2007 AWP Annual Conference Schedule
2007 Annual Conference & Bookfair
February 28 - March 3, 2007
Atlanta, Georgia
Hilton Atlanta
Thursday- March 1, 2007
|
|
Thursday
|
|
|
8:00
a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Lobby Level | R100. Conference Registration. Attendees who have registered in advance may pick up their registration materials throughout the day at AWP's registration desk. On-site registration passes are available for purchase. |
|
8:30
a.m.-5:30 p.m.
Exhibit Hall
Lower Level | R101. Bookfair. |
|
9:00
a.m.-10:15 a.m.
Salon B
2nd Floor | R102. Evolution of a Writer: On Ekeing,
Emerging, and Becoming Established. (Matt Roberts, Steven Church, Adam Braver) How does one move from trying to eke out a place for themselves
in the pages of literary journals to the New York Times Bestseller List? This panel will address the professional development of writers by examining the various perspectives of an unknown up-andcomer, an emerging writer, and an established writer. The panel will address publishing, shameless self-promotion, the business of writing, job opportunities, maintaining momentum, and balancing your writing against other concerns. |
Ballroom B
2nd Floor | R103. History into Poetry, Poetry into History. (Martha Collins, Pamela Alexander, Andrew Hudgins, Marilyn Nelson, Frank X. Walker) This panel explores ways in which, and reasons why, poetry may use history as a starting point and focus. Panelists will discuss historical research they have done to create extended poems or sequences of poems focusing on historical events or figures, primarily from 19th- and early 20th- century America. They will also discuss the process of transforming their research into poetry, and ways in which such poetry can in turn deepen our sense of our own history. |
Ballroom C
2nd Floor | R104. Writing a Larger World: Stories of Cross-Cultural Connections and Collisions. (Josip Novakovich, Samrat Upadhyay, Sharon May, Shawn Shiflett, Stacy Bierlein) Writers of international fiction discuss the essentiality of writing across cultures and the challenges associated with marketing works set in distant lands. |
Ballroom D
2nd Floor | R105. Making a Debut: What constitutes
an effective first novel?. (Tom De Haven, Andrew Blossom, Scott Hoffman, Patty Smith) What constitutes an effective first novel? In their capacity as organizers of the VCU First Novelist Award and, in one case, as an agent who represents first novels, these panelists have read their fair share of debut fiction. Come hear what they have to say about current trends. Learn about common problems, too, and what characterizes "typical" and successful literary starts. |
Cherokee
2nd Floor | R106. Must a Translator Be a Poet or
a Writer?. (Alexis Levitin, Ellen Doré Watson, Stephen Kessler, Sheryl St. Germain, Danuta Borchardt) Is it necessary to be a poet in order to be a good translator of poetry? Is it necessary to be a fiction writer in order to be a good translator of fiction? These basic questions will be discussed by four translators, two of them translators of poetry, two of them translators of fiction. The role and possibly distinctive nature of the translator's muse will be considered, along with questions of visibility and invisibility, originality, creative freedom, service and the translator's art and craft. |
Henry
2nd Floor | R107. Two-Year College Caucus. (John
Bell, Kris Bigalk, Charles Burm, Tobey Kaplan) This annual event brings together faculty from two-year colleges for networking within this growing AWP constituency. After an update on our completed hallmarks for a two-year college creative writing program and caucus bylaws, we will discuss technology issues, pedagogy at our campuses, development of AFA degrees and writing concentrations or majors at our colleges, and panels for next year's conference in New York. |
North Court East
2nd Floor | R108. Teaching the Classical Essay:
Why, How, and What?. (Patrick Madden, Desirae Matherly, Michael Danko, Shannon Lakanen, Kelley Evans, Michelle Disler) We are right to recommend and teach exemplary contemporary essays, but which pre-20th century essays should we also teach, and why, and how? Six panelists will offer annotated bibliographies of ten thematically related classical essays each, elucidating their methods and reasons, and explicating one or two essays in a spoken presentation. |
North Court West
2nd Floor | R109. AWP Program Directors: Plenary Assembly. (David Fenza) This is an opportunity for all program directors of AWP to meet, share information, and hear reports on AWP projects. The officers of the AWP Board of Directors and Executive Director David Fenza will conduct the meeting. All AWP program directors should attend this plenary meeting and represent their programs. As soon as the plenary meeting concludes, the program directors will meet in regional breakout sessions that correspond to AWP's voting districts. |
Salon A
2nd Floor | R110. Literary Theory: It Works in Practice, but Does It Work in Theory?. (Karen Brennan, M. L. Williams, Wendy Rawlings, Margot Singer, Jeffrey Vasseur, Lawrence Coates) Literary theory is sometimes considered alien to programs in Creative Writing. Conversely, Departments of English sometimes consider programs in Creative Writing to slight theory and to be modest in terms of academic rigor. Counter to both positions, writers on this panel will discuss how literary theory has been important in their own work. |
Ballroom A
2nd Floor | R111. Taking Measures: Poetry and the Media. (Stephen Young, John Barr, Jeffrey Brown, Nancy Pearl, Anne Halsey) The Poetry Foundation has launched several initiatives in the last year designed to raise poetry's profile in our culture. The latest of these is the Poetry Institute, a new forum for poets, scholars, publishers, and media experts to explore fresh ideas about poetry. Poetry's audience was the Institute's inaugural topic. This panel will report on the first Institute and consider poetry outreach from diverse perspectives, as well as some of the philosophical objections to it and its many practical frustrations. |
Salon C
2nd Floor | R112. Divine Order or Free Will?-Getting to the Heart of Syntax. (Janet Holmes, Connie Voisine, Michelle Boisseau, Sharon Dolin, Carmen Gimenez Smith) The order and placement of words and other linguistic units, otherwise known as syntax, is one of the most basic structural elements of writing. However, it is nearly impossible to find cogent writings on the topic in text books, craft essays, or other critical discussions of literature. Masterful syntax is often invisible or blindingly obvious (think of Lyn Hejinian's My Life). This panel of poets will provide models for thinking about syntax, that elusive, central presence. |
Salon D
2nd Floor | R113. Peter Taylor and the Lost World of the Modern. (John Casey, Mary Flinn, David Lynn, Wyatt Prunty, James Wood) A look at the importance of Peter Taylor's contribution to American
literature from the point of view of writers and editors who admire or were influenced by his work. Like Checkov's (whom Taylor admired), Taylor's work can seem deceptively uncomplicated and calm. When his fiction is read closely, however, it reveals a sensibility comfortable in navigating a landscape as shifting as the perceptions of memory and the understanding of the past or as thorny as any humanly flawed pursuit of love and companionship. |
Salon E
2nd Floor | R114. Do I Have to Work the Bookfair?: A Look at the Art of Self Marketing in the Publishing World. (Speer Morgan, Tod Goldberg, Kathleen Anderson, Lee Gutkind, Sophie Ballo) The word "schmooze" has mostly negative connotations; however, there are times when this skill is not only beneficial, but seemingly required. How much can good self marketing skills help when writers are trying to promote their work, and their career, in the industry? And how does one accomplish it without sounding like a used car salesman? Editors and authors will discuss various angles of this broad topic, including what editors like to hear at bookfairs, how agents like to be contacted by authors, how readings can impact ones career, and simple tips to remember when first meeting a potential contact or publisher. |
South Court West
2nd Floor | R115. Can literature bridge the widening chasm between the Middle East and the West?. (Nahid Mozaffari, Lila Azam Zanganeh, Nathalie Handal, Reza Aslan, Ravi Shankar, Persis Karim) Six editors of major anthologies featuring work from and about the Middle East will discuss the role of literature in moving Western consciousness away from the terrorists and fanatics towards the cultural heritage of that region. To what extent can such anthologies play a role in bringing about a more balanced sense of shared humanity, and how can they contribute to the ongoing dialogue now taking place between the East and the West? |
Walton
2nd Floor | R116. Native American Literature in the Creative Writing Classroom. (Heid Erdrich, Allison Hedge Coke, Gordon Henry, Deborah Miranda, Janet McAdams, LeAnne Howe) Six indigenous writing teachers will discuss their experiences teaching American Indian texts to creative writing students, including Native and non-Native students, in both academic and community settings. In this presentation, we will explore such issues as the challenges and values of an indigenous-based pedagogy; the vital questions of voice, history, community that Native writing can bring to the creative writing workshop; and the ways teachers new to Native American writing can begin to introduce it in their classes. |
Carter
3rd Floor
(accessible by elevator) | R118. Literary Ventures Fund: The Business of Publishing. (James Bildner, Zachery Marcus, Ande Zellman, Jeffrey Lependorf ) Join in a discussion on effective budgeting for books, including P&L statements, cash flow management, and sales predictions. |
|
10:30
a.m.-11:45 a.m.
Crystal Ballroom
Lobby Level | R119. Breaking the Horse: Pegasus and Disability. (Jim Ferris, Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Stephen Kuusisto, Nicole Markotic, Gregory Orr) Since the beginning of time, poetry has been about loss and desire simultaneously-not about healing and cure, but about living in a world in which pain and loss are inevitable. Poets express loss and pain usually through metaphor and evocative similes. Such elevated language, however, has fixed poetic ideas about loss into the very metaphors poets used to escape fixed and rigorous language. How, then, do poets "cure" traditional metaphors and continue to evoke the body/mind/psyche "broken"? |
Ballroom A
2nd Floor | R120. Historical Fiction: A Multi-level Approach. (Janet Burroway, Enid Shomer, Michael Garriga, Rita Mae Reese, Brandy Wilson) Panelists, made up of both students and established novelists, will discuss writing historical pieces at various stages of the process. These authors will share anecdotal advice about writing set in history using the diverse perspectives from which they have written. The many issues that arise from writing historical fiction such as questions about research and how to use it in the writing, the writer's freedom vs. reader's expectations, authority of voice, and issues of using real people are addressed. |
Ballroom B
2nd Floor | R121. National Poetry Series Reading. (Steve Gehrke, Patricia Smith, S. A. Stepanek, Tryfon Tolides, Nadine Meyer) This reading will feature winners of the 2005 National Poetry Series.
For the last twenty five years, the National Poetry Series has sponsored the publication of poetry by an impressive array of both new and more established talent. The range of judges and publishers who have worked with NPS has resulted in an eclectic collection of winning books and this years' winners display the diversity of poetic styles supported by the National Poetry Series. |
Ballroom C
2nd Floor | R122. A Celebration of Southern Women Writers. (Kelly Cherry, Judith Cofer, Mary Hood, June Spence, Karen Salyer McElmurray) A reading by preeminent Southern women writers of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, all who have been featured readers in the long-running Southern Women Writers Conference held at Berry College in Mount Berry, Georgia. |
Ballroom D
2nd Floor | R123. 15 Books Every Poet should Read (But Probably Hasn't). (Michael Wiegers, Jeffrey Shotts, Joshua Beckman, Matthew Zapruder, Matvei Yankelvich)) This panel will focus on reading. Five poetry editors from noted presses discuss those overlooked books, out-of-print favorites and unexpected oddities they believe should be on every poet's bookshelf. Most writers come to writing-and writing programs-out of a love of reading, and it is no different for editors. This will be an opportunity to discuss those out-of-print and rarely discussed gems that are still current and poetentially influential. There will also be an opportunity for audience members to acknowledge those books they believe worthy of more attention. |
Cherokee
2nd Floor | R124. The Literary Sequence, Trilogy, and Cycle. (Katherine Towler, K.L. Cook, Susan Lang, Robert J. Begiebing) Cycles of novels that create a collective story through linked characters and settings have a long tradition in literature, from Faulkner to John Updike, Louise Erdrich, and Cormac McCarthy. This panel of four award-winning fiction writers will present and discuss their multi-book projects, exploring the opportunities that sequels and trilogies (and longer book cycles) offer the writer. Topics addressed will include creating a character or cast of characters that can be sustained, handling the passage of time and different time periods in a cycle of books, using a fictional or real setting as a focus, and maintaining the writing stamina for a multi-book sequence. |
Henry
2nd Floor | R125. Celebrating Subtropics: Readings by Contributors to Subtropics Literary Magazine. (David Leavitt, Kent Annan, Elleen Pollack, Geoffrey Brock, Randall Mann, David Galef) David Leavitt will deliver a small presentation on Subtropics, the literary magazine from the University of Florida, then introduce several Subtropics contributors who will read from their work. |
North Court East
2nd Floor | R126. Student Involvement from Screening to Proofs: Publication Process at a Teaching Press. (Alan Davis, Thom Tammaro, Elizabeth Severn, Joel Hagen, Heather Steinmann, Lonna Whiting) At New Rivers Press, a teaching press associated with Minnesota State University Moorhead, students from many disciplines participate in acquisition, design, editing, marketing, Web maintenance and other areas of operations. Faculty and students associated with the press will describe how it works and how other publishers and MFA or writing programs might set up a similar arrangement. Time for questions from and discussion with the audience will follow presentations. |
North Court West
2nd Floor | R127. Shot- Reverse Shot: The Translation of Images from Comic Book to Big Screen. (David Baier, Jo Lynn Pack, Lindsay Burton) This presentation will focus on the translation of stories from comic books into motion pictures, with particular attention paid to the treatment of the narrative and the image. The presentation of comic books more and more resembles that of cinema, especially regarding the increasingly dynamic use of panels as shots. The discussion will consider the advantages and limitations of both comics and film, as well as the inherent effect on storytelling as works are translated from one medium to the next. |
Salon A
2nd Floor | R128. A Celebration of Robert Dana. (David Lynn, Ted Solotaroff, Stephen Corey, David Hamilton, R.M. Ryan, Hilda Raz) Author of ten collections of poetry and two works of literary nonfiction, winner of numerous literary and founding editor of the revived North American Review, Poet Laureate of Iowa, Robert Dana was Poet-in-Residence at Cornell College for forty years and has been Distinguished Visiting Writer at Stockholm University and at the University of Florida. |
Salon B
2nd Floor | R129. The Southern Poet/The Southern Journal. (Wyatt Prunty, Ted Genoways, Greg Donovan, James Smith, R.T. Smith, Tony Morris) Southern poets, like many of the poetry journals in the South, have struggled for years either to distance themselves from the American South to find meaningful connections that play off distinct ideas of what it is to be "Southern." But what is "Southern Poetry" and if there is such an animal, what is the relationship between Southern poets and the journals that publish them in the South? Is there a need to promote Southern poets, or poetry? |
Salon C
2nd Floor | R130. Pull My Daisy: The Making of Collaborative Poetry. (Denise Duhamel, Maggie Anderson, Joanna Fuhrman, Lisa Glatt, David Trinidad, Charles Harper Webb) In 1949, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and Neal Cassady wrote a collaborative poem "Pull My Daisy" and since then, the beat of collaborative poetry has gone on. New York School poets, L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets, and formal poets have all drawn on collaborative experiments as a way to generate poetry. The poets on this panel will discuss processes they have used when collaborating with one or more poets on a single poem, all of which are published in Saints of Hysteria (Soft Skull Press). |
Salon D
2nd Floor | R131. Grown-Up Girls: Adolescent Female Characters in Fiction. (Judy Doenges, Kellie Wells, Margaret Lazarus Dean, Mary O'Connell) Adolescent girls are in many ways ideal protagonists. They bring with them many familiar conflicts, such as sexual ambivalence, an unstable identity, and the desire for emancipation. However, their ubiquitous presence in other media also presents a challenge to fiction writers. How does a writer find new territory for an adolescent girl to discover? Four fiction writers discuss the craft of creating these girls and offer insights about their importance to their own writing and to fiction in general. |
Salon E
2nd Floor | R132. The Impersonal Essay. (Judith Kitchen, David Lazar, Eric Miles Williamson, Ken Chen, Anis Shivani, J.D. Smith) While the personal essay has attracted a great deal of attention in recent years, the "impersonal" essay that extends beyond memoir offers possibilities for exploring a wider range of subjects, with rewards for both readers and writers. This panel of practitioners and scholars will discuss the issues involved in writing and teaching essays that mention the self only in passing, or not at all. |
South Court West
2nd Floor | R133. Tongues (Un)Tied: Workshop Culture and the Development of the African American Voice. (Kendra Hamilton, Opal Moore, Hermine Pinson, Sharan Strange, Cherryl Floyd-Miller) The event explores the implications of Edward Kamau Brathwaite's theories on the "history of the voice" and "nation languages" for the African American artist by looking at the primal connections between poetry and history-its telling, retelling, reconstruction and deconstruction-as well as the impact of unknown and/or unacknowledged histories on creative writing workshop culture. |
Walton
2nd Floor | R134. CLMP Keynote Address. (Phil Ollila of Ingram Book Group) The Vice President of Publisher Services at Ingram Book Group discusses his take on independent literary publishing and distribution. |
Carter
3rd Floor
(accessible by elevator) | R135. Northeast Region: AWP Program Directors Breakout Session. (Ron Tanner) If you are a program director of an AWP member creative writing program in the following states, you should attend this session: Connecticut, District of Columbia, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont. This regional breakout session will begin immediately upon the conclusion of the Program Directors Plenary Assembly, so we recommend that you attend the Plenary Assembly first. Your representative on the AWP Board of Directors, Ron Tanner, will conduct this meeting. |
Jackson
3rd Floor
(accessible by elevator) | R136. Midwest Region: AWP Program Directors Breakout Session. (Rane R. Arroyo) If you are a program director of an AWP member creative writing program in the following states, you should attend this session: Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin. This regional breakout session will begin immediately upon the conclusion of the Program Directors Plenary Assembly, so we recommend that you attend the Plenary Assembly first. Your regional representative on the AWP Board of Directors, Rane R. Arroyo, will conduct this meeting. |
Madison
3rd Floor
(accessible by elevator) | R137. Southeast Region: AWP Program Directors Breakout Session. (Don Morrill, David Fenza) If you are a program director of an AWP member creative writing program in the following states, you should attend this session: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. This regional breakout session will begin immediately upon the conclusion of the Program Directors Plenary Assembly, so we recommend that you attend the Plenary Assembly first. Your regional representative on the AWP Board of Directors, Donald Morrill and AWP's Executive Direcotor, David Fenza will conduct this meeting. |
Monroe
3rd Floor
(accessible by elevator) | R138. Pacific West Region: AWP Program Directors Breakout Session. (Catherine Brady) If you are a program director of an AWP member creative writing program in the following states, you should attend this session: Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington. This regional breakout session will begin immediately upon the conclusion of the Program Directors Plenary Assembly, so we recommend that you attend the Plenary Assembly first. Your regional representative on the AWP Board of Directors, Catherine Brady, will conduct this meeting. |
Roosevelt
3rd Floor
(accessible by elevator) | R139. West Region: AWP Program Directors Breakout Session. (Kevin McIlvoy) If you are a program director of an AWP member creative writing program in the following states, you should attend this session: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Nevada, New Mexico, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming. This regional breakout session will begin immediately upon the conclusion of the Program Directors Plenary Assembly, so we recommend that you attend the Plenary Assembly first. Your regional representative on the AWP Board of Directors, Kevin McIlvoy, will conduct this meeting. |
|
12:00 p.m.-1:15 p.m.
Crystal Ballroom
Lobby Level | R140. Queer Poetry/Queer Myth. (Kay
Murphy, Maureen Seaton, Reginald Shepherd, Jim Elledge, Kevin McLellan, Jeff Mann) How can mythology serve as an evocative and relevant reflection of modern LGBT concerns? What myths already embody samesex desire, and which can be easily "queered"? Ranging from Greek and Nordic narratives to pre-colonial Native America's two-spirit tradition to contemporary lesbians' butch/femme paradigm, six gay or lesbian poets discuss the uses of myth in their own works as well as in the culture at large. |
Ballroom A
2nd Floor | R141. Cave Canem Poets and the South. (Nikky Finney, Cornelius Eady, Camille Dungy, Sharan Strange, Zetta Elliott, Forrest Hamer) While the South has played a significant role in shaping the lives and craft of many contemporary African-American poets, its influence is frequently overlooked or misunderstood by outside observers. Contributors to the forthcoming anthology of southern Cave Canem poets will read their work and speak frankly about their complex, challenging, and sometimes wonderfully necessary relationship with a region layered with meaning. |
Ballroom B
2nd Floor | R142. Aesthetic Diversity: A Reading by George Mason's MFA Poetry Faculty. (Peter Klappert, Susan Tichy, Eric Pankey, Sally Keith, Jennifer Atkinson)) A reading by the MFA poetry writing faculty at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. |
Ballroom C
2nd Floor | R143. Deviant Fictions by Women (Kathryn Davis, Jaimy Gordon, Kate Bernheimer, Kellie Wells) In her introduction to Halldór Laxness's novel Under the Glacier, Susan Sontag says, "Narratives that deviate from [the] artificial norm" of realist fiction "and tell other kinds of stories, or appear not to tell much of a story at all.still, to this day, seem innovative or ultraliterary or bizarre," suggesting they "occupy the outlying precincts of the novel's main tradition," and it is with some of these deviant, Martian fictions that this panel will be concerned. Panelists will read from and discuss their work. |
Ballroom D
2nd Floor | R144. A Tribute to Jerome Stern: Midcareer Students of a Master Teacher Tell All. (Stephen Watkins, Jesse Kercheval, Heather Sellers, Mary Jane Ryals, Joe Taylor, Allen Woodman) Jerome Stern, long-time director of the Florida State University Creative Writing Program, renowned essayist for National Public Radio, and author of the widely-read creative writing book Making Shapely Fiction, died ten years ago this spring. Six of his former students, all published authors, all creative writing teachers at schools around the country, discuss his legacy, his pedagogy, his influence on their writing and teaching, and the strange pictures he used to draw in the margins of their short story drafts in graduate writing workshops. |
Cherokee
2nd Floor | R145. Dramas of Craft: Women Playwrights Read their Work. (Charissa Menefee, Laura Maria Censabella, Cassandra Medley, Ginny Cerrella, Barbara Blatner) The architecture of a play-the rhythms of a central conflict that move a story forward-is what makes the play stand on stage. How do playwrights construct dramatic narratives? Does character and language come first, or plot and action? What are the challenges and distinctions of traditional and nontraditional play structures? And finally, do women write plays differently than men? Five women playwrights will read scenes from their work and discuss their craft. |
Henry
2nd Floor | R146. The Prairie Schooner Book Prize Reading. (Kathleen Flenniken, Rynn Williams, K. L. Cook, Brock Clarke) Winners of the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry and Fiction read from their prizewinning collections. |
North Court East
2nd Floor | R147. Poets on Appropriative Writing. (Laura Mullen, Mairead Byrne, Shin Yu Pai, Gregory Betts, Camille Martin) Raphael Rubinstein says "appropriative writing." Michael Davidson says "palimtexts." Gregory Betts says "plunderverse." Purists say "plagiarism." This panel features poets whose work incorporates source texts, challenging ideas of textual ownership and perhaps also showing a relationship between source and resulting poem. Panelists discuss methods of appropriation from such disparate sources as vintage sports manuals, news coverage of the invasion of Iraq, and "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." |
North Court West
2nd Floor | R148. Thomas E. Kennedy: A Lifetime of Literature. (Duff Brenna, Walter Cummins, Greg Herriges, Michael Lee, Gladys Swan, Robert Stewart) Fiction writers, editors, and publishers discuss Thomas E. Kennedy's fifteen books, focusing on the recent, critically praised novels and documentary film of his Copenhagen Quartet, four novels about his adopted city in four styles (experimental, noir, satiric, realistic). An American expat in Europe, Kennedy is widely published and anthologized, frequently guest edits the Literary Review and is Int'l Ed of StoryQuarterly with 20+ years experience teaching writing in US and European universities. |
Salon B
2nd Floor | R149. Breakthrough: First Books of Poetry from the University of Arkansas Press. (Enid Shomer, Patrick Phillips, K.E. Duffin, Annie Boutelle) For more than twenty-five years, the University of Arkansas Press Poetry Series has often featured a poet's first book. Current Poetry Series editor Enid Shomer joins three recent "first book" authors from the University of Arkansas Press. |
Salon C
2nd Floor | R150. Literary Gossip: Do's and Don'ts. (Elizabeth Stuckey-French, Robin Hemley, Janet Burroway, Patricia Henley, Bob Shacochis)"If you don't have anything nice to say, sit by me," Dorothy Parker supposedly said. Gossip can hurt, and yet who can resist it? Certainly not writers. Is gossip always backbiting and character assassination, or is it really just talk about people, talk that is interesting and honest? Why aren't men said to gossip? Certainly they do. Panelists provide infamous examples of literary gossip and discuss how to transform scandal into engaging fiction. Is living well- and writing well-the best revenge? |
Salon D
2nd Floor | R151. What the Reporter Saw: How Journalism Informs Creative Writing. (Valerie Nieman, Tom Lombardo, Valerie Miner, Philip Gerard, Jessica Handler) If journalists are, as Marguerite Duras said, "the manual workers, the laborers of the word," then this artisanship is due respect. Many choose journalism as an immediate path to the page, later adding academic degrees or simply writing into other genres. This panel of veteran journalists working in poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction addresses the pros and cons of a writing life approached from the newsroom, and considers how journalism provides not just a set of skills but a philosophical approach to art and craft. Writer's block? Not here. Journalists live by their pens, day in and day out. |
Salon E
2nd Floor | R152. Tribute to Jim Simmerman. (Anne Cummins, Alison Hawthorne Deming, Mark Irwin, Tim Seibles, William Trowbridge) Panelists will offer perspectives, tribute, readings and reflections on the life and work of poet Jim Simmerman (1952-2006). |
South Court West
2nd Floor | R153. Chapbook Creation and Production: Empowered People/Students. (Stephen Frech, Lee Newton, Demetrice Anntía Worley) From the 17th century to the Black Arts Movement in the 1960s to a nomination for a Pulitzer Prize in 2003, chapbooks have allowed everyday people to publish, own, and create literary texts. This panel presentation discuss the history and production of chapbooks, the creation and production of chapbooks in an undergraduate and graduate level creative writing class, and the "power" of chapbooks in the Black Arts Moment and for undergraduate writers of color. |
Walton
2nd Floor | R154. Fiction from Elixir Press. (Kerala
Goodkin, Sherre Myers, Sandy Florian) Elixir Press publishes fiction in three forms: full-length book, chapbook, and in Elixir magazine. All three will be represented at this reading. |
Jackson
3rd Floor
(accessible by elevator) | R155. Pedagogy Forum Session: Multi-genre. This session is designed to give contributors to the 2007 Pedagogy Papers an opportunity to discuss their work, though all are welcome. The papers themselves will provide a framework to begin in-depth discussion in creative writing pedagogy and theory. Amy Lemmon will contextualize the discussion with some brief remarks before attendees break out into small discussion groups. These groups will be facilitated by trained pedagogy paper contributors. |
Madison
3rd Floor
(accessible by elevator) | R156. Pedagogy Forum Session: Fiction
and Drama. This session is designed to give contributors to the 2007 Pedagogy Papers an opportunity to discuss their work, though all are welcome. The papers themselves will provide a framework to begin in-depth discussion in creative writing pedagogy and theory. Emily Lundin will contextualize the discussion with some brief remarks before attendees break out into small discussion groups. These groups will be facilitated by trained pedagogy paper contributors. |
Monroe
3rd Floor
(accessible by elevator) | R157. PEN USA's Emerging Voices Program - Bringing to Light Unheard Literary Voices. (Janet Fitch, Qevin Oji, Leslie Schwartz, Ellen Slezak, Adam Somers) Many writers from culturally diverse communities are excluded from the literary establishment. To address this issue, PEN USA developed a unique program to give writers from minority, immigrant and underserved communities access to the publishing world through free writing classes and mentoring. Panelists will discuss how the program creates a vital bridge between underserved writers and the larger world of publishing. |
Roosevelt
3rd Floor
(accessible by elevator) | R158. The New Literary Start-Ups. (Martha Rhodes, Frederick Marchant, Garrick Davis, Steven Cramer, Joan Houlihan, Jeffrey Levine) What does it take to found, fund, and operate a literary organization? How does one find the participants, get the word out, create programs, and sustain both excitement and substance? This panel will look at start-ups in four categories: a community poetry center, a graduate creative writing program, an independent press/ reading series, and a university-based poetry center. Representatives from these start-ups will discuss the challenges and rewards of following their visions. | |
1:30 p.m.-2:45 p.m.
Crystal Ballroom
Lobby Level | R159. A Tribute to Leon Stokesbury. (John
Holman, Leon Stokesbury, Katie Chaple, Maudelle Driskell, Delisa Mulkey) Three former students honor Leon Stokesbury on his 20th year as a creative writing professor at Georgia State University. Stokesbury is co-winner of the first Associated Writing Programs Poetry Competition in 1975 for his book Often in Different Landscapes. Speakers will discuss Stokesbury's influence and read from their work before Stokesbury shares his poetry. |
Ballroom A
2nd Floor | R160. Wesleyan University Press 50th Anniversary Reading and Celebration. (Yusef Komunyakaa, Peter Gizzi, Jean Valentine, Karen Brennan, Alice Notley, Rae Armantrout) A reading to celebrate Wesleyan University Press's 50th anniversary. Recent authors in the Wesleyan Poetry series will read from their poetry. The Wesleyan Poetry series has published many volumes of historical importance, including four Pulitzer Prize-winners and three National Book Award-winners, and is best known for promoting the early work of James Wright, Charles Wright, Ellen Bryant Voigt, Marge Piercy, Donald Justice, James Tate and many others. |
Ballroom B
2nd Floor | R161. On Subject, Story, and Syntax: Poetry and the Problem of Time. (David Baker, Linda Gregerson, Patricia Clark, Stanley Plumly, Ann Townsend) Four contributors to Radiant Lyre: Essays on Lyric Poetry investigate the tantalizing conundrum of "time" in the lyric poem. We often assume that lyric poems seek to stop or impede time, or to propose an alternate temporality to the world's procedures. But lyric is constructed of time-bound elements-from syntax to form, from style to story. |
Ballroom C
2nd Floor | R162. Poetry Daily 10th Anniversary Reading. (Jacqueline Osherow, Michael Chitwood, Bob Hikok) In celebration of its 10th Anniversary on the World Wide Web, Poetry Daily has invited some of its featured poets to read from their work. |
Ballroom D
2nd Floor | R163. A Reading in Celebration of the Creative Writing Program at Agnes Scott College. (Amber Dermont, Waqas Khwaja, Christine Cozzens, Rachel Trousdale) Faculty from Agnes Scott College, a premier Southern women's college whose annual Writers' Festival is the oldest continuous literary event in Georgia, will read from their poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. They will also highlight the accomplishments of their students and alumnae and discuss the important role of the creative writing program on campus life and within the Atlanta community. |
Cherokee
2nd Floor | R164. The Case for Fiction Chapbooks. (Casey Huff, Eric Delehoy, Beth Spencer, Carmen Gimenez Smith) Each publisher on this panel has his or her own criteria for publishing, but we all share the belief that the chapbook is a viable and vigorous form for publishing short fiction because it offers fiction writers an opportunity to introduce new work to new audiences in an affordable package. We will address questions such as "What are the challenges of publishing fiction chapbooks?" and "What do editors look for in fiction chapbook manuscripts?" |
Henry
2nd Floor | R165. Deep Travel: Contemporary American Poets Abroad. (Sandra Meek, Barbara Hamby, Laurence Lieberman, Terese Svoboda, Nicholas Samaras) Whether recording vanishing cultures in the Cook Islands and Sudan or witnessing the American bombing of Grenada, whether wandering across the Israel/Jordan border or racing through the underworld of the Paris Metro, these poets have all been changed by their experiences living or traveling abroad. The poets, contributors to Ninebark Press's debut volume, the just-released anthology Deep Travel: Contemporary American Poets Abroad, will read and discuss the formative nature of place on their work. |
North Court East
2nd Floor | R166. Poetry Meant to be Seen. (Joshua Beckman, Nick Carbo, Denise Duhamel, Stephanie Strickland, Jeanne Marie Beaumont) The critic Willard Bohn defines visual poetry as "poetry meant o be seen. Combining art and poetry, it is neither a compromise nor an evasion but a synthesis of the principles underlying each medium." The poets on this panel will show some of their recent visual poetry projects-sculptural, painterly, film-based and on-line. They will discuss how to publish and exhibit such work and how to incorporate visual poetry in both graduate and undergraduate syllabi. |
North Court West
2nd Floor | R167. Writing, Politics, and the Politics of Writing. (Susan Schultz, R. M. Berry, Cynthia Hogue) What is political writing? Is it even possible, in these days of spin doctors, for serious writers to intervene in political life in a meaningful way? Can we offer an antidote to the propaganda that so often passes for political discourse? What might a politically effective writing look like in the future? This panel of poets and fiction writers will approach these and other questions of contemporary political writing by considering contemporary and historical writings, as well as the rapidly changing face of politics and the importance of media in the political process. |
Salon A
2nd Floor | R168. Inventors in the Temple: Avant-Garde Formalism. (Catherine Daly, Timothy Donnelly, Annie Finch, Brian Johnson, Ravi Shankar) This panel will discuss the decisive influence of avant-garde formalism on contemporary poetry. Oulipo, the New York school, Language poetry-all of these movements, though viewed as turns from verse tradition, are equally concerned with form. But their formalism is generative, playful, and, at times, an end-in-itself rather than a means. The result is not a respectful worship of old forms, but a restless and heterodox invention of new ones. |
Salon B
2nd Floor | R169. The Online Writing Community and Flash Fiction: Words Across the World. (Darlin Neal, Claudia Smith, Jeff Landon, Girija Tropp, Liesl Jobson, Kathy Fish) This event will focus on the online writing community and its merits and challenges. Panel members will discuss the challenges, benefits, and outcomes of their online group. Panelists will share the group's writing prompts and exercises, and read pieces that have grown from this community; we will discuss our concept of FAD (flash a day) and how this started, by providing five prompt words per day, posting individual works, and responding to each other individually in an open forum. |
Salon C
2nd Floor | R170. Ashberry at 80. (Susan Wheeler, Donald Revell, Kathleen Ossip, Wayne Miller, Randall Mann, John Gallaher) Since the publication of his Yale Series winning first book, Some Trees, over fifty years ago, John Ashbery's influence has been everywhere apparent in American poetry. In this, his 80th year, six diverse poets come together to speak toward an understanding and celebration of John Ashbery's singular achievement and genius. |
South Court West
2nd Floor | R171. Experimental Nonfiction: Inspirations and Applications. (Patrick Madden, Desirae Matherly, Michael Danko, Michelle Disler, Kelley Evans) Modern and postmodern experimentations are identifiable in poetry and fiction, but where do they exist in nonfiction? How can we employ these techniques to push our writing? This panel takes on avant-garde groups such as Oulipo and writers such as Gertrude Stein and Rachel Blau du Plessis, and each panelist will demonstrate how one has affected his or her own work. |
Walton
2nd Floor | R172. Four Poems Shedding Their Skins: Poetry Translation. (Alexis Levitin, Roger Greenwald, Cathy Park Hong, Eugene Ostashevsky) This session focuses in detail on the nitty-gritty of how established translators of poetry from a variety of languages transform a poem so as to recreate what they apprehend as the inner poem and embody it in a new linguistic skin. The translators' model and practice of reading and crafting a new variant of the original in English speak to the heart of the translation process in its impossibilities, possibilities, compromises and successes as the original fits, or resists, its changed self. |
Carter
3rd Floor
(accessible by elevator) | R173. Panel: Reaching Experimental Readers. (Anna Moscovokis, Dan Machlin, Brenda Mills, Deb Klowden) In order to change our literary culture, experimental literature requires committed readers. Learn how four publishers reach, engage, and maintain these readers. |
|
3:00 p.m.-4:15 p.m.
Crystal Ballroom
Lobby Level | R174. Pitt Poetry Series Reading. (Robin Becker, Peter Meinke, Malena Morling, Reginald Shepherd) Readings from recently published books in the Pitt Poetry Series by Robin Becker, Malena Morling, Peter Meinke, and Reginald Shepherd. |
Cherokee
2nd Floor | R175. Poets as Inter-/Intralingual Translators. (Norma Cole, Donald Revell, Christopher Arigo, Alice Jones, Peter Covino) Poets as translators-both as mediators between different languages and within their own languages-have played a profound role in shaping poetry. This panel will explore the contemporary poet/ translator role and the catalystic results. What can other languages' poetries offer contemporary poets? How do poets "translate" their mother tongue? How can translation help shape contemporary poetics? How does translating affect poets' relationships with their own language? |
Grand Salon West
2nd Floor | R176. A Reading by Robert Olen Butler (Robert Olen Butler, Introduction by Julianna Baggott). Sponsored by Florida State University Creative Writing Program/The Southeast Review. |
Henry
2nd Floor | R177. Oxford's Newest Entry: A Celebration Reading with the "Affrilachian" Poets. (Nikky Finney, Frank X Walker, Crystal Wilkinson, Kelly Norman Ellis, Mitchell L.H. Douglas, Parneshia Jones ) Affrilachia, a term conceived by Frank X. Walker, has become one of the largest literary movements to emerge from the South. Affrilachia defines writers of color in the Appalachian region. After fifteen years of carrying the words of their ancestors on their backs, the Affrilachian Poets were officially acknowledge and the word Affrilachia was authenticated in the Oxford American Dictionary. This event freatures a reading from Affrilacian poets. |
North Court East
2nd Floor | R178. Raising Funds to Help Writers, Programs, & Literary Organizations. (Consuelo Marshall, Constance DeVereaux, Chris Burawa, Debora Ott) This panel will give writers, organization staff and grantmakers current and proven practices in arts fundraising and concise tips on how to get grants for individuals or organizations. Attendees will learn effective methods to raise funds from individuals, government, corporations and foundations. Discussion will also include how to maintain good relationships with supporters. Attendees will receive hard copies of information. Fifteen minutes will be allotted for questions and answers. |
North Court West
2nd Floor | R179. Poets on Poetics. (Mark Bibbins, David Daniel, Christina Davis, Jena Osman, Kathleen Ossip) Poets are inspired by other poems, but also by prose theories, manifestos, creeds, and rants. Hear six poets, representing widely varied styles and aesthetics, talk about the statements of poetics, written by other poets of the past and present, that have brought them pleasure, made them think, and stirred their imaginations. We'll also look at how poetics texts can be useful in the creative writing classroom. |
Salon A
2nd Floor | R180. Voice by Voice: Creating Queer Literary Communities. (Jim Elledge, Charles Flowers, David Groff, Reginald Harris, Amy Hoffman, Eileen Myles) Even as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people endure political assault, their identities are marketed and mainstreamed. How can queer writers of different aesthetics, agendas, and geographies come together to sustain their challenging and idiosyncratic voices? This panel explores ways that community literary efforts and institutions-writing groups, magazines, and beyond-can advance the cause of queer letters and encourage LGBT writers to remain augurs of cultural change. |
Salon B
2nd Floor | R181. The Southeast Review 25th Anniversary Reading. (Paul Griner, Ander Monson, Dorianne Laux, Beth Ann Fennelly, D. A. Powell, Lori Horvitz) The Southeast Review (formerly Sundog) has been publishing excellent fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry for twenty-five years. This reading showcases former contributors in each genre as well as a previous winner of the World's Best Short Short Story Contest. |
Salon C
2nd Floor | R182. Reconsiderations III: Neglected and Forgotten Poets of the South. (Martha Collins, William Pitt Root, Pamela Uschuk, Richard Katrovas, Sebastian Matthews, Richard Jackson) This is a continuation of the successful Vancouver and Austin panels but will focus on Southern Writers such as Paula Rankin, John Beecher, Elinor Ross Taylor, and others. Each panelist will discuss one such poet. |
South Court West
2nd Floor | R183. Sanctuary in the Southeast: Time, Space, and Mentoring at Atlantic Center for the Arts. (Sonia Sanchez, Terry Thaxton, Terri Witek, Ann Brady, Valerie Miner) Atlantic Center for the Arts, an interdisciplinary artists' community dedicated to promoting excellence, provides writers an opportunity to work and collaborate with renowned writers in the field. Atlantic Center's collegial atmosphere nurtures writers by providing time and space in an authentic Florida preserve. Atlantic Center former artists-in-residence and staff present the residency experience from a variety of perspectives. |
Walton
2nd Floor | R184. Publishing the ATL. (James Iredell, Dan Veach, Daren Wang, Tania Rochelle, Megan Sexton, Christopher Bundy) This panel, consisting of editors from Atlanta journals and magazines (Five Points,the Atlanta Review, GSU Review, Verb, the Chattahoochee Review, and Terminus), focuses on each publication's mission to serve both its immediate and greater literary community. Panel participants discuss their editorial preferences in terms of their pub's specific audience, be it international, academic, student, audio, independent, and combinations of these. |
Carter
3rd Floor
(accessible by elevator) | R185. Panel: Subscription Models for Literary Presses. (Lori Shine, Teresa Carmody, Luke Gerwe) A conversation about how subscriptions can build readership and support for your press. Editors will discuss terms and benefits of their subscription models, as well as challenges they've faced. |
|
4:30 p.m.-6:15 p.m.
Crystal Ballroom
Lobby Level | R186. The Georgia Review's 60th Anniversary prose reading. (Judith Kitchen, Kevin Brockmeier, Judith Ortiz Cofer, George Singleton) As part of the celebration of the 60th year of The Georgia Review, we've invited some of our favorite fiction writers and essayists to come together for a reading. |
East Ballroom
2nd Floor | R187A. How to Read and Write: Walter Mosley and Francine Prose on the Writing Process. (Walter Mosley, Francine Prose) A panel discussion from these leading novelists, stemming from
Walter Mosley's new novel This Year You Write Your Novel. |
West Ballroom
2nd Floor | R187B. A Poetry Reading by Sandra Gilbert & Barbara Ras. (Sandra Gilbert, Barbara Raas) Barbara Ras and Sandra Gilbert will read from their recent work. |
North Court East
2nd Floor | R188. New Landscapes: Innovative Fiction by Women. (Alicita Rodriguez, Danielle Dutton, Wendy Walker, Pedro Ponce, Danielle Alexander) Formally innovative fiction by women writers is flourishing. This event will focus on questions such as whether there is a specifically feminine aesthetic and what these fictions' new approaches can offer writers seeking fresh narrative strategies. Panel members will showcase innovative women writers past and present as well as discussing their own work. |
North Court West
2nd Floor | R189. Secrets, Betrayals, and Halftold Tales: Writing under the Spell of Traditional Ballads. (Lee Ann Brown, Betty Smith, Susan Tichy, Margaret Yocom) Southern Appalachian ballads and their European counterparts often obscure rather than reveal their tales of love and power, relying on fragments, gaps, repetition, and resonant metaphors that call forth lives of centuries past. Three writers of drama, nonfiction, and poetry who have lingered in the "gude green-wood" of the traditional ballad will read-and sing-from their works, and then discuss why and how they weave the ballads' language, sound, and other-worldliness into their writing. |
Salon C
2nd Floor | R190. Losing Our Linebreaks (and Cashing the Cow): genre-crossing and creative nonfiction. (Laurel Snyder, Daphne Gottlieb, Alison Stine, Daniel Nester, Rebecca Wolff, Jennifer Hecht) Why do poets leap into the world of creative nonfiction? Is there a dialogue between these forms, a shared aesthetic? Self absorption? The image-narrative? And if so, what do we bring to nonfiction? Do some subjects just require transparency, a longer form? Or is it the brass ring of a larger audience, and monetary compensation? Finally, why are we afraid of prose? Is there shame in accessibility? Why does it sometimes feel like we're "selling out"? A group of writers who've made the leap will discuss the good, the bad, and the craft-of writing nonfiction. |
South Court West
2nd Floor | R191. Community College Teaching: Challenges and Opportunities. (John Bell, Kristine Anderson, Michael Darcher, Margaret Rozga, Leo Hwang-Carlos, Jill Karle Leahman) As creative writing instructors widen their job search, many are looking at the opportunities that exist at the two-year colleges. Joining the faculty at a community college offers the opportunity to work with a diverse student body as well as the potential to become involved with program development. What new faculty often find is a thriving creative community, a growing academic community, a dynamic population, a home. |
|
7:00 p.m.
Roosevelt
3rd Floor
(accessible by elevator) | R192. Reception Hosted by Piper Center for Creative Writing. Cash bar and Hors d'Oeuvres. |
Walton
2nd Floor | R193. Reception hosted by Wilkes University. Cash bar and Hors d'Oeuvres. |
Cherokee
2nd Floor | R194. Reception hosted by Vanderbilt University. Cash bar and Hors d'Oeuvres. |
Madison
3rd Floor
(accessible by elevator) | R195. Robert Dana Tribute Reception: Sponsored by Anhinga Press and the Chattahoochee Review. Cash bar and Hors d'Oeuvres. |
Carter
3rd Floor
(accessible by elevator) | R196. A Reception hosted by Hollins University. Cash bar and Hors d'Oeuvres. |
Henry
2nd Floor | R197. Reception Hosted by NEOMFA. Cash Bar. |
Jefferson
3rd Floor
(accessible by elevator) | R198. A Reception Hosted by FC2. Cash Bar. |
Monroe
3rd Floor
(accessible by elevator) | R199. A Reception Hosted by Agnes Scott College. Cash Bar. |
|
8:30 p.m.
Grand Ballroom
2nd Floor | R200. Keynote Address from Lee Smith. Sponsored by Georgia College & State University/Arts & Letters/Flannery O'Connor Review. David Fenza, AWP's Executive Director will present the George Garrett Award for Outstanding Community Service in Literature followed by an address from novelist Lee Smith, author of Oral History. Introduction by Martin Lammon. |
|
10:00 p.m.-12 a.m.
Crystal Ballroom
Lobby Level | R201. Party Nation Public Dance Reception Sponsored by the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, and Chattahoochee Review, the Literary Quarterly of Georgia Perimieter College. Music by Party Nation, a premiere Southeast dance and show band. Free beer and wine bar courtesy of The Chattahoochee Review and the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, from 10:00-11:00 PM. Cash Bar from 11:00 PM-12:00 Midnight. |
|
10:30 p.m.-11:30 p.m.
Carter
3rd Floor
(accessible by elevator) | R202. Open-Mic Reading. |
|
|
 Complete schedule for downloading/printing (3.22MB)
|
Information on Sponsorship (PDF 8085KB)