years have brought the development of a strong field of creative nonfiction by Alaskans rooted in the land and its cultures. The result is a stranger-than-fiction literature of compelling, often dramatic truths. Five Alaskan writers will briefly posit reasons behind the genre’s northern robustness before sharing work inspired by extreme circumstances, encounters with the wild, and the challenges and opportunities of living in a rapidly-changing North. Cedar Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor. Some of the most important and engaging writers in the state of Alaska, all of whom have a lot to say.

Ernestine Hayes

F141. New Generation African Women Poets: A Reading from the African Poetry Book Series. (Tsitsi Jaji, Warsan Shire, Ladan Osman, Gabeba Baderoon, Kwame Dawes) An extension of the African Poetry Book Fund, dedicated to promoting the development and publication of poetic arts in Africa, the African Poetry Book Series presents four exciting new and established female voices writing in and outside of Zimbabwe, Somalia, and South Africa. The APBS will launch three of the authors’ chapbooks at AWP 2014; come listen to them read, along with accomplished poet Gabeba Baderoon, and hear Kwame Dawes discuss creating publishing opportunities for African poets. Room 400, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4. These are writers I haven’t heard or read, but it sounds intriguing.

F144. Airlie Press and Sixteen Rivers Press Poetry Reading. (Annie Lighthart, Dawn Diez Willis, Terry Ehret, Beverly Burch, Tim Shaner) Members of two West Coast poetry publishing collectives read from their recently published works. Scott James Bookfair Stage, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4. The writers I know in this group are really good. Recommended.

F157. Dwelling on the Edge: New California Writing 2013, Heyday/California Legacy. (Kirk Glaser, Juan Velasco, Zara Raab, Alexandra Teague, Steve Gutierrez) Culturally and geologically, California rests on shifting ground. This third annual anthology continues asking what is unique in California literature by assembling fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from publications large and small. What emerges reveals the proximity of Latin America and Asia, whose cultures clash and mix with those of Europe and Africa in ruthless and enchanting landscapes that render people as nowhere else. Join renowned contributors reading from and discussing this anthology. Room LL5, Western New England MFA Annex, Lower Level. Heyday Press has been discovering terrific writers for decades.

F161. Writing Inside Out: Authors’ Day Jobs. (Jason K. Friedman, Tina Kelley, Trevino Brings Plenty, Heid E. Erdrich) Eudora Welty was a publicist. William Carlos Williams practiced medicine. How do our nonliterary day jobs enter into our writing—or do we work writing into the job? Which is more writer-friendly, the huge corporation or the nonprofit? How do we form literary alliances when our colleagues are not publishing? Four authors, some whose co-workers do not know they are writers, discuss writing outside of academia in jobs supportive, hostile, or just indifferent to their literary careers. Room 302, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3. Excellent topic. 

12:00 noon to 1:15 p.m.

F173. Remapping the Frontier: Northwest Women Poets Writing From Archives and Experience. (Megan Snyder-Camp, Linda Bierds, Elizabeth Bradfield, Kathleen Flenniken, Melinda Mueller) Using archival materials as a creative source, this panel of Pacific Northwest women poets directly engages the claims laid by historical male explorers and scientific pioneers, opening a conversation about the weight of desire, discovery, and what it means as a woman to write (from) this contested landscape. Panelists share how and why archival research informs their creative work, and a moderated conversation tracks these journeys in the context of historical and personal discovery and its aftermath. Room 400, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4. Linda Bierds and Liz Bradfield are always worth hearing.

F193. Brevity Reading. (Jane Ciabattari, Meg Pokrass, Pamela Painter, Bobbie Ann Mason, Grant Faulkner) Brevity is big these days, attracting more and more writers and readers to a form once considered niche. Flash is the truffle of prose writing; small in word count, yet dense and satisfying. Online and print journals are embracing flash as technology advances and life's pace quickens. Flash writing is often lyrical, much like prose poetry; laced with sensory detail. Five masters of the form read their flash fiction, essay, and memoir. Plenty of time will be left for questions and answers. Room 202, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 2. Worthwhile panel. Bobbie Ann Mason is great.

Bobbie Ann Mason

1:30 to 2:45 p.m.

F205. Stage to Page: The Challenges and Serendipities of Publishing Performative Texts . (Sunyoung Lee, Samantha Chanse, Denise Uyehara, Karen Tei Yamashita) How do you capture the intricacies of emotion and gesture in live performance within the two-dimensional constraints of a book? This panel will showcase performers and writers who have taken the leap from Stage to Page and created innovative book projects that can be viewed as script, literary experience, artistic documentation, or poetry. Join us for dynamic performance excerpts and a discussion about how artists and publishers can collaborate to translate an experience into printed matter. Room 3A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2. I like the topic—different, worth exploring.

F218. Building Communities Through Poetry: A Celebration of America's Favorite Poem Project. (Elise Partridge, Maggie Dietz, Chris Higashi, Robert Pinsky, Tree Swenson) In 1997, Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky started the Favorite Poem Project, dedicated to celebrating, documenting, and encouraging poetry's role in Americans' lives. During the call for submissions, 18,000 Americans of varying ages, backgrounds, and occupations wrote in about their favorite poems. This panel explores how the Project has contributed to building communities through poetry via anthologies, an expanding video archive, a teaching institute, and innovative events all over the nation. Room 608, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6. Nice to celebrate an amazing institution.

F222. 25th Anniversary of Tia Chucha Press: The Coiled Serpent. (Patricia Smith, Chiwan Choi, Diane Glancy, Luivette Resto, Michael Warr) A reading by five Tia Chucha Press poets, many of whom have gone on to great literary careers. They will also speak on how this small but powerful press helped their writing life as well as impacted this country's vast cross-cultural poetic outpouring. For twenty-five years, TCP books have been beautifully designed by Menominee native Jane Brunette and edited by Chicano writer Luis J. Rodriguez. This press has been like the Quetzacoatl coiled serpent, in deep earth, fount of words, wisdom, and inspiration. Room 613/614, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6. Great readers from an important publisher.

F231. Beyond the “Axis of Evil:” Shattering the Stereotypes of Iran and Iranians Through Fiction. (Persis Karim, Anita Amirrezvani, Omid Fallahazad, Jasmin Darznik, Marjan Kamali) The anthology Tremors collects the work of Iranian-American fiction writers for the first time. Four Iranian writers will present work that reflects some of the pain of history in Iran and the US but also offers a bracing counter-narrative to prevailing political discourse and a tenacious spirit of resilience. Discussion topics will include minorities, the Green Revolution, the post 9/11 climate, the challenges of assimilation, and the complications of otherness. Room 303, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3. Important writers from a major source of great literature.

3:00 to 4:15 p.m.

F241. Uncovering Hip Hop Poetry. (Victorio Reyes, Adrian Matejka, Roger Reeves, Pamela Taylor, Tara Betts) Since Kool Herc put his two turntables together in the South Bronx back in 1973, Hip Hop has evolved into an international phenomenon. As with the Black Arts Movement and the Harlem Renaissance, Hip Hop is a multi-disciplinary artistic enterprise. Yet the poetics of Hip Hop have not received the same attention as other aspects of the art-form. Five poets will discuss Hip Hop poetics, exploring form, aesthetics, messaging, and Hip Hop’s position in the literary poetic conversation. Room 3B, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2. This is a topic worth learning more about.

F251. The Parent-Writer: Can We Really Have It All?. (Ava Chin, Jane Delury, Jessica Blau, Matt Briggs, Molly Wizenberg) Writing a book is challenging, but what if you’re also raising a bawling newborn, a demanding toddler, or a difficult tween? Our panel of fiction writers, food bloggers, and journalists discusses the challenges of being both serious writers and good parents, including how to hit your deadlines while managing kid's schedules. Can today's writer—who is expected to tweet, blog, and have a million Facebook friends, while simultaneously crafting great prose and nurturing children—really have it all? Room 607, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6. Worthwhile topic.

8:30 to 10:00 p.m.

F312. Robert Hass, Eva Saulitis, and Gary Snyder: Writing Nature in a Scientific Age, Sponsored by Red Hen Press.(Peggy Shumaker, Gary Snyder, Eva Saulitis, Robert Hass) Author and marine biologist Eva Saulitis joins legendary poets Robert Hass and Gary Snyder for a reading followed by a conversation, moderated by Peggy Shumaker, about the task of writing about nature in a culture that often prizes easily commodifiable academic achievement over messier ways of knowing: the lyric, the spiritual, the sublime. Ballroom E, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6. Three terrific panelists. Important topic. I’m sure you know Gary Snyder and Robert Hass, but Eva Saulitis, who is a professional marine biologist and a nonfiction author and poet, will also have worthwhile contributions to make to this panel.

Saturday, March 1, 2014

9:00 to 10:15 a.m.

S105. Novels-in-Stories or Story Cycles. (Garry Craig Powell, Sybil Baker, Xu Xi, Clifford Garstang, Kelly Cherry) Ever since Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio, story cycles have been a major feature of the American literary landscape; in recent years examples by Louise Erdrich, Sandra Cisneros, Tim O' Brien, Robert Olen Butler, Jennifer Egan, and others have kept them at the forefront. Still, they are rarely taught or discussed as a distinct form. A panel of accomplished practitioners considers the advantages of this hybrid and suggests why the whole can be so much more than the sum of its parts. Aspen Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor. Different topic, one I haven’t seen before, and worth probing. Kudos to the organizer for coming up with such an interesting subject!

S125. Hip Lit: How Innovative Reading Series Are Revamping the Literary Scene. (Melissa Stein, Stephen Elliott, Eric Lorberer, Adrian Todd Zuniga, Marie-Elizabeth Mali) How can literature hold its own against mass media and pop culture? Reading series that showcase fine work in inventive ways can build dynamic arts communities and help authors promote and popularize their books among diverse new audiences. In this lively panel, curators and hosts of wildly popular series such as Literary Death Match, The Rumpus, Page Meets Stage, and Rain Taxi discuss how to deploy ingenious PR strategies, curate creatively, turn events into hip hangouts, and keep things fresh. Room 618/619/620, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6. A lively subject about unusual reading series—should inspire creative thinking.

10:30 to 11:45 a.m.

S146. What We Talk About When We Talk About Subtext.(Catherine Brady, Marlon James, Thaisa Frank, Ilie Ruby, Pablo Medina) Fiction writers from within and outside the traditional bounds of realism consider how elements of craft are orchestrated to generate subtext, examining how standard formulas for depicting character in conflict leave out essential dimensions of the relationship between the literal and the figurative, how the narrative arc can be exploited to generate subtext, and how patterns of imagery and diction are welded to plot development. Room 602/603, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6. The title sounds a bit esoteric, but this is a topnotch panel, very worth hearing.

S153. Queer Translation. (Joyelle McSweeney, Johannes Goransson, Don Mee Choi, Lucas DeLima, Jeffrey Angles) As translators, artists, scholars, and performers, we’ll consider how ‘queer translation’ might host a queer interaction or strange meeting; how it might undermine nationalist demarcations of the body, including binaries separating male and female, able and disabled, human and inhuman, whole and partial bodies; the force of translation as a ‘political uncanny’; and whether translation itself might figure a queer or middle body, an activist body, a political resource. Room 612, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6. Jeffrey Angles has translated some of the most edgy and provocative writers from Japan.

12:00 noon to 1:15 p.m.

S179. Poetry Flash at 42: Four Decades of Chronicling and Reviewing the West’s Literary Scene. (Alan Soldofsky, Jana Harris, Joyce Jenkins, Rusty Morrison, Richard Silberg) Current and former Poetry Flash editors and contributors will discuss the Flash's four decades of chronicling the dynamic literary scene in the West, beginning in the San Francisco Bay Area, then expanding to Southern California, Southwest, and Pacific Northwest. Covering significant controversies and trends, the Flash has been both forum and catalyst for the development of Western literary communities, remaining open to all forms of poetics. Panelists will relive this history, theory, and debate. Room 606, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6. Poetry Flash has been the heart and soul of the San Francisco Bay Area poetry community for four decades. Great group to celebrate them.

1:30 to 2:45 p.m.

S215. Queer Double Agents: Writing & Publishing Between Communities. (Ellery Washington, David Groff, Carla Trujillo, Jacob Anderson-Minshall, Michelle Tea) Do you struggle to reconcile the often conflicting allegiances between your queer literary vocation and the summons of another identity, community, or commitment? In a publishing world that pigeonholes us as homonormative and is confused by the multiple realities of LGBTQ people around race, religion, and ethnic and gender identity, how can we communicate our complexities? This panel explores the creative and practical challenges—to paraphrase Whitman—of being vast and containing multitudes. Room 613/614, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6. Carla Trujillo is always informative, thoughtful, and funny.

Carla Trujillo

 S223. It's About Time: A Tribute to Philip Levine .(Consuelo Marshall, David St. John, David Wojahn, Kathy Fagan, B. H. Boston ) Philip Levine is one of America’s most revered and influential poets. Often referred to as a voice for the voiceless, Levine’s work is also known for its emotional intensity tempered with the control and concentration of a master. Five poet/teachers discuss Levine’s impact on the literary world and beyond and will read their favorite Levine poems. Room 302, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3. Great topic and group.

S230. Lightening Up the Dark: The Role of Humor in Memoir. (Mimi Schwartz, Joe Mackall, Phillip Lopate, Suzanne Greenberg, Daniel Stolar) Too often we see our lives as simply funny or sad and write in that single mode, limiting the emotional complexity of our narratives. Humor is a powerful tool for changing that—and no need to be Jon Stewart to use it effectively. Our panel of five explores how humor works for them as writers and teachers of memoir and essay. We address how humor deepens perspective, how it seduces readers to our side, and how, by marrying dark material with humor, we create a powerful tension between the two. Willow Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor.

Phillip Lopate has a lot to say, and this panel looks like a winner.

4:30 to 5:45 p.m.

S273. Page Meets Stage. (Taylor Mali, Nick Flynn, Tara Hardy, Jamaal May, Rachel McKibbens) “Where the Pulitzer Prize meets the Poetry Slam.” Taylor Mali returns to AWP for the third year in a row with another iteration of this popular New York City reading series. Four poets, from “page” and “stage,” are paired in several different ways to read back and forth, poem for poem, in an ongoing "verse conversation" on craft. Neither a competition nor an ivory circle, Page Meets Stage has built a vital bridge between two camps that keep forgetting they live under the same tent. Room 609, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6. Seems like an exciting reading.

S276. Rounding the Human Corners: Writing the Truth about the Changing World. (Marybeth Holleman, Linda Hogan, Ann Fisher-Wirth, Eva Saulitis, Juan Carlos Galeano) Straddling mass extinctions and shifting ecosystems, how do we write about the more-than-human in a way that avoids simple metaphor? And how do we write of degradation and extinction in language that engages the (human) reader and remains truthful to these “other nations?” Discussing a diversity of approaches are five authors of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction about horses, wolves, birch trees, killer whales, polar bears—the depth and range of the world just beyond our human skin. Room 613/614, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6. Some inspiring voices on an important topic.

8:30 to 10:00 p.m.

S284. A Reading by Jane Hirshfield and Sharon Olds, Sponsored by the Academy of American Poets. (Jennifer Benka, Jane Hirshfield, Sharon Olds) The Academy of American Poets presents a reading by award-winning poets Jane Hirshfield and Sharon Olds who will read from their respective works. Hirshfield received the Donald Hall-Jane Kenyon Award in American Poetry in 2012. Her book Given Sugar, Given Salt was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award. Olds is the author of Stag’s Leap, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2013. Jennifer Benka, Executive Director of the Academy of American Poets, will introduce the readers. Ballroom E, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6. Usually the better-known readers are done by Saturday evening at AWP, but this year two well-known poets are sharing the stage at the end of the conference. Sharon Olds is always amazing.

S285. Sherman Alexie and Timothy Egan: A Reading Sponsored by Hugo House. (Tree Swenson, Sherman Alexie, Timothy Egan) Sherman Alexie is the National Book Award-winning author of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, as well as a dozen other books of poetry and prose. Timothy Egan is the National Book Award-winning author of The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl as well as six other nonfiction books. Introduced by Tree Swenson, executive director of Richard Hugo House. Ballroom ABC, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6. Sherman Alexie is an incredible reader.

Other posts on the AWP conference:

Don't Avoid the Bookfair
AWP Seattle: A Preview

Zack Rogow will be moderating two panels at the AWP conference in Seattle on Thursday, February 27: Is Poetry Ready for Prime Time? with Cornelius Eady, Kim Addonizio, and Toby Barlow, from 10:30 to 11:45 a.m.; and Homesteading on the Digital Frontier: Writers' Blogs, with 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 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 
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
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