2008 Schedule
Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday
| Saturday- February 2, 2008 | |
|---|---|
8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. | |
Exhibit Halls |
S101. Bookfair. |
9:00 a.m.-10:15 a.m. | |
Beekman & Sutton North |
S102. Mystery at the Heart of Story. (Robert Boswell, Kathleen Lee, Peter Turchi, CJ Hribal) Panelist will discuss different ways in which mystery can play a crucial, effective role in literary fiction. This isn't about impulsive murderers and unhappy rich girls (although it could be; think The Great Gatsby); instead, it's about mystery in characterization, syntax, resolution, and plot. |
Clinton Suite |
S103. Bellevue Literary Review: Literature and Healing. (Ronna Wineberg, Cortney Davis, Rafael Campo, Susan Varon, Frances Richey) This panel examines the themes of the BLR: how writing deepens our understanding of health, healing, and illness, and how art shapes our perceptions of life and mortality. This panel is relevant for the writer, medical professional, patient, medical and humanities student and professor. |
Murray Hill Suite |
S105. Teaching the Troubled: Writing Workshops After Virginia Tech. (Jean Braithwaite, Stacy Tintocalis, Rick Perkins, Melynda Nuss, Patricia Rippetoe, Hilary Klein) With no psychological training, creative writing instructors teach abused or mentally unstable students. A panel of two psychologists, two lawyers, and two creative writing instructors will discuss how and when to refer students to professional counseling, what warning signs to look for, how to prevent students from submitting inappropriate workshop items, when instructors are liable, and what instructors can do to avoid a tragedy. |
Nassau Suite |
S106. The Edges of Diaspora: Callaloo on Avant-Garde Black Poetics. (Brent Hayes Edwards, Ed Roberson, Duriel Harris, Giovanni Singleton, Charles Henry Rowell) To mark the journal's thirty years of continuous publication, Callaloo presents a panel on the recent history and future of avant-garde black poetry. The panelist will, individually and collectively, discuss what artistic, technological, social, and political influences affected the scope of their work, how the aesthetic map of black poetics has been redrawn over the past thirty years, and what is to be expected in the near future. |
Regent Parlor |
S107. Biography: The Other Nonfiction. (Renata Golden, Stacy Schiff, Roxana Robinson, Susan Ware, Debby Applegate) Is writing a biography more painful or more pleasurable than writing a novel? How can a writer devote so much time and effort to one subject? Why don't more writers tackle biography? This panel brings together award-winning biographers with diverse backgrounds and approaches who will discuss the historical, social, and literary roles that biography plays. They will also discuss facets of biography such as researching a subject, achieving an authoritative voice, and other practical aspects. Fifteen minutes will be allotted for questions and answers. |
Sutton Center |
S108. Recognizing Common Ground: Creative Writers as Composition Teachers. (Lad Tobin, Michael Steinberg, Robert Root, Sarah Dickerson) MFA TAs and graduates are frequently asked to teach both creative writing workshops and composition courses. To help creative writers become more successful and versatile as teachers and as job candidates, our panel of writer/teachers will point out some assumptions and approaches that are common to both disciplines. They will also offer a range of multi-genre prompts, exercises, and examples that can be applied to both creative nonfiction and composition courses. |
Sutton South |
S109. It's Not Hopeless: Independent Presses, Publicity and the Media. (Stacy Bierlein, Gina Frangello, Joanna Yas, Kristen Pulkkinen, Tod Goldberg) Independent presses are often gatekeepers of aesthetic integrity amidst financially driven corporate publishers. However, these same indies are sometimes "hopeless" when it comes to marketing the fiction (or nonfiction, poetry) they publish, due to financial constraints or lack of knowledge and time. If you're afraid your independent press book's publication will be like "throwing a party and nobody comes," come to this panel and learn the ins and outs of successful indie press book publicity! |
Grand Ballroom East |
S110. What Makes a Publisher Say "Yes"? (Jeffery Shotts, Jonathan Galassi, Jill Bialosky, Matthew Zapruder, Ed Ochester, Michael Wiegers) This panel features the editors of six major presses-large and small, long-established and new-that publish poetry outside the prize system. They discuss what first caught their attention about particular manuscripts, how they decided to publish them, and how the collections connect with their larger editorial vision. These houses represent a wide range of aesthetics and types of books, from translations to narrative poems to queer writing to experimental poetry. |
Grand Ballroom West |
S111. Pitching Fiction: From Academia to the Marketplace. (Susan Hubbard, Juan Martinez, Marcy Posner, Denise Roy) How does the craft of fiction as taught in our colleges and universities relate to the world of contemporary publishing? Is it time to redefine or reconsider "literary fiction"? An editor (from Simon & Schuster), a literary agent (from Sterling Lord Literistic), a writer/professor, and a writer/doctoral candidate present their candid perspectives on how what we teach and are taught about good fiction corresponds to what sells, what is read, and what will be remembered. |
Mercury Ballroom |
S112. Ultra-talk Poetry. (David Kirby, Barbara Hamby, Rodney Jones, Mark Halliday, Adrian Blevins) The Spring 2007 issue of TriQuarterly, "The Ultra-talk Issue", was compiled by guest editors Barbara Hamby and David Kirby and consists of 104 poems by 64 poets, including Collins, Olds, Perillo, Hoagland, and Goldbarth. Ultra-talk poetry has been called "garrulous to an extreme, quite often self-reflexive, determinedly associative, and frequently humorous." Panelists will discuss the ultra-talk aesthetic using their own and others' poems from the TriQuarterly issue. |
Conference Room D |
S113. Literary Boston: the 20th and 21st Centuries. (Steven Cramer, Jennifer Flescher, Joan Houlihan, Gail Mazur, Askold Melnyczuk, Sharan Strange) From Lowell's office hours and Bishop's last years to the Blacksmith Poetry Series; from poets and writers in their youth sharing a Cambridge address to the unprecedented Darkroom Collective; from AGNI to Arrowsmith Press and the new letterpress journal Tuesday: an Art Project; from Transcendentalism to the Concord Poetry Center--literary history continues to be made in and around Boston. The panelists, each involved in the city's literary spirit, celebrate legacies and new energies. |
Conference Room E |
S114. The Translating Muse: Some Perspectives on Creative Process. (Jennifer Kwon Dobbs, Hél�ne Cardona, Martha Collins, Willis Barnstone, Dennis Maloney) Etymological roots, synonyms branching. Beyond a decoding ring, what does translation as a creative process entail? This panel discusses the challenges and delights of projecting an original text's meaning and form into an English equivalent and the various decisions that are involved. Working with Chinese, Greek, French, Italian, Spanish, and Vietnamese in poetry and prose, this panel's translators discuss their role as intermediaries, magicians, and scholars working between languages to create an inspired text that oftentimes reaches across cultural differences, geographic distances, and time periods. Because of this reach, the translator's task in the 21st century might imply much more than extending the life of the original work. |
Conference Room L |
S116. The Independent Creative Writing Center. (Andrea Dupree, Michael Kelleher, Christopher Castellani, Michael Henry) The independent literary center has a growing role in the creative writing industry, but how does one get started? What is the proper role of the center? How is it different from and similar to academic writing programs? Directors from three prominent centers- Lighthouse Writers Workshop in Denver, Just Buffalo, and Grub Street in Boston- will tackle these questions and more. |
Central Park |
S117. A River to His People: A Celebration of Legacy & Liam Rector. (Mary Carroll-Hackett, Jill McCorkle, Victoria Clausi, Richard Scheiwe, Amy Tudor) This panel of poets, fiction writers, and dramatists explores the role of Legacy: who they've studied with, been mentored by, claimed as friends, and how these relationships have influenced their lives as writers, arts advocates, administrators, and teachers of writing. Questions of interest: Is the apprentice model still viable? What role does the writing teacher play in the shelf-life of students after writing programs? What of literary friendships? What do we learn from each other and how do these affinities contribute to Literature as a whole? What of legacy and arts advocacy? How do we 'pay it forward,' playing our part in the continuing legacy, health, and engagement of the literary community? |
Empire Ballroom |
S118. A Room with a View: Inside Literary Reviews, From Submission to Publication. (Kate Myers Hanson, James Engelhardt, Karen Craigo, M. Bartley Siegel, Jennifer Howard) Experienced editors from four literary reviews: Prairie Schooner, Passages North, Mid-American Review, and Pank will demystify their unique selection processes, across the genres, and invite questions to initiate a dialogue among writers and panel members. |
Metropolitan West |
S119. The Clashed Edges of Two Words That Kill": Syntax and the Poetic Line. (Jeffrey Levine, Linda Gregerson, Phillis Levin, Rachel Wetzsteon, Ellen Watson) How do patterns of utterance make it possible to say things that could not otherwise be said, to touch territories otherwise unreachable? This wide-ranging, lively, and scholarly panel will explore the history, rhetoric, and dynamic possibilities of poetic syntax from ancient to contemporary poets, including Stevens, Plath, Milton, Zbigniew Herbert, Donne, Berryman, and Frost, among others, and will probe how patterns of syntax can subtly create various tones and tempos within a poem. |
10:30 a.m.-11:45 a.m. | |
Beekman & Sutton North |
S120. Split This Rock: Poems of Provocation & Witness. (Sarah Browning, Mart�n Espada, E. Ethelbert Miller, Alix Olson, Alicia Ostriker) Split This Rock Poetry Festival, to be held March 20-23 in the nation's capital, will bring together poets of national prominence and local poetry communities to celebrate poetry as an agent for social change. Transformation of our political and social climate cannot occur without art that speaks from the conscience, names the unnamable, and imagines alternatives to a world based on conflict and fear. Four of the festival's featured poets read work in the spirit of Split This Rock. |
Clinton Suite |
S121. The Price of the Ticket: Writers of Color & Writing Programs. (David Mura, Tim Seibles, Patricia Smith, Gina Franco, Natalie Diaz, Marilyn Chin) Many writers of color have found writing programs to be alienating and inadequate to their needs as writers. Often we encounter a refusal to recognize our cultural and literary traditions and the communities that have formed us. To explore how programs might become more open to writers of color, this panel will address such issues as aesthetics and the canon, multicultural pedagogy, and personnel and institutional changes (for example, organizations like Cave Canem, VONA, Kundiman, Macando). |
Murray Hill Suite |
S122. The Gettysburg Review 20th Anniversary Poetry Reading. (Kim Dana Kupperman, Marvin Bell, Alice Friman, Philip Schultz) Showcasing the work of established and emerging voices, The Gettysburg Review is one of the premier literary journals published in the U.S. In celebration of our twentieth anniversary, The Gettysburg Review invites you to a reading featuring three poets--Marvin Bell, Alice Friman, and Philip Schultz--whose work appears frequently in our pages. |
Nassau Suite |
S123. 1000 Words: Picturing Fictions. (Lance Olsen, Rikki Ducornet, Steve Tomasula, Debra Di Blasi, Vanessa Place) How can images be incorporated effectively in literary work? When do images become necessary, functioning as more than just illustration? What can fiction learn from graphic novels, hypermedia, video games, podcasts, web pages, and other developing contemporary art forms? This panel explores the reading of image + text, the cultural significance of imagery in contemporary and future literature, and the dissolution of boundaries between artistic disciplines. |
Regent Parlor |
S124. Judith Johnson: A Poetics of Generosity. (Jean Anaporte, Marie Ponsot, John Allman, Rachel Brownstein, George Kalamaras, Mary Ann Cain) Judith Johnson's dynamic "poetics of generosity" spans both traditional and innovative forms in poetry, fiction, and performance. her nine books of fiction and poetry (including a Yale Series of Young Poets Prize) fuse the personal, political, and visionary with music and wordplay. Currently editor of 13th Moon, she has served as president of AWP and PSA, and she has taught and guided a generation of writers. Fellow writers and former students will speak about her work, after which she will read. |
Sutton Center |
S125. The Power and Politics of Translation. (Natasha Saje, Nicholas Benson, Forrest Gander, James Kates, Lisa Katz, Khaled Mattawa) Often when the Nobel Prize is announced, there's a flurry to find something by that author in English. For instance, spurred by Naguib Mahfouz's 1988 Nobel Prize, Jackie Kennedy, then an editor at Doubleday, read Cairo Trilogy in French and commissioned English translations. When authors are translated, they reach a wider audience and receive other benefits. Translators who want to succeed need to pick writers they can make attractive in the target language, and translators have to be able to write attractively. Translators need to access professionals both in and outside the literary system: critics, reviewers, teachers, publishers, editors, as well as powerful individuals in the media and other institutions. Six panelists discuss what they have learned about the power and politics of translation, as well as share the names of writers that deserve a wider audience. |
Sutton South |
S126. Reading to Celebrate 25 Years of the MFA Program at Virginia Commonwealth University. (Susann Cokal, Sheri Reynolds, Jon Pineda, T. R. Hummer, Dave Smith, David Wojahn) The MFA Program at Virginia Commonwealth University celebrates its 25th anniversary with a reading of poetry and fiction by two current faculty members, two former faculty, and two distinguished alumni. The participants have published over forty books, and their honors include the Pulitzer Prize shortlist, Guggenheim fellowships, an Oprah selection, a Dictionary of Literary Biography Yearbook Award, and many other awards and distinctions. |
Grand Ballroom East |
S127. This Is Not Chick Lit: The Branding of Women's Fiction. (Samantha Levy, Brandy Wilson, Elizabeth Merrick, Jessa Crispin, Anne Ishii, Julianna Baggott) This panel examines the branding of women's fiction. The panelists - comprised of writers, editors, and publicists - will discuss how women novelists are marketed and reviewed differently than men, as well as how literary women's fiction will fare with the rise and fall of chick lit. |
Grand Ballroom West |
S128. Why Ballet is Good for Football Players: How Screenwriting Informs Fiction and Poetry Writing. (B. Smith Seetachitt, Vicky Meyer, Mark Winegardner, Frank Giampietro, Robert Monroe) So you've always had this idea for a screenplay, but can you afford to take time away from your novel or book of poems? As a writer of prose or poetry, are there reasons to veer from your usual writing path? This panel discusses how learning screenwriting structure and techniques can inform a writer's understanding of story and its elements as they apply to writing fiction and prose. Panelists are teachers from fiction and screenwriting, and students of prose and poetry who have discovered the benefits of cross-form-training. |
Mercury Ballroom |
S129. The Art of Writing on Craft. (Charles Baxter, Sven Birkerts, James Longenbach, Donald Revell, Joan Silber) This panel examines the way writers of fiction, memoir, and poetry approach important, but often assumed or neglected, aspects of their craft. Subjects include subtext, time, the poetic line, the attention required to translate experience into writing, and the ways that different writers confront these vital issues. This panel introduces The Art of Series, edited by Charles Baxter-a new line of books on craft and criticism by some of contemporary literature's finest writers. |
New York Suite |
S130. 2009 Chicago Conference & Bookfair Forum. Join 2009 Chicago conference chair and AWP staff for an open forum to discuss topics of interest and relevance to AWP's upcoming conference in Chicago. |
Conference Room D |
S131. Not Your Usual Workshop. (Bonnie Marcus, Veronica Golos, Regie Cabico, George Tait, Victoria Sammartino) Writers with extensive experience teaching workshops in non-traditional settings outside academia discuss the challenges, joys, and methods of teaching in senior centers, homeless shelters, hospitals, after-school centers, and prisons, and consider how their teaching informs their work as writers. |
Conference Room E |
S132. CLMP Panel: Judging by Covers: Design Essentials for Books and Magazines. (Abby Goldstein, Elizabeth Rendlfleisch) Designers who work with Doubleday Broadway and Bomb Magazine, among others, share secrets, reveal common blunders, and discuss aesthetics vs. marketing. |
Conference Room K |
S133A. "Low Res: What are These Programs, What Do They Do? (Bonnie Culver, Brian Clements, Emily Rapp, Michael Kobre, Robert Begiebing, Patsy Sims) A decade ago, only 2-3 such programs existed. Today, there are over 30 low residency programs nationwide. At the AWP Atlanta Conference, low residency directors met for the first time and compared and contrasted their programs, goals, and challenges. In that exchange, the directors realized that while "low res" programs do share similar pedagogical visions, they vary widely in how and what experiences they offer their students. In this panel, six program directors will offer brief summaries of his/her program and discuss the challenges, advantages, and opportunities such programs offer students and faculty. |
Conference Room L |
S133B. 2007/2008 Writers' Conferences & Centers Meeting. (Christian Teresi, AWP Associate Director of Membership Services) An opportunity for members of Writers' Conferences & Centers to meet one another and the staff of AWP to discuss issues pertinent to building a strong community of WC&C programs. |
Central Park |
S134. Northern Gothic: Readings from the North Country. (Rilla Askew, Mermer Blakeslee, Patricia Eakins, Janice Eidus, Jessica Treat) Award-winning writers from the Catskills, Connecticut, and NYC read their work. Subverting and extending Southern Gothic tropes, relocating them to the Catskill Mountains, suburban Connecticut, Manhattan and beyond, these writers use stylistic virtuosity and up-country sensibility to create fiction that translates the region's landscapes, transmogrifies the pastoral dream. |
Empire Ballroom |
S135. A Celebration of Richard Howard. (Katharine Coles, Scott Cairns, Jacqueline Osherow, Barbara Hamby, Richard Howard) Poet, critic, editor, teacher, translator, performer--Richard Howard has lived many lives simultaneously, all of them with unmatched wit, grace, and style. Along the way, he has nurtured other writers with unusual generosity and labored to bring new or lesser-known poets to national attention. As he approaches eighty with a new book forthcoming, the panelists will celebrate his life, his work, and his mentorship; Mr. Howard will respond with his own reminiscences and a reading. |
Metropolitan East |
S136. Posthumous Keats: An Interview with Stanley Plumly. (Howard Norman, David Wyatt, Stanley Plumly) This will be an interview with Stanley Plumly about his new nonfiction book, "Posthumous Keats," published spring 2008 by Norton. The interviewers will be Dr. David Wyatt, professor of English at the University of Maryland, and novelist Howard Norman. The book is the result of decades of research and thought, and is a powerful elegiac celebration and treatise of Keats' life, especially his final days. Wyatt would focus on Keats' poems and the central thesis, while Norman, in turn, would focus on the act of writing and researching the book and the plaiting together of autobiographical and biographical narrative strategies. |
Metropolitan West |
S137. Best New American Voices 2008 Reading. (Natalie Danford, Richard Bausch, David James Poissant, Elizabeth Kadetsky, Peter Mountford, Sharon May) Since its inception in 2000, Best New American Voices, the annual anthology series published by Harvest/Harcourt, has featured short stories from emerging writers enrolled in degree and non-degree writing programs throughout North America. Series Co-Editor Natalie Danford will discuss the history of the series, and guest editor Richard Bausch will talk about the experience of choosing stories for the 2008 edition. Four contributors to Best New American Voices 2008 will read from their work. |
12:00 p.m.-1:15 p.m. | |
Beekman & Sutton North |
S138. Truth and Taboo in the Incriminating Memoir. (Mindy Lewis, Kathryn Harrison, Barbara Gordon, Robin Hemley, Sue William Silverman) In exposing personal and family secrets, the memoirist challenges agreements of silence and complicity, putting at risk reputation, relationships and credibility. Yet the impulse toward narrative self-exposure is strong enough to challenge prevailing systems and social taboo, as writers from all genres turn to memoir to shatter silence and probe the truth. The panelists address questions of process, precedent, and craft specific to this evolving genre. |
Bryant Suite |
S139. From Word to World --- Humanizing the Middle East. (Nahid Mozaffari, Elias Khoury, Sholeh Wolpe, Khaled Mattawa, Dan Veach) What is the role of literature in translation particularly from Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and other Middle Eastern languages in moving Western consciousness away from simplistic images of terrorists and fanatics fed to the general public through the media and popular culture? How can we expose the humanity, complexity and multidimensionality of that region through making its literature more available and accessible? A panel of editors, writers, and translators will address how to overcome this brutal dehumanization of cultures rich in heritage, literature and history. |
Clinton Suite |
S140. Judging Art: The Role of Assessment in Creative Writing Classes. (Tom Bligh, Elizabeth Stuckey-French, Paul Griner, Sabina Murray, Kevin Stewart, John Hennessy) Panelists from multiple genres and with a variety of teaching experience will discuss ways to evaluate student creative writing. Their investigation will include, but not be limited to, the following topics: 1) Grading rubrics, 2) Objectivity versus Subjectivity in assessment, 3) What makes good art, and 4) Adopting a pass/fail grading policy. They will discuss the ethics that inform grading procedures, as well as offer practical, theoretical, and anecdotal evidence from their experiences. |
Morgan Suite |
S141. Celebrating the Juniper Prizes for Poetry and Fiction. (Bruce Wilcox, Michael Dumanis, Katherine Arnoldi, Theodore Worozbyt, Lynn Lurie) Readings from award-winning books by four recent recipients of the Juniper Prizes for Poetry and Fiction -- Michael Dumanis, Katherine Arnoldi, Theodore Worozbyt, and Lynn Lurie. |
Murray Hill Suite |
S142. Saying Goodbye to Sweet Valley High: The New Young Adult Literature. (Olivia Birdsall, Nicole Hefner, Louise Plummer, Margo Rabb) Literature for young adults increasingly transcends the traditional stereotypes associated with it, revealing itself to be an innovative, exciting field in literature. Members of the panel, many of whom also write for adults, will discuss the YA designation in terms of quality, content, publication, publicity, critical reception and the academic job market. They will also explore craft through the various forms their own YA work has taken, ranging from novels in verse to short stories. |
Nassau Suite |
S143. White Pine Press Thirty Fifth Anniversary Reading. (Dennis Maloney, Robert Alexander, Jennifer Kwon Dobbs, Maurice Kenny, Peter Johnson, Madelon Sprengnether) In 2008 White Pine Press will celebrate its 35th anniversary and would like to host a reading that reflects the wide diversity of poetry and poetry in translation published by the press. Poets presenting will include Frances Richey, Jennifer Kwon Dobbs, Peter Johnson, Marjorie Agosin, Stephen Frech, Dennis Maloney, and others. |
Regent Parlor |
S144. Judith E. Johnson at 70, Reading From Her Work. (Jean Anaporte, Judith E. Johnson) Since 1955, Judith Johnson has created prize-winning poetry, fiction, and intermedia in both traditional and innovative forms. Her "Poetics of Generosity" offers an alternative to a politics of fear and closed doors. Her nine books of fiction and poetry (including a Yale Series of Younger Poets selection) fuse the personal, political, and visionary with music and wordplay. This reading follows and is part of a tribute in which fellow writers and former students speak about her work. |
Sutton Center |
S145. Gay Male Poetry Post-Identity Politics. (Reginald Shepherd, Christopher Hennessy, Brad Richard, Aaron Smith, Brian Teare) What does it mean to be a gay male poet today, after gay liberation, the somewhat domesticated gay rights movement, the revived radicalism of Queer Nation, the AIDS epidemic and ACT UP, and intellectual interrogations of "queerness" and identity itself? Contemporary gay male poets can take their gayness for granted on several levels. They also can explore, question, and even explode that identity. On this panel, four emerging gay male poets discuss what the words gay male poetry mean to them. |
Sutton South |
S146. The Future of the Environmental Essay. (Simmons Buntin, Alison Hawthorne Deming, David Gessner, David Rothenberg, Lauret Savoy) Global warming, urbanization, and deforestation-these are only a few of the global dilemmas that environmental writing attempts to tackle. Historically, environmental essay-beginning with writers like Aldo Leopold and Rachel Carson-has taken a place-based, often spiritual approach to environmental issues. But what does the future of the environmental essay hold? Four prominent creative nonfiction writers and editors will provide insight, exploring environmental essay as both craft and motive. |
Grand Ballroom East |
S147. Poets in the Sheep Meadow Fold. (Stanley Moss, John Ashbery, Christopher Bakken, Yerra Sugarman, Suzanne Gardinier, Hermine Pinson) Celebrated poets from the catalogue of Sheep Meadow Press, including publisher Stanley Moss, will read from some of their recent works. Poets will include John Ashbery reading his translations of the great, recently deceased, French poet Pierre Martory, Christopher Bakken, Suzanne Gardinier, Hermine Pinson, and Yerra Sugarman |
Grand Ballroom West |
S148. Editors, Agents, and Publishers at the Bread Loaf Writers Conference. (Michael Collier, Carol Houck Smith, Miriam Altshuler, Fiona McCrae, Janet Silver) This panel features a popular literary agent, a legendary editor, and the publishers of two of the key houses in contemporary American letters, each of whom are frequent visitors to the Bread Loaf Writers Conference. Each panelist will describe what they do, what they look for, and the ways in which they can help and inform aspiring and established writers. |
Mercury Ballroom |
S149. No Humor in Heaven, but Hell Can Be Hilarious: Risks and Rewards in Writing Humor. (Lorraine Lopez, Heather Sellers, Crystal Wilkinson, Julia Watts, Mary Clyde, Lynn Pruett) "The secret source of humor," Mark Twain stipulated, "is not joy but sorrow; there is no humor in Heaven." Thus, humor erupts with force and frequency from the margins of culture, class, and sexual orientation, and despite Christopher Hitchen's declaration that females lack wit, from women. Panelists examine how humor forges human connections and how it can also colonize literature, prompting critical reaction and hype that shunt writing back into the margins by ignoring its "secret source." |
Conference Room D |
S150. Lasting Impressions: Developing Imprints within Established Presses. (Peggy Shumaker, Elizabeth Bradfield, Kate Gale, Eloise Klein Healy, Hilda Raz, Eva Saulitis) How and why would an established press begin a specialized imprint? Editors, authors, and publishers will look at four imprints. Arktoi Books, an imprint of Red Hen Press, publishes work by lesbian writers. Boreal Books, an imprint of Red Hen Press, publishes work by Alaskan writers. The Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry and the PS Book Prize in Fiction offer contest winners publication by Univ. of Neb. Press. In this nuts and bolts talk, we'll try to demystify imprints and the publishing process. |
Conference Room E |
S151. Civic Engagement Through the Literary Arts. (Marc Fitten, Amy Stolls, Christine Higashi, Travis Denton, Jay Baron Nicorvo) Panelists from The NEA, The Chattahoochee Review, The Washington Center for the Book, CLMP, and Poetry at Tech discuss how they have used literature to positively engage their communities, and how other literary organizations can do the same. |
Central Park |
S152. A Sarah Lawrence Sampler. (Brian Morton, Nicholas Dawidoff, Joshua Henkin, Mary Morris, Joan Silber) Join us in celebrating the recently published, or soon to be published, works of five of Sarah Lawrence College's distinguished prose faculty. |
Empire Ballroom |
S153. U.S. Latino Writers Speak Out: A Literary Response to the Immigration Crisis. (Benjamin Alire S�enz, Denise Chavez, Dagoberto Gilb, Luis Urrea, Ruben Martinez) We are poets, novelists, and journalists who feel compelled to unite in a public forum to read from our work that addresses an issue that is tearing this country apart. Our literature, our books, our novels, our journalism, our poetry, our urge to write has sprung from the fact that we belong to an immigrant community in struggle. With our words, we wish to bridge the chasm between the literature we write, the writing community of which we are a part, and the country that is our home. |
Metropolitan East |
S154. A Tribute to Louis Simpson. (Stephen Bluestone, Robert McDowell, Peter Stitt, Mark Jarman, Peter Makuck, Louis Simpson) For over half a century Louis Simpson has embodied the ideal of the American man of letters. As critic he has set the standard in his generation for elegance and breadth of outlook. As poet his journey has been from lyric formalism to personal voice. Simpson is one of the few American writers of his time to achieve a mature understanding of Whitman's range and inclusiveness, while, at the same time, constructing a style that frames and expresses individual lives and situations. Several friends and admirers will celebrate Simpson's life and career, and the tribute will end with a reading by Louis Simpson. |
Metropolitan West |
S155. Overlooked Foremother? Marianne Moore in the 21st Century. (Sharon Dolin, Albert Goldbarth, Jeanne Marie Beaumont, Catherine Daly, Timothy Liu, Moira Egan) While Marianne Moore's tricorn hat and "Poetry" are treasured curios in the cabinet of American Modernism, few poets openly acknowledge their indebtedness to Moore's poetry. Six contemporary poets discuss Miss Moore's legacy, including her syllabics, her animiles, and her use of quotation and collage, finding in it something "beyond all this fiddle." |
1:30 p.m.-2:45 p.m. | |
Beekman & Sutton North |
S156. Breaking Lines on the Battlefield: Poetry of Wartime. (Sandra Beasley, Doug Anderson, Kevin Bowen, Susan Tichy, Brian Turner) This panel examines American poetry emerging from recent military conflicts, particularly the wars in Vietnam and Iraq. What are the pragmatic, political, and aesthetic concerns of soldiers writing from wartime experience? How can poets utilize research to recreate a battlefield perspective? How are today's veterans using poetry, and what are the generational divides within art inspired by wars more than thirty years apart? |
Bryant Suite |
S157. Voicing Needs & Creative Survival: Writing in Multilingual, Community Spaces. (Emmy Pérez, Michelle Otero, Sehba Sarwar, Carolina Monsiv�is, Minerva Laveaga, Lecroy Rhyanes) Writers of color teaching community workshops will discuss pedagogical strategies and experiences working with incarcerated youth and adults, survivors of domestic violence, survivors of sexual assault, migrant farm workers and immigrant youth. What are some effective methods for teaching participants with a range of educational and life experiences in multilingual settings? Writing for social action comes full circle when we publicly distribute work via performance, radio, recordings and print. |
Clinton Suite |
S158A. Contemporary Vietnamese Poetry. (Paul Hoover, Nguyen Do, Mong Lan, Truong Tran, Hoa Nguyen) The reading focuses on the anthology, Contemporary Vietnamese Poetry, edited and translated by Nguyen Do and Paul Hoover (Milkweed Editions, 2008). Featuring twenty-one poets, five of whom are Vietnamese-American, the work included reveals an innovative aspect of Vietnamese poetry that has gone unrecognized. Panel participants are contributors to that volume. |
Morgan Suite |
S158B. Soft Skull 15th Anniversary Reading. (Douglas Martin, David Griffith, Matthew Sharpe, Lynne Tillman, Jenny Davidson, Cristin Aptowicz) In fifteen years, Soft Skull Press has delighted, excited and enraged the American public--from eight books selected as Voice Literary Supplement Best Books of the Year, to two books identified by Ann Coulter as amongst the five most fraudulent books of the past decade. In so doing, Soft Skull has become one of the most well respected, independent publishers in the world, with books in translation throughout Europe, South America and Japan, Korea, and China. Herewith we offer several of the writers who have made us who we are, and will continue to make us who we hope to be. |
Murray Hill Suite |
S159. Blockheads: A Roundtable Discussion of the Pleasures and Pains of the Prose Poem. (Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Kim Addonizio, Beth Ann Fennelly, Patrick Rosal, Matthea Harvey, Bob Hicok) Award-winning authors and teachers of prose poetry examine the hows and whys of the shape-shifting form of poetry known as prose poetry. Panelists will discuss Asian and Latino approaches to the form, genre-bending and balancing, the use of humor, and why the prose poem is the perfect form for material that is "dark and dangerous." |
Nassau Suite |
S160. Dramatic Writing For Stage, Screen & Digital Media: The Need for a New Kind of Interdisciplinary Writing Program. (Aaron Levy, Jeffery Stepakoff, Ralph Tejada Wilson, Darren Crovitz) This session will demonstrate why and how writing programs, like the new one on the docket for Kennesaw State University (20 miles north of Atlanta) need to become completely interdisciplinary if they want to really teach the 21st Century student. Whether performed on an Off-Broadway stage, watched on a T.V. or experienced on a cell phone, good entertainment is still based on the same tenets laid out by the Greeks. Join a panel discussion with Dawson's Creek screenwriter, Jeff Stepakoff, award-winning playwright, Aaron Levy, award-winning poet, Ralph Tejada Wilson, and English Education professor and technology specialist, Darren Crovitz as they discuss a new Interdisciplinary Writing program that is in the developmental stages of implementation at KSU as we speak! |
Regent Parlor |
S161. Four Way Books 15 Years. (Daniel Tobin, Laurel Blossom, April Ossmann, Jeffrey Harrison, C. Dale Young, Kevin Prufer) Four Way Books celebrates its fifteenth anniversary here at AWP and we are grateful and proud to present some of our recent poets. Short readings by Laurel Blossom, Tina Chang, Jeffrey Harrison, Kevin Prufer, Daniel Tobin, and C. Dale Young will give our audience a sampling of the exciting range of work the press has become known for over the years. |
Sutton Center |
S162. We Will Be Citizens: The Insistent Voice of Lesbian Nonfiction. (Gretchen Legler, Mary Cappello, Barrie Jean Borich, Lori Soderlind, Amy Hoffman, Catherine Reid) Whether or not the stories of lesbian literary nonfiction are embraced by the publishing world, popular readership, or political decision-makers, lesbian memoirists have an immense impact on American literary and family culture. Five lesbian nonfiction writers will share the challenges of writing, publishing and promoting what may still be considered "transgressive" stories about lesbian life, believing that they must keep writing themselves into the visible landscape of American culture. |
Sutton South |
S163. Revising the Graduate Workshop: New Models for Teaching an Old Class. (Kurt Brown, Mark Doty, Nick Flynn, Claudia Rankine, Richard Jackson, Dara Wier) The idea for this panel is not to attack the current model for poetry workshops, or claim that the current model doesn't work. The idea is to imagine alternative environments for the creation and critique of poems. Once we have mastered one form of writing, we often try to experiment with other forms. Why not the workshop model as well? There is a growing interest in pursing other methods and techniques. Call it "experimental pedagogy." After the moderator introduces each panelist, and describes-in general-how the current model of the writing workshop is constructed, panelists will give 10-12 minute presentations about what they have been doing and how they envision a new model for the graduate poetry workshop. Q & A to follow. |
Mercury Ballroom |
S164. Poets in the Hood. (Richard Michelson, Mart�n Espada, E. Ethelbert Miller) Neighborhoods in Brooklyn and The Bronx were, and still are ethnic and racial enclaves. E. Ethelbert Miller, a black poet, was born in 1950 in the South Bronx. Richard Michelson, a Jewish poet was born 1953 in East New York, Brooklyn, and Martin Espada, a Hispanic poet was born in 1957, just a few blocks from Michelson. All three poets will talk about the racial and political overtones of their poetry, and how the neighborhoods of their birth have affected their outlook and their voice. |
Conference Room D |
S165. Alternatives to Academia. (Melanie Moore, Russell Chamberlain, Kathleen Jesme, Vince Passaro, Michele Kotler, Bruce Morrow) Academia used to be the typical path chosen by creative writing MFAs and PhDs. These days the candidates outnumber the available tenure track positions by as much as 25:1. For degreed writers, what other options are available? Meet six writers who have found meaningful work beyond the ivory towers. These panelists work for corporations, nonprofits, and the government in the fields of consulting, management, social work, and fundraising. |
Conference Room E |
S166. The Role of the Public University in Fostering Contemporary Literature: It's the Tuition, Stupid! (Tom Sleigh, Michael Collier, Stuart Dischell, Donna Masini, Askold Melnyczuk, Debra Nystrom) For every tuition dollar you borrow to go to school, how much time are you going to need to spend working a day job that won't allow you time to write? And given higher and higher tuition costs, what kind of student will teachers end up teaching and what might that effect be on the health of contemporary literature? With the increasing commodification and professionalization of the arts, will this become yet another class barrier to a life as an artist? What are some tangible and intangible ways to address this problem so that writing programs, both public and private, can help students get an education and find ways to deal with such pressures. |
Conference Room K |
S167. By One or by Many: Varying Editorial Models for Literary Magazines. (Carol Ann Davis, Garrett Doherty, Peter Stitt, Alissa Nutting, David Lynn, Stephanie G'Schwind) The editors of Crazyhorse invite editors of several literary magazines to discuss how the composition of their editorial structure affects their decision-making process. Pertinent questions include: What are effective editorial staff configurations and practices for selecting manuscripts for publication? (Committee vote? Manuscript rating system? Dictatorship?) How essential is editorial continuity to the success of a journal? How best to employ interns in the process of manuscript selection? Is student involvement in the decision-making process tenable or untenable? |
Conference Room L |
S168. All about the Heart: Writers Discuss Their Work with Children. (Robin Reagler, Farnoosh Moshiri, Paul Lisicky, Terry Blackhawk, Lolita Hernandez) Before the novels are published and awards are won, before setting out on tenure tracks or book tours, how do authors make ends meet? Teaching creative writing through Writers in the Schools (WITS) programs does more than just pay the bills. This type of work touches writers deeply and informs their understanding of the world. On this panel sponsored by the WITS Alliance, published poets and novelists describe their experience teaching creative writing to young people. Some will share their own writing about this work. |
Central Park |
S169. Women of a Certain Age. (Janet Burroway, Rosellen Brown, Hilma Wolitzer, Sandra Gilbert, Hilda Raz, Carole Simmons Oles) Six women writers over sixty, who are teachers and/or editors as well, share the long perspective. They will discuss how the publishing industry has changed over the course of their careers, how the relation between writing and feminism has affected them, how ambition has changed, how ambition persists, how they have handled disappointment, how they would do it differently, how differently they perceive life for young writers today. |
Empire Ballroom |
S170. Memory and Memoir. (Joshua Wolf Shenk, Mary Karr, A. M. Homes, Dan Kennedy) Do you remember the past like a hawk--seeing every detail precisely? Or do you remember the past like a Rothko painting--seeing, first, the hot emotional tones and few of the precise lines? In this panel, writers of memoir will read short pieces from their work and discuss the way that their memory style informs their prose style--and the shape of their narratives. |
Metropolitan East |
S171. A Tribute to Gerald Stern. (Alan Soldofsky, Edward Hirsch, Jorie Graham, Ira Sadoff, Li-Young Lee, Gerald Stern, Ann Marie Macari) A diverse group of five distinguished poets will offer tributes to Gerald Stern, who will also give a brief reading from his work. The event is sponsored by Poets House. |
Metropolitan West |
S172. A Reading by Edwidge Danticat & Alan Cheuse. Sponsored by The City University of New York. Readings by Edwidge Danticat and Alan Cheuse. Introductions by Kimiko Hahn. |
3:00 p.m.-4:15 p.m. | |
Beekman & Sutton North |
S173. Kitsch and Pop Culture as Social Critique. (Nava Renek, Debra Di Blasi, Elizabeth Bachner, Alexandra Chasin, Lily Hoang, Megan Milks) Spuyten Duyvil Press celebrates the release of its new collection of short fiction: Wreckage of Reason: XXperimental Women Writers Writing in the 21st Century. Reading and discussion with five contributors whose work examines the social and political conundrums of our era by juxtaposing pop cultural icons and current social phenomena to create a new dimension in narrative. |
Bryant Suite |
S174. Still Here and Writing: Responding to Trauma. (Moira Crone, Anne Gisleson, Melissa Wilkerson, Jennifer Nunes, Melinda Mauntel, Jane Stubbs) When national disaster happens in your own community, how do you write this experience in a unique and non-cliché way? Hurricane Katrina not only tore into the Louisiana landscape but also into the lives of writers. Come hear how four Louisiana authors have personalized the trauma and aftermath of Katrina. Arriving a year after the storm, two additional panelists will share how they have integrated into their own writing an experience that is both removed for them but everywhere in the community. |
Gibson Suite |
S175. The Ethics of Curating Literature. (Frances Sjoberg, Teri Ellen Cross, Jerod Santek, Alison Granucci, Travis Nichols, Margit Rankin) The people behind some of our nation's best literary series discuss what goes into the making of a great program. What standards do curators use and how are featured readers selected? And to what, if any, standards should literary curators themselves be held? |
Morgan Suite |
S176. Crossing Over: The Hazards and Pleasures of Writing Across Race & Culture. (Stacy Leigh, Marina Budhos, Helen Benedict) In this panel, panelists will discuss the sensitive, fascinating subject of creating characters of another race or culture. What are the hazards--and the pleasures? And what of the question of authenticity--is this, even, a false distinction? Tolstoy "crossed over" in creating a portrait of a woman adulteress--is this different? How do we balance the imaginative act with a sense of responsibility? Since writing is often about crossing boundaries, exploring the unknown--is this just another territory to explore? Are there dangers? Taboos? And in an age of "ethnic literature," where writers are associated with particular cultural experiences, have we become too restrictive in our notions of what we can write about? |
Murray Hill Suite |
S177. "Glory Be": Spirituality in Contemporary Poetry. (Joshua Kryah, Scott Cairns, Eric Pankey, Kent Shaw, Claudia Keelan, Mary Szybist) This panel will examine and represent contemporary approaches to spiritual poetry, particularly within the Christian tradition. What does it mean to explore one's faith through poetry? Does one then risk being labeled a "spiritual" or "religious" poet? And is this indeed a risk? Through a discussion of these questions, we will explore the diversity of contemporary approaches to spiritual poetry. |
Nassau Suite |
S178. Imagining the Future. (Lee Gutkind, George Gibson, Heidi Julavits, Rebecca Miller, Amy Stolls) What will the world of writing and publishing look like in 2025? Specifically, how will developments in technology affect the creation and sharing of stories? The panelists--authors, editors, a publisher and a program office, all contributors to a recent issue of Creative Nonfiction devoted to these questions--discuss the impact of recent trends in technology (e.g., e-books, print-on-demand, online publishing) and speculate about how things will change for publishers, writers and readers. |
Regent Parlor |
S179. Fiction and War. (Whitney Terrell, Anthony Swofford, Susan Choi, Scott Anderson, Lan Samantha Chang, Matthew Eck) As the U.S. enters its fifth year in Iraq, war has become a focus for American life in ways that haven't been seen since Vietnam. However, the military's closed society poses unique challenges for fiction writers. Should only veterans write about war? Or do civilian writers bring a crucial perspective to the subject? What about historical works like Gravity's Rainbow or The Red Badge of Courage? What strategies can fiction writers of any stripe use for "getting it right"? |
Sutton Center |
S180. Practice Makes Perfect Prose: Exercises for the Writing Life and Workshop. (Bret Anthony Johnston, Richard Bausch, Debra Spark, C. Michael Curtis, Holiday Reinhorn) Singers do scales. Runners stretch. Writers, though, tend to dive into a day's work with their muscles cold. This panel of experienced writers and teachers will examine the risks and rewards of using writing exercises in their work and workshops. This lively discussion will be practical and pedagogical, exploring how narrative calisthenics can stoke the imagination without stifling it, and how writing exercises can produce original, exciting prose that transcends formula and expectation. |
Sutton South |
S181. Climate Change: Writing, Activism, and the Environment. (Janet McAdams, John Kinsella, Roxana Robinson, Allison Hedge Coke, Linda Hogan, Diane Glancy) Is green the new black? Can writing constitute a site of activism? Is the heyday of what Scott Russell Sanders calls 'dysfunctional urban literature' coming to an end? Has global climate change produced a concomitant change in the climate of writing about the natural world? Five writers who foreground environmental concerns in their work will discuss whether shifting awareness of climate change is also provoking a shift in the ways literary writers attend to the natural world and bear witness to environmental degradation in their works. |
Grand Ballroom |
S182. The PSA Presents: A Reading and Interview with James Tate. Sponsored by The Poetry Society of America. A reading by poet James Tate, followed by a conversation hosted by Robert Casper. |
Mercury Ballroom |
S183. 30 Years of Excellence: The Stony Brook Southampton Writers Conference Faculty. (Robert Reeves, Melissa Bank, Matt Klam, Ursula Hegi, Meg Wolitzer, Roger Rosenblatt, Gary Trudeau) Every July, Hampton's beaches fill with sun-worshippers more apt to be clutching a copy of Stones from the River than A Duke in Danger. The Southampton Writers Conference, a program of the Stony Brook Southampton MFA in Writing and Literature, presents the distinguished faculty who have made such a rarity a reality: Melissa Bank, Ursula Hegi, Matt Klam, Robert Reeves, Roger Rosenblatt and Meg Wolitzer. |
New York Suite |
S184. Living Blue in the Red States. (David Starkey, Lee Martin, Stephen Corey, Jim Peterson, Steve Heller, John Lane) Living Blue in the Red States, which was published by the University of Nebraska Press in the fall of 2007, is a collection of personal-political essays exploring what it's like to live as a progressive in areas of the country that often do not share the writer's values. Participants will read from their essays and discuss the nature of personal-political creative nonfiction. |
Conference Room D |
S185. Broadening the Circle: How Cave Canem and Kundiman Became Family. (Oliver de la Paz, Toi Derricotte, Cornelius Eady, Tim Seibles, Sarah Gambito, Joseph Legaspi) What happens when one not-for-profit arts organization mentors another not-for-profit arts organization? Hear founders and faculty members of both Cave Canem and Kundiman discuss the ins and outs of creating an arts retreat dedicated to the teaching and mentoring of African American and Asian American writers. Not only will Cave Canem and Kundiman discuss the origins of their formulation and the relationship between the two writing communities, but they will also discuss the issues of ethnicity in the workshop environment, what it means to be in a community of writers of color, the challenges those communities face, and the diversity of writing and writers within. |
Conference Room E |
S186. Beyond Our Borders. (Thom Didato, Richard Nash, Mary Flynn, Brigid Hughes, Agnes Krup, Ram Devineni) In the past American literary magazines and presses have tried to attract a broader readership by printing/publishing translations of non-English authors. But in an age were English is becoming an almost international language, what are literary publishers doing to change their emphasis from international writers to international readers? A panel of book and magazine editors, as well as a foreign rights agent, explain their attempts to reach a more international audience for their publications. |
Conference Room K |
S187. A Department of Our Own. (Brian Clements, David Harvey, Eric Nelson, Abbey Zink, Philip Gerard) The divergent goals of writing programs and English departments are leading to the establishment of many independent writing departments. Representatives of several independent writing departments discuss the advantages and disadvantages of pulling out of the English Dept.; the obstacles to independence; strategies for making the case to administrators; the benefits to students; whether comp goes with Writing or with English; etc. |
Central Park |
S188. New New York BOA Authors. (Thom Ward, Kazim Ali, Chris Kennedy, Jeanne Marie Beaumont, Anthony Tognazzini, Sean Thomas Dougherty) This event will consist of a performance by five New BOA writers who have significant ties to New York State. Ali, Kennedy, Beaumont and Dougherty are all award winning poets. Widely published Anthony Tognazzini's first book is the inaugural title in BOA's new fiction series. |
Empire Ballroom |
S189. The Place of Art and Language, and the Language of Art and Place Writers from the New York State Writers Institute. (Donald W. Faulkner, William Kennedy, Lydia Davis, Lynne Tillman, Edward Schwarzschild, Rebecca Wolff) We live in language as well as in the shared, visible world. Here, six writers, all of them members of the New York State Writers Institute, will read from their work and talk about the importance of place in fiction, whether the place be Albany, New York, or the unanchored place of language. |
Metropolitan East |
S190. Dreaming the End of War: One Poem, Many Voices. (Benjamin Alire S�enz, C.D. Wright, Matthew Shenoda, Emily Warn, Richard Jones, Cyrus Cassells) In Dreaming the End of War, poet Benjamin S�enz writes to overcome the very idea of war. "I don't believe a flag is important enough to kiss-or even burn. Some men would hate me enough to kill me if they read these words." Rooted in an artist's impulse to speak, to say enough, six poets give voice to the entirety of this gripping suite that confronts the major issues of our day: immigration, borderlands, poverty, and humanity's addiction to war. |
Metropolitan West |
S191. A Tribute to Richard Yates. (Robin Metz, Grace Schulman, DeWitt Henry, Blake Bailey, Barbara Bean, Stuart Dybek) Born and raised in NYC, Richard Yates became one of the most compelling and precise writers of American fiction in the half century following WWII, yet his life, and for a time, his literary reputation spiraled tragically toward oblivion. Friends, colleagues, editors, and students of Yates will celebrate and assess his recent resurgence among writers, readers, students, and directors of forthcoming films as the heir to the literary tradition of Fitzgerald and Flaubert. |
4:30 p.m.-6:15 p.m. | |
Beekman & Sutton North |
S192. Great Difficult Poets. (Jenny Factor, Dan Beachy-Quick, Chris Abani, Joanna Klink, Karen Volkman) In his essay, "The Riddle of Poetry," Jorge Luis Borges celebrates not "revelation" but "perplexity"-how poetry is a lived, incarnate thing. Each panelist will present a Great Difficult Poet he or she admires-from Ann Lauterbach to John Donne and beyond. How has that poet innovated with image, syntax, voice, and theme? How has s/he entered the panelist's own creative dialogue-spurring vital generative or heuristic concerns? How do risk and complexity engage poetry's most insoluble potential? |
Bryant Suite |
S193. Teaching Publishing: An in-depth look at student involvement with New Rivers Press. (Jennifer Bakken, Chris Hingley, Heather Steinmann, Erik Meyer, Al Davis, Donna Carlson) New Rivers Press, a teaching press associated with Minnesota State University Moorhead, is putting publishing into the hands of students enabling the press to work closely with the authors it publishes and providing students with applicable experience working directly with all aspects of publishing. Faculty and students associated with the press will describe how the process works, focusing on hoe the students provide needed resources and how the press operates within the academic realm. |
Morgan Suite |
S194. The Bakeless Prize: a reading celebrating the Katharine Bakeless Nason publication prize by former prize winners. (Ian Pounds, Miranda Field, Amy Benson, Peter Duval, Spencer Reece, Sara Pritchard) The Katharine Bakeless Nason Prize, awarded by the Breadloaf Writers' Conference, has introduced some extraordinarily talented writers of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. The prize-winning volumes are each writer's first book, and the judges are luminaries such as Louise Gl�ck, Ursula Hegi, Ted Conover, Jay Parini, and Carol Muske-Dukes. Join us to hear some award-winning poems, short stories, and memoir. |
Murray Hill Suite |
S195. New York in the 50s. (Derek Alger, Dan Wakefield, Tom Fleming, Bruce Jay Friedman, David Amram, Stephen Koch) New York in the 50s is a subject about a unique time and place in cultural history and the majority of participants on this panel are living witnesses to this vital time period and its influence. During this period, when New York City was a hotbed of free love, hot jazz, racial politics, psychoanalysis, and artist expression, Dan Wakefield and others on the panel relate first-hand accounts and affections about living through this period where they interacted with friends and colleagues such as Joan Dideon, Gay Talese, Allen Ginsberg, William F. Buckey, Jack Kerouac, James Baldwin, and others who made New York in the fifties the legend that still exerts such a powerful influence on American Life. |
Nassau Suite |
S196. Split the Lark: The Border of Music and Poetry. (Jeffrey Bean, Aafa Michael Weaver, Jeffrey Skinner, Lola Haskins, Charles O. Hartman) Poetry and music share essential elements: rhythm, tone, surprise, silence, repetition, texture, etc. But what constitutes "musical" poetry? In what sense is poetry, to paraphrase Eliot, a "musical construction"? And, in poetry inspired by a specific musician, musical style, or piece, what translates, what does not? What can poets learn by studying music? Six poets discuss the permeable border between the two arts, and the ways in which music has shaped their poetry. |
Regent Parlor |
S197. Twenty Years of New York City Slam: A Guided Tour Through Gotham's Competitive Poetry Scenes. (Daniel Nester, Cristin Aptowicz, Shappy Seasholz, Regie Cabico, Susan B. Anthony Somers-Willett) It's been two decades since slam was imported from Chicago to New York's Lower East Side. Since that night at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, slam has spread worldwide and has blossomed in the Big Apple. There are tussles, hustles, and a Russell (Simmons). Where is slamming now? This panel will discuss the birth, growing pains, and continuing evolution of this alternative arts movement from a uniquely New York perspective. |
Sutton Center |
S198. Fluid Borders: An International Online Writing Community, a 21st Century Collaborative Phenomenon. (Darlin' Neal, Kim Chinquee, Pia Ehrhardt, Kathy Fish, Girija Tropp, Jeff Landon) Our event focuses on an international online writing community, a 21st century phenomenon. Panel members will discuss their collaborative experience of generating ideas through the use of prompts through to revision and their work together on many forms of fiction from flash to novels. Members hail from the US, Australia, South Africa, South America and other regions and have published widely since the group's onset and attribute success to this collaborative support. We will discuss ways this intimate international forum alters and enriches the form and vision of our fiction. |
Sutton South |
S199. The Poetry Foundation Verse Drama Award Staged Reading. (Steve Young, John Surowiecki, Bernard Sahlins) My Nose and Me (A TragedyLite or TradiDelight in 33 Scenes) by John Surowiecki is the first winner of the Verse Drama Prize. It debuts here in a staged reading directed by Bernard Sahlins, founder of the Second Ciry Theater in Chicago. |
Grand Ballroom |
S200. Readings by Billy Collins and Frank McCourt. Sponsored by The Stony Brook Southampton MFA in Writing and Literature. Readings by Billy Collins and Frank McCourt. Introductions by Robert Reeves. |
New York Suite |
S201. Developing New Plays: The Collaborative Connection. (David Muschell, Michael Wright, Anton Dudley, Wayne Thomas) Playwrights, especially in college programs, are constantly looking for ways to get their new work in front of audiences. This panel focuses on a variety of methods to do that, from collaboration with a theatre department to establishing a New Works program to working with a local theatre company to casting and directing one's own work independently. |
Conference Room D |
S202. Avant-Garde Latino/a Poetry. (Gabriel Gomez, Roberto Tejada, Valerie Martinez, Monica De La Torre, Maria Melendez, Francisco Aragon) The reality of a U.S. Latino/a Avant-Garde is virtually non-existent in contemporary literary discourse about "Latino/a Art" as well as across the literary spectrum. The objective of this panel, made up of Latino/a poets, critics, and publishers, is to interrogate the very terms "Avant-Garde" and "Latino/a experience" as intersecting locations of poetic practice so as to bring forth work that bears witness to our varying aesthetics as artists and thinkers. |
Central Park |
S203. Poets With History. (Jericho Brown, Natasha Trethewey, Tracy K. Smith, Tina Chang, Nick Flynn, James Hall) Using Marina Tsvetaeva's distinction "Poets With History" as our title, this panel speaks to the ways in which historical research informs poetry. One important social function of poetry is to document the subjectivity, if not the collective memory, of a people, a nation, and a time. We will ask what differences exist between history and memory. We will investigate how poetry historicizes little-known events as well as how poets use history to transcend the weight of time. |
Empire Ballroom |
S204. Bowery Women's Voices: A Reading by Poets of the Bowery Women Anthology. (Cynthia Kraman, Marie Ponsot, Anne Waldman, Sapphire, Brenda Coultas) This is a reading by poets of Bowery Women: Poems (Bowery Books), an anthology of signature works by poets who have performed at the Bowery Poetry Club in NYC. The featured poets are academics and performers, classicists and innovators. The reading illustrates the diversity and vigor of contemporary New York women's poetry and explores how gender and geography and written and spoken word impact on and enhance their work. |
Metropolitan East |
S205. A Reading by Cynthia Ozick & Phillip Lopate. Sponsored by The University of North Carolina, Wilmington. Readings by Cynthia Ozick and Phillip Lopate. Introductions by Philip Gerard and Rebecca Lee. |
Metropolitan West |
S206. The Modern Poetic Sequence: Encompassing Aesthetics. (Yerra Sugarman, Marilyn Hacker, Grace Schulman, Alicia Ostriker, Reginald Shepherd, Fady Joudah) Why is the poetic sequence a central and exciting genre for contemporary poets? Exploring its versatility, its capacity to encompass diverse forms, cultures and concerns--aesthetic, narrative, historical--we will consider how it can reveal and unify unexpected relationships between just a few parts, a long poem or throughout a verse novel. We will examine its vitality since the advent of Modernism and how it can freshly meld techniques of reportage, film, art, drama, music and the web. |
7:00 p.m. | |
Sutton South |
S207. A Reception Hosted by The Poetry Foundation. The Poetry Foundation invites you to a public reception in honor of John Surowiecki, inaugural winner of the Verse Drama Award. 7 to 8pm. |
Morgan Suite |
S208. New England College MFA Program in Poetry: Reading & Open House. Please join us for cocktails to meet and mingle with New England College MFA Program in Poetry students, alumni, and distinguished faculty. |
Sutton Center |
S209. NEOMFA / Northeast Ohio Masters in Fine Arts in Creative Writing Reception. Come enjoy a glass of wine and the hospitality of the faculty and students of the only Consortial MFA program in creative writing in the nation. |
Gibson Suite |
S210. Drexel University's College of Arts & Sciences & Painted Bride Quarterly's 35th Anniversary Reception. Come celebrate Painted Bride Quarterly's 35th Anniversary at a reception sponsored by their new home, Drexel University's College of Arts and Sciences. Giveaways, music, spontaneous readings, spontaneous fun. |
Mercury Ballroom |
S211. A Reception in Honor of Gerald Stern: Sponsored by Poets House and the San Jose State University MFA Program. |
8:30 p.m. | |
Grand Ballroom |
S212. A Reading by Robert Pinsky & Natasha Trethewey. Sponsored by Wilkes University Low-Residency MA/MFA Program. Readings by Robert Pinsky and Natasha Trethewey. Introductions by Bonnie Culver. |
Metropolitan Ballroom |
S213. A Reading & Conversation with Martin Amis. Sponsored by The Centre for New Writing, University of Manchester.A reading by novelist Martin Amis, followed by a conversation hosted by Ian McGuire, Co-Director of the University of Manchester's Centre for New Writing. |
10:00 p.m.-12:00 a.m. | |
Murray Hill |
S214. All Collegiate Afterhours Champion Slam. (Jim Warner) Sponsored by Wilkes University and Etruscan Press. Participation is capped at ten slammers a night. Slam pieces must be no longer than three minutes in length. Limited open mic to follow slam (time permitting). Sign-up at the Wilkes University/Etruscan Press booth, B11. |
Sutton Complex |
S215. AWP Public Reception & Dance Party. Courtesy of Southern New Hampshire University & Tupelo Press. Music by DJ Neza. Free beer and wine from 10:00-11:00 P.M. Cash Bar from 11:00 P.M.-Midnight. |
