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The Wednesday Web Browser for Writers: Post-AWP Edition

by Erika Dreifus on
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Last Wednesday, just as I departed for the annual conference of the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) in Washington, I left you with a slew of conference-related links. I returned on Sunday night (the conference itself ended on Saturday, but I stayed in D.C. for a Sunday afternoon reading). But I still haven’t managed to write up recaps/summaries of the panels and other events that made the conference especially wonderful this year.

Luckily, though, other writers have proven far swifter. Herewith, some ways for you to glean (at least some of) the rich texture that is an AWP conference:

  • Poet Kelli Russell Agodon writes up her conference experience and concludes: “I confess, while I like to say AWP is overwhelming to me (and it is), it is worth a few moments of being uncomfortable for the bigger moments it produces.”
  • Talk about great timing! Debut novelist Ellen Meeropol (House Arrest) launched her book at AWP. Congratulations, Elli!
  • Writer and professor John Vanderslice managed to attend AWP and post a series of blog updates in the process. Thanks, John!
  • If you missed the conference, you can get a glimpse of what our friend Wordamour calls the “best conference bag ever”–and benefit from her other conference reflections.
  • For Tayari Jones, this may not have been the best AWP conference ever, but “it was okay.” Read more about it at Tayari’s blog.
  • As I’ve said, I’m still catching up. But I have managed to post the handout from the panel I presented (along with Andrew Furman, Kevin Haworth, Margot Singer, and Anna Solomon) on “Beyond Bagels & Lox: Jewish-American Fiction in the 21st Century.”

    • The Wednesday Web Browser: AWP Version

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled
  • I’m hoping that my travel plans—and those of everyone else with an itinerary leading to the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) conference in Washington—will continue as planned. As I draft this post, the weather is the big unknown. If you’ll be attending, here’s a quick guide to my panels and appearances. It would be great to meet blog readers in person!
  • The AWP conference can evoke all kinds of conflicting feelings. I’ll admit that I’m feeling a mix already. But I wouldn’t be able to articulate them as well as Cathy Day has in her blog post: “Anxiety + Community = AWP.”
  • Can’t make it to the big event? The Education of Oronte Churm will bring you “Radio Free AWP.” Podcasts and freebies galore.
  • And if that’s not enough, check out Meg Pokrass’s Barbaric yAWP, described here by our friends at Fiction Writers Review. Meg’s running a big virtual conference, and among the plums are changes to win signed copies of The Adults, a novel by Alison Espach, and Quiet Americans, short stories by yours truly.
  • But wait! There’s more! I’m honored that Fiction Writers Review (which will host a book-signing for me at the conference) is also currently featuring Quiet Americans as its Book of the Week. Several signed copies will be awarded to fans of the FWR Facebook page. Find all the details here.

    • I’ll miss this blog while I’m away, but I’ll try to check in via Twitter from time to time. See you back here next week

    Friday Find: Essay Symposium Proceedings from Welcome Table Press

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    Some of you may have caught my short article in The Writer magazine some months back that described a spring event here in New York: a symposium convened by Welcome Table Press titled “In Praise of the Essay: Practice & Form.” In that article, I called Jerald Walker’s presentation–which included an account of one editor’s pre-publication request to confer with Walker’s 73-year-old mother before going ahead with a particular piece–“a conference standout.”

    Well, now you can read Walker’s presentation for yourself. Thanks to Lisa Romeo’s blog, I recently learned that Welcome Table Press has made some of the symposium proceedings available for download (link updated April 2021: click “In Praise of the Essay: Symposia Proceedings” and scroll to Walker’s essay). (You can download this material for free, or you can purchase them in pamphlet form to benefit Welcome Table Press.)

    Enjoy the find, and have a wonderful weekend. See you back here on Monday.

    Friday Find: AWP Conference Schedule (and Guide)

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    Late last week, the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) posted the schedule of events for its upcoming conference (February 2-5) in Washington, D.C. It’s overwhelming–and outstanding.

    I’ve taken a look and begun highlighting some panels and readings that I’ve immediately deemed “can’t miss” from my personal perspective, but I certainly haven’t done as complete (or as interesting) a job as Salvatore Pane has with his “2011 Guide to AWP”. (Yes, I’m immensely flattered by his inclusion of both the panels that I’m moderating, but he’d already caught my attention much earlier in the write-up.)

    Enjoy, whether you’re planning to attend the conference, still deciding, or merely curious. Have a great weekend. And see you back here on Monday.

    Friday Find: Free Conference Registration

    by Erika Dreifus on
    Disabled

    This information about the upcoming (February) conference came via e-mail from the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) earlier this week:

    Dear friends, AWP will begin taking student volunteers for the 2011 AWP Conference & Bookfair in Washington D.C. starting at 12 p.m. EST on Friday, November 5th, 2010. Volunteers will have their registration fee waived for completing four hours of service at the conference. All volunteers must be current students with valid student IDs. If you would like to volunteer, please follow the instructions on our website at: http://www.awpwriter.org/conference/2011vol.php

    Good luck! Have a great weekend, and see you back here on Monday.