017 awp conference & Bookfair February —11, 2017 • Washington, dc

What Borders? Multilingualism and the Creative Writing Workshop. (Chantel Acevedo, Cecilia Rodriguez Milanes, Garrard Conley, Pablo Cartaya, Hana Alharastani)

The infusion of other languages into fiction and poetry written in English is a resource, not a problem to overcome, as it is so often labeled in workshops. Join us as we talk about the ways a multilingual pedagogical approach expands the potential of our students’ writing, and how we can design lessons that help students effectively incorporate languages other than English into their work. This polyglot panel of authors includes teachers, students and literary community organizers.

What's Workshop Got to Do with It: Altering Power Structures in the Creative Writing Classroom. (Dominika Wrozynski, Jennifer Perrine, Jennifer McClanaghan, Susan Finch, Leah Stewart)

Flannery O’Connor wrote that writing workshops are dangerous; student comments are driven by ignorance, flattery, and spite. Even so, the traditional workshop has thrived, and professors often struggle with the balances of power—wanting a democracy while adjusting for all the bad advice. This panel offers concrete ways to honestly share power in creative writing courses, with particular attention to how gender, race, and class affect perceptions of authority.

Workshopping War: The Challenges of War Writing in the Classroom. (Whitney Terrell, Jayne Anne Phillips, Matt Gallagher, Teresa Fazio, Anne Kniggendorf)

Narratives about war and military life present unique challenges in workshop. How does personal trauma become a story? How can a teacher with no military experience advise a veteran? Or vice-versa? Should war writers be encouraged to consider, say, the stories of Iraqis? How do gender and race enter the conversation? The panel pairs teachers of writing with students at work on narratives about war and the military. All have experience in MFA programs or veteran workshops like Words After War.

Writing Comics. (Chris Gavaler, Alisia Grace, Davida Pines, KC Councilor, Walter Hastings)

Comics—graphic novels, memoirs, and journalism--are a hybrid form of text and images, and comics script writing is its own conceptual genre. Cousin to prose fiction and screenwriting, visual storytelling has its own grammar and unique tropes. Experts from the fields of Creative Writing, English, Art, Rhetoric, and Communication Arts present specific approaches and strategies for teaching how to write in this cross-disciplinary form in a range of classroom settings.

Writing War, Teaching Craft: Veterans and Cadets in the Creative Writing Classroom. (Mary Stewart Atwell, Kevin Powers, Ron Capps, Benjamin Busch, Katey Schultz)

The upsurge in literary work by veterans has sparked an interest in teaching writing to this population, but a less-noted phenomenon has been the recent increase in course offerings in creative writing at service academies and military colleges. A panel of writers and teachers who have worked with both veterans and cadets—those returning from war, and those preparing to serve—will put these two groups into new and enlightening conversation.

Writing while Deaf: Fill in the Blank. (Kristen Harmon, Christopher Jon Heuer, Lilah Katcher, Tonya Stremlau, Allison Polk)

Does writing instruction for hearing writers meet the needs of aspiring deaf writers? The deaf writers on this panel include both writing instructors and current (and recent) MFA students. We will share some of the challenges we’ve faced and some ways we’ve found to meet them. Aspiring deaf writers need cultural capital in the form of exposure to other deaf writers and their works, development of their bilingual resources, and non-spoken word opportunities to share work and get feedback.

Readings
20 Years of the Two-year College Caucus: A Celebration. (Mary Lannon, Kate Kysar, John Bell, Gerard LaFemina)

Through its annual AWP meeting, members of two-year colleges have been able to compare notes and hone strategies for teaching the next generation of writers from economically tough places, for building strong two-year programs, and maintaining their writing lives. The caucus has also served countless MFA job seekers. On a microscale then, the caucus showcases the power and reach of AWP. To honor that accomplishment on AWP’s 50th anniversary, long-time caucus members read their literary works

25 Years of Soft Skull: Nonfiction from the Next Generation. (Steven Church, Joe Bonomo, Jill Talbot, Dan Smetanka, Jessica Hendry Nelson)

Four writers representing a wide range of styles, interests, and subjects, while still embodying the Soft Skull spirit, will read from their latest nonfiction books and discuss their experiences writing, editing, and publishing their work with one of the country's more unique and influential small presses. Their subjects include music and pop culture, savagery, love, loss, and family dynamics; and their forms vary from collections of essays to memoir to the book-length essay.

90 Years and Counting: A Reading Celebrating Prairie Schooner. (Ashley Strosnider, Brian Turner, Kevin Simmonds, Safiya Sinclair, Jennine Capo Crucet)

A perfect time capsule of the diverse, experimental trends in American literary publishing, Prairie Schooner’s ninety-year legacy of uninterrupted quarterly publication charts the course of a little journal on the prairie and its path to becoming a key player among literary journals, publishing major contemporary American voices alongside an increasingly global list of contributors. Hear X poets and X fiction writers read work that speaks to where we’ve been and where we’re headed next.

A 10th Anniversary Reading from Bull City Press. (Ross White, Anne Valente, Anders Carlson-Wee, Emilia Phillips, Tiana Clark)

For 10 years, Bull City Press has focused on representing brevity in its many incarnations. Now publishing chapbooks from established and emerging writers in poetry and short prose, Bull City Press showcases unique voices and the vibrancy of compressed forms. We celebrate the first decade with a reading from recent winners of the Frost Place Chapbook Competition, contributors to Inch magazine, and authors from our chapbook series.

A 25th Anniversary Reading by CGU's Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award Winners. (Lori Anne Ferrell, Susan Mitchell, Carl Phillips, Marianne Boruch, Ross Gay)

Claremont Graduate University’s Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award is one of the most prestigious prizes a contemporary poet can receive. The Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award was created in 1993 to both honor a poet and provide resources to allow literary artists to continue honing their craft. These past recipients of the Kingsley Tufts Awards showcase the breadth and depth, as well as geographic and aesthetic diversity, of the poetry that CGU’s Tufts Awards supports and celebrates.

A 5th Anniversary Celebration of the Kenyon Review Fellows. (Melinda Moustakis, Elizabeth Lindsey Rogers, Margaree Little, Jaquira Díaz, David Lynn)

What do Flannery O’Connor, W.S. Merwin, and Jaquira Díaz have in common? They’ve all been Fellows of the Kenyon Review. The new KR Fellows Program celebrates its 5th anniversary with a presentation by Jaquira Díaz, Margaree Little, Melinda Moustakis, Elizabeth Lindsey Rogers, and Natalie Shapero. They will gather to read from their recent work and discuss the benefits and challenges of the fellowship life, including their individual projects.

A Reading and Conversation from Paycock Press. (MIchelle Brafman, Melanie Hatter, Suzanne Stroh, Morowa Yejide, Hananah Zaheer)

Join five writers who live (or have lived) in the DC area, whose surprising work appears in the seven volume Grace and Gravity series, as they celebrate, share, and discuss the ins and outs of being a writer in the Nation's Capital.

A Reading and Conversation with Stanley Crawford, Sarah Stark and Robert Wilder. (Sarah Stark, Robert Wilder, Stanley Crawford, Andy Dudzik)

Join three award-winning writers read from and discuss their recent works of fiction, published by Leaf Storm Press. Stanley Crawford is best well-known for A Garlic Testament, a chronicle of his life on a small New Mexico farm. Sarah Stark's debut novel, Out There, won the INDIEFAB Editor's Choice Award for Fiction Book of Year in 2015. Robert Wilder is the author of two acclaimed essay collections and inaugural winner of the National Book Foundation's Innovations in Reading Prize.

A Reading by 2016 Guggenheim Fellows in Poetry. (Beth Bachmann, Jericho Brown, Rick Barot, Deborah Landau)

Often characterized as “midcareer” awards, Guggenheim Fellowships are intended for men and women who have already demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts. These recipients from the class of 2016 showcase the geographic, cultural and aesthetic diversity of the latest fellows in poetry.

A Reading by the University of Maryland's MFA Program Faculty. (Elizabeth Arnold, Maud Casey, Emily Mitchell, Michael Collier, Joshua Weiner)

A reading by five faculty members from the MFA Program in Creative Writing at the University of Maryland, who have won major literary awards, including Guggenheim Fellowships, NEA Fellowships & the Amy Lowell Traveling Scholarship. The reading will be followed by a Q & A.

Alice James Books New & Emerging Authors Reading. (francine j. harris, Jamaal May, Matthew Olzmann, Janine Joseph, Matthew Nienow)

A dynamic reading by poets with first and second books, who are blazing the trail in American letters. Their work highlights the breadth and scope of Alice James Books' publishing list. Introduced by AJB director and editor Carey Salerno, francine j. harris, Matthew Olzmann, Jamaal May, Janine Joseph, and Matthew Nienow will read from recently published books.

Arthur A. Levine Books: The First 20 Years. (Neil Connelly, Arthur A. Levine, Cheryl Klein, Susan Shreve, Eric Gansworth)

In 1997, Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic, released its first book: When She Was Good by Norma Fox Mazer. The imprint has since published a distinguished array of books for children and young adults, including established writers and debuts, translations, picture books, and nonfiction--not to mention the Harry Potter series. To mark the imprint's twentieth anniversary, the founding publisher, an editor, and three authors will celebrate the talent that has led to its success.

Asian American Generations at Coffee House Press. (Karen Yamashita, Bao Phi, Vi Khi Nao, Sun Yung Shin, Evelina Galang)

Since its founding, Coffee House has strived to make its publishing list as diverse as America. This has meant publishing many authors from "underrepresented" groups, but in particular it's become known for publishing some of the most exciting Asian American writers in the country. Younger generations have been drawn to the press because they have been inspired by those mentors that came before them. These writers will talk about influence and what it means to share a publisher and a community.

AWP Open Mic and Old School Slam. (Jason Carney, Bill Schneider)

AWP welcomes students to return to the roots of Slam! Open mic, special guests and then undergraduate and graduate students partake in a hardcore-break-your-heart-strut-out-the-good-stuff slam competition. Students are welcome to sign up to participate on Friday February 10, 2017 and Thursday February 9, 2017 at the Wilkes University/Etruscan Press booth and read original pieces (three minutes or less with no props) at the Slam later that night. Sponsors: Wilkes University and Etruscan Press.

Beyond the Human: Writing the Animal. (Nathalie F. Anderson, Kathryn Kirkpatrick, David Lloyd, Ed Madden, Drucilla Wall)

If, as John Berger has argued, the modern separates us from all but the most domesticated of animal lives, how can poetry reconnect us with the more than human world in ways that humble and inspire? How does moving poetry beyond human exceptionalism change poetic form and practice? What does it mean to write a poem as if not only species life but individual animal lives matter? Five poets will consider ways these issues inform their own work, where animals uneasily make their presence known.

Beyond the Inferno: Finding Inspiration in the Lives of Literary Ancestors. (Rita Mae Reese, Amy Newman, Melissa Range, Rachel Richardson, Stephanie Strickland)

Since Virgil guided Dante around Hell, poets have been resurrecting and talking back to their literary ancestors. Poets have gone grocery shopping with Whitman, eaten oatmeal with Keats, and attempted to undress Emily Dickinson in their work.The five poets featured here read from recent work guided by Herman Melville, Sylvia Plath, Delmore Schwartz, Elizabeth Margaret Chandler, Simone Weil, and Flannery O’Connor, among others. They will discuss literary obsessions, research, copyright, and more.

Books That Make a Difference: Hudson Whitman 5th Anniversary Reading. (Susan Petrie, Thomas Larson, Amy Ryan, William Patrick, Annette Schiebout)

This panel of Hudson Whitman authors—first-time and established—will read from their books, demonstrating that a small independent press--devoted to books on nursing, health care, education, and the military--can be a smart, vibrant, and alternative publisher of socially relevant nonfiction.

Carolina African American Writers Collective: After Over 20 Years, a Visioning of What’s to Come. (Raina Leon, Lenard Moore, L. Teresa Church, Lauri Ramey, Cedric Tillman)

In this session, representative writers offer insights as to the importance of the Collective in their work and how the organization's influence continues despite geographic distance. In addition, noted literary scholar, Dr. Lauri Ramey, who has written extensively about the Collective, joins the group to offer her insights. These are writers who challenge boundaries of form, language, and content. This session will explore the history of CAAWC, its resonance now, and its vision for the future.

Celebrating 15 Years of American Lives - A University of Nebraska Press Reading. (Joey Franklin, John W. Evans, Sonja Livingston, Barrie Jean Borich, Joy Castro)

To celebrate 15 years of publishing American voices, the University of Nebraska Press showcases five authors of literary nonfiction who represent the broad spectrum of backgrounds, generations, and writing styles indicative of the series. Working in diverse forms and points of view, these authors provide glimpses into singular American lives, and their work coalesces into a richly textured portrait of our contemporary culture.

Celebrating 35 Years of Kaleidoscope. (Michael Northen, Elizabeth Tova Bailey, Ana Garza G'z, Barbara Crooker, Jenny Patton)

First published in 1982, Kaleidoscope is the country’s oldest literary journal dedicated to the work of writers with disabilities and disability-related writing and art. After a brief introduction about Kaleidoscope’s background, four readers who have been published in the journal will read from their work as well as selections from Larry Eigner, Vassar Miller, John Hockenberry and other pioneering writers whose work appeared in Kaleidoscope.

Celebrating 50 Years of Southern Humanities Review. (Jerald Walker, Garrard Conley, R. T. Smith)

Founded in 1967 at Auburn University, Southern Humanities Review celebrates fifty years of publishing the finest essays, fiction, and poems. Four panelists—two of them former SHR editors, all of them past contributors— will discuss the journal's rich history, its current and future place in our literary landscape, and the ways the journal has impacted their writing lives.

Celebrating Forty Five Years of Mississippi Review. (Hannah Dow, Kevin A. González, Bonnie Jo Campbell, Barrett Swanson, Hannah Craig)

Early contributor Raymond Carver once said that Mississippi Review “is one of the most remarkable and indispensable literary journals of our time.” Like the magazine, our contributors fit none of the usual pigeonholes; this reading showcases the recent work these authors have published outside of their usual genres. Come hear the aesthetic range of four esteemed, genre-crossing writers as we celebrate forty five years of publishing the latest diverse and daring voices in our pages.

Celebrating Langston: Langston Hughes and Contemporary Writers. (Erika Wurth, Timothy Leyerson, Allison Joseph, Abdul Ali)

This cross-genre reading will celebrate the legacy of American poet, playwright, essayist, activist, and translator Langston Hughes. 2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the passing of Langston Hughes, and this panel of diverse writers aims to honor his legacy in Washington, DC, a city which in which Hughes lived and a place which shaped his vision of the United States.

Celebrating the Golden Shovel Anthonlogy in Honor of Gwendolyn Brooks. (Maura Snell, Major Jackson, Sandra Beasley, Marilyn Nelson, Natalie Richardson)

Join us in celebrating the release of The Golden Shovel Anthology honoring Gwendolyn Brooks, which comes out for her centenary. The Golden Shovel form, created by Terrance Hayes in honor of Ms. Brooks, encourages one to borrow in order to create. Poets will share their Golden Shovel poems and the Gwendolyn Brooks poem that inspired it, along with stories of their inspiration from/encounters with Ms. Brooks. The process of the anthology creation will also be discussed.

Celebrating The Saturday Evening Post and The Great American Fiction Contest. (Michael Knight, Lucy Jane Bledsoe, Skip Horack, Celeste McMaster)

The Saturday Evening Post has published some of the biggest names in American letters—Cheever, Fitzgerald, Malamud, McCullers, Vonnegut—fostering short fiction and helping to shape the way the country imagined itself. In 2012, in an effort to revitalize and diversify this tradition, the magazine debuted The Great American Fiction Contest. This panel will feature readings and discussion by contest winners and judges and by established authors whose work has appeared in The Saturday Evening Post.

Cimarron Review: 50 Year Anniversary Reading. (Leslie Pietrzyk, Adam Clay, Brenda Peynado, Yun Wang, John Andrews)

The Cimarron Review brings together four previously featured writers from across fiction and poetry to celebrate fifty years of publishing the finest stories, poems, and essays from working writers across the country and around the world to celebrate their 50th anniversary.

Cinder, Blackacre, Standoff, Rapture: Graywolf Poets. (Jeff Shotts, Susan Stewart, Monica Youn, David Rivard, Sjohnna McCray)

Four award-winning poets of broad scope and vision read from their latest books published by Graywolf Press, one of the premier publishers of poetry in the country.

Citizen-Soldier-Poet: Using Poetry to Bridge the Civil-Military Gap. (Randy Brown, Tessa Poppe, Frances Richey, Susanne Aspley, Eric Chandler)

With a boot on each side of the civil-military divide, America's citizen-soldiers and their families are uniquely positioned to bridge the gaps between our armed forces, and the society they serve. Five civilian and military-veteran writers of poetry, memoir, and fiction read from their works, and discuss how they have specifically used poetry in published, practical ways to promote peace, respect, understanding, and empathy.

Clap Back: Women of Color Discuss Emily Dickinson's Influence Over Their Poetic Landscapes. (Yesenia Montilla, Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie, Christina Olivares, Leesah Velasquez)

Not knowing when the dawn will come / I open every door -- Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson's work has themes that resonate with those that occupy the space between the margins. This panel will discuss the theme of place in Emily Dickinson's work. Spaces such as home, church, psychological states of being & solitude will all be explored in relation to how women of color explore & navigate & even occupy these places in our own lives & writing.
Clarence Major Reading from "Chicago Heat and Other Stories". (Dede Cummings, Clarence Major)

The subtle fire that ripples under this story collection—from its heartbreakingly strange “Chicago Heat” to its ingenious reinventions of the hard-luck love story—is Clarence Major’s uncanny knowledge of American life, coasts-to-heartland, past and right now. All of our democracy is alive in these pages, wrestling with secrets, fears, attractions, and each character’s private struggle leads to startling revelations: about us.The author, turning 80, will read from Chicago Heat and Other Stories.

Coffee House Press Poetry Reading. (Erika Stevens, Anna Moschovakis, Anne Waldman, Bao Phi, Allison Adele Hedge Coke)

Since its founding in 1984, Coffee House Press has published poets whose work falls outside mainstream publishing's tastes, bringing poetry by authors of diverse backgrounds and styles into print. These works have gone on both to win awards and to contribute to larger cultural discourses. This reading, by long-term and newer Coffee House Press poets, explores the development of the CHP's poetry list over time, highlighting and showcasing its diversity of voices and styles.

Columbia University’s Poets and Teachers: A Reading and Pedagogy Panel with MFA Faculty. (Timothy Donnelly, Dorothea Lasky, Lucie Brock-Broido, Deborah Paredez, Alan Gilbert)

Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, the MFA program in Writing at Columbia University’s School of the Arts has a long history as a nexus of teaching and learning for literary greats. This event will highlight the manifold of aesthetic approaches these poets bring to their students. After readings from the participants, the moderator will solicit a group discussion of the poets’ pedagogies and then will open up this conversation to the audience for a larger dialogue.

Crafty: Four City University of New York MFA Graduates Read from Their Work. (Walter Mosley, Philip Klay, Helen Philips, Kimiko Hahn, Rajiv Mohabir)

The playful, disruptive side of the imagination is embodied in the trickster figure and City University of New York MFA students and alumni take the trickster’s lead, intent on shaking things up. They also continue the university’s legacy of diversity, from class and national origin to cultural background to subject matter. MFA Program Graduates from Brooklyn, City, Hunter, and Queens Colleges display their craftiness--after all, the mischief is in the telling.

Darkness on the Edge of Town: Rural America in Contemporary Literature. (Joe Wilkins, Bonnie Jo Campbell, Michael McGriff, Melanie Hoffert)

One of our bedrock myths is that of Thomas Jefferson's yeoman farmer: the straight-backed, straight-shooting, hard-working small-towner. Yet one of our most pernicious national stereotypes stands in direct opposition: that of the redneck—think of Deliverance or Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel. Who, really, are rural Americans? Five authors from across the genres attempt to peel back the mythologies and stereotypes of popular culture and speak honestly about contemporary rural America.

De Melancholy Evolution of Me: Resurrecting the Staged Black Body. (Tyehimba Jess, Amaud Johnson, Douglas Kearney, Ruth Ellen Kocher)

This reading features four black poets who rewrite the staged body as a multi-vocal performance of conceptual and lyric innovation. The dismantled structures of minstrel give way to characters resurrected from caricature who negotiate the uncivil discourse of cultural legacy and re-establish the disembodied “I” of a subject otherwise lost in the archives of an unforgiving past. This evolution of subject fashions the staged body as musical genius, gifted performer, and melancholy sage.

Diode Poetry Journal's 10th Anniversary Reading. (Bob Hicok, Victoria Chang, Rick Barot, Andrea Cohen, Patty Paine)

Founded in 2007, in Doha, Qatar, Diode Poetry Journal has published a stunning array of poets from Pulitzer prize winners to MFA students. Diode has become known for its expansive and eclectic aesthetic, and its rigorous and attentive editorial practice. To celebrate, five influential poets whose work has appeared over the span of ten years, will read their poetry. With diverse and bold voices, these poets will make an argument for the importance, the necessity, and power of the written word.