Privacy Policy

The Association of Writers & Writing Programs (“AWP, “we,” “our,” or “us”) is committed to protecting the privacy of our users (“you”). This Privacy Policy explains how your personal data is collected, used, and disclosed by the AWP website, www.awpwriter.org, including the AWP conference platform and The Writer’s Chronicle (collectively the “Website”).

This Privacy Policy applies to our Website, its associated subdomains, and our related services (collectively, our “Service”). By accessing or using our Service, you signify that you have read, understood, and agree to our collection, storage, use, and disclosure of your personal data as described in this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Service.

Definitions & Key Terms

Cookie: small amount of data generated by a website and saved by your web browser. It is used to identify your browser, provide analytics, and remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information.

Customer: refers to the individual, including any affiliated organization, that signs up to use the Service to manage the relationships with consumers or service users.

Device: any phone, tablet, computer, or any other device that is connected to the internet and can be used to visit the Service.

IP address: Every device connected to the internet is assigned a number known as an internet protocol (IP) address. These numbers are usually assigned in geographic blocks. An IP address can often be used to identify the location from which a device is connecting to the internet.

Personnel: refers to those individuals who are employed by AWP or are under contract to perform a service on behalf of one of the parties.

Personal Data: any information that directly, indirectly, or in connection with other information—including a personal identification number—allows for the identification or identifiability of a natural person.

Third-party service: refers to advertisers, contest sponsors, promotional and marketing partners, and others who provide our content or whose products or services we think may interest you.

What Personal Data We Collect

When you use our Service, we may collect, store, and process various kinds of data, including Personal Data. The Personal Data we may collect includes:

name

username

email address(es)

phone number(s)

mailing addresses

billing addresses

date of birth

password

any of the optional demographic data you have chosen to disclose

You (the “user”) can access your Personal Data by logging in to your AWP account.

If you have chosen to save your credit card information on file for automatic membership renewals or recurring donations, that will be tokenized and saved within our system as well. View the information you have provided to AWP at any time by visiting your AWP Profile. Please note: AWP Personnel will never call, nor email, requesting confidential information such as credit card information.

We may also collect details of your visit to our Service and the page you access, including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, weblogs, and other communication data, including your IP address and browser type. Some parts of our Service use cookies and other technologies to collect this information about your general internet usage. See the Sections “Your Website Usage Data” and “AWP Website Information & Content” below to learn more.

How We Use & Share Your Personal Data

Your Email Address

AWP uses your email address mainly to facilitate your purchases and your participation in the Services. Users can opt in/out of their email being used for mailings in particular, via the communications tab by visiting their AWP Profile.

AWP may share your email address with third-party applications in order to provide you with AWP services. For example, the AWP Conference & Bookfair online platform and app, which is hosted by eShow, connects to the Website using an API and SSO integration. The platform and app receive a user’s email address and encrypted password to determine what the user may, or may not, have access to within the eShow platform used by the AWP Conference Department.

Surveys

We may contact you to request your participation in a survey. We develop and deploy most of our surveys in-house, but for larger ones, we use survey consultants, who help us produce our surveys using third-party software solutions. Data from our surveys is used in the aggregate and is anonymous unless a survey respondent has chosen to disclose personal, identifying details such as an email address.

Your Name & Street Address

AWP may use your name and address, when applicable, for verification of purchases or donations made with a credit card, through our payment provider Global Payments . Your address may also be used to match your organization, company, or personal profile to regional councils and targeted mailings to those living in a specific region , including AWP announcements, donation requests, and AWP Conference & Bookfair information. Please visit your AWP Profile to update your address at any time. Your name and address information will not be shared with third parties/affiliates for marketing/promotional purposes.

Your Phone Number

AWP may use your phone number to contact you if there is an issue with your Account, such as a failed payment or an email address we can no longer send to. AWP will never distribute your phone number to another individual or organization without your prior permission. AWP may also contact you via SMS if you send a message regarding assistance at the AWP Conference & Bookfair. Standard data messaging charges may apply by your mobile carrier. No mobile information will be shared with third parties/affiliates for marketing/promotional purposes. All other categories exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties.

Your Demographic Data

From time to time, we may ask you to respond to voluntary surveys. The optional demographic information we may solicit in surveys, at the time of purchases, and through the conference proposal process (such as age, gender, race/ethnicity, employment, role) helps us to tailor communications and to understand our membership and conference audience. Specific information about any one user is never shared, given, or sold to any third party. The data is used by AWP to help us better understand and serve our members and attendees. Aggregate statistical data is shared with prospective sponsors, funders, and the public. Individual demographic information of scholarship applicants is shared with a selection committee.

AWP sometimes conducts voluntary comprehensive surveys of our members in order to gather data on the well-being of creative writing as an academic discipline and the well-being of our teachers, program directors, students, and other literary professionals. Your individual responses are confidential. AWP publishes only totals from aggregate statistical data, for example, average salaries, class size, or demographic percentages across an entire group. We will never share your individual answers. These surveys are important in directing AWP’s future advocacy work for professional standards.

Your AWP Website Usage Data

Usage data collected by our Website and email is used by AWP Personnel to analyze the Website usage, enhance user experience, and verify fair and appropriate use of the Service.

AWP uses Google Analytics for tracking Website users and aggregating information about Website traffic. Please refer to the Google Analytics Privacy Policy to learn about their cookies and what information is captured.

Your IP Address

The Website only uses your IP address in combination with the version of your web browser to assign a session variable that keeps you logged in to your AWP account while moving from one page of the Website to the next. This data auto expires two years after your last login.

Your Credit Card Information

The credit/debit card and bank account information you provide will only be used to process your purchase and facilitate related transactions, such as issuing receipts. Our platform, ASI’s iMIS, collects credit/debit card and bank account information through its payment processor, Global Payments, when a purchaser enters into certain types of transactions requiring payment. Credit/debit card and bank account information collected by our platform undergoes a tokenization process (randomly generated numbers that serve as a stand-in for the actual numbers) performed by Global Payments and is not stored by our platform directly. The information is only used to perform the transaction and any recurring transactions agreed upon. We use the platform iMIS hosted on the servers supplied by Advanced Solutions International .

Additional Disclosures of Your Personal Data

We may also disclose your Personal Data as follows:

with affiliates, contractors, service providers, and other third parties we use to support our Service (see “Additional Third-Party Services” below);

with exhibitors at any conference that you may sign up for;

with regulatory authorities, as required;

for any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information;

with third parties for interest-based advertising and data analytics;

to enforce any agreement, including any applicable terms of service;

to establish or exercise our right to defend against legal claims;

to law enforcement and other government authorities such as legislatures, courts, agencies, and litigants if we reasonably believe that such action is necessary to: (a) comply with the law and the reasonable requests of governmental authorities; (b) comply with legal process; (c) respond to requests from public or government authorities, including public or government authorities outside your country of residence; (d) protect the security or integrity of the Service’s information systems; and/or (e) exercise or protect our rights, privacy, safety, or those of affiliates, clients, you, or others; and

if we reasonably believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property, or safety of AWP or others.

Additional Third-Party Services

We may utilize the following third-party services to provide our Services. Please note that this is not an exhaustive list.

Email Campaigns

AWP’s email campaigns are sent using three platforms: Mailchimp and iMIS systems are used for AWP-specific email purposes. The Conference Department uses Mailchimp and the conference platform eShow. For each user, we choose to use only name, email address, and any pertinent information for the mailing (such as date membership expires, writing program name, or title of conference proposal). We do not use location/time zone information, mailing addresses, demographic data, or any other personal data within our mailings. Please see the “Your Options” section below for steps to help you unsubscribe from emails.

Submissions

AWP uses OpenWater, a product of Advanced Solutions International (ASI) to manage conference proposals, submissions to our awards, article pitches to our publications (print and digital), and other projects (such as Writer to Agent).

Digital Apps

The AWP Conference & Bookfair uses eShow for its virtual conference platform and mobile app. Through an API, we are able to connect eShow to our main website so that once signed in, users can easily navigate between systems with the use of single sign-on (SSO) integration.

Social Media Platforms

AWP uses numerous social media platforms to inform and interact with followers. AWP does not share any user data with any of these platforms. The platforms use cookies and/or pixel tracking to serve ads to users. You can view their privacy policies for more information: Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, Bluesky, and Threads.

Virtual Conference Events

The AWP Conference & Bookfair uses StreamYard to record sessions for prerecorded virtual conference events. Communication regarding scheduling and reminders regarding scheduled events are sent via Mailchimp or directly from an AWP email address using an authorized AWP email address. AWP employees will never call, nor email, requesting confidential information such as credit card information.

AWP Online Events

Live events, member-only online events that are not conference specific, and events under the Writer’s Desk use Crowdcast to live stream and/or record events. Emails are used to send invites from the Crowdcast system for live stream events. For prerecorded events, emails are sent from Mailchimp or the iMIS system. For more information, please refer to Crowdcast’s Privacy Policy.

Your Options

Your Account Options. You may access, update or correct your Personal Data any time at My AWP Account.To have your account removed entirely from the Service, please contact [email protected].

Email Options. You may opt out of email marketing campaigns from AWP by visiting your AWP Profile, selecting the Communications tab, and unchecking the box corresponding to what you no longer would like to receive. You may opt back into emails from AWP the same way. You can also contact us at [email protected] or 240-696-7700 during business hours, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET, and AWP staff will change your email preferences for you. Please note that if you opt out of email campaigns, you will still receive emails from AWP regarding membership and subscription renewals, automated emails from our Service (such as password resets, order receipts, or confirmation of conference panel proposal submissions), and notices whenever the privacy policy has changed significantly.

Tracking Technologies. Most browsers accept cookies automatically. You may be able to set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent. For instructions, check your browser’s technical information. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of the Service may then be inaccessible or not function properly. Please note that cookie-based opt-outs must be performed on each device and browser that you wish to have opted out.

Google Analytics. We may use Google Analytics to improve our Website’s functions. You can choose not to be included in Google Analytics by visiting https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

“Do Not Track” Requests

Our Service currently does not respond to “do not track” or similar signals.

How Do We Protect Your Data?

To protect your Personal Data, we take commercially reasonable precautions and follow industry best practices to make sure it is not inappropriately lost, misused, accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed. However, no data protection procedures are entirely infallible. As a result, while we strive to protect your Personal Data, we cannot guarantee that it will be 100% secure. Your transmission of your information to our Service thus is done entirely at your own risk.

Third-Party Websites

Our Service may contain links to other sites, including those of third parties or partners. While we seek to link only to sites that share our high standards and respect for privacy, we cannot be responsible for the privacy practices other websites use. By accessing other third-party websites or applications through our Service, you are consenting to the terms and privacy policies of those websites. It is possible that other parties may collect personally identifiable information about your online activities over time and across different websites when you use our Service.

International Visitors

Our Service is hosted and operated in the United States (“US”). By using the Service, you are consenting to the transfer of your Personal Data to the US. If you are accessing our Service from outside the US, please be advised that US law may not offer the same privacy protections as the law of your jurisdiction.

California Visitors

California’s “Shine the Light” law (Civil Code Section § 1798.83) permits users of our Service that are California residents to request certain information regarding our disclosure of Personal Data to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please send an email to [email protected].

Users Only of Legal Age of Majority

Our Service is not intended for children under 13 years of age. We do not knowingly collect Personal Data from children under 13. If you are under 13, do not use or provide any information on the Service or on or through any of its features/register on the Service or provide any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, email address, or any screen name or username you may use. If we learn we have collected or received Personal Data from a child under 13 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information. If you believe we might have any information from or about a child under 13 without verifiable parental consent, please contact us at [email protected].

Privacy Policy Updates

We update the Privacy Policy from time to time, so please review it regularly. If we materially change our Privacy Policy, we will notify you by contacting you through your provided email address or by posting a notice on our Service. Your continued use of our Service will be deemed your agreement that your information may be used in accordance with the new policy. If you do not agree with the changes, then you should stop using the Service and notify us that you do not want your information used in accordance with the changes.

Contact Us & Important Links

440 Monticello Ave. Ste. 1802 PMB 73708 Norfolk, VA 23510

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AWP’s projects are supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts
440 Monticello Ave. Ste. 1802 PMB 73708 Norfolk, VA 23510