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

The Killing Fields: Representing State-Driven Slavery, Genocide, The Holocaust and Other Systemic Murders. (Anna March, Kiese Laymon, Benjamin Reed, Jocelyn Bartkevicius, Keith Wilson)

How does literature engage state-driven atrocities like Native-American genocide, war crimes, executions by police and other systemic murders? This inclusive panel will interrogate: representation, mourning, witness, and the impact of such writing. Panel will explore the use of divisive identity markers, texts as political narrative, and balancing political work with good storytelling. The place of literature in times of fear and unrest shall be considered. Handouts: craft and bibliography.

The Last Word on Animals: Creaturely Nonfiction in a Time of Environmental Upheaval. (Kathleen Dean Moore, Michael P. Branch, Jennifer Sahn, Kathryn Miles, Nick Neely)

We live amid the “sixth extinction,” in which species are disappearing at the fastest rate since the dinosaurs. Animals have always thrived in our psyches, but now stories about polar bears treading water and octopi escaping aquariums show how their reality and our animal knowledge is changing. How do we call attention to creatures while protecting their mystery, autonomy, and very existence? Hear from nonfiction writers devoted to the craft and ethics of the bestiary in this alarming era.

The Lifecycle of a Literary Center: Evolutions in Programming and Fundraising. (Michael Khandelwal, Michael Henry, Gregg Wilhelm, Andrea Wilson)

Unique challenges and opportunities face literary centers at every step in their lifecycles. How do fundraising and income generation change as centers grow from their inception to maturity? How is programming, growth, and outreach affected by available resources? In this interactive panel, directors from established and emerging urban and rural literary centers explore the programs and curriculum as well as the fundraising techniques that work best, depending on their stage of development.

The Literary Startup: From Brainstorming to Launch to Maintaining. (Joanne V. Gabbin, Jennifer Baker, J.P. Howard, Candace Wiley, Mahogany Browne)

The founders, directors, and administrators of four literary organizations share their experiences and varying models for launching and maintaining a successful writing startup that addresses some lack of diversity or inclusion in the industry as a whole. Topics include envisioning a project or organization, strategically meeting needs, encountering the hard choices, and ways to sustain a literary organization.

The Long and Winding Road: Book-Length Poems and Poetic Sequences. (Matthew Thorburn, Shanna Compton, R. Erica Doyle, John Gallaher, Katrina Vandenberg)

The long poem is experiencing a renaissance, as ambitious poets seek a wider space in which to explore multiple narratives, voices, themes and experiences, and reflect the complexity of both private and public life. Discussing their recently published and forthcoming books, the panelists will share creative strategies, discuss their influences (other poets and poems, other works of art), and provide inspiration for those considering or already undertaking this creative journey.

The Long from the Short: Turning Flash Pieces into a Novel, Novella, or Memoir. (Abigail Beckel, Kelcey Parker Ervick, Lex Williford, Tyrese Coleman, Tara Laskowski)

Intimidated by the daunting feel of a longer project? Or simply looking for a different way to craft a full-length project? Novels-in-flash and memoirs-in-flash are growing in popularity as a perfect marriage of the concision of stand-alone flash pieces and the narrative possibilities of full-length books. Authors and editors of the form offer tips on conceptualizing and crafting a longer work-in-flash, highlighting examples, as well as advice on publishing, marketing, and teaching the form.

The Lyric Invitation: Readers as Collaborators. (Julija Sukys, Travis Scholl, Patrick Madden, Beth Peterson, Desirae Matherly)

To call a text a lyric essay is not to define its form or structure: like authors, lyric essays come in all shapes and sizes. Instead, the term lyric essay is a means of identifying a series of writerly moves: fragments (as in Maggie Nelson’s Bluets), silences (Jenny Boully’s The Body), and juxtapositions (Anne Carson’s Nox) that invite a reader to make sense of a text. This panel asks: is calling an essay lyric a way of accepting a writer’s invitation to collaborate?

The Lyric Narrative: Telling Stories in Poems. (Brad Crenshaw, Robin Becker, Laurel Blossom, Christine Kitano, Derek McKown)

Post-modern suspicion of narratives doesn’t avert the need for them, but prompts other strategies to get the stories said. We all have tales that are best told musically--including outpourings of feeling that can't be shuttered in tiny poetic frames. Five poets each have imagined novel solutions in long sustained poetic sequences. Two have written book-length chronicles; others write extended prose poems. The poets will share how they craft narrative arts to fit compelling lyric subjects.

The Middle Americans: How Flyover Country Responds to War. (Randy Brown, M.L. Doyle, Kayla Williams, Matthew Hefti, Angela Ricketts)

By various measures, rural Americans are more likely to enlist in the U.S. armed forces. Despite isolation from traditional centers of publishing and military power, voices with Midwestern roots have sprung forth like dragon's teeth to deliver clear-eyed, plainspoken views of war, service, and sacrifice. The civilians and veterans of this stereotype-busting panel of published writers offer their insights regarding themes, trends, and markets in fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.

The Multi-Headed Beast: Challenging Genre in Creative Nonfiction. (Dinty W. Moore, Sonya Huber, Stephanie Elizondo Griest, Daisy Hernandez, Catina Bacote)

Nonfiction is often divided into categories, but memoir needn’t just be remembered events, essays needn’t focus solely on rumination, and literary journalism isn’t merely about what one observes. Our nonfiction is richer when we braid the sub-genres into a coherent whole, using all the tools available. We'll discuss how we weave research on community policing, queer identity, and rebel teachers in Oaxaca, for instance, into our memoirs and essays, so readers are informed as well as captivated.

The New New New Journalism: Reporting with the I. (Jennifer Percy, Chris Feliciano Arnold, Jose Orduna, Kerry Howley, Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich)

Four decades after Tom Wolfe coined the term “new journalism” and a decade after Robert Boynton hailed Susan Orlean, Jon Krakauer, and others as “new new journalists,” subjectivity in journalism is hot again. Five writers whose work sometimes straddles the line between memoir and journalism discuss where that line is, if it’s moved over the past years, what a personal perspective can bring to reporting—and what the legacies of Wolfe and other writers mean forty years into being “new.”

The Path to Publishing a First Story Collection. (Erin Stalcup, Robin Black, Lori Ostlund, Melissa Yancy)

Four authors discuss their different paths to publishing their first books. One of us got an agented two-book deal with a big New York house, one of us got an unagented contract with a small university press, and two of us won contests: the Drue Heinz Prize and the Flannery O’Connor Award. We’ll share our stories, and provide resources and handouts to help audience members understand ideal and realistic possibilities, and navigate their own journeys to publication.

The Personal (Essay) Is Political: Nonfiction as an Agent of Social Change. (Katie Cortese, Jaquira Díaz, Eric Sasson, Gabrielle Bellot, Matthew Salesses)

Online nonfiction venues such as Salon, Slate, and The Atlantic, among others, invite writers to respond to world events through the lens of personal experience while also allowing works to be shared virally via social media. The best of these spur public conversations about issues as pressing as police brutality, rape culture, LGBTQ rights, and more. This panel will explore the various roles of the personal essay in contemporary culture, and discuss how words effect change on the world.

The Planners vs. the Pants-ers: Outlining Your Novel. (Michael Kardos, Ravi Howard, Lee Martin, Lorraine Lopez, Jessica Anya Blau)

Perhaps no question gets asked of novelists more than, Do you outline first? And for good reason: novels are long, complex, often messy creatures. This panel of novelists, comprised of those who outline and those who fly by the seat of their pants, will discuss the advantages and pitfalls of their own approaches to novel-writing and offer words of advice, support, and caution.

The Poet Confronts History: The Art of Research for Creative Writing. (Robert Strong, Cole Swensen, Brian Teare, Jessica Jacobs, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers)

Writers are increasingly exploring historical events and archives for material, often to engage with the diverse, and sometimes silenced, voices of our past. Our panelists, poets known for their work with history, will discuss creativity in the research process, venues for publication, and strategies for landing research-oriented writing fellowships. Moderated by the editor of the Poetic Research column at Common-place, the journal of early American history and culture.

The Political Woman: historical novelists reimagine and reclaim women's place in politics. (Erin Lindsay McCabe, Gina Mulligan, Karen Joy Fowler, Alex Myers, Mary Volmer)

While rarely central and often discounted, women have always played a role in politics. In this panel, historical novelists discuss how and why they chose to unearth and reimagine the lost and untold stories of women in politics. What are the risks and rewards of using fiction to place women at the center of political narratives? What liberties are novelists compelled, or unwilling, to take with the historical record?

The Politician as Writer: The Rise of the Political Autobiography. (Rachael Hanel, Jesse Goolsby, Keith Urbahn, Stephanie Sheu-Jing Li)

Cash donations, an advising team, focus groups—and a book? Barack Obama’s 2004 book, “Dreams From My Father,” started the recent trend of politicians who first hint at a national campaign by releasing an autobiography. Join the discussion as a literary agent, a novelist and former Pentagon speechwriter, and professors who study English and public relations critically examine these books from literary and marketing perspectives. Can a book be promotional and still have literary merit?

The Politics of Queering Characters. (Samantha Tetangco, Marisa P. Clark, Lisa D. Chavez, Lori Ostlund, Jervon Perkins)

For queer writers, creating a queer character on the page is a political act that often involves conscious decisions and unexpected obstacles. How can we tell when our characters are too queer or not queer enough? What other complications may arise when we try to define our audience and their expectations? How do we choose to out ourselves and our characters in our work? This panel considers the politics of queering characters within fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry.

The Power of Picture Books-- What Picture Books Can Teach Middle Grade and YA Writers About Inclusivity and Craft. (Judi Marcin, Donna Koppelman, J. J. Austrian, Dori Graham, Pat McCaw)

As writers of children’s literature, inclusivity is necessary in order to reflect the world around us. Complex topic discussions on mental health, gender expression, feminism, racial equality and social justice are critical to young people. The modern picture book is a leader in the exploration of these concepts. This expert panel will share successful picture book texts and the fundamental craft elements all writers can use to better address the needs of their diverse contemporary readers.

The Reporter and the Story: How journalism can inform, and fund, a literary career. (Jessica Langlois, Jeneé Darden, Lisa Brunette, Elizabeth Flock, Jenny J. Chen)

Hemingway, Orwell, Dickens—all worked as journalists before becoming celebrated novelists. In addition to building your platform and paying the bills, working as a reporter can make you a better poet, novelist, or memoirist. Five journalists talk about how reporting on others drives them to create better fictional characters, how radio reporting has helped them develop their authorial voice, and how daily deadline gigs can lead to a career as a narrative nonfiction author.

The Shape of Fiction: A Look at Structuring Novel-Length Prose. (Christian Kiefer, Jeff Jackson, Esmé Weijun Wang, Janet Fitch, Kirstin Chen)

When we talk about the structure of narrative, it is often by using the Freytag pyramid: rising action, plateau, denoument, climax, and so on. This panel will discuss the reality of plotting / structuring a novel, often using criteria that has little or nothing to do with Freytag. Structure can be based on criteria unconcerned with plot and plot can go far from structure. What possibilities exist and how might we offer such possibilities to ourselves and our students?

The Short Story as Laboratory. (Lesley Nneka Arimah, Carmen Maria Machado, Kendra Fortmeyer, Sofia Samatar, Juan Martinez)

What does short fiction allow? The form is beloved by science fiction writers, who use it to test out hypothetical futures; what does it offer writers who are doing other kinds of testing, related to emotional transitions, marginality, and migration? Is the short story an inherently border form? This panel considers these questions, as well as the challenge of putting a set of experiments into a collection, and the tension between the laboratory and the completed book.

The Speculative Essay. (Robin Hemley, Lia Purpura, Bonnie Rough, Nicole Walker, Brian Blanchfield)

Many essayists have employed speculation throughout the form’s history, relying wholly on speculation (relating nothing verifiable) rather than engaging “fact.” Virginia Woolf’s “Death of a Moth,” for example, does not require a verifiable moth to achieve its power. But what are the limits to speculation? Must essayists always signal their speculative intentions? Can an essayist delve into the traditional realm of the fiction writer, overturning traditional notions of point of view in the essay?

The Ten Year Novel. (Tova Mirvis, Rachel Cantor, Rachel Kadish, Joanna Rakoff, Sari Wilson)

Why do some novels take so long to write, and what can writers do to sustain themselves while writing a 10-year novel? This panel of female novelists will discuss why their published novels took (at least) a decade to write. Do some novels require this length of time, or was it the writer herself? How does a book change when it’s written over a decade? Are the realities of women writers’ lives a factor? What strategies did panelists use to develop the persistence and fortitude to continue?

The Thin Place: A Tribute to Kathryn Davis. (Anton DiSclafani, Michael Taeckens, Alice Kim, Kate Bernheimer, Kathryn Davis)

Kathryn Davis is widely considered by critics to be one of the most important women writers of the 20th and 21st centuries; across seven stylistically breathtaking novels she has challenged and inspired a generation of readers, and ignited a movement of diverse, fabulist, posthuman, feminist authors.

Her books constantly and electrifyingly ask the question of what is possible on the page. Students and colleagues of Davis will speak about her work, ending in a reading from Davis herself.
The Transnational Novel: Decolonizing Fiction. (Robin Hemley, Lisa Ko, Xu Xi, Evan Fallenberg, Sybil Baker)

In a time of the largest mass migration of humans since World War II, the transnational novel seems more relevant than ever. Four authors who have written transnational novels will discuss the impetus behind writing the transnational novel and its challenges and rewards. We will discuss how we approach perspective and craft when writing the transnational novel as well as the attendant writing life that often accompanies it.

The Undergrad and the Literary Journal. (Thom Caraway, Jennifer Moore, David Wright, Jeff Dodd, Rachel Cruea)

Humanities-based academic disciplines are increasingly being asked to provide practical experience for their majors. One answer that has gained popularity in recent years is the use of print and online literary journals to provide real-world, hands-on experience. Panelists will discuss the ways they have incorporated editing, design, aesthetics, and publications into their classrooms, the benefits to students and the schools, and the economic and pedagogical challenges they have faced.

The Vein of Jade: What a single detail can reveal in nonfiction. (Angie Chuang, Sonya Huber, Michael Steinberg, Marion Winik, Michael Downs)

'When the vein of jade / is revealed in the rock,' Lu Chi writes in his classic The Art of Writing, 'the whole mountain glistens.' Likewise, a single detail can reveal the meaning and mystery of a scene, an essay, or a book. Practitioners of various nonfiction forms (from journalism to hybrid) will each choose a particular detail from a well-regarded nonfiction and show how it becomes – by its context, its imagery, its power to evoke – the 'vein of jade' that allows the whole to 'glisten.'

The Village of Your Novel. (Rebecca Smith, Carole Burns, Robin Black, Margot Livesey)

Jane Austen advised that three or four families in a country village was the very thing to work on. 200 years since the publication of Emma, the idea of the village of your novel can help you manage a cast of characters, build tension and create a sense of place. This international panel looks at ways writers create villages (inner-city or rural) and demonstrates practical methods and exercises for leading readers into a convincing world, utilizing its spaces and playing with its rules.

The World as Refuge. (Andrea Rexilius, Adrianne Kalfopoulou, Natalia Sylvester, J. Michael Martinez, Helen Thorpe)

We will discuss the various ways in which writing creates refuge, and will consider how to adopt spaces and cartographies of imagination over the familiar or native. Panelists discuss what it means to write outside of one’s native language or native land, how narratives set outside of the US are reshaping how we define American literature, what it’s like for monolingual English speakers to work with familial languages, and how undocumented students born in the U.S. navigate being American.

The World Is One Place: Native American Poets Visit the Middle East. (Diane Glancy, Kimberly Blaeser, Kim Shuck, Linda Rodriguez, Allison Adele Hedge Coke)

How can Native American poets' historical perspectives open a new way to see today's Middle East? How can poetry create the possibility for empathy among these peoples, who have all confronted displacement, often-irreconcilable conflict between tradition and modernity, and undying hope for survival and renewal against overwhelming odds? This panel celebrates the anthology The World Is One Place, whose contributors confirm the depth of universal bonds that link humanity.

The World Turned Upside Down: Hamilton, An American Musical. (Judith Baumel, Jacqueline Jones LaMon, Victorio Reyes, Stephen O'Connor)

The smash Broadway hit Hamilton has been rightly called a game changer. Borrowing from Charles Chesnutt, Lin-Manuel Miranda uses the world turned upside down as an image for the revolution, reversal and subversion of political and artistic norms. Here, in the capital city which Hamilton envisioned, poets, fiction writers, playwrights and musicians will discuss what’s new and what’s old in the show – its hip-hop poetics, music and lyric sampling, imagery, narrative structure, staging and more.

The Written Orality of Hip Hop Lyricism. (Victorio Reyes, Derik Smith, Tracie Morris, Tara Betts, Jonah Mixon-Webster)

From the early rap record liner notes to the annotation explosion of Genius.com, Hip Hop artists and audiences have always engaged the written as well as the oral textuality of rap lyrics. However, treating Hip Hop lyricism as written literature is a fraught proposition. Locating rap at the crossroads of written and oral traditions of African American culture, the panel evaluates rap as a written art that is symbiotically wedded to oral culture.

Thirteen Ways of Looking at Translation: Polish Poetry and Beyond. (Ewa Chrusciel, Robin Davidson, Piotr Florczyk, Karen Kovacik, Iza Wojciechowska)

Our panel will focus on translating, publishing, and marketing contemporary Polish poetry. It will address such topics as collaborating with an author over several books, the delicate negotiations of self- or co-translation, strategies for contextualizing translated work, ways to support other translators, and tips for compiling an anthology. Panelists will discuss their processes for bringing poems into English, read examples of their translations, and welcome questions from the audience.

Time Might Change Me: Writers and Residencies. (Dana Prescott, Cheryl Young, Elaina Richardson, Margot Knight, Cheryl Tan)

In a world awash in distraction, residencies are increasingly indispensable, offering writers a refuge in which to dream, create and revitalize their work. With so many choices out there, how do you pursue these opportunities? How do you make the most of the precious gift of unfettered time? The directors of Yaddo, MacDowell, Civitella Ranieri and Dejerassi, joined by seasoned colonist, Cheryl Tan, debunk some of the myths and expose some potential pitfalls of retreating from life to write.

Time, Space, Community. (Jac Jemc, Rebecca Makkai, Rachel Cantor, Erinn Beth Langille, Cheryl Tan)

Residencies offer a valuable opportunity to focus on writing and build artistic community. With so many varieties of residency, how does one decide where to apply? What makes a strong application? Once there, what are some strategies for making good use of your time? Panelists discuss their experiences attending and organizing residencies at Yaddo, MacDowell, Ucross, Millay, VCCA, Ragdale, Headlands, Djerassi, Hawthornden Castle (in Scotland), Lemon Tree House (in Italy), and elsewhere.

Times They Are a Changin: Re-Inventing the MFA. (Alan Soldofsky, Fred D'Aguiar, Kathleen Graber, Lisa Olstein, Daniel Tobin)

How are MFA programs re-envisioning themselves for the 21st century? Responding to changing student needs, many programs have revised the curriculum to include more professional development tracks like translation, literary editing, and digital publishing. And more teaching and internship opportunities. This panel of seasoned MFA administrators from across the nation will discuss best practices that programs are following to keep the MFA viable for an increasingly diverse cohort of students.

Tipping the Scales: Addressing Gender Imbalance in Literature in Translation. (Karen Phillips, Hillary Gulley, Sholeh Wolpe, Marguerite Feitlowitz, Alta Price)

The VIDA Count statistics, among other initiatives, have spotlighted the underrepresentation of women writers as authors, critics, and review subjects in the mainstream media. How does gender parity play out in the world of literary translation? Translators specializing in languages of Asia, Latin America, South America, and Europe read from their work and discuss strategies for finding, translating, and publishing international women writers. (458 w/spaces)

Tips and Tricks from the Trenches: Lit Mag Editors Share Funding, Staffing, and Operational Strategies for Survival. (Jenn Scheck-Kahn, Lisa Roney, Robert Stapleton, Bonnie Friedman, Jon Peede)

Editors of new, established and always evolving literary magazines will open their balance sheets and share the creative ways they’ve secured the resources necessary to keep their journals enduring and essential both to the literary community and the universities that fund them.