S100. Conference Registration
Hilton Chicago
Attendees who have registered in advance may pick up their registration materials throughout the day at AWP’s Pre-Registered Check-In desk, sponsored by Northwestern University and located in the Northeast Exhibit Hall on the lower level of the Hilton Chicago.

Other Activity
Examples: socializing, attending book signing, attending off-site event, eating
Planned activity:

S101. AWP Bookfair. Sponsored by the Ashland University MFA Program and Hollins University: Jackson Center for Creative Writing
Exhibit Halls, Hilton Chicago, Lower Level
With more than 550 exhibitors, the AWP bookfair is one of the largest of its kind. A great way to meet authors, critics, and peers, the bookfair also provides excellent opportunities to find information about many literary magazines, presses, and organizations.

Breakfast, Lunch, & Coffee Concessions: Breakfast, lunch, and coffee concessions will be available throughout the day from Thursday through Saturday in the Mobley Room on the Lower Level of the Hilton Chicago. Concessions will open at 8:30 a.m.

Shuttle Service from the Hilton Chicago & Palmer House Hilton: Courtesy shuttles will run throughout the day from Thursday through Saturday to facilitate conference events taking place at both the Hilton Chicago and the Palmer House Hilton. Shuttles will run every 10 to 15 minutes between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 6:15 p.m. Shuttles will arrive and depart from the 8th Street entrance of the Hilton Chicago, and the Wabash Street Entrance of the Palmer House Hilton.

Lactation Room: Please visit the AWP Help Desk at the Pre-Registered Check-In area in the Northeast Exhibit Hall for access to the lactation room. For reasons of privacy and security, access to the lactation room is granted with permission by AWP only.

Other Activity
Examples: socializing, attending book signing, attending off-site event, eating
Planned activity:

S102. Low-Residency MFA Program Directors’ Caucus
(Kathleen Driskell, Xu Xi, Jennifer Stewart)
Astoria, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
This is a regular annual meeting of the directors of low-residency MFA Programs, providing a forum for discussions on program development and pedagogy particular to the low-residency model. All low-residency directors are welcome to attend and vote.

S103. Connecting with Readers via Your Website and Social Media
(Michele Wolf, Kim Addonizio, Leslie Pietrzyk, Matt Bell, Paul Lisicky)
Boulevard Room A,B,C, Hilton Chicago, 2nd Floor
Having a vibrant, user-friendly Web presence—via your own website (supplementing a publisher’s and/or employer’s page for you), blogging, Facebook, and other social media—has become a key asset for engaging readers and students, being part of the conversation, and expanding interest in your work. Learn how to create an appealing, fun-to-click site that best represents your books and passions, what resources and social media contact that readers most appreciate, and what pitfalls to avoid.

S104. Midwest Gothic: Dark Fiction of the Heartland
(Jodee Stanley, Brian Kornell, Dan Chaon, Cathy Day, Michael Czyzniejewski)
Continental A, Hilton Chicago, Lobby Level
From the stories of Sherwood Anderson to contemporary Midwestern fiction, authors have explored the darkness that lies beneath the placid exterior of an often-dismissed region of America. Five Midwest-based writers and editors will discuss how the prairie landscape and traditionally Midwestern character traits, including politeness, stoicism, and a wariness of the unknown, combine with traditional Gothic literary elements to create a rarely discussed subgenre of fiction, Midwest Gothic.

S105. Who Doesn’t Want to Be Popular?: Adventures in Teaching With, For, Around, and Through Commercial Fiction
(Lori Rader Day, Scott Blackwood, Kat Falls, Tod Goldberg, Mary Anne Mohanraj)
Continental B, Hilton Chicago, Lobby Level
The writing is what matters—or is it? The longstanding argument between literary and genre writers proves that, sometimes, it’s about more than the words on the page. Writers and teachers of both commercial and literary fiction discuss how that battle plays out in the creative writing classroom. Should students be allowed to write whatever they want? How do we teach students who write in genres we don’t read? What lessons might come from genre-bending? What resources do we turn to?

S106. Desperate and Deliberate: Thoreau and the Nature Writer
(Tom Montgomery Fate, Elizabeth Dodd, David Gessner, Robert Root, Mary Swander)
Continental C, Hilton Chicago, Lobby Level
Henry Thoreau, the hermit philosopher from Concord, opined that while others lived “a life of quiet desperation,” in town, he would construct a more deliberate life in the woods. Since the publication of Walden in 1854, hundreds of nature writers in vastly different contexts have drawn on his themes and style. This panel will consider the enduring relevance and influence of Thoreau on nature writing, and on their own work.

S107. Indigenous-Aboriginal American Writers Caucus
(LeAnne Howe, Gordon Henry, Stephen Graham Jones, Susan Power, Phillip Carroll Morgan)
Joliet, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
Indigenous writers and scholars are participating fluidly in AWP, teaching in and directing affiliated programs, thus the present time is highly conducive to impart field-related celebrations and concerns as understood by Indigenous-Native writers from the Americas and surrounding island nations. 2010 & 2011 AWP Conferences allowed for initial representative caucus discussions toward an Indigenous Caucus for future formal/informal AWP representation. This is a continuance.

S108. Other Lives, Other Worlds: Writing Outside Ourselves
(Josh Weil, Lily Tuck, Peter Mountford, Skip Horack, Ta-Nehisi Coates)
Lake Erie, Hilton Chicago, 8th Floor
Empathy for others: never are its rewards greater than when a writer tackles a story through a character ethnically different from the writer or set in a culture other than th writer’s own. It gave Styron a Pulitzer and gave us Ishiguro’s Remains of the Day. Yet it carries great risks and responsibilities, too. We’ll explore them, focusing not on politics but on the practicalities of craft, the dangers, delights, and ways that writers can ensure they give their subject matters the respect they deserve.

S109. Infinite Mapping: A How-To Course for Writers and MFA Faculty Exploring the Art of Atlas Making
(Val Pexton, LuLing Osofsky, Katie Booms, Chavawn Kelley)
Lake Huron, Hilton Chicago, 8th Floor
In 2011, having just published Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas, Rebecca Solnit launched an ambitious mapping project with University of Wyoming MFA students. Panelists discuss how others might take up Solnit’s mapping movement, including project management tactics, pitfalls, and rewards. In this model, writers, scientists, artists, community members, and cartographers collaborate to produce maps, essays, atlases, and a museum exhibition that examines person and place.

S110. One Story Magazine Celebrates Ten Years
(Hannah Tinti, Maribeth Batcha)
Lake Michigan, Hilton Chicago, 8th Floor
For the past ten years, One Story has discovered new voices, grown to over 10,000 subscribers, and consistently published award-winning short fiction. They are now one of the most important literary magazines in the country. How did they do it? Co-Founders Maribeth Batcha (Publisher) and Hannah Tinti (Editor-in-Chief) will reveal how they built this successful magazine, from both the business and creative side, with special guests and video presentation.

S111. On Reinvigorating the Creative Writing Workshop: Four Bold New Approaches
(Steve Fellner, Anne Panning, Michael Martone, Robin Hemley, Valerie Miner)
Marquette, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
This panel of creative writing professors will present new ways to reinvigorate the traditional creative writing workshop. Alternate pedagogical models will be presented, such as a hybrid online model, a workshop with a unifying theme, a workshop heavy on production and light on feedback, and one that uses blogs in place of regular workshop submissions. Participants will discuss how and why these approaches can improve the creative writing workshop experience.

S112. Lorenzo Thomas’s Extraordinary Poetics
(Carla Harryman, Tyrone Williams, Aldon Nielson, Grant Jenkins)
Private Dining Room 2, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
Poets and scholars report on the significance of Lorenzo Thomas’s (1944-2005) poetry, critical work on Afrocentric modernism, and scholarship of blues traditions. The presentations focus on Thomas’s affiliations with the Black Arts Movement and New York School, philosophical implications of his work on 20th-century innovative Afrocentric poetry, and the challenges he poses to our understanding of poetic and musical traditions.

S113. Women Writers of a Certain Age—Part 3
(Janet Burroway, Patricia Henley, Marilyn Krysl, Honor Moore, Edith Pearlman)
Waldorf, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
Patricia Henley, Marilyn Krysl, and Honor Moore join the ongoing AWP conversation with women writers over sixty. They will look back over their careers to share the long perspective. What are the changes that come with the years, the persistent problems, the recurring joys? What it is about the writing life that still seems to matter?

S114. Best Practices for Submitting an AWP Panel Proposal.
Wiliford A, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
Come join AWP conference committee members and staff for a best practices discussion about submitting a panel proposal for the 2013 Conference & Bookfair in Boston. Discussion will include an overview of the proposal system and tips for submitting a more effective proposal.

S115. The Science of Stories: What Cognitive Science Can Tell Us about Making Narratives
(Jack Wang, Andrew Elfenbein, Tim Horvath, Austin Bennett, Livia Blackburne)
Wiliford B, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
How are human beings evolutionarily adapted to producing and consuming stories? What can brain science tell us about reading and writing narratives, and what do narratives tell us about how the brain works? These are among the questions our panel will consider as we take a cognitive approach to the art and craft of writing. Through an exploration of neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, and other fields, our panel will attempt to answer fundamental questions about why we read and write.

S116. The Dynamic Duo: Exploring the Author/Publisher Relationship
(Fiona McCrae, Marie Mockett, Sarah Gorham, Kathleen Ossip)
Wiliford C, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
An honest, thoughtful discussion between authors and their publishers. The good, the bad, and the ugly details of working with each other. With Fiona McCrae of Graywolf Press; Marie Mockett, author of Picking Bones from Ash; Sarah Gorham from Sarabande Books; and Kathleen Ossip, author of The Cold War.

S117. Building and Surviving an Innovative Writing Program
(K. Lorraine Graham, John Pluecker, Anna Joy Springer, Jen Hofer, Mark Wallace)
Crystal Room, Palmer House Hilton, 3rd Floor
Participating in an interdisciplinary writing program committed to innovative pedagogies is exhilarating and confusing, especially if it’s a new program and you are a professor building the curriculum or a student in the inaugural class. A recent graduate, a current student, two tenured faculty members, and an adjunct professor discuss their experiences with innovative writing programs: the three-year old MFA at UCSD, the established MFA at Cal Arts, and the growing undergraduate BA at CSU San Marcos.

S118. Setting Limits: Balancing Paid Writing and Creative Writing
(Valerie Due, Matt Tullis, Jason Tucker, Ashley Bethard, Marilyn Bousquin)
Empire Ballroom, Palmer House Hilton, Lobby Level
Many writers make a living as freelancers or staff writers, switching between creative work and paid work daily. But juggling the time and creative energy needed for both can be a challenge, even if your day job bears no resemblance to your creative writing. Writers who’ve learned how to balance both writing worlds share tips, techniques, and ideas for keeping one writing realm from overwhelming the other.

S119. Character Matter
(Peter Turchi, Robert Boswell, Susan Neville, Caitlin Horrocks)
Grand Ballroom, Palmer House Hilton, 4th Floor
Four veteran writers and teachers will discuss specific issues related to characterization: “Major Minor Characters: creating bit players that (almost) upstage the main characters”; “The Two Commandments (of Character Development)”; “What Keeps a Character a Human Being when surface issues (age, gender, health) change”; and “Beneath the Surface: Latent Character Traits.”

S120. Queer Poets of Color on Craft: The Art of Decolonization
(Ahimsa Timoteo Bodhrán, Samiya Bashir, Deborah A. Miranda, Ching-In Chen, Tamiko Beyer)
Honoré Ballroom, Palmer House Hilton, Lobby Level
There is power in craft. Poets use craft to create possibility, ways of seeing, hearing, and moving the world, re-envisioning it. Queer poets of color use multiple techniques to shape language on the page and stage, the way words flicker across glowing screens and beat against the drums of our ears. From the generation and arrangement of text, to shifts in narrativity and delivery, to the use of multiple registers and media, this panel explores the decolonial power of skillful wor(l)d-weaving.

S121. Speaking in Tongues
(Sandra M. Yee, Tarfia Faizullah, francine j. harris, Henry W. Leung, Milta Ortiz)
Red Lacquer Room, Palmer House Hilton, 4th Floor
In this panel of rising young artists, each writing inside two or more languages and/or cultures, we examine how we see ourselves pushing against literary and cultural traditions. How do we challenge our assimilation into the English language? To whom do we owe our allegiance as writers? Who is our audience? Whether code-switching or speaking in ancestral tongues, how do we act as representatives of our cultures? And in an increasingly globalized society, how do we embrace or shun these roles?

S122. A Poetry Congeries Reading
(Camille Dungy, David St. John, Mihaela Moscaliuc, Brian Turner, Anna Journey)
State Ballroom, Palmer House Hilton, 4th Floor
This panel offers a reading showcasing one aspect of Connotation Press: An Online Artifact, a cultural site that emerged in September of 2010 and set the bar for what an online cultural site can aspire to. A Poetry Congeries, a monthly feature that includes an interview, is a by-solicitation-only assemblage that includes new work from hundreds of poets: Kumin, Harper, Ríos, Emerson, Dennis, Ostriker, St. John, Laux, Graber, McGuckian, Applewhite, Piercy, Troupe, and Carl Phillips among them.

S123. Translation as the Actualization of Poetry and the Blurring of Literary Histories, Nations, and Borders
(Pedro Serrano, Paul Bélanger, Mariela Dreyfus, Martín Espada, Hugh Hazelton)
Wabash Room, Palmer House Hilton, 3rd Floor
Poets, translators, and editors discuss the translation of poetry as a means to escape the constraints of time, language, and origin, allowing the poem, either in translation or in the original, to be part of a common heritage, rather than a personal, a linguistic, or a national property.

Other Activity
Examples: socializing, attending book signing, attending off-site event, eating
Planned activity:

S124. 2013 Boston AWP Conference & Bookfair Forum.
Astoria, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
Join the AWP 2013 conference chair and AWP staff for an open forum to discuss topics of relevant interest regarding AWP’s upcoming conference in Boston.

S125. First City in Literature: A Discussion of Chicago’s Past, Present, and Future Writers
(Donald Evans, Haki Madhubuti, William Savage, Donna Seaman)
Boulevard Room A,B,C, Hilton Chicago, 2nd Floor
Chicago Literary Hall of Fame Executive Director Donald G. Evans will lead Haki Madhubuti, William Savage, and Donna Seaman in a discussion about Chicago’s great literary heritage. We’ll explore and connect significant past and current literature and speculate on future literature in this city. We’ll attempt to define qualities that make Chicago writing distinctive and important to our culture.

S126. Preparing Short-Story Manuscripts for Contests and Publication
(Christine Sneed, Lori Ostlund, Anthony Varallo, Jessica Treadway)
Continental A, Hilton Chicago, Lobby Level
Four fiction writers who have recently won short story contests—the Drue Heinz, Flannery O’Connor, University of Iowa, and Grace Paley prizes— discuss how they chose and organized the stories in their winning collections. They will also discuss the marketing and promotion of these collections.

S127. Flash Fiction: How and Why to Teach It
(Kona Morris, Tom Hazuka, Robert Shapard, Kim Chinquee, Leah Rogin-Roper)
Continental B, Hilton Chicago, Lobby Level
If we can accept that flash fiction is indeed its own distinct genre, then a discussion remains about how and why to teach it. Does it deserve its own course? What is the flash canon? How can the conventions of poetry and prose apply? What does the accessibility of its short form offer the classroom? In this panel, a variety of instructors, from MFA directors to adjuncts, as well as writers and editors specializing in the genre, will discuss the methodology and canon for teaching flash fiction.

S128. In White: White Poets and Race
(Tess Taylor, Michelle Boisseau, Martha Collins, Kate Daniels, Jake Adam York)
Continental C, Hilton Chicago, Lobby Level
In his 2007 essay “A Mystifying Silence,” Major Jackson asks why there should be a “dearth of poems written by white poets that address racial issues.” The panelists, white poets who have written about race, will address but move beyond the why question, discussing their own attempts to examine racial issues, as well as aesthetic and ethical complexities they have encountered in doing so. We are aware that the panel may invite controversy and invite questions and comments from the audience.

S129. The Poet as Prose Writer: A Discussion with Gerald Stern
(Barbara Ras, Gerald Stern)
International Ballroom South, Hilton Chicago, 2nd Floor
An up-close and personal discussion with National Book Award winner Gerald Stern about the challenges and liberation of being a poet writing prose. In drawing from his newly published book, Stealing History, which received advance acclaim from Vivian Gornick, Walter Mosley, and Chris Hedges, Stern is certain to be insightful, provocative, opinionated, and ever lively. Moderated by award-winning poet and editor, Barbara Ras.

S130. Project and Event Work for Undergraduate Creative Writing Student Development
(Mimi Thebo, Stephanie Vanderslice, Patricia Ann McNair, Carrie Etter, Lucy English)
Joliet, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
Event, performance, and project work can help undergraduate students identify and build their creative skills. It helps them become more articulate, more organized, and more confident creative practitioners and helps them to acquire habits of time-management, accountability, and teamwork. In this session, teachers of poetry, fiction, and performance poetry (from rural and urban campuses, both here and in the UK) discuss ways of supporting student project work within the creative writing curriculum.

S131. Poetic Possibilities of Deep Travel
(Janée J. Baugher, Gerard Wozek, Sandra Meek, David Roderick, Carolyne Wright)
Lake Erie, Hilton Chicago, 8th Floor
Join this panel of globe-trotting poets to discuss the bedazzling and bedeviling byproducts of deep travel. While immersed in other cultures, we submit to an altered perception of time and space, which informs our language and develops imagination. Whether we view travel as a panacea or hallucinogen, each panelist has discovered that writing deeply can come from having traveled deeply. Translocating can usher us closer to home, but ultimately travel grants us a renewed sense of connectedness.

S132. LGBTQ Caucus
(Andrea Jenkins, Kristin Johnson, Tobey Kaplan, John Medeiros, Michael Kiesow Moore)
Lake Huron, Hilton Chicago, 8th Floor
Where does the LGBTQ writer find a home within AWP and within the greater literary community? For the first time at AWP, we offer an LGBTQ caucus. If you identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer, please join us to meet each other, network, discuss common issues and challenges related to identity and leading a literary life, and set goals for the group, including ideas for future panels at AWP related to our interests and concerns.

S133. Terrain.org 15th Anniversary Reading
(Simmons Buntin, Lauret Savoy, Kathryn Miles, Elizabeth Dodd, Andrew Wingfield)
Lake Michigan, Hilton Chicago, 8th Floor
Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built & Natural Environments was founded in 1997 as the world’s first online environmental journal. Today, the award-winning magazine features a rich mix of literature, articles, interviews, artwork, and “UnSprawl” case studies in an elegant and interactive format. Join us for a reading by renowned contributors plus an introduction and Q&A facilitated by editor-in-chief Simmons B. Buntin.

S134. The Unfolding Legacy of Keith and Rosmarie Waldrop
(Elizabeth Robinson, Cole Swensen, Sasha Steensen, Forrest Gander, James Belflower)
Marquette, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
This panel will celebrate the many ways that Keith and Rosmarie Waldrop have enriched contemporary writing and art in the United States and abroad through their own poetry, fiction, memoir, criticism, and translation. In addition, the panel will consider and commend their multi-decade work as the publishers of Burning Deck Press. Through papers, reminiscences, and film, this panel will discuss the major influence these two authors have had on contemporary literature.

S135. The Other Option: Teaching & Writing at a Literary Center
(Michael Khandelwal, Lisa Hartz, Jill Pollack, Michael Henry, Sonya Larson)
Private Dining Room 2, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
For MFA graduates, teaching at a literary/writers center can be an artistically and economically enriching alternative or addition to the adjunct or tenure track in the academe. Can community-based centers provide an MFA-quality workshop? Should they? Is teaching at a center a good option for a recent graduate or established local writer? How can centers meet the needs of these professionals? Panelists from a variety of literary centers will explore this outlet for writers and writing teachers.

S136. Contemporary Poems in Defense of Global Human Rights
(Melissa Kwasny, M.L. Smoker, Erika Wurth, Christopher Howell, Yusef Komunyakaa)
Waldorf, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
In our media-saturated lives, we are constantly aware of, and often desensitized to, the heinous violations of human rights occurring around the world. Yet the disclosures of U.S. sanctioned torture at Abu Ghraib, at Guantanamo, and at the so-called black sites, has profoundly unsettled and disturbed many of us. Editors and contributors read from the recent anthology I Go to the Ruined Place: Contemporary Poems in Defense of Global Human Rights and discuss how poetry can address the unspeakable.

S137. A Reading in Celebration of the Cortland Review’s 15th Anniversary
(Ginger Murchison, Claudia Emerson, Thomas Lux, Jamaal May, Glenis Redmond)
Wiliford A, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
The Cortland Review is proof that online literary magazines can become as enduring as printed ones and, in the course of its fifteen years, has made the work of established and emerging authors and poets from across the spectrum available worldwide. Through professional quality video, streaming audio, and text, the Cortland Review has established itself as one of our most important archives of recent poetry, fiction, and criticism. Four dynamic TCR voices read to celebrate with editor, Ginger Murchison.

S138. ¡Wáchale! Chicana/Chicano Authors Celebrate Debut Novels
(Daniel Chacon, Lucrecia Guerrero, Daniel A. Olivas, Melinda Palacio)
Wiliford B, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
Critic Rigoberto González has said that reading a Chicano novel is a commitment to a sustained exchange with a thriving culture and a proud people. Come hear four Chicano authors confirm and celebrate the continuum of a literary tradition. Through varied aesthetics and attitudes, the debut novels document the stages of a community’s growth. Their audience will experience distinct voices that teach the world not to fabricate or twist the truth of our histories because they're all written down in ink.

S139. Low Res, Full Res, No Res: The Poet and the Terminal Degree
(Christopher Salerno, Amy Gerstler, Bob Hicok, Timothy Liu, Robin Reagler)
Wiliford C, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
This panel will address what about the different MFA/CW program models is transcendent, what is common, and what is hindrance. We’ll discuss ways poets use, ignore, dismiss, or are damaged by aspects of each. What intersections are there amongst the MFA options? How does one take ownership of their track? Is an MFA necessary? Panelists will discuss why they did (or did not) pursue their particular terminal degree, and how those experiences inform their teaching practices in these programs now.

S140. Queer Voices in Young Adult Literature
(M. Molly Backes, Meagan Brothers, Alexandra Diaz, James Klise)
Crystal Room, Palmer House Hilton, 3rd Floor
Do queer and questioning teen readers recognize themselves in young adult literature? How does our culture of book banning affect the queer stories we tell? What counts as queer, anyway—does the term include gender identity as well as sexuality? This panel brings together five YA authors whose books feature LGBT, questioning, and cross-dressing characters for a lively discussion of inclusion, visibility, censorship, what we owe today’s youth… and what we can deliver.

S141. Poet and Polis: Four State Laureates Speak about their Public Roles
(Kate Gale, Peggy Shumaker, Kevin Stein, David Mason, Katharine Coles)
Empire Ballroom, Palmer House Hilton, Lobby Level
Though it is among the oldest art forms in the world, poetry has become increasingly marginalized in contemporary society. While many entities exist to fight this trend, perhaps none embody this mission so well as the Poet Laureate, at once a distinguished leader and a cultural oddity. This panel will explore the challenges, joys, and surprises encountered by the Laureates of Alaska, Colorado, Illinois, and Utah in their pursuit of a wider audience for poetry and literature.

S142. Michael Martone Was Born in Fort Wayne, Indiana
(Kathleen Volk Miller, Daniel Nester, Matthew Longabucco, Peter Aguero, Todd Zuniga)
Grand Ballroom, Palmer House Hilton, 4th Floor
PBQ hosts a conversation about new ways to present traditional literary forms. Most writers shoulder the responsibility of marketing their own creative work; in order to be heard at all, we’re creating new frames and formats. What does this pressure demand of writers, publishers, and literary organizations? This panel, composed of writers and editors, offers practical advice on creative possibilities—and sheds light on the curious opportunities available to creative writers, publishers, and arts organizations who take PR seriously.

S143. Vampire by Vampire: Genre Writing and the Creative Writing Workshop
(Jeffrey Condran, Aubrey Hirsch, Alissa Nutting, Salvatore Pane)
Honoré Ballroom, Palmer House Hilton, Lobby Level
At a time when many students’ visual literacy is as highly developed as their traditional literary skills, when genre fiction dominates publisher and best-seller lists, and when many writers of literary fiction are open to narratives that reach beyond realism, instructors are often under pressure to include genre traditions in the fiction workshop. Four fiction writers teaching at colleges with diverse missions share stories and discuss strategies for including genre conventions in the workshop.

S144. Playing Short: Approaches and Expansions of the Ten-Minute Play
(Andrew Pederson, Jayme McGhan, Randall Colburn)
Red Lacquer Room, Palmer House Hilton, 4th Floor
This panel focuses on two aspects of the ten-minute play: its creation and its potential to expand into a full-length play. Led by three working and produced playwrights, this session takes participants through techniques to begin and revise effective ten-minute plays and how to use its potential to expand into a full-length play. The focus will be on structure, story, and process.

S145. PIF Magazine & Friends on Memoir Writing
(Derek Alger, Dani Shapiro, Kelly Cherry, Greg Herriges, DeWitt Henry)
State Ballroom, Palmer House Hilton, 4th Floor
Everyone has a story to tell, but the big question is what to tell and how. Panelists discuss writing a memoir, getting started, personal techniques and form, the craft of fiction and storytelling in memoir writing, writing about real people, and how to determine which memories and aspects of one's life best prompt the personal story one feels compelled to write.

S146. Agents & Editors: Partners in Publishing
(Mary Gannon, Kathy Pories, Elisabeth Schmitz, P.J. Mark, Rob Spillman)
Wabash Room, Palmer House Hilton, 3rd Floor
Four established publishing professionals provide advice to writers about the best practices for submitting queries and proposals; an inside look at the acquisition process, including how subsidiary rights are handled and how publishers determine the promotional push for titles; and an update on the most recent changes in the industry and how they affect authors.

Other Activity
Examples: socializing, attending book signing, attending off-site event, eating
Planned activity:

S147. Talking the Talk: Writing Fiction for Today’s Latino Teens
(Sarah Cortez, Sergio Troncoso, Carlos Hernandez, Diana Lopez, Daniel A. Olivas)
Astoria, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
Engaging young Latinos/as in the act of reading is one of the American educational system’s great quandaries. This panel of Latino writers discusses the creation of edgy, contemporary literature for a wide range of Latino teens—from the college-bound to the reluctant reader. Authors frame their discussion around the creation of their own stories in You Don’t Have a Clue: Latino Mysteries for Teens, the first anthology of Latino crime/suspense fiction created for young adults.

S148. Applying for a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship
(Amy Stolls, Ira Silverberg)
Boulevard Room A,B,C, Hilton Chicago, 2nd Floor
This session is geared toward individuals interested in applying for a fellowship in poetry or prose from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Staff members from the NEA’s Literature Division will discuss and advise on all aspects of the program, from submitting an application to selecting the winners. Plenty of time will be allotted for questions.

S149. Literary Necromancy: The Art of Writing Biography
(Evan Balkan, Molly Peacock, Robert Polito, Brenda Wineapple)
Continental A, Hilton Chicago, Lobby Level
This panel will discuss the craft and art of writing biography, primarily about other writers and artists. Questions addressed include: How to decide who to write about? What ethical considerations occur in reconstructing the details of someone else’s life? How does one navigate the challenges of writing about public figures who might be beloved or reviled? How do questions of literary form and style shape the writing of a life?

S150. New Approaches to Teaching Novel Writing
(Christopher Castellani, Lisa Borders, Michelle Hoover, Catherine Elcik, Clarence Lai)
Continental B, Hilton Chicago, Lobby Level
Boston’s Grub Street has pioneered a number of innovative approaches to teaching novel workshops. Novel in Progress classes, where excerpts are read aloud, provide coaching and feedback; Your Entire Novel allows students to workshop full manuscripts; and the Novel Incubator, a brand-new, year-long program, incorporates the best of both of these approaches. Grub Street instructors and students will discuss the theory behind these programs and report back on their strengths and weaknesses.

S151. Ethos, Logos, Pathos: Or, Who’s the Speaker Here?
(Kathleen Graber, Jason Schneiderman, Laura McCullough, Reginald Dwayne Betts, Kazim Ali)
Continental C, Hilton Chicago, Lobby Level
Aristotle identified three means of persuasion: ethos, logos, pathos; character, reason, emotion. Obviously a great poem compels us in all three ways, but we rarely hear anyone talking about these purely rhetorical allegiances (as different from but not unrelated to the grammatical/syntactical choices and strategies) of the poetic speaker. This panel will explore all three categories in relation to voice, authority, and the trustworthiness of a poem’s speaker and how they make an impact on the reception of a poem by the reader.

S152. Charting Unmarked Terrain: Fiction at the Borderland, Sponsored by Blue Flower Arts
(Alison Granucci, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Linda Hogan, Pam Houston, Mat Johnson)
Grand Ballroom, Hilton Chicago, 2nd Floor
The human mind can be as wild as the landscape it inhabits. Through probing examination of notions of race, ruminations on identity, and social and historical commentary, these acclaimed writers chart the hidden dimensions of what it means to be human. Using ecologically and socially conscious narratives, they explore our connections to the earth and to one another, reconciling loss and redemption.

S153. The Need to Speak: Writing the Political Poem
(Joe Wilkins, Matthew Zapruder, Robert Wrigley, Rachel Zucker, C.K. Williams)
International Ballroom South, Hilton Chicago, 2nd Floor
The politics of our age are rabid, dazzling, blinkered, ridiculous—yet they matter, deeply, in all our daily lives. We click the television over to the latest protests in Wisconsin, we open a newspaper and try to make sense of this latest war, and we feel called to speak. How do we do so honestly and with conviction, nuance, complexity? Five poets take on these questions and more as they read from and discuss their own work and that of other poets who’ve successfully written political poems.

S154. Dispatches from the Front: Creative Work and Social Justice
(Ann Stewart, Brenda Cardenas, Roberto Harrison, Lane Hall, Timothy Yu)
Joliet, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
In this cross-genre panel, a group of Wisconsin writers, artists, and scholars will hold forth on the current fight for workers’ rights and socioeconomic justice in that state and across the nation. Presentations will include observations about the way in which art, poetry, and other creative forms have been instrumental in documenting ongoing activism. The panel will then engage in a discussion about the role of creative writing and art, being themselves forms of labor, in political struggle.

S155. Building Community with Nontraditional Voices: Minnesota’s Models for Developing Successful and Diverse Reading Series
(John Medeiros, Andrea Jenkins, Michael Kiesow Moore, Alison Morse, Arleta Little)
Lake Erie, Hilton Chicago, 8th Floor
Alternative and nontraditional voices often go unheard in literary reading circles. Race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and even artistic experimentation are all forms of diversity that don’t always have a literary platform to empower their development. Hear how curators in the Twin Cities have developed successful reading series that build community by celebrating a wide array of diverse voices, and learn how you can start your own reading series that fosters creativity and builds community.

S156. POL as PLO, Poetry Out Loud as a Poetry Liberation Organization
(Phyllis Meshulam, Tobey Kaplan, Iris Dunkle, Gwynn O’Gara)
Lake Huron, Hilton Chicago, 8th Floor
Poetry Out Loud is an NEA and Poetry Foundation recitation program serving 325,000 high school students nationwide in 2010. Our panelists have all been teaching-poets in the schools. They continue to help students write poems, but they want those poems to live in the airwaves, and for students to say memorably what they need to say in this world. These poets have found their own and their students’ voices liberated in this recitation practice. They will share techniques and insights with you.

S157. Making Room for the Graphic Narrative
(Jim Miller, Nathan Holic, C. James Bye, Lydia Conklin, Aaron Burch)
Lake Michigan, Hilton Chicago, 8th Floor
Visual art has been a focus of many literary publications, from cover artwork to photo-essays to reproductions of paintings, even while the core content is primarily text. With the rise of the graphic novel and study of literary comics in university classrooms, many publications are making room for graphic narrative. This panel will discuss the challenges editors face: finding work, layout issues, and how to work with—yet remain distinct from—other editors carving out graphic narrative sections.

S158. The Art of Collaboration: Writers, Artists, and Editors on Marrying Visual Art and Text
(Catherine Cortese, Jessica Pitchford, Frank Giampietro, Denise Bookwalter, Jodee Stanley)
Marquette, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
Literary journals often publish art alongside poems and prose, and hardcover books featuring famous works of art are ubiquitous on coffee tables and bookshelves worldwide. This panel, however, will address the special goals, negotiations, and unique creations born of collaborations between visual artists and writers. The authors, book artists, and journal editors on the panel will speak to the various aesthetic and intellectual benefits and challenges of pairing image and language.

S159. From Combat to College: Helping Veterans Transition from the Military to the Academic Writing Environment through Veterans-Only Writing Courses
(Charlotte Gullick, Chris Leche, Colin D. Halloran, Kelly Dalton)
Private Dining Room 2, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
This panel will discuss the difficult transition veterans face when entering the entirely new language environment of academia. Topics will include how and why veterans are a special student population, how writing teachers can use discourse awareness to increase student success and critical thinking skills, as well as offer strategies for addressing the unique challenges veterans and their creative writing and English instructors may face.

S160. BOA Editions 35th Anniversary Reading
(Peter Conners, Dorianne Laux, Michael Waters, Craig Teicher, Wendy Mnookin)
Waldorf, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
Now in its 35th year as a celebrated independent publisher, BOA Editions commemorates this major milestone with a reading that will feature writers who represent the significant body of work and diverse voices published by the press. The event will be moderated by publisher Peter Conners.

S161. Anthologizing the Canon: Five Editors Discuss the Role of Annual Anthologies in Contemporary Literature
(D. Seth Horton, Martin Riker, Laura Furman, David Lehman, Jesse Nathan)
Wiliford A, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
Series editors Laura Furman (PEN/O.Henry), Jesse Nathan (Best American Nonrequired Reading), David Lehman (Best American Poetry), Martin Riker (Best European Fiction), and D. Seth Horton (Best of the West) gather to discuss the relationships between annual anthologies and the general state of contemporary literature.

S162. Creating and Developing a Comprehensive Creative Writing Program on a Budget
(John Brantingham, Gerald Locklin, Jo Scott-Coe, Robert Stapleton, Lloyd Aquino)
Wiliford B, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
This panel discusses panelists’ experiences with helping to develop creative writing programs with little or no funding available to them. They have helped to create an MFA program, community college transfer programs, a creative writing conference, university and college magazines, classes, and reading series. All of this work has been done with little money, and many of these programs have been funded creatively through the use of new technologies and alternative income streams.

S163. The Open Light: Poets from Notre Dame
(Orlando Menes, Jenny Boully, Stacy Cartledge, John Phillip Santos, Mike Smith)
Wiliford C, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
Poets read from their exciting work and discuss how Notre Dame has formed their craft and their vision. Experience their vibrant and provocative poetry, which showcases the rich cultural and aesthetic diversity of this leading Catholic university. Come celebrate the recent publication of The Open Light: Poets from Notre Dame, 1991-2008, edited by Orlando Ricardo Menes.

S164. Not Your Bubbe’s Poetry: A Reading by New Jewish Women Poets, New York
(Maya Pindyck, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Elana Bell, Rachel Simon, Hila Ratzabi)
Crystal Room, Palmer House Hilton, 3rd Floor
Besides having great bagels, New York City is known for its diversity and for its prominent Jewish culture. Five Jewish women poets based in New York City read from recent collections, exploring where Judaism intersects with place, gender, sexuality, race, politics, and spirituality. These emerging voices consider their own Jewish identities from diverse angles and backgrounds: Ashkenazi, Sephardic, white, black, queer, straight, guilt-ridden, and guilt-free.

S165. Mine Is Clouds: Revisiting the Life and Work of Richard Brautigan
(Shawn Mitchell, Joe Meno, Sean Lovelace, Theresa Williams)
Empire Ballroom, Palmer House Hilton, Lobby Level
A forefather of flash, a witty poet, and a great American surrealist, Brautigan has influenced artists ranging from Haruki Murakami to Neko Case and from Aimee Bender to Tobias Wolff. But despite having sold millions of books during his lifetime, he remains less known compared to other Beat and cult writers. At this panel contributors to the forthcoming tribute anthology, Mine Is Clouds, will consider Brautigan’s importance today and celebrate his life and legacy with a reading of his work.

S166. Culture Survives Scott Walker: Milwaukee Writes and Milwaukee Reads
(C.J. Hribal, Liam Callanan, Valerie Laken, Larry Watson)
Grand Ballroom, Palmer House Hilton, 4th Floor
Four nationally known fiction writers demonstrate why Wisconsin has more to boast about than the Green Bay Packers. All four write and teach in Milwaukee but at two different universities (Marquette and UWM), collaborating to create a citywide writing community. Among them, they’ve published fifteen books of fiction—both novels and short fiction—which have garnered multiple awards. Their reading will feature their most recent work.

S167. Surprise Me
(Edward Porter, Robin Black, Tracy Winn, Erin Stalcup)
Honoré Ballroom, Palmer House Hilton, Lobby Level
We’ve come a long way from the days when you could end a story by revealing that the diamonds were fake. Yet the best short fiction still pleasures us with the unexpected, and when stories fail, it’s often exactly because they don’t surprise. This panel of short story writers, fiction editors, and teachers will investigate the kinds of surprises that give the reader that sense of the floor dropping away, while maintaining the organic integrity of the fictional dream.

S168. Kids Today: Teaching and Administrating a Young Writers’ Conference
(Juliana Gray, Carrie Jerrell, Rahul Mehta, Susan Morehouse, Margo Figgins)
Red Lacquer Room, Palmer House Hilton, 4th Floor
How do you teach teens the elements of literary craft then sing karaoke with them later the same night? Join teachers and administrators of the Alfred University Creative Writing Summer Institute, the Sewanee Young Writers’ Conference, and the UVA Young Writers Workshop—and a former UVAYW student—to find out. We’ll discuss pedagogy, activities, and how young writers’ conferences can recruit promising undergraduates to your university.

S169. A Call to Arms, Imagining a Better World: Celebrating the Long Tradition of Chicago Activist Writers
(Gary Johnson, Bill Ayers, Kathy Kelly, Haki Madhubuti, Irene Zabytko)
State Ballroom, Palmer House Hilton, 4th Floor
Activist writers from Jane Addams to Lorraine Hansberry, Richard Wright to Studs Terkel and Gwendolyn Brooks share the Chicago tradition of rising to national and even international prominence. Today’s Chicago activist writers continue to frame the troublesome issues of the day, sometimes risking everything with persistent questioning of the status quo. This lively panel will read work samples and discuss strategies for passing the torch of activism to the next generation of writers.

S170. Colorblind or Color Coded?: Cross-Institutional Comparisons of Race and Creative Writing Pedagogy
(Jennifer Dobbs, Lisa Lewis, Tim Hernandez, Charles Fort, Shannon Gibney)
Wabash Room, Palmer House Hilton, 3rd Floor
Do we teach in a post-racial world where creative writing pedagogy can take a colorblind approach? Writers from a range of pedagogical contexts address the question of student expectations and reading practices of literature by writers of color, along with strategies toward working through racialized assumptions, such as: writers of color are political and white writers focus on artistic quality; race exists only as political correctness; a writer’s ethnicity defines that writer’s audience.

Other Activity
Examples: socializing, attending book signing, attending off-site event, eating
Planned activity:

S171. Beyond Bilingualism: Teaching Creative Writing to Monolingual and Multilingual Students
(Mia Leonin, Cecilia Rodríguez Milanés, Mariam Zafar, Nicole Hospital-Medina, María Elvira Vera Tatá)
Astoria, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
In a new century of heightened trans-global awareness, America has become more linguistically fluent. What does this mean for the writing classroom? This panel of bilingual students and their professors will consider how incorporating multiple languages into the traditionally English-only classroom can unveil new ways of seeing for multi- and monolingual students. We will share cross-genre activities that utilize multiple languages to heed Pound’s dictum to make it new.

S172. Marketing the Literary, or Putting Some Poetry into Your PR [WITS Alliance]
(Robin Reagler, Alison Granucci, Loyal Miles, Tree Swenson, Kristine Uyeda)
Boulevard Room A,B,C, Hilton Chicago, 2nd Floor
For many writers, the business of promoting literature does not come naturally. Many literary organizations are led by writers for whom marketing is unfamiliar terrain. But some programs are finding surprising ways to connect with a larger public through low-cost campaigns to promote individual writers, literary arts education programs, memberships, and donations.

S173. There Really Is a Kalamazoo: Making the Third Coast Home
(Richard Katrovas, Thisbe Nissen, Nancy Eimers, William Olsen, Jaimy Gordon)
Continental A, Hilton Chicago, Lobby Level
One salient feature of academe is choosing, and being chosen by, a community and making it home. For many writers, this entails writing, eventually, about that place. Featuring 2010 NBA-winning novelist Jaimy Gordon, WMU writers will share work grounded in southwest Michigan and in the idea of home, then participate in a Q&A about how communities enter our creative lives and the ethical dimensions of writing about one’s adopted home.

S174. Using “Fraudulent Artifact” to Teach Fiction Writing
(Matthew Vollmer, Arda Collins, Joseph Salvatore, David Shields)
Continental B, Hilton Chicago, Lobby Level
Panelists will present strategies for teaching and writing fraudulent artifacts—i.e., stories that masquerade as other texts. Special attention will be given to how the study and creation of stories as letters, instructions, glossaries, and personal ads—as well as a host of other genres—can inspire student experimentation and thus energize classrooms, as close examinations of these artifacts will produce—as a matter of course—vigorous discussions about structure, form, and voice.

S175. Writing in the Rustbelt: Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts (NEOMFA) Program in Creative Writing Fiction Faculty Reading and Discussion
(Eric Wasserman, Christopher Barzak, Emily Mitchell, Varley O’Connor, Imad Rahman)
Continental C, Hilton Chicago, Lobby Level
A major 2012 AWP Conference sponsor, the NEOMFA fiction writing faculty give a special reading. The faculty is unique in its sensibility diversity, ranging from historical fiction to domestic realism, from ethnic exploration to Nebula-nominated genre fiction. A showcase of widely different fiction writers NEOMFA students work with followed by a discussion of the creative ways this fiction faculty work together in a new, untested program structure.

S176. PSA PRESENTS: A Reading and Conversation with Mary Jo Bang and Ed Roberson
(Darrel Alejandro Holnes, Mary Jo Bang, Ed Roberson)
Grand Ballroom, Hilton Chicago, 2nd Floor
Two contemporary masters will read, followed by a discussion about craft and influences moderated by Darrel Alejandro Holnes, with questions from the audience. Introduced by Alice Quinn.

S177. Sing: Poetry of the Indigenous Americas
(Travis Hedge Coke, Elise Paschen, Sara Marie Ortiz, Natalie Diaz, Gordon Henry)
Joliet, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
Sing poets and their inclusions in this groundbreaking collection of Indigenous American poetry, unprecedented in scope, multilingual, gathering eighty-one poets, nine translators, from Alaska to Chile, from disparate zones & parallel experience, from lands of ancient ball courts, the first great cities on these continents & cities built upon them, places of cold, places of volcanic loam, zones of erased history & ongoing armed conflict, where postcolonial is not an academic concept but a lived reality.

S178. Every Day I Live, I Live Forever: The Poetry of Robert Dana
(Rick Campbell, Hilda Raz, Donald Morrill, David Hamilton, Rick Ryan)
Lake Erie, Hilton Chicago, 8th Floor
Robert Dana, who died in February of 2010, was a quintessential midwestern poet: graduate of Iowa Writer’s Workshop in the 1950s, editor of the North American Review in the 1960s, writer-in-residence at Cornell College for over thirty years, and recently Iowa’s Poet Laureate. In this tribute, panelists explore Dana’s considerable contributions as a poet, critic, teacher, and editor.

S179. The Poetics of the Essay
(Jeff Porter, Patricia Foster, Gayle Pemberton, Sara Levine)
Lake Huron, Hilton Chicago, 8th Floor
Rarely can writing flourish apart from reading. In this panel, four distinguished essayists will discuss the aesthetic and pedagogical value of a close-reading of four canonical essays, outlining how a sophisticated literary analysis of the essay can (and perhaps should) become a part of our creative activity.

S180. Writing Visually: Using Comics in the Writing Classroom
(Anne Panning, Matt Madden, Hillary Chute, Jarod Roselló, Jessica Abel)
Lake Michigan, Hilton Chicago, 8th Floor
Many incorporate reading comics in their classes these days. But how can you use comics to teach writing? On this panel, two teaching cartoonists and three literature and writing professors will discuss ways to introduce the practice of comics into the creative writing classroom and how that can benefit students’ writing—of prose as well as of comics. Approaches include the Bechdel method of writing comics without drawing and using panels to visually activate prose (or poetic) writing.

S181. Blueprints: Bringing Poetry into Communities
(Katharine Coles, Alison Hawthorne Deming, Lee Briccetti, Christopher Merrill)
Marquette, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
Contributors to Blueprints: Bringing Poetry Into Communities will talk about their experiences with such poetry programs as Poets House, the University of Arizona’s Poetry Center, and the Harriet Monroe Poetry Institute at the Poetry Foundation and will also give hands-on advice to those interested in doing similar work. The discussion will provide tips on how to develop a program from its earliest conception on through to assessing needs, planning events, and preparing final reports.

S182. Border Bodies - Womanhood in Verse
(Katherine Hoerth, Ire’ne Lara Silva, Laura Cesarco Eglin, Maria Miranda Maloney, Elisa A. Garza)
Private Dining Room 2, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
Our diverse panel features women poets from the Texas/Mexico border and other borders dedicated to broadening poetic conversations about borderland identities, womanhood and the border, and the borderland body. In any contested space—i.e., geographic, cultural, sexual, racial, or literary—women must claim their own definitions of womanhood, their physical/sexual/spiritual bodies, and their poetic languages with their own definitions of aesthetics and relation to culture and history.

S183. Ambitious Fiction: Tackling Big Ideas, Lots of Characters, and/or Lush Language
(Lucy Jane Bledsoe, Jane Smiley, Achy Obejas, Allen Gee, Brian Bouldrey)
Waldorf, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
Everyone admires a spare, economical story or novel that moves forward with seemingly little effort. But some stories just can’t be told simply. They may have a large cast of characters. They may involve big, even complicated, ideas. They may call for a lush, rather than frugal, style. What is involved in biting off a big storytelling mouthful? This group of fiction writers will discuss their choices to sometimes write rich, rather than minimalist, fiction.

S184. Things I Didn’t Know I Loved: Staged Reading of a Play about Nazim Hikmet
(Zack Rogow, Jennifer Shook, Kristin Idaszak)
Wiliford A, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
This staged reading is presented by a unique Chicago cultural institution, Caffeine Theatre, focusing on drama by and about poets. Things I Didn’t Know I Loved is a play by Zack Rogow about the great modern Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet. The play follows the writer through his youth as an activist in the early days of the Russian Revolution, his years spent in prison in Turkey for his political views, and his release after a hunger strike. The story is interwoven with Nazim Hikmet’s greatest poems. The play will be introduced by Cornelius Eady.

S185. Writers on Reading Like an Editor
(Dawn Raffel, James Yeh, Kristen Iversen, Kate Bernheimer)
Wiliford B, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
Editors who are also critically acclaimed fiction writers will discuss what makes a story leap out from the submissions pile. What is the x factor that’s often apparent in the first few sentences? And what can you learn as a writer by reading this way? The discussion will include examples and will be followed by a Q&A.

S186. War is Not Lost in Translation
(Lytton Smith, Carolyn Forché, Susan Harris, Idra Novey, Jason Grunebaum)
Wiliford C, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
Translators and editors discuss translation in wartime: how can we bring literature across borders as we translate narratives and poems from conflict zones? Is war lost in translation? Panelists read and talk about poems, novels, and anthologies, including late 1800s France, present-day Kashmir, Spanish-speakers in an Icelandic novel, Paraguayan troops in a Brazilian town, and an online magazine’s responsibility to shifting political landscapes in the Middle East and other conflict zones.

S187. VCCA Turns Forty!: An Anniversary Reading
(Sarah Browning, Lex Williford, Patricia Spears Jones, Paul Lisicky, Andrea Hollander Budy)
Crystal Room, Palmer House Hilton, 3rd Floor
Forty years ago, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts opened its doors. Since then, over 2,500 writers in all disciplines have found that the time, space, and freedom of a residency at VCCA changed their creative lives. In this celebratory reading, five former fellows read from their work and discuss the crucial role of VCCA in their own development as artists.

S188. The Care & Feeding of Long Poems
(Adam Penna, Matthew Zapruder, Kathleen Graber, Adam Day, Julie Sheehan)
Empire Ballroom, Palmer House Hilton, Lobby Level
Pound said he couldn’t make his long poem cohere, and Berryman claimed the only happy people in the world were those who didn’t have to write long poems. In this panel, five poets discuss the challenges of conceiving, beginning, completing, and publishing longer poetic works. Panelists address their influences; define what makes a long poem a long poem; consider the advantages and disadvantages of writing longer works; and discuss the future of the form.

S189. A Reading Celebrating Twenty-Five Years of Product, the Center for Writers Literary Journal
(Kent Quaney, Michael Knight, Andy Plattner, Mary Miller, Damian Dressick)
Grand Ballroom, Palmer House Hilton, 4th Floor
The Center for Writers at the University of Southern Mississippi has just published the 25th anniversary edition of its student literary journal, Product, and as a celebration of this landmark will present a reading to showcase some of the best writers the program has produced. Noted alumni Michael Knight and Andy Plattner, recent graduate Mary Miller, and current student Damian Dressick will represent the Center for Writers in a reading exemplifying the artistic standard of the program.

S190. Unrequited Love: Renewing Your Vows to the Troublesome Novel
(Elizabeth Brundage, Stewart O’Nan, Jenna Blum, Alice Elliot Dark, Carole DeSanti)
Honoré Ballroom, Palmer House Hilton, Lobby Level
Unpublished novels are like unrequited love affairs, they linger in the hearts and minds of writers for years to come; many of us have one stashed in a drawer. And yet often within the existing work, a new novel can be rescued. This panel will explore strategies of revision, encouraging a fresh perspective, a renewed faith in the text. Other topics will include structural elements such as characterization, pacing, thematic possibilities, and our enduring commitment to the sentences we make.

S191. Coloring Outside the Lines
(Sandra M. Yee, J. Michael Martinez, Jamaal May, Dina Omar, Jane Wong)
Red Lacquer Room, Palmer House Hilton, 4th Floor
Poets and scholars who identify as writers of color explore connections between racial/ethnic identity and writing. How do we respond to the pressure to represent our cultures? How can we create better support systems for each other? Can (should) we initiate healthier dialogues on race, and who is obliged to take a leadership role in initiating this kind of dialogue? And what does our own writing reveal about how we’re redefining the boundaries of racial and ethnic identity?

S192. You + Me = We: Collaborative Authorship as Pedagogical Practice
(Lily Hoang, Sequoia Nagamatsu, EmmaLee Pallai, Adam Crittenden, Kelsie Hahn)
State Ballroom, Palmer House Hilton, 4th Floor
Authors often work together to create scholarly articles, novels, short stories, screenplays, poetry, and beyond. Collaboration allows all parties to parlay their strength to the page, be it research, sentence structure, concept, or more. It also provides a rich learning experience improving not just writing skills, but also interpersonal skills. This panel will discuss ways of incorporating the collaborative model of authorship in the composition and creative classrooms.

S193. The Monti: Stories Off the Page
(Jeff Polish, Quinn Dalton, Andrea Selch, Lynn York)
Wabash Room, Palmer House Hilton, 3rd Floor
The Monti was founded by Jeff Polish in 2008 because of his love of storytelling. Monthly since then, five people (who are not necessarily writers) tell twelve-minute stories to sold-out audiences throughout North Carolina. The catch is the stories must be true and they must be told without notes. Often a frightening prospect for writers, telling a story on-the-spot creates a powerful connection between the teller and the audience. For this panel, Polish and three Monti veterans will tell their stories.

Other Activity
Examples: socializing, attending book signing, attending off-site event, eating
Planned activity:

S194. Narrative Transitions: Teaching and Taking the Reflective Turn in Creative Nonfiction
(Bruce Ballenger, Lad Tobin, Jennifer Sinor)
Astoria, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
Teachers of creative nonfiction often urge students to imagine that there are two narrators of a story—the then-narrator and the now-narrator—who collaborate in the discovery of meaning. Experienced writers move intuitively between describing what happened and what happens, always in search of insight, yet student writers actively resist this double perspective. Why? Drawing from their own work, panelists will explore this question and implications for teaching the reflective turn.

S195. An MFA, huh? What Are You Gonna Do with That?
(Beth Snyder, Sara Hess, Gerald Richards, Bridget Boland Foley, Shin Yu Pai)
Boulevard Room A,B,C, Hilton Chicago, 2nd Floor
What career options exist for a newly minted MFA—besides the obvious paths of more graduate school, adjunct limbo, or literary superstardom? Twelve years later, five alumni of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s MFA in Writing talk about alternative career paths in education, nonprofit, TV, and other spheres—and how their MFA helped them get there.

S196. News that Stays News: The Best American Poetry Blog and the Future of Electronic Publishing
(Emma Trelles, David Lehman, Stacey Harwood, Laura Orem, Stephanie Brown)
Continental A, Hilton Chicago, Lobby Level
Edited by Stacey Harwood and David Lehman, the Best American Poetry Blog resembles a newspaper created anew each day by its editors, correspondents, and numerous guest bloggers around the world. Blog entries cover everything from poetry to jazz to literary controversies to digital publishing. Launched in February of 2008, the blog affords its writers new forms, means, and opportunities to reach a steadily growing readership. Panelists are the blog’s editors, correspondents, and guest bloggers.

S197. Teaching Social Action Writing and Service Learning
(Diana Garcia, Debra Busman, Annie Finch, Emmy Pérez, Aimee Suzara)
Continental B, Hilton Chicago, Lobby Level
How do you develop, implement, and teach a creative writing and service learning class? How do collaborations between community partners and university creative writing students empower both groups? Panelists describe how this reciprocal process challenges instructors and creative writing students to provide service and create works that live in the community beyond the classroom setting.

S198. Critical Divide: The Personal Essay and the Critical Essay
(Fiona McCrae, Sven Birkerts, Eula Biss, Robert Polito)
Continental C, Hilton Chicago, Lobby Level
New nonfiction writing often blurs the autobiographical and the critical. At its best, that can result in something daring, collage-like, lyrical, and illuminating. The divergent writers here will discuss their recent works of nonfiction and strategies for writing the personal and the critical.

S199. A Reading and Conversation with Eileen Myles & Monica Youn, Sponsored by VIDA: Women in Literary Arts
(Cate Marvin, Erin Belieu, Eileen Myles, Monica Youn)
International Ballroom South, Hilton Chicago, 2nd Floor
Prominent poet and literary activist Eileen Myles and recent National Book Award finalist Monica Youn will present readings from their respective work to be followed by a conversation on feminist poetics with VIDA co-founders and poets Erin Belieu and Cate Marvin. AWP participants are encouraged to join a brief Q&A period to be held afterwards.

S200. 25th Anniversary Reading Celebrating the Comstock Review
(Georgia Popoff, Keith Flynn, Quraysh Ali Lansana, Jennifer Pashley)
Joliet, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
In 1986, the Comstock Writers Group formed and soon committed to publishing. For twenty-five years, Comstock Review (formerly Poetpourri) has featured noted writers as well as emerging, regional, and previously unpublished poets. CR sponsors the annual Mildred Bailey Craft Prize and biannual Jessie Bryce Niles Chapbook Award.

S201. Lessons in Alchemy: Remembering George Hitchcock
(Liz Hughes Wiley, Albert Goldbarth, Joseph Bednarik, Diane Wakoski, David Swanger)
Lake Erie, Hilton Chicago, 8th Floor
The influence of George Hitchcock and his iconoclastic journal, Kayak, on modern American poetry can hardly be overstated. He and his journal helped launch and nurture the early careers of some of today’s leading voices, including Carver, Simic, Olds, Goldbarth, and Levine. America’s eyes and ears were opened to a new kind of poetry. Friends and colleagues fondly celebrate this legacy through stories and poetry, illuminating the timeless qualities that made George Hitchcock so unique.

S202. Migrant Voices in the Latino Heartland: The Latino Writers Collective’s Migrant Youth Writers Workshop
(Miguel M. Morales, Jose Faus, Gabriela N. Lemmons, Jason Sierra, Linda Rodriguez)
Lake Huron, Hilton Chicago, 8th Floor
Latino Writers Collective members, including former migrant youth, youth advocates, and students, lead a learning circle on their groundbreaking Migrant Youth Writers workshop, now in its fourth year. Learn how the Latino Writers Collective collaborates with local agencies, colleges and universities in the Midwest. Discover how the workshop helps youth identify and nurture their long silenced voices as migrant youth in the Heartland. Recognize simple ways you can help.

S203. Writing About Social Issues in Children’s & Young Adult Books
(Renee Watson, Coe Booth, Shadra Strickland)
Lake Michigan, Hilton Chicago, 8th Floor
Though the language of children’s literature might be simplified for its audience, the content and craft does not have to compromise its substance and complexity. In this session, panelists talk about the importance of presenting social issues in children’s literature. They will speak about preaching vs. storytelling and share how books about sensitive topics provide a starting place for conversations with children. Authors will read excerpts of their works, followed by a discussion.

S204. Creativity in Crisis: What’s the Future for the Imagination in University Writing Programs?
(Steve May, Helena Blakemore, Nigel McLoughlin, Barbara Large, Tim Middleton)
Marquette, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
While business and self-help gurus try to colonize creativity, and many academic disciplines bolt a creative element onto their funding bids, creative writing is increasingly required to define itself in quality assurance terms and to justify its very existence in the face of budgetary cuts. This panel examines the cultural, economic, and academic pressures exerted on creative writing in the academy and looks to involve participants in a search for imaginative solutions.

S205. Wading the Raging Waters - Navigating the Current Funding Landscape
(Ryan Stone, Lex Williford, Mary Troy, Michael Kardos, Kris Bigalk)
Private Dining Room 2, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
Funding for education is currently in a state of great flux. With this comes uncertainty and, at times, anxiety. Creative writing programs across the country, at all levels of higher education, face challenges in both expected and unexpected areas. Four program directors from different types of programs discuss the fiscal and emotional health of their respective programs and invite contributions and discussion from the audience.

S206. Orion 30th Anniversary Reading
(Jennifer Sahn, Amy Leach, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Benjamin Percy, Luis Alberto Urrea)
Waldorf, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
For thirty years, Orion has used literature to bring our relationship with the natural world alive, in the belief that the arts connect people to the world, inspire action, and provide a way of thinking about a better future for people and the planet. Join Orion’s Editor-in-Chief and four of the innovative and exemplary writers who have helped make Orion one of the most respected magazines dedicated to the intersection of literature and the environment.

S207. 5th Year Anniversary Reading: Ashland University MFA Creative Nonfiction Faculty
(Jill Christman, Robert Root, Steven Harvey, Sonya Huber, Kathryn Winograd)
Wiliford A, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
Ashland University MFA creative nonfiction faculty celebrate the 5th year anniversary of the country’s only two-genre MFA program. Nonfiction faculty members will preface a reading of their work by commenting on ways the program’s close community of poets and creative nonfiction writers has had a formative influence on their work. The quality and aesthetic range of these writers will speak to the success of this low-residency MFA program with a regional base in Ohio and students from twenty-five states.

S208. Writing About Race in the Age of Obama
(Jack Wang, Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, Eleanor Henderson)
Wiliford B, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
Since the election of President Obama, the term “post-racial” has come into popular usage. Does this term have any currency in the world of literature, and if so, what might post-racial literature look like? Are writers still obliged to protest when writing about race, or are we obliged to find new ways of writing about racial identity? And how does one write about the increasingly common experiences of being bi- or multi-racial in America? Our panel considers these questions across genres.

S209. The Vampire Poets: Collaborating with the Dead
(Hadara Bar-Nadav, Camille Dungy, Dean Rader, Simone Muench)
Wiliford C, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
We are vampire poets who celebrate, seek guidance, and cull inspiration from the dead. Through our writing, we commune with dead artists, writers, ancestors, and the relics and remains housed in museums. In centos, persona poems, and erasures, we recycle, reconfigure, and pay homage to diverse traditions, resulting in new textual conversations. We will discuss our various projects, including methods for and challenges to collaborating with the dead, and we will read brief excerpts from our work.

S210. Creative Writing in Women’s Prisons: Continuity Before and After Release
(Tami Haaland, Josh Fomon, Malia Burgess, Amelia McDanel, Karin Schalm)
Crystal Room, Palmer House Hilton, 3rd Floor
Panelists will explore 1) anecdotal evidence as well as research about the effect of creative writing for women involved in Montana Women’s Prison creative writing classes during the past two years; 2) how outreach efforts have been coordinated among students, graduates, and independent writers affiliated with several universities to either present readings or teach in the program; and 3) the developing continuity between creative writing classes or writing groups on the inside and writing groups outside prison walls.

S211. Notre Dame Review Celebrates the 20th Anniversary of the ND MFA
(Valerie Sayers, Tony D’Souza, Justin Haynes, William O’Rourke)
Empire Ballroom, Palmer House Hilton, Lobby Level
A cross-generational fiction reading by four distinctive prose stylists. The panelists’ work spans forty years and four continents and illustrates the program’s commitment to surprising fiction in any mode imaginable, from stark realism to playful experimentalism.

S212. Crisis Economics for Nonprofits [WITS Alliance]
(Amy Swauger, Long Chu, Rebecca Hoogs, Michele Kotler, Melanie Moore)
Grand Ballroom, Palmer House Hilton, 4th Floor
How are some nonprofits thriving in the current economy while others struggle to keep the doors open from one day to the next? The panelists in this session, who represent presenting organizations, literary publishers, and writers-in-the-schools programs, discuss their strategies for weathering the financial storm by identifying different sources of funding, collaborating with other nonprofits and for-profit partners, and finding ways to maintain programs and services while cutting costs.

S213. The Chapbook Beyond Cultural Artifact: Contemporary Poetry and the Economics and Vitality of Chapbook Publishing
(Steven Karl, Sommer Browning, Mathias Svalina, Angela Veronica Wong, Farrah Field)
Honoré Ballroom, Palmer House Hilton, Lobby Level
This panel explores the production, distribution, and circulation of the medium of chapbooks from the perspectives of the writer, publisher, and bookseller. What does it mean to publish poetry as chapbooks rather than full-length books, and can it be a goal in its own end? What are the economics behind chapbook publication, and how has this influenced the production of poetry for our generation? If chapbooks can be fetishized as charming artifacts, what does it mean when a chapbook goes digital?

S214. The Book and the Flame: Expatriate Writers in Africa
(Andy Johnson, Adisa Vera Beatty, Janey Llewellin, Cori Thomas)
Red Lacquer Room, Palmer House Hilton, 4th Floor
The gods created people with everything needed for survival: food, tools, fire, and a book. According to a myth, Africans discarded all but the fire; Westerners discarded all but the book. After a short reading, five expat writers will discuss challenges of writing in Africa and about Africans, including issues of post-colonialism, diaspora, and dislocation. We will examine the writer as keeper of the book and the flame, located at the crossroads between memory and creativity.

S215. Men from Venus, Women from Mars: Writing from the Perspective of the Opposite Sex
(Reese Okyong Kwon, Jennine Capó Crucet, Alan Heathcock, Kyle Minor, Kevin Wilson)
State Ballroom, Palmer House Hilton, 4th Floor
The old canard that fiction writers should write what they know would seem to prohibit writing from the point of view of characters of the opposite sex. Meanwhile, some of the most believable and compelling men in literature have been created by women, and vice versa. What is the appeal of writing from the head of an opposite-sex character, and how does one do so credibly? What politics should we consider? Panelists will offer perspectives, tips, and examples of effective embodiment of the other.

S216. Dancing with the Deans: Evaluating Poetry in the Tenure Process
(Michael Paul Thomas, Kate Daniels, Stanton Green, Terry Kennedy)
Wabash Room, Palmer House Hilton, 3rd Floor
Evaluation of the arts in tenure and promotion is a long-standing issue. This panel discusses the specifics of creative writing, and in particular, poetry, from the point of view of two questions: 1) What is a fair way to account for the difficulty in publishing creative writing as compared to the sciences and social sciences? 2) How can one judge the various levels of journals and magazines for creative writing in terms of their rigor of peer review and prestige within the field?

Other Activity
Examples: socializing, attending book signing, attending off-site event, eating
Planned activity:

S217. Hybrid Bodies: Poets Negotiating the Fractal Geographies of Trauma and Identity
(Addie Tsai, Kelly Moore, Ronaldo Wilson, Shane McCrae)
Astoria, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
This panel explores the confluence and difficulties regarding hybrid bodies (disability, trauma, sexuality, gender, race) and the complexities of using the hybrid body as a metaphor in contemporary poetry. How do we approach poetry as a way of exploring the sense of the body’s betrayal, working in a public whose lack of awareness presents real dangers? In poetry, how can we inhabit hybridity without objectifying it? What impulse leads people to write about abnormal body experiences not their own?

S218. The Dome of Heaven: Making an Independent Film
(Diane Glancy, Thirza Defoe)
Boulevard Room A,B,C, Hilton Chicago, 2nd Floor
Independent filmmaking is in. Every time I open my e-mail, I find a new festival. In 2010, I made a film. Several components came together: money, actors, crew, and location. Two weeks and $200,000 later, I had a film, The Dome of Heaven. Independent filmmaking is much like writing a book. It's harder, of course, because many people are involved, but completing draft after draft in filming and editing, submitting the film to festivals, and being accepted or rejected, is similar to the writing process.

S219. The Lyric Essay: A Collapse of Forms or a Form of Collapse?
(Wendy Rawlings, Ned Stuckey French, Jocelyn Bartkevicius, Steven Church, Colin Rafferty)
Continental A, Hilton Chicago, Lobby Level
Of late, the lyric essay has risen in prominence, taking its place as a genre in its own right alongside fiction, poetry, and narrative nonfiction. Yet the lyric essay is unique as a genre in that it’s most often defined by what it’s not. Or what it’s not… exactly. How might we think about the lyric essay as melting pot or mishmash, form or formlessness? What might be the implications of the high level of interest in this open form, one that by its very definition resists definition?

S220. Ear Candy: Teaching the Pleasures of Poetic Meter
(Liz Ahl, Jeff Oaks, Annie Finch, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, Tara Betts)
Continental B, Hilton Chicago, Lobby Level
Rooted in a diversity of aesthetic and pedagogical perspectives, this panel focuses on the teaching and learning of meter: how, when, and why might one teach meter to young poets? Is teaching meter like teaching other elements of poetic craft and technique? Is meter akin to music or language when it comes to learning and teaching? How can we help our students sing out rather than slog through? How might activities like scansion, reading aloud, or imitation, help poets develop an ear for meter?

S221. A Reading for Literary Imagination
(Christopher Ricks, Clare Cavangh, David Ferry, Greg Delanty)
Continental C, Hilton Chicago, Lobby Level
This reading will cross genres in order to present creative writing from Literary Imagination, a leading periodical which brings together the creative writing and scholarly communities. Our presenters will speak briefly about the importance of literary periodicals in a time when such publications are increasingly threatened. The presenters will answer questions about publication in periodicals, and they will read from their own works.

S222. Literature and Evil, Sponsored by The Center for Fiction
(Noreen Tomassi, Marilynne Robinson, Ha Jin, Paul Harding)
Grand Ballroom, Hilton Chicago, 2nd Floor
Acclaimed literary fiction writers who have unforgettably illuminated the nature of evil will read from their work and then engage in a discussion of their approaches to this topic well as their thoughts on other writers’ work in this subject area, followed by an audience Q&A.

S223. Poetry Reading: Pitt Poetry Series
(Ed Ochester, Toi Derricotte, Ross Gay, Julia Spicher Kasdorf, David Wojahn)
International Ballroom South, Hilton Chicago, 2nd Floor
Series Editor Ed Ochester will introduce the poets as they read from their new books from the Pitt Poetry Series of the University of Pittsburgh Press.

S224. Four Tongues of Poetic Resistance
(Francisco X. Alarcón, Jorge Tetl Argueta, Carlos Cumpián, Odilia Galván Rodríguez)
Joliet, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
The lives and works of these poets encompass experiences shared by many in the Americas: California, the U.S. Southwest, Mexico, Cuba, El Salvador, Chicago. Alarcón and Galván Rodríguez are moderators of Poets Responding to SB 1070; Argueta through Talleres de Poesía promotes children’s literature in El Salvador; Cumpián is an activist poet/editor of March Abrazo Press in Chicago.

S225. Home Sweet Home: Short Story Collections and Small Presses
(Caitlin Horrocks, Amina Gautier, Shannon Cain, Adam Schuitema, Kelcey Parker)
Lake Erie, Hilton Chicago, 8th Floor
With trade publishers less willing to take a risk on story collections and agents and editors advising writers to just finish a novel, where can the story writer turn? Five debut authors discuss their experiences with the small, independent, and university presses that are increasingly the most welcoming homes for story collections. They’ll discuss how they found their publishers, what small publishers can (and can’t) offer story authors, and how these presses are helping collections thrive.

S226. Art School Journals
(Hugh Behm-Steinberg, Ariana-Sophia Kartsonis, Jordan Stempleman, Heather McShane)
Lake Huron, Hilton Chicago, 8th Floor
As writing programs have proliferated in art schools, new journals have sprung up that rebalance writing, visual art, and design. Join the editors of Botticelli (Columbus College of Art and Design), Dear Navigator (School of the Art Institute of Chicago), Eleven Eleven (California College of the Arts), and Sprung Formal (Kansas City Art Institute) as they discuss writing and publishing in these unique institutions and how the art school is reshaping the future of the literary journal.

S227. Homage to Édouard Glissant (1928-2011)
(Ishion Hutchinson, Christian Campbell, Kwame Dawes, Matthew Shenoda, Laila Pedro)
Lake Michigan, Hilton Chicago, 8th Floor
Édouard Glissant, born in Martinique in 1928, was one of the great originals in Francophone and world literature, particularly because of his contribution to postcolonial discourse, not only as a theorist but as poet, novelist, and dramatist. Five writers will read from his work—in French, Creole, and in English-- and their own. A discussion of Glissant, the writer and the man, his influence on the panelists’ work, will follow.

S228. Poetry’s First Webseries: Verse, a Poetry Murder Mystery
(Ram Devineni, Bob Holman, Lamont Steptoe, Jon Sands, Susan Brennan)
Marquette, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
Poetry meets webisode in Verse, a poetry murder mystery by Rattapallax Films. Come watch the first episode and hear poets from the project discuss the technical and creative process of uniting cinematic and poetic devices. Shot in New York City and Berlin with an all-poet cast and crew, encompassing poetry landmarks and legends, award-winning Verse utilizes a new web media to invent an original story while inviting a wider poetry audience.

S229. Asian American Writers’ Workshop Discusses Asian American Poetry: Past, Present, Future
(Victoria Chang, Timothy Yu, Ken Chen, Nick Carbo, Sandra Lim)
Private Dining Room 2, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
Marilyn Chin said: “Our poetry is not a static enterprise but a thriving, historical progression.” As we look at Asian American poetry today, much has changed, yet much has stayed the same. This panel will feature a group of diverse literary critics, anthologists, and poets in a vibrant discussion to grapple with questions such as: What is Asian American poetry, Where have we been, Where are we now, and What lies ahead in the future?

S230. A Tribute to Carolyn Kizer
(David Rigsbee, Kevin Craft, Emily Warn, Martha Silano)
Waldorf, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
This panel will discuss Carolyn Kizer’s work and significance to American poetry. Kizer has combined private lyricism with a Confucian sense of public responsibility. At a time when it was unfashionable to proclaim oneself feminist or political, Kizer proudly proclaimed herself both. Founding editor of Poetry Northwest and first Literary Director for the National Endowment for the Arts, legendary teacher Kizer has produced a moving body of work that dazzles with clarity and passion.

S231. 30th Anniversary McKnight Fellowship Reading
(Jocelyn Hale, Bernard Cooper, John Reimringer, Wang Ping)
Wiliford A, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
Join the Loft Literary Center in celebrating the 30th year of the McKnight Artist Fellowships for Writers. Bernard Cooper, judge for the 2009 Fellowships, will read along with two of the prose writers he selected for the award, John Reimringer and Wang Ping.

S232. The Improvisational, Inspirational Workshop
(Sarah Stone, Brian Kiteley, Karina Knowles, Joan Silber, Lois Smith)
Wiliford B, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
How can we develop workshops that inspire participants, build community, cure blocks instead of causing them, and help writers discover new stories and new possibilities for existing stories? This panel will discuss specific methods, including writing and reading exercises, that help students take risks, define their individual lineages as writers, and move away from consensus to embrace a diverse range of political and aesthetic approaches.

S233. The Art of the Short Story Collection
(Mary Rockcastle, Richard Bausch, Laura van den Berg, Tiphanie Yanique, Daniel Libman)
Wiliford C, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
In the successful short story collection, the individual stories must move, delight, and entertain, and the collection as a whole must do so as well. What makes a collection of short stories a satisfying whole? How should it be put together? What should the writer consider when deciding upon content, placement, length, title? How easy or hard is it to sell? Robert Bausch, acknowledged master of the short story form and author of eight collections of short stories, joins three authors of very different, all successful, debut short story collections. Each will talk about his/her process in creating, shaping, and publishing the short story collection.

S234. New Childrens and Young Adult Voices: A Cross-Genre Reading
(Penny Blubaugh, Zu Vincent, Tami Lewis Brown, Kiara Koenig, J.L. Powers)
Crystal Room, Palmer House Hilton, 3rd Floor
What captivates young readers today? Five authors of picture books, middle grade fiction, young adult novels, and narrative nonfiction share from their newly published works in a cross-genre reading of all things honest and edgy.

S235. Michigan at Thirty: An Alumni Reading
(Megan Levad, Joshua Edwards, Randa Jarrar, Laura Wetherington, Natalie Bakopoulos)
Empire Ballroom, Palmer House Hilton, Lobby Level
University of Michigan MFA Program alumni exemplify the plurality of perspectives and aesthetics in current literature. Join us to hear new work by recent graduates.

S236. Why Independent Publishers Matter / Independent Publishers and the Changing Industry
(Michael Miller, Tom Roberge, Jeff Shotts, Laura Howard, Eric Obenouf)
Grand Ballroom, Palmer House Hilton, 4th Floor
Bookforum editor Michael Miller, along with selected editors and publishers from various independent presses, will discuss the changing landscape of the publishing industry and the ongoing rise of independent publishers: why they are leading the way and what this means for the future of the industry as a whole.

S237. Balancing Craft and Commitment in Political Fiction
(Rosellen Brown, Tracy Daugherty, Heidi Durrow, Ellen Meeropol)
Honoré Ballroom, Palmer House Hilton, Lobby Level
Four fiction writers, ranging from emerging to prolific, consider the risky challenge of balancing their commitment to social justice with the demands of good writing. Using examples of successful stories and novels, they will address ways of framing language, developing character, and structuring plot to dramatize conflicts of class, race, and gender while avoiding the pitfalls of authorial intrusion and didacticism.

S238. Developing a Literary Community for Emerging Writers
(Zachary Bean, Eric Ekstrand, Tiffany Thor, Steven Simeone, James Roberts)
Red Lacquer Room, Palmer House Hilton, 4th Floor
This panel discusses the need for developing a vibrant literary community outside of graduate writing programs and strategies for doing so. From founding a literary conference for emerging writers to organizing community readings, the editors and staff of Glass Mountain have created a model for growing a literary community and in the process, learned what works and what doesn’t.

S239. Publishing as Pedagogy: How the Process of Running an Independent Press and Developing Manuscripts Can Enhance the Growth of Young Writers
(Jeff Kass, Karen Smyte, Kevin Coval, Fiona Chamness, Carlina Duan)
State Ballroom, Palmer House Hilton, 4th Floor
This panel will bring together two advisors of youth publishing projects—one from Chicago and one from Ann Arbor—along with a youth editor/book-designer and an emerging author published by Ann Arbor’s Red Beard Press to talk about the benefits and challenges of immersing young writers in all facets of the publishing process including business-planning, acquiring funding, soliciting and gathering submissions, editing, book-designing, marketing, events promotion, and distribution.

S240. Present at the Creation: The Chicago Poetry Revolution of the 1980s and ‘90s
(Tim W. Brown, Luis J. Rodriguez, Sharon Mesmer, Kurt Heintz, Paul McComas)
Wabash Room, Palmer House Hilton, 3rd Floor
Poets, writers, and performers who came of age in the Chicago poetry scene of the 1980s and ‘90s discuss the explosion of spoken-word poetry and performance in the city during these decades and its national and international impact on the presentation of poetry to popular audiences. Topics include the legacy of the poetry slam and efforts to capture and document a notoriously ephemeral art form via publications and video, audio, and online media.

Other Activity
Examples: socializing, attending book signing, attending off-site event, eating
Planned activity:

A Reception Hosted by Split This Rock Poetry Festival
Astoria, Hilton Chicago Hotel 3rd Floor
Come celebrate with staff from the Split This Rock Poetry Festival at a soiree.

A Reception Hosted by the University of Notre Dame’s MFA in Creative Writing Program
Joliet, Hilton Chicago Hotel 3rd Floor
Come for a soiree with faculty and students from the University of Notre Dame’s MFA in Creative Writing Program.

A Reception Hosted by Adanna Literary Journal
Private Dining Room 1, Hilton Chicago Hotel 3rd Floor
Christine Redman-Waldeyer (editor) and Jennifer Arin (reading organizer) invite you to a reading and reception with Adanna contributors to launch this new journal.

Poets Honor W.S. Merwin's Recent Work with Essay Collection--Launch Party with Mark Irwin, Matthew Zapruder, and Others. A Reception Hosted by WordFarm
Private Dining Room 3, Hilton Chicago Hotel 3rd Floor
Join WordFarm and friends in a reception celebrating the work of W.S. Merwin.

Other Activity
Examples: socializing, attending book signing, attending off-site event, eating
Planned activity:

S241. Academy of American Poets Presents Nikky Finney and Lyn Hejinian
(Tree Swenson, Lyn Hejinian, Nikky Finney)
Grand Ballroom, Hilton Chicago, 2nd Floor
The Academy of American Poets presents an event featuring two prestigious poets, Nikky Finney and Lyn Hejinian, who will be reading their own work.

S242. Story Week and Bath Spa Present—Literary Rock and Roll!
(Randall Albers, Steve May, Irvine Welsh, Audrey Niffenegger, Aleksandar Hemon)
International Ballroom North & South, Hilton Chicago, 2nd Floor
Columbia College Chicago’s Story Week Festival of Writers, along with Bath Spa University’s Research Centre for Contemporary Writing, returns to AWP to present another uniquely entertaining evenings of readings and music, featuring Audrey Niffenegger (The Time Traveler’s Wife, Her Fearful Symmetry), Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting, Ecstasy), and National Book Award finalist Aleksandar Hemon (Love and Obstacles, The Lazarus Project), with Chicago blues by acclaimed guitarist Ronnie Baker Brooks.

Other Activity
Examples: socializing, attending book signing, attending off-site event, eating
Planned activity:

S243. AWP Public Reception & Dance Party. Sponsored by the University of Tampa Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing
Continental A,B,C, Hilton Chicago, Lobby Level
A Dance Party with music by DJ Neza. Free beer and wine from 10:00-11:00 p.m. Cash bar from 11:00 p.m. to midnight.

S244. The All Collegiate Afterhours Open Mic
(James Warner, Phil Brady)
Marquette, Hilton Chicago, 3rd Floor
The All Collegiate Afterhours Open Mic is open to all undergrad and grad students attending the conference. Participation is capped at fifteen readers. Readers are asked to keep their work to a maximum of five minutes. Please sign up at the Wilkes University booth at the bookfair.

Other Activity
Examples: socializing, attending book signing, attending off-site event, eating
Planned activity: