2014 AWP Conference Schedule

2014 AWP Conference Schedule Saturday, March 1, 2014 8:00 am to 12:00 pm S100. Conference Registration Registration Area, Washington State Convention Center Attendees who have registered in advance may pick up their registration materials in AWP’s preregistered check-in area, located in the registration area on level 4 of the Washington State Convention Center. If you have not yet registered for the conference, please visit the unpaid registration area, also in the registration area on level 4. Please consult the bookfair map in the conference planner for location details. Students must present a valid student ID to check-in or register at our student rate. Seniors must present a valid ID to register at our senior rate. A $50 fee will be charged for all replacement badges. 8:30 am to 6:00 pm S101. AWP Bookfair, Sponsored by Hollins University: Jackson Center for Creative Writing North & South Exhibit Halls, Washington State Convention Center With more than 650 literary exhibitors the AWP bookfair is the largest of its kind. A great way to meet authors, critics, and peers, the bookfair also provides excellent opportunities to find information about many literary magazines, presses, and organizations. Please consult the bookfair map in the conference planner for location details. 9:00 am to 10:15 am S105. Novels-in-Stories or Story Cycles Aspen Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor ( 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. S110. Lifelong Community: Launching and Activating an MFA Alumni Organization Room 2B, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2 (Michael Bayer, Michael White, Erin Corriveau, Ashley Andersen Zantop, Adele Annesi) After leaving behind classmates and mentors, how can MFA graduates extend that sense of community into a lifetime of collective inspiration and productivity? Few MFA programs have formal alumni associations, and those that do often limit their scope to a Facebook page. Panelists from the Fairfield University MFA Alumni Association will discuss their group's formation, mission, and ambitious project to engage alumni in writing and publishing a full-length guide on “post-MFA survival.” S113. Navigating the Other '60s: The Publishing World and the Post-Sixty Writer Room 400, Washington State Convention Center, Level 4 (Valerie Sayers, William O'Rourke, David Matlin) American literature has a few notable second acts, but what is the usual experience of writers later in life? How does one sustain a literary career over many decades? The pitfalls and practices of writers who have been down a long road will be examined, as will the question of why “mid-list author” is just another name for a writer who isn’t a celebrity. Is there ageism in commercial publishing? Elsewhere? And does it matter? S115. The Creative Writer as Critic Room 602/603, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6 (Steve Woodward, Sven Birkerts, Stephen Burt, Leslie Jamison, Kevin Young) Criticism is vital to the literary community, and an increasing number of authors also act as critics. How does their own writing practice and experience as authors inform their work as critics? What is their responsibility to other authors, critics, and readers? How can such dual engagement enrich the conversation about literature? Four respected author/critics of diverse backgrounds discuss the convergence of authorship and criticism in their own lives across fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. S121. What the Dog Said: Writing in Unusual Points of View Room 611, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6 (Lydia Ship, Anthony Varallo, Amina Gautier, Cara Blue Adams) Four prize-winning fiction writers read and share the unorthodox points of view they’ve used and how they’ve used them to achieve fresh effects and perspectives. Many points of view used in uncommon ways, from the disruptive second-person, to the unreliable first-person plural, to the epistolary first-person will be read and discussed, including advice about how to take full advantage of each and avoid common mistakes. S123. So You Want to Change the World? Literary Editors on Writing with a Social Purpose Room 613/614, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6 (Simmons Buntin, Michael Archer, Michele Johnson, Elizabeth Murphy, Jennifer Sahn) Are you interested in crafting literature that speaks to the world’s larger social issues? Do you know where to publish and what editors are looking for? Gain insight from five leading literary publications that focus on the social context, from class to environment, feminism to race. The editors of Guernica, Orion, So to Speak, the Straddler, and Terrain.org will share their experiences, insight, and wisdom on writing and publishing with a social purpose. S125. Hip Lit: How Innovative Reading Series Are Revamping the Literary Scene Room 618/619/620, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6 (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. S126. Teaching From the Stolen Purse Room LL4, Western New England MFA Annex, Lower Level (Bruce Holland Rogers, JT Stewart, Judy Kronenfeld, Stephanie Hammer, Jo Scott-Coe) Let's help our students learn to read like writers, that is, with literary larceny in mind! This panel examines the use of published work as a springboard for ideas or a hoard of useful techniques. If another writer's work is a stolen purse that we rifle through for the stuff we want to keep, how do we know what we can legitimately appropriate with a clear conscience? How do we know inspiration and instruction from mere imitation? How do we keep track of all that these other texts teach us? S130. The Promises and Perils of Publicity Room 301, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3 (Susan Kushner Resnick, Mary Ann Gwinn, Jessica Glenn, Deborah Reed, Marion Winik) We all know how important publicity is in today's publishing climate, but do you know how to hire the right independent publicist? How to work with your in-house marketing staff? How to make sure you don't get taken advantage of? How to be your own publicist? A novelist who got it right, a nonfictionist with a cautionary tale, an independent publicist, and a book review editor will discuss how to successfully bring your work to readers no matter what your budget. S131. Never Grow Up: Building a Life in Children’s and Young Adult Fiction Room 302, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3 (E. Lockhart, Robin Wasserman, Adele Griffin, Sarah Mlynowski) How do you build a long-term career in children’s publishing when your readers just won’t stop growing up? It takes passion, patience, and perpetual reinvention. These four writers have fifty-two years of publishing experience and 114 published books between them. They will offer strategies for rejuvenating creative energies, nurturing industry relationships, riding out highs and lows, and sustaining a career that will last a lifetime. S132. Good Luck with That: Writers Paying Bills Room 303, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3 (Leona Sevick, Dustin Ballard, Dave Essinger, Mary Akers, Dave Housley) Five writers with diverse backgrounds will speak on their nontraditional career paths in nonprofit management, medicine, law, administration, and media, and on sustaining the writing life outside of the workshop and classroom. When it comes to the real-world mundanity of paying the bills, the professional world offers a multitude of often-overlooked opportunities for the application of literary training and sensibilities. 10:30 am to 11:45 am S135. The Wreckage of Reason: Contemporary Experimental Prose by Women Writers Cedar Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor (Aimee Parkison, Alexandra Chasin , Danielle Alexander, Cyndi Reeves, Nava Renek) Writers from Wreckage of Reason 2, an anthology of contemporary experimental prose by women, discuss challenging traditional modes of storytelling, subverting narrative and language, and exploring provocative subject matter as they follow in the footsteps of Gertrude Stein, Virginia Woolf, and Djuna Barnes at a time when experimental writing by women has been virtually shut out of the mainstream publishing market. S136. Resisting Rise, Fall, Resolve: Strategies for the Anti-Memoir Redwood Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor (Elizabeth Kadetsky, Robin Romm, David MacLean, Joanna Smth Rakoff, Liz Scarboro) Traditional memoir suggests a journey from tragedy to redemption with a sane narrator who provides a handrail through chaos. This panel discusses possibilities for disrupting the classic rise-fall arc of the confession, exploring ways to rough up the memoir genre. Authors can create danger through form: 2nd and 3rd person, graphics and text/image hybrid, novelization, fractured narrative, scrambled chronology, meta-textual deconstruction, or, simply, falling deeper and deeper as narrative arc. S138. MFA Students as TAs at Community College: Two Models Room 2A, Washington State Convention Center, Level 2 (Kris Bigalk, Denise Hill, Amy Fladeboe) Most MFA students who intend to teach struggle to gain the necessary experience before applying for that first job.

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