2009 Schedule
Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday
| Friday- February 13, 2009 | |
|---|---|
8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. | |
8th Street Registration |
F100. Conference Registration. Attendees who have registered in advance may pick up their registration materials at AWP's pre-registration desk on the lower level of the Hilton Chicago. On-site registration badges are available for purchase at the 8th Street side of the lobby level. |
8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. | |
Exhibit Halls |
F101. AWP Bookfair. Sponsored by Columbia College Chicago, English Department, Poetry & Nonfiction Programs. |
9:00 a.m.-10:15 a.m. | |
Astoria |
F102. Pedagogy Forum Session: Poetry. This session is designed to give contributors to the 2009 Pedagogy Forum an opportunity to discuss their work, though all are welcome. The papers themselves will provide a framework to begin in-depth discussion in creative writing pedagogy and theory. A Pedagogy Speaker will contextualize the discussion with some brief remarks before attendees break out into small discussion groups. These groups will be facilitated by trained pedagogy paper contributors. |
Boulevard Room A,B,C |
F103. Book Contracts. (Anita Fore) Anita Fore, Director of Legal Services for the Authors Guild, will offer attendees her expert advice on reviewing a book contract and the key points for negotiating with publishers. She will review the important clauses routinely found in traditional as well as academic publishing agreements, such as copyright, royalties, and out of print provisions. |
Continental A |
F104. Recruiting and Supporting Students Through Summer Writing Workshops. (Lisa Norris, Justin Tussing, Mark Wunderlich, Paul Schaffer, Jordan Hartt, Katharine Whitcomb) How can creative writing programs work in tandem with summer writing workshops to benefit students in academic programs? Panelists from university- and community-supported summer writing workshops will talk about how such workshops can be used to recruit students, earn money for English departments, provide much-needed teaching and learning experience for students in academic programs, and enhance the workshops themselves. |
Continental B |
F105. The Art of Interviewing. (David Everett, Tim Wendel, Cari Lynn) Perhaps the most useful way to gather information or build dialogue for nonfiction or fiction alike, interviewing is a learned craft just like any other. This interactive panel of experienced interviewers will demonstrate beginning and advanced techniques, then let the audience join in or watch. Our theme: Creative nonfiction writers sometimes forget that the overwhelming mass of factual writing published today is not about the author—it's reported or researched. |
Continental C |
F106A. The Author-Editor Connection. (Ron Carlson, Ann Patty, Katie Dublinski, Holly Carver, Janet Burroway) Two fiction writers and three editors who have published them, one from a New York trade house, one a university press, and one a literary press, discuss the convolutions of the professional and personal relationships built over time. How does university and literary press book production differ from that of the major New York presses? What can an author expect from each? What are the problems and pleasures of the different kinds of editing? How do the author/editor relationships differ? |
International Ballroom South |
F106B. Plenary Assembly of Individual Members of AWP. This plenary session offers the opportunity for individual members—independent writers, professors in non-member programs, teachers from K-12 and arts centers, writing center administrators—to meet with; the individual representatives to discuss AWP's strategic plan and have an open discussion about current topics and concerns. |
Joliet |
F107. Pedagogy Forum Session: Nonfiction. This session is designed to give contributors to the 2009 Pedagogy Forum an opportunity to discuss their work, though all are welcome. The papers themselves will provide a framework to begin in-depth discussion in creative writing pedagogy and theory. A Pedagogy Speaker will contextualize the discussion with some brief remarks before attendees break out into small discussion groups. These discussions will be facilitated by trained pedagogy paper contributors. |
Lake Erie |
F108. Caucus of Low Residency MFA Directors. (Stan Rubin) Annual meeting of low residency MFA Directors to discuss programming, administration, and best practices particular to the low residency model of MFA Programs. |
Lake Huron |
F109. Community College Teaching: Making the Career Choice and Landing the Job. (Mary Lannon, Michelle Auerbach, Mary K. Jennings, Richard Newman, Kristine Anderson, beth Smith) This panel presents perspectives of three community college faculty who have served on search committees and three recent hires. Veterans of the search process will discuss what they look for in applications, interviews, and candidates. Recent hires will talk about the decision to teach at community college and the job search. All participants will discuss the life of a creative writer at a community college: teaching load, committee work, research expectations, and college life. |
Lake Ontario |
F110. Of Critical Importance: Choosing a Creative Life Teaching Critical Writing. (Christy Zink, Brian Johnson, Michael Kula, Marcia Ribble) Teaching rhetoric and composition has traditionally been considered secondary work to more coveted positions in creative writing at the university. But new critical writing programs and established seminars invite pedagogical experimentation, offering legitimate, even preferable professional teaching opportunities to practicing creative writers. Experienced faculty from a variety of positions across the country address the rising importance of career options in critical writing. |
Marquette |
F111. Sibling Rivalries: Spoken & Written Word Poetry and the Literary Tug-of-War. (Valerie Martinez, Jon Davis, Danny Solis, Jill Battson, Michelle Holland, Jasmine Cuffee) The lines between the slam/spoken word and literary poetry communities have often been drawn and defined by issues of quality, accessibility, inclusiveness, elitism, and entertainment. These lines (and the resulting estrangements) impact both young poets and writing programs. This panel brings together so-called "spoken word," "slam," and "literary" poets to discuss the tensions between communities, the (un)necessary distance, and the (im)possibility of bridging the divide. |
Private Dining Room 2 |
F112. Hands-On: Chapbook-Making in the Writing Classroom. (Kirsten Ogden, Cathy Irwin, Genevieve Kaplan, Sean Bernard, Samantha Simpson) This panel discusses chapbooks as a teaching tool in composition, literature, and creative writing courses. Focusing questions include: How is the creation of a chapbook valuable for students? What are the logistical challenges and advantages of creating chapbooks in a classroom setting? Presenters share a brief history of chapbooks, show example student chapbooks, and provide a lesson outline with a demonstration of chapbook-making. |
Waldorf |
F113. Teaching Our Students to Teach Creative Writing. (Joyce Peseroff, Brian Bouldrey, Jeremy Lakaszcyck, Stephanie Vanderslice) How can MFA programs best train students to become effective teachers in the undergraduate classroom, offering strategies that educate the imagination, develop craft, and create a classroom ambiance that leads to productive workshops? Panelists will discuss the uses of pedagogy theory; the structure of creative writing textbooks; teaching instruction for students in campus-based and low-residency programs; and developing a course sequence for MFA TAs. |
Williford A |
F114. From Nature Writing to Place-based Nonfiction: Traversing Narrative Landscapes of the Midwest. (Laura Julier, Jonathan Ritz, Will Jennings, Susan Futrell) What used to be labeled "nature writing" by critics and publishers of creative nonfiction has morphed into "placed-based writing." How has the shift from nature to place changed the way we approach narrative and self, nature and place? A call for essays exploring Midwestern places yields personal essays set in unnamed places. A writer struggles with an assignment to write "positive stories" for local magazines. Panelists—all writers whose work has been deeply rooted in Midwestern places—will discuss the significance of this shift, and the practical and ethical issues it raises. |
Williford B |
F115. Beyond the Personal Landscape: Reinventing the Memoir. (Renata Golden, Paul Lisicky, Beth Kohl, Christian Sheppard, Erin Hogan) In the hands of a gifted writer, memoir can be much more than an account of a life. This panel looks at how memoir can use elements of biography, photography, religion, philosophy, and even traditional nonfiction to bring new life to the genre. How do you choose the form that best fits your story? What challenges must you overcome when writing a hybrid of forms? How do you expand a personal story to encompass the wider world? |
Williford C |
F116A. "Creative" Creative Writing Pedagogy: Alternatives and Supplements to the Workshop. (Jenny Dunning, Robin Becker, Michelle Boisseau, Don Bogen, Katharine Haake) Panelists from both poetry and fiction sides of the aisle will explore limitations and alternatives to the workshop in the creative writing classroom, including skills-based approaches and hybrid classes. Alternative pedagogies can inculcate a broader foundation of composing strategies and encourage students to take risks and to explore more diverse modes of generating and developing work, while at the same time helping to make evaluation criteria more concrete and explicit. |
9:30 a.m.-Noon | |
Lake Michigan |
F116B. $$ CLMP Workshop—Individual Fundraising for Literary Publishers. (Jay Baron Nicorvo) Learn how to identify funding sources, set attainable targets, and establish an infrastructure for individual giving. (Note: CLMP Workshops cost $30 for CLMP members and $60 for nonmembers. To register, please stop by the CLMP booth at the Bookfair.) |
10:30 a.m.-11:45 a.m. | |
Astoria |
F117. MFA, BFA...AFA?! (Kris Bigalk, Kevin Craft, Carol Finke) What is the purpose of an AFA in Creative Writing? What's it like to teach in a community college creative writing program? How are these programs designed? What kinds of students do they attract? With forty-six percent of all undergraduates attending a community college, many two-year colleges are planning and implementing successful degree programs. This session will focus on AFA program design and implementation at three different community colleges, with a question/answer session. |
Boulevard Room A,B,C |
F118. Page to Stage: How Fiction, Non-Fiction, or Poetry Becomes Theater. (Susan Terris, Cornelius Eady, Gregory Maguire, David St. John, Elizabeth Swados) Page to Stage is a panel of fiction and non-fiction writers and poets, plus a Broadway composer/director. Each participant has had, or is in the final stages of having literary work turned into a play, a musical, or an opera. This panel will examine the process of collaboration, its pitfalls and rewards—how work in print can be transformed for the stage, how music and dialog add cross-genre dimensions, how the compromises and surprises of partnership can generate both excitement and success. |
Continental A |
F119. The Next Taboo: Writing about Illness. (Robin Romm, Lee Montgomery, Lisa Glatt, Eric Puchner, Dana Levin, Don Waters) In On Being Ill, Virginia Woolf wrote, "[it's] strange indeed that illness has not taken its place with love, battle, and jealousy among the prime themes of literature." Illness is often seen as an inferior subject for great literature, trumped by politics, race, or war. Why is this a subject many literary writers avoid? What are the challenges of writing seriously about illness? Does it necessarily court sentimentality? Does the resistance to it make it the next big taboo in literature? |
Continental B |
F120. Different Directions: Compiling Different Genre Anthologies for Different Markets. (Garnett Kilberg Cohen, Kim Addonizio, Arielle Greenberg, Kevin Prufer) Four editors of anthologies of different genres will discuss the problems, challenges, and delights of compiling anthologies for trade, academic, and small press markets. The panel will explore how selections are determined for inclusion, the process of acquiring permissions, what various houses want and need, what can prevent publication, the evolution of an anthology's focus, and the sometimes surprising steps and choices necessary in bringing the book to its readers. |
Continental C |
F121. Board Meeting: The Art of Indublishing. (Brian Christopher, Matthew Hargis, Katie McGarrigle, M. Chalmers, Jonathan Rone) Is art business? Or is business art? Addressing these issues head-on is Buckbee, A Writer, Inc., an innovative company and a leader in the indublishing field. This special panel event presents a rare opportunity to glimpse into the inner workings of this novel company. Board of Directors' updates will surely touch on The Sadness Museum, Story-as-Currency, the Artist Going Public, and Buckbee's most recent project, the unveiling of a new literary journal. |
International Ballroom South |
F122. Why Would You Say That?: Issues of Nonfiction and Fiction in Young Writers' Lives. (Mark Winegardner, Joshua Kendall, Jeanne Leiby, Jocelyn Bartkevicius) Panelists discuss current trends in nonfiction—including several pitfalls for young writers to avoid: spending their capital instead of their interest in terms of life experiences; writing autobiography/memoir without any critical distance or self-reflection; rehearsing "disease of the week" stories, ripped fresh from day-time television. Instead, our panelists—editors of literary presses and journals, as well as practitioners in all genres—offer advice to young writers on ways they can make the most of their life experiences by using them to inform their fictive works of imagination. |
Joliet |
F123. The Night Shift: University Continuing Education Programs as Centers of Creative Writing Instruction. (Greg Harris, Karen Heath, Patricia Bellanca, Angela Pneuman) The average Continuing Education class contains more diversity among students than the average undergraduate or graduate creative writing program—diversity of age, of individual experience, of worldview, and of economic means, to name just a few factors that can radically inform a writer's sensibility. This panel considers the merits and challenges of "night shift" workshops, arguably the most democratic classrooms available to writing teachers, and—despite being often regarded as afterthoughts to more formal programs—incubators of unique talents. |
Lake Erie |
F124. In Celebration of David Markson. (Martha Cooley, Brian Evenson, M.J. Fitzgerald, Joseph Tabbi, Francoise Palleau-Papin) This group of writers will celebrate the life and work of David Markson, whose latest work, The Last Novel, completes a groundbreaking series of five novels that began with the critically acclaimed Wittgenstein's Mistress and includes Reader's Block, This Is Not a Novel, and Vanishing Point. The panelists will discuss the deep pleasures and challenges of Markson's work, and will explore his strong influence—formally and conceptually—on a new generation of writers and readers. |
Lake Huron |
F150. But That's Not Creative! Mentoring Creative Writers About Research, Teaching, and Service. (Linda Trinh Moser, Lanette Cadle, Marcus Cafagña, Jane Hoogestraat, Richard Neumann, Brian Shawver) Given the growing number of graduates with creative writing degrees, programs should offer more advice about the means to succeed in aspects of the profession beyond craft. This panel addresses the ways mentors help creative writing students understand the various paths open to them beyond graduation. We encourage students to plan deliberately for careers in which they combine roles—as technical writers, composition instructors, and editors—that supplement and draw from their experiences as creative writers. |
Lake Ontario |
F126. Making Scenes: Chicago Poetry Communities from 1939-2009. (Catherine Wagner, Evie Shockley, Margo Crawford, CJ Laity, Joel Craig, Chuck Stebelton) Of central importance to the Black Arts movement and the spoken word movement, Chicago has also been home to a number of experimental poetry communities. Bringing together widely differing aesthetics and contextualizing the communities that produced them, the panel offers an opportunity for both panelists and audience to break down the usual aesthetic fences. |
Marquette |
F127. Shameless Promotion: Get the Book to the Readers. (Marisha Chamberlain, Margaret Hasse, Todd Boss, Jon Spayde) Your book is out—now you've got to promote it. Yes, you. At many small presses, the publicity budget is minute. At big publishers too, authors must take an active role. Two poets, a novelist, and a nonfiction writer with books out in 2008 from Norton, Nodin, Soho, and Random House describe strategies they've used to garner readers: book tours, book clubs, personal publicists, and the Web—virtual tours, using a site to build buzz, getting a good Google position, networking with blogs, and more. |
Private Dining Room 2 |
F128. Not Your Father's Reading Series: Reconstruction Room Presents the Changing Face of Literary Performance. (Erin Teegarden, Miki Howald, Della Watson, Krista Franklin, Nicolette Bond, Allison Gruber) Reconstruction Room is unique-it opens itself to complete chaos and experimentation. From traditional readings or poems and prose to shadow-boxes, jug bands, slideshows, and impromptu sing-alongs, the series is a safe room where local artists can try new works and ideas in front of an audience open to new ways of understanding written art. Women-led, anarchic, and one of a kind, it is changing the definition of a reading series. This reading explores the work and ideas behind the series. |
Waldorf |
F129. Celebrating the Voices of American Short Fiction. (Jill Meyers, Don Lee, Benjamin Percy, Tiphanie Yanique, Ethan Rutherford) Relaunched in 2006, the literary quarterly American Short Fiction is one of a handful of magazines nationwide dedicated to fiction. Publishing a diverse range of emerging and established writers, the magazine champions the story as a vibrant and supple form. Four award-winning contributors gather to read from their work and discuss trends in contemporary fiction. |
Williford A |
F130. Who's Yer Daddy? Gay Poets and the Inherited Present. (Jim Elledge, Mark Bibbins, Peter Covino, David Groff, Brian Teare) All gay poets have heterosexual parents, but the identity of their literary forebears isn't as straightforward. Panelists discuss their major influences, chiefly twentieth-century poets but also concepts, schools, and texts—gay and non-gay alike. Part homage, part exposé, this panel tackles complex questions, such as the ability of gay poets to cultivate an aesthetic without knowing about previous gay poets? And is the gay inheritance simply sensual, and if so, is the straight legacy only its opposite? |
Williford B |
F131. Invisible Lesbian Literature. (Cathryn Hankla, Valerie Miner, Patricia Powell, Ruthann Robson) "But do you know any good Lesbian Writers?" While we can name gay men and straight men and women who are literary writers, lesbian authors are often overlooked. Beyond coming-out stories and lesbian pulp, there is a body of serious fiction that may contain lesbian characters, but is not meant to be confined to a lesbian audience. Noted authors discuss their fiction and its place in literature. |
Williford C |
F132. Forming RingShout:A Place for Black Literature. (Alison Meyers, Chris Jackson, Eisa Ulen, Martha Southgate, Bridgett Davis) African-American MFA students often struggle with feelings of isolation, and African-American writers often long for a place to talk to one another. This panel will examine ways in which educators, students, and writers can develop and use new paradigms—like the recently formed organization RingShout: A Place for Black Literature—to build community and assert the centrality of African-American literature to the American experience for people of all races. |
12:00 p.m.-1:15 p.m. | |
Boulevard Room A,B,C |
F134. Building Online Literary Communities: An Overview and Case Studies. (Paul Shaffer, Emily Warn, Robin Reagler, Loyal Miles, Giuseppe Taurino) Emerging online technologies, loosely called Web 2.0, provide exciting new avenues to form literary communities and promote literary culture. For writing educators, technology choices—blogs, podcasts, distance learning, forums, YouTube, and Yahoo and Google groups—can sometimes feel overwhelming. This panel presents an overview of technological options as well as tips on where to start. Panelists will then present case studies from three WITSA programs that have used technology to better serve their students, their instructors, and their broader communities. |
Continental A |
F135. Changing Narratives in African American Poetry. (Dante Micheaux, Ed Roberson, Vievee Francis, Duriel Harris) African American poets are changing the narratives of African American poetry while responding to "the depressing presence of slavery itself as a feature—perhaps the defining feature—of black American identity" (Arnold Rampersad)that has characterized the art form since Phillis Wheatly. Panelists discuss the particular aesthetics and historical imperatives framing African American poetry today and the need for a critical language that addresses the many issues of this evolving poetics. |
Continental B |
F136. Writing Your Passions: Forbidden Topics. (Charlotte Rains Dixon, Masha Hamilton, Linda Busby Parker, Maryann Lesert, Katy Yocom) Some subjects are forbidden, even for fiction writers. These topics include family secrets, personal exposes or matters that appear to go beyond our purview. Yet sometimes these forbidden topics represent the territories in which our passions lie. What subject matter do we as fiction writers have the "right" to develop? What narrative territory can we claim? And do we have the right to create point-of-view characters whose knowledge or ethnic or cultural backgrounds differ from our own? |
Continental C |
F137. Invisible Margins—Queer Jewish Poets on Writing Identity. (Jason Schneiderman, Jan Freeman, Dan Bellm, Richard Siken, Rachel Simon, Jan Heller Levi) Queers and Jews are perennial outsiders, achievers, scapegoats, and thinkers. Both groups have a history filled with persecution, humor, tragedy, and triumph. So what happens to those of us that are both—particularly when each community seems to ask us to reject the other? Is poetry a place that uniquely welcomes the double outsider? Five poets will discuss their experience of being Queer Jewish writers, and will read poems coming out of that experience. |
Grand Ballroom |
F138. The Duty of a Writer. (Jackson Taylor, Marie Ponsot, Paul Muldoon, Sapphire, Major Jackson) In America, we legitimize a creative writer by noting commercial success—but what is often left unnoticed is that the creative writer performs a very important job in society—the recording of truth as he or she sees it. With truth, the writer hopes to engage the conscience of people—and perhaps get them to ask their own questions. William Blake weighed out that without contraries there is no progression—and one of the duties a writer performs is to present contraries—questioning authority in order to discern that which is ethical and legitimate. This panel will explore the duty of the writer, particularly from the perspective of a student, discuss the potential for literature to affect social change, ask if literature is an alternative to consumer culture, and explore why so many writers find their way into exile. |
International Ballroom North |
F139. Where Parallel Lines Meet: Discussing Relations Among Our Various Contemporary Poetries. (Richard Silberg, Nickole Brown, Mark Doty, Rusty Morrison, Charles Harper Webb, Matthew Zapruder) American poetry has split into a bewildering number of styles that can be as different as Language poetry and Slam poetry. How do our poetries relate: disdain? benign neglect? interest? cross-fertilization? The panelists, widely spaced within the poetic sphere, will each read one of their own poems and then offer a personal response to the question, opening discussion among panelists and between panel and audience. |
International Ballroom South |
F140. The Poets of American Hybrid. (David St. John, Ralph Angel, Alice Fulton, Rae Armantrout, Peter Gizzi) This reading represents the range and diversity of poetry collected in the new Norton anthology American Hybrid, the premise of which is that the day of "poetic schools" is long over and the best of American poetry has been drawing, for many years, from all aspects of poetic endeavor in this country. |
Joliet |
F141. A Different Conversation; Teaching Creative Writing One-on-One. (Robin Black, Debra Spark, Rachel Pastan, Catherine Parnell, John Fried) The workshop, with its group dynamic and immediacy, has long been the standard method of teaching writing at MFA programs. Now, with the increase in low residency programs, many students work one-on-one, long distance. These two teaching models could hardly be more different. So, are there pedagogic reasons to choose one over the other? Alumni and faculty from the Warren Wilson and Bennington MFA programs explore the challenges and advantages of teaching writing one-on-one. |
Lake Erie |
F142. Digi-Analog: Bringing Together Print, Online, and Alternative Delivery Methods for Literary Journals. (J.W. Wang, Forrest Anderson, Aaron Burch, Julia Johnson, Stephen Graham Jones, Jodee Stanley) Join editors from Mississippi Review, Ninth Letter, Hobart, Juked, Iron Horse Review, and The Southeast Review for a roundtable discussion on the status of print and online publishing. How can literary journals make use of the Internet? Are print journals in danger if they fail to utilize it, and online publications doomed to obscurity if they fail to publish in print? We will discuss these and other ideas for increasing audiences and what it all means for potential contributors. |
Lake Huron |
F143. Beyond Navel Gazing: Teaching Students to Take Risks with Character Development. (Shawn Shiflett, Mary Clearman Blew, Jaimee Wriston Colbert, Eric May, Joy Passanante) Creative Writing students often struggle to achieve the authorial distance necessary for developing multi-dimensional characters. This panel of authors/Creative Writing teachers will read from works in which they solved problematic issues of character. They will also discuss classroom activities designed to give students permission to discover characters that come from beyond the limitations of a writer's gender, culture, and real life experience. |
Lake Michigan |
F144. City of Architecture; Literature of Architecture. (Christopher Grimes, Davis Schneiderman, Eugene Wildman, Christina Pugh) Known for its innovative design and architecture, Chicago inspires its writers with feats of engineering, city planning, and manufactured lakefront. Writers from the University of Illinois at Chicago—an inner city campus, designed to be riot-proof, built on seized and demolished ethnic neighborhoods around Jane Addams' Hull House—read from work inspired by the marble, concrete, steel-and-glass face, and labyrinthine working bowels of their city. |
Lake Ontario |
F145. Kundiman Kindles the Flame: New Asian-American Poetry. (Joseph O. Legaspi, Aimee Nezhukmatathil, Jennifer Chang, Timothy Yu, Neil Aitken, Ching-In Chen) Kundiman, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the creation, cultivation, and promotion of Asian-American poetry celebrates the achievements of its fellows, faculty, and its founders. During this panel, Kundiman fellows who are celebrating forthcoming books will read a selection of poems. They will also share the stage with their Kundiman faculty and staff members who are also celebrating the arrival of new poetry book collections. Additionally, members of the panel will briefly discuss the mission of Kundiman as an organization and share some information about the summer retreat. |
Marquette |
F146. A Polyphony of Voices: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Poetry Faculty Reading. (Brenda Cardenas, Maurice Kilwein Guevara, Rebecca Dunham, Kimberly Blaeser, James Liddy) The poetry faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's PhD program will read from their work, diverse in cultural, aesthetic, and thematic concerns, yet each containing a polyphony of voices and perspectives. Critics have praised their poetries' magical naturalism, inter-lingual syncretism, and introspective ekphrasis and have noted influences from Irish Modernism to Anishinabe cultural traditions. |
Private Dining Room 2 |
F147. Unleashing Young Writers: Taking the Writers out of High School, and the High School out of Writing. (Breanne LeJeune, MC Hyland, Brian Oliu, Kristin Aardsma, Alex Chambers) What happens when we treat high school writers as peers? Lessons like "Writeropoly," "Explosive Writing," and "Stalking and Stealing" allow us to introduce techniques and concepts that we use ourselves to students who might not otherwise encounter such approaches. Using the University of Alabama's Creative Writing Club and CWC Hale Studio programs as models, we will discuss how university-sponsored extracurricular creative writing programs benefit both high school writers and M(F)A programs. |
Waldorf |
F148. Omniscience: We Know, We Know. F148. Omniscience: We Know, We Know. (Peter Turchi, Robert Boswell, Antonya Nelson, Laura Kasischke) The first lie of fiction is that it is the truth. For us to accept that lie, every narrative needs to establish its authority. In work written in the omniscient or limited omniscient point of view, authority begins with the narrator's ability to convince us of his or her insight, perception, intelligence, and/or wit. This panel will discuss how a variety of stories and novels engage and persuade us. |
Williford A |
F149. Louder Than Words: Poetic Renunciation in the Lives & Work of Gerard Manley Hopkins, Arthur Rimbaud, Laura (Riding) Jackson, and George Oppen. (Christina Davis, Joy Katz, Donald Revell, Susan Wheeler, Spencer Reece) By reflecting upon four distinct acts of "elected silence" in literary history, this panel considers poetic renunciation as a philosophical, spiritual, and/or aesthetic choice and explores what these decisive silences suggest about the ideal relationship between language/writing and truth/conviction. What can we (in pursuit of poetry) learn from this equal and opposite action of abstaining from it? |
Williford B |
F150. Two-Year College Caucus. (Kris Bigalk, Charles Burm, Simone Zelitch) Do you teach at a two-year college? Interested in opportunities at two-year colleges? Join us for our annual networking meeting. With almost half of all students beginning college careers at two-year colleges, and an increasing number of MFA candidates landing two-year college teaching jobs, the future of creative writing programs at our campuses looks bright. We will: discuss teaching creative writing at the two-year college, hold a short business meeting, and provide tangible resources for faculty. |
Williford C |
F151. A Celebration of Barry Silesky. (Robert Dana, Lee Webster, Robin Hemley, Richard Terrill, Mike Puican, S.L. Wisenberg) Poet, critic, scholar, and editor for a quarter century of Another Chicago Magazine, Barry Silesky is the author of three books of poetry, a collection of short stories, and biographies of Lawrence Ferlinghetti and John Gardner. He has been a distinguished professor of literature and creative writing at Loyola University-Chicago and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. |
1:30 p.m.-2:45 p.m. | |
Boulevard Room A,B,C |
F152. Story—The Heart of the Matter. (Maggie Butt, Graeme Harper, Michelene Wandor, Andrew Melrose, David Rain) This panel explores story-making across the commonly accepted boundaries, in order to shed new light on what different forms, media, and genres have in common, rather than what divides them. These authors and academics write poems, plays, short stories, novels, and non-fiction. They use their own practice to develop ideas relating to story-making, discussing how ideas about writing for one genre or medium might allow us to travel in new directions when writing for another. |
Continental A |
F153. Approaches to Historical Fiction. (Lara Tupper, Vyvyane Loh, Varley O'Connor, James Reed) The writer of historical fiction faces the advantage and the burden of preemptive knowledge on the part of the reader. (Say "Virginia Woolf" and a character exists before page one.) How can the pitfalls of caricature and exposition or heavy prose be avoided? How much research is enough? How can a narrative reliant on "then" become inventive and relevant? We'll address the challenges of fusing fact and fiction and the positioning of historical novels and stories in the current publishing market. |
Continental B |
F154. XX Marks the Spot: Women and Travel Writing. (Karen Babine, Faith Adiele, Debra Marquart, Michele Morano, Gretchen Legler) If the purpose of travel is to engage as many boundaries as possible (cultural, societal, geographical, and artistic), then the female point of view on travel and travel writing brings forward a distinctly unique set of craft principles. We will discuss why gender in travel writing is important, how different purposes for travel and writing translate to the page, and how travel writing, in particular, demands a rethinking of craft and intent. |
International Ballroom North |
F156. Poetry of Resilience. (Alison Granucci, Kwame Dawes, Katja Esson, Valzhyna Mort, Brian Turner) From prison life to the war in Iraq to global acts of violence and suppression against human beings, poetry has been used to speak out and to help transform traumatic events. Through their poems and narratives these extraordinary poets take us to the hearts of these events—a young Belarusian challenges a forbidden language, the ghosts of American soldiers in Balad still speak, and we are allowed a glimpse of the inner lives of inmates. With their verse they unveil the sublimation in poetry. With their unflinching accounts they remind us how frail the human spirit is, and how astounding. |
International Ballroom South |
F157. Graywolf Press Anniversary Reading. (Jeffrey Shotts, Jeffery Renard Allen, Eula Biss, Robert Boswell, Katie Ford, D.A. Powell) As a celebration of thirty-five years of publishing from Graywolf Press, this reading event features the recent works of five dazzling writers of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Introduced by Graywolf director Fiona McCrae and senior editor Jeff Shotts. |
Joliet |
F158. Not Your Usual Workshop. (Bonnie Rose Marcus, Robbie Q. Telfer, Regie Cabico, Victoria Sammartino, Johnny Vazquez Paz) Writers with extensive experience teaching workshops in non-traditional settings outside academia discuss the challenges, joys, and methods of teaching in afterschool centers, homeless shelters, senior centers, hospitals, and prisons and consider how their teaching informs their work as writers. |
Lake Erie |
F159. Supporting Future Writers and Editors: Polyphony H.S., a student-run national litmag for H.S. writers and editors. (Billy Lombardo, Eliana Dockterman, Madi Boesche) The focus of this panel is to introduce attendees to the nation's only student-run national literary magazine for high school writers. The founder and director of the magazine has gathered three members of PHS's national editorial staff to read some of the recent poetry published by high school writers and to address some of the challenges and successes of working with, supporting, and helping to grow the editors and writers who represent the future of graduate and undergraduate creative writing programs around the country. |
Lake Huron |
F160. Textbooks: How to Propose, Write, and Edit a College Textbook. (Todd James Pierce, Vivian Garcia, Carrie Brandon, Kevin Clark, Jeff Knorr) This panel features two textbook editors and two textbook authors— each of whom discusses the challenges and benefits of creating college-level textbooks for creative writing and English classes. Participants explain (step-by-step) the process of prosing a textbook as well as discuss strategies to develop effective textbooks for the current creative writing and English market. |
Lake Ontario |
F161. Yellow as Turmeric, Fragrant as Cloves: A Reading. (Anne Marie Fowler, Debra Kang Dean, Karen An-hwei Lee, Addie Tsai, Cynthia Arrieu-King, Trangdai Glassey-Tranguyen) Readings celebrating publication of Yellow as Turmeric, Fragrant as Cloves, an anthology of contemporary Asian American female poetry released by Deep Bowl Press. The anthology contains tangible, earthy, edgy poetry by Asian American female writers with vibrant, diverse voices and who represent traditional Asian cultures and those of the Middle East, India, and the Pacific Ring of Fire. |
Marquette |
F162. The Poetry of Thom Gunn. (James Sitar, Tom Sleigh, Joshua Weiner, Randall Mann) Thom Gunn's poems occupy an important space in American and British poetry, and his work influences many writers today. Join us as we listen to several poets discuss Gunn's poems and their impact on the landscape of contemporary poetry on the occasion of what would have been his 80th birthday celebration. |
Private Dining Room 2 |
F163. Passing through the Fourth Wall: The Academy in the Community. (Cynthia Hogue, Melissa Pritchard, Sean Nevin, Sheilah Britton, Alberto Ríos) ASU's faculty, staff, and students have been involved in projects that seek to make the community the fourth wall of the classroom. Leaders of various community impact programs from ASU discuss ways in which the academic creative writing world can affect the surrounding community through artistic interventions, using our myriad programs as guides, for the terminally ill, hospitalized children, marginalized adolescents in Kolkata, US veterans and peace activists, and pedagogy for MFAs who work with K-12 students in underserved schools. |
Waldorf |
F164. How to Organize a Writers Conference: Three Models. (Heidi Czerwiec, James Wilson, Paul Ketzle) Our panel includes the Co-Director of Other Words: A Conference of Literary Magazines and Independent Publishers (Flagler College, Florida), a board member of Writers@Work (Salt Lake City, Utah), and the Director of the University of North Dakota's Writers Conference. These 3 conferences have similar budgets and speakers but offer different events, serve different communities, and have fees ranging from free to $500. This panel compares ways of organizing such conferences. |
Williford A |
F165. After Magical Realism: New Adventures in U. S. Latino Literature. (Elena Minor, Fred Arroyo, John-Michael Rivera, Gina Franco, Aaron Michael Morales, Paul Martinez Pompa) Magical realism opened a natural door to the rich, imaginistic narrative traditions of Latino cultures and offered Latino writers a license to fly with language in its infinite possibilities. This panel examines the legacy of magical realism through the prism of new and innovative Latino writing and how Latino writers are crossing and erasing literary borders to bend, stretch and reshape the forms, structures, content, and tenor of Latino literature to create meaning in fresh, singular ways. |
Williford B |
F166. Windy City Queer: Writing Out from the Midwest. (Kathie Bergquist, Karen Lee Osborne, Aldo Alvarez, Gerard Wozek) Too often, third-coast GLBTQ writers are overlooked in deference to cities like New York and San Francisco, often at the expense of Midwestern representation in GLBTQ publishing. Join our panel of Chicago-based poets and fiction writers for a reading and discussion about giving voice to Midwestern GLBTQ life and about the struggles to be heard and respected in the wider GLBTQ canon. |
Williford C |
F167. AWP Award Series Reading. (Sharon Dolin, Scott Blackwood, David Vann, and Sharon White) A reading featuring AWP's 2007 Award Series winners. |
Astoria |
F168. Applying for a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship: Helpful Hints for Writers and Translators. (Jon Parrish Peede, Amy Stolls, Catherine Vass) Thinking about applying for an NEA Creative Writing or Translation Fellowship but feel daunted by the process or not sure if you're eligible? Members of the NEA staff are here to help. This panel will review the fellowship guidelines and selection process, offer advice on how to put together the most effective application, and answer your questions. Special attention will be given to navigating grants.gov, the online government application system. |
1:30 p.m.-4:00 p.m. | |
Lake Michigan |
F169. $$ CLMP Workshop—Budgeting Essentials for the Book or Lit Mag. (Jay Baron Nicorvo, Allan Kornblum, Melanie Moore) Two of America's leading literary publishers, Coffee House Press and American Short Fiction, will discuss how to project cash flow, set up P&L statements, budget effectively, and more! (Note: CLMP Workshops cost $30 for CLMP members and $60 for nonmembers. To register, please stop by the CLMP booth at the Bookfair.) |
3:00 p.m.-4:15 p.m. | |
Astoria |
F170. Writing the World: Opportunities in the Peace Corps and Fellows/USA Graduate Assistantship Program. (Martin Lammon, Julie Driver, John Coyne, Anne Panning, John Teschner) Three writers, all former Peace Corps volunteers, and the manager for the Peace Corps' Fellows/USA program for returning Peace Corps volunteers discuss their experiences serving in the Peace Corps, opportunties for writers who wish to serve in the Peace Corps, and information for MFA program directors about how their institutions can participate in the Fellows/USA graduate assistantship program. |
Boulevard Room A,B,C |
F171A. Poetry and Comix. (Tony Barnstone, Bryan D. Dietrich, A. Van Jordan, Stephen Burt, Chad Parmenter) Writers whose work adapts to comic books (and their movie adaptations) will discuss how poetic form relates to the intrinsic narrative and visual form of comix, how to and whether one can unironically approach "low" culture material without risking bathos, ways in which comic book poems can be adapted to new media, and how comic books provide the mythos for our time, a common frame of reference, a manifestation of philosophical and religious themes, and psychological wish-fulfillment and dreams. |
Continental A |
F171B. Writing From the Ranks: Columbia College Fiction Writing Students Consider Their Military Experiences. (John Schultz, Jeffrey Brennan, David Nance, Marko Katic, Bryan Bushemi, Chuck Belanger) When writing about the events they are driven to tell, veterans and military personnel face particular challenges: political, psychological, social, publishing, censorship, etc. As our students return from the ranks, from the front, and from avenues of dissent, Columbia College's Fiction Writing Department helps them capture their experiences on the page. Columbia students and veterans from today's military, Desert Storm, Vietnam, and Korea talk about creation, catharsis, and the written word. |
Continental B |
F172. Passing: The Writer's Skin & the Authentic Self. (Jessica Treat, Rilla Askew, Ely Shipley, Tom Williams, Rob Stephenson) 'Passing' is not a new phenomena, yet the older reasons for passing (race, age, ethnicity, religion, gender) persist while new ones emerge. Three novelists, a poet, and a story writer examine the issues of passing in their writing, their teaching, in literature, and in new media. A queer and feminist female-to-male transsexual; a Midwestern biracial novelist living in the South; a novelist who chooses not to pass as Native American explore the choices they have made in their lives and how these decisions have affected their use of language to mark the authentic self; the ways that not only bodies, but texts get read. |
Continental C |
F173. Inside the Search Committee: How to Make it from Applicant to Candidate to Employee. (Laura Lee Washburn, Mary Hanford Bruce, Kathleen De Grave, Celia Patterson, Jeffrey Thomson, Amy Sage Webb) Panelists will share their extensive experiences with searches and hiring for a variety of positions in such areas as Creative Writing, Composition, American Literature, Technical Writing, and Writing across the Curriculum. We will provide immediately useful and specific information to help demystify the application and search process for academic jobs from application to contract. We will focus on the search committee's perspective at both private and public universities of a variety of sizes in order to help candidates see how minor details make major differences. |
Grand Ballroom |
F174. The National Book Critics Circle and the Chicago Tribune Celebrate NBCC Fiction Award Winners and Finalists. (Jane Ciabattari, Marilynne Robinson, Aleksandar Hemon, Bharati Mukherjee, Elizabeth Taylor) The National Book Critics Circle and the Chicago Tribune host a fiction reading by National Book Critics Circle Award Winners and Finalists Marilynne Robinson (Winner for Gilead), Bharati Mukherjee (Winner for The Middleman & Other Stories), and Aleksandar Hemon (finalist for Nowhere Man). Hosted by NBCC President Jane Ciabattari, welcome by Elizabeth Taylor, Literary Editor, Chicago Tribune. |
International Ballroom North |
F175. The Academy of American Poets Presents Mary Jo Bang & Frank Bidart. (Tree Swenson, Mary Jo Bang, Frank Bidart) Readings by Mary Jo Bang and Frank Bidart. Introductions by Tree Swenson. |
International Ballroom South |
F176. Celebrating the Vermont Studio Center: A 25th Anniversary Reading. (Gary Clark, Chris Abani, Amy Hempel, Sebastian Matthews, Rosanna Warren) A Reading to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Vermont Studio Center and its Writing Residencies program, featuring poets and fiction writers who are friends and alumni of the program. |
Joliet |
F177. New Poetry from Chile, Cuba, and Mexico: A Reading. (Daniel Borzutzky, Roberto Tejada, Jen Hofer, Kristin Dykstra, Brian Whitener, Laura Solozano) This event brings together experienced translators of contemporary and innovative Spanish-language poetry from Latin American. Each participant will read work in translation; moreover, they will provide a social, political, and literary context for the original works, as well as the translations. |
Lake Erie |
F178. Signing Your Life Away: Protecting Your Rights in the Age of Electronic Publishing. (Judith Slater, Wendell Mayo, Timothy Schaffert, Nick Kowalczyk, Brent Spencer, Jonis Agee) An increasing number of universities have electronic thesis and dissertation (ETD) policies, in which graduate students are required to sign contracts making their theses available for dissemination on the Internet. Such contracts may prevent students from later publishing this work, since agents and editors worry that the work has been widely disseminated on the Internet and thus already "published." Come hear panelists who are fighting these policies and learn how to protect your rights. |
Lake Huron |
F179. Docufiction: When is History [Not] Fiction; When is Fiction [Not] History?. (Cris Mazza, Ted Pelton, Ricardo Cortez Cruz, Charles Blackstone) Four fiction writers will discuss, and read samples from, their recent work that blurs the line by documenting, and blending, both historical and fictional events. Perhaps the documenting of history in fiction creates an alternate [true] history. But perhaps nonfiction documentation has fictionalized history. Can we even tell the difference? |
Lake Ontario |
F180. A Dzanc Books Reading. (Dan Wickett, Allison Amend, Louella Bryant, Roy Kesey, Kyle Minor, Michael Czyzniejewski) Dzanc Books, a non-profit, independent, publisher is currently enjoying its third year of existence, and during the past year, brought three other publishers (OV Books, Black Lawrence Press, and Monkeybicycle) into the fold. This reading will include authors being published by all of these publishers, showing both the diversity and consistency within. |
Marquette |
F181. Creative Collaborations: Uniting Writers, Composers, Performers, and Visual Artists. (Rich Levy, J. Kastely, Sue Elliott) How can arts organizations and academic institutions best serve writers hungry for collaborative opportunities? Panelists from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program, Inprint, and Houston Grand Opera discuss strategies for establishing programs that promote exchange between the literary, performing, and visual arts. The session will include a performance of original work made possible by a collaboration between organizations represented on the panel. |
Private Dining Room 2 |
F182. Forum for Undergraduate Student Editors. (Gary Fincke, Glen Retief, Catherine Dent, Whitney Fenton, Gaby Bedetti, Lee Fearthers) Along with providing a networking forum for undergraduate student editors and their faculty advisors, the seventh annual Forum for Undergraduate Student Editors (FUSE) caucus will include a panel discussion on the topic: "Selecting Editors and Pieces for An Undergraduate Literary Journal." The Forum will also provide an update on its web site, which includes a database of publishing internships, advice for start-up journals, and featured undergraduate literary magazines. |
Waldorf |
F183. Women of a Certain Age: Reprise. (Janet Burroway, Alicia Ostriker, Linda Pastan, Hilda Raz, Rosellen Brown) Advice on how to begin is plentiful and welcome. But what about the view from the far end of a career? Five women over sixty share the long perspective. They will address the changes that come with the years, the persistent problems, the recurring joys, and what it is about the writing life that still seems to matter. This panel continues the conversation from AWP in New York last year—with more time for audience participation. |
Williford A |
F184. Women Poets on Mentorship: Efforts & Affections. (Rachel Zucker, Beth Ann Fennelly, Valerie Martinez, Kristin Prevallet, Erika Meitner) What does is it mean to have come of age as a woman poet with other women poets in your life leading by example? In honor of the publication of this new Iowa anthology, which documents a generational turning point in American literary culture, well-known and diverse younger poets read from their essays about their mentors, including: Sharon Olds, Rita Dove, Denise Duhamel, Anne Waldman, and Joy Harjo. There will also be a larger discussion of issues of women-centered mentorship and influence. |
Williford B |
F185. Creative Synergies: Teaching Across Genres in Undergraduate Writing Programs. (Carrie Etter, Gerard Woodward, Steve May, Tim Liardet, Lucy English) What effects does the expansion of creative writing programs have on teaching, as students acquire a varying, broader base of generic knowledge? At Bath Spa University, undergraduates can take courses in scriptwriting, film-making, creative nonfiction, performance poetry, and children's writing, as well as the usual fiction and poetry. This has had unexpected and interesting implications for teaching. Five teachers from Bath Spa will discuss their own experiences within this dynamic in the hope of initiating an international conversation on this issue. |
Williford C |
F186. Writing in Multiple Genres. (Diana Raab, Phillip Lopate, Molly Peacock, David Huddle, Judith Kitchen) In the past, literary writers were encouraged to focus on a single genre, but in recent years, many have experimented more freely with other forms. This panel of poets, fiction and nonfiction writers will explore the challenges and rewards of crossing over to other genres. Some of the topics to be discussed include: What does each writer bring to the enterprise? What do they learn when making this transition? How does writing in more than one genre add depth and complexity to their work? |
4:30 p.m.-5:45 p.m. | |
Astoria |
F187. Milkweed Editions Poetry Reading. (Wayne Miller, Eireann Lorsung, Alex Lemon, Melissa Kwasny, Ada Limon, James Cihlar) This reading features new work by five distinctive poets—Ada Limon, Melissa Kwasny, Alex Lemon, Eireann Lorsung, and Wayne Miller—all recently published by Milkweed Editions, one of the largest literary nonprofit publishers in the country. Commemorating Milkweed's twenty-fifth anniversary as a book publisher, this event is an exciting opportunity to discover innovative work. Moderated by Wayne Miller, author of The Book of Props and editor of Pleaides. |
Boulevard Room A,B,C |
F188. A Tribute to a Stranger: Thomas James. (Mark Doty, Rigoberto Gonzalez, Tracy K. Smith, Mark Wunderlich) Thomas James's Letters to a Stranger—published shortly before his suicide and long out of print—has become one of the underground classics of contemporary poetry. This reading by four poets, influenced by this dark and moving master, celebrates the reissuing of Letters to a Stranger in a new edition published by Graywolf Press. |
Continental A |
F189. A Tribute to Jane Cooper. (Martha Collins, Kazim Ali, Marilyn Chin, Marie Howe, Jan Heller Levi) A tribute to the poetry of Jane Cooper (1924-2007), author, most recently, of The Flashboat: Poems Collected and Reclaimed (Norton). The panelists include former students and colleagues, as well as poets who met Cooper later in her long and distinguished life in poetry; all will read from her work, and speak of its ongoing influence on them and on others. |
Continental B |
F190. Amerika in Chicago. (David Lazar, Kelly Cherry, Ray Gonzalez, Cynthia Hogue, Ander Monson, Diane Wakoski) Come hear a selection of work as Hotel Amerika celebrates its move to a new venue: Columbia College Chicago. Created in 2002 at Ohio University, Hotel Amerika continues to offer its provocative, eclectic mix of work in known and unknown genres by acclaimed and emerging writers. |
Continental C |
F191. University of Missouri-Kansas City/New Letters Reading. (Robert Stewart, Michael Pritchett, Christie Hodgen, Hadara Bar-Nadav, Whitney Terrell, Michelle Boisseau) New Letters hosts a reading by the award-winning faculty writers at its home institution, the University of Missouri-Kansas City—where both magazine and university are celebrating 75-year anniversaries and looking forward to the establishment of a new MFA in Creative Writing and the Media Arts. |
Grand Ballroom |
F192. William Gass Tribute. (Steve Davenport, William Gass, Rikki Ducornet, Mary Jo Bang, Kathryn Davis, Gordon Hutner) This tribute celebrates the long and distinguished career of one of our greatest writers, a novelist and critic who has won both the Lannan and the PEN/Nabokov Lifetime Achievement Awards, as well as an unprecedented three National Book Critics Circle Awards. After a series of four tributes, Mr. Gass will read. |
International Ballroom North |
F193. West Chester University Poetry Conference 15th Anniversary Reading. (David Yezzi, Molly Peacock, David Mason, Kim Addonizio, Andrew Hudgins) The reading will celebrate the 15th anniversary of one of America's largest summer poetry conferences by presenting six readers who have been central to the conference. |
International Ballroom South |
F194. Pitt Poetry Series Reading. (Ed Ochester, Stephanie Brown, Nancy Krygowski, Jeffrey McDaniel, Afaa Michael Weaver) This is a reading to celebrate four poets recently published in the Series. Though their credits range from a first book (Nancy Krygowski) to a selected works (Afaa Michael Weaver), all have received highly positive reviews. |
Joliet |
F195. Herb Scott Tribute. (Beth Martinelli, Malena Morling, Metta Sama, Shirley Clay Scott, James D'Agostino, Gladys Cardiff) The panelists will pay tribute to poet, editor, mentor, professor, and husband, Herb Scott, author of Groceries, Disguises, and Sleeping Woman, editor of New Issues Press, and professor at Western Michigan University. Herb Scott passed in February 2006, and this panel will present a multitude of voices to remember the many sides to Scott, to discuss the importance of building communities, mentoring, and small presses, and to recall his voice by reading some of his work. |
Lake Erie |
F196. Flash Fast Sudden Fiction and the Short Story. (Ed Falco, Jayne Anne Phillips, John Dufresne, Steve Almond) What are the distinctions between short stories and the very short fictions variously categorized as flash fiction, sudden fiction, five-minute fiction, short short fiction, etc.? What are the impulses that lead a writer to work in very short forms rather than longer narrative forms? The writers on this panel will use examples from their own work to explore the nature of very short fiction, especially as it contrasts with the short story. |
Lake Huron |
F197. Page to Stage: VT Playwrights Present New Monologues and Dialogues. (Alice Shen, Robert Walker, Josette Torres, Manisha Sharma, Nick Kocz) Playwriting has become more and more popular in MFA programs across the country. Last spring, Virginia Tech English and Theatre Departments collaborated to produce a 72-Hour New Play Festival, featuring staged readings of nine one-act plays written by MFA playwrights, fiction writers, and poets. This panel hosts several of those students, including some from current playwriting workshops at VT. They will read monologues and dialogues from their new works, dealing with a wide range of themes from the tragic, exploitive side of dowry customs in India, to a comic, metaphysical exploration of gender and sexuality. |
Lake Michigan |
F198. KSU Press and Wick Poetry Center: Encouraging New Voices. (Maggie Anderson, Jason Gray, Djelloul Marbrook, Ariana-Sophia Kartsonis, Anna Leahy, Richard Tayson) The Kent State University Press (Wick Poetry Series) presents five new poets reading from their recent work. The KSU Press publishes three to five books of poems annually, including a poetry chapbook series by Ohio writers and a first book award, the Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize. The series is co-sponsored by the Wick Poetry Center at Kent State which is celebrating its 25th anniversary as a literary center this year. |
Lake Ontario |
F199. The Country They Come From: Polish-American Writers Read about the Midwest and Poland. (John Guzlowski, Anthony Bukoski, Linda Foster, John Minczeski, Leslie Pietrzyk) Polish-American writers have been writing in and about the Midwest for a 150 years. They have written novels, travel narratives, poems, songs and memoirs that commemorate the Midwest while memorializing the country these writers or their ancestors came from. Five recent Polish-American writers will demonstrate that this tradition is very much alive and vital. |
Marquette |
F200. The Voice Over: Creative Nonfiction on the Radio. (Pat Walters, Lee Gutkind, Johanna Zorn, Ashley Gross, Scott Carrier) Most creative writing programs don't teach radio. But a new generation of narrative radio, epitomized by programs like This American Life, is forcing us to ask why. In the Internet age, creative writers must consider all the ways they can publish their work. This panel will gather top narrative radio producers—most of whom also write for print—to explain what narrative radio is, how sound affects storytelling, how writing for radio differs from writing for print, and how to break in. |
Private Dining Room 2 |
F201. Creative and Critical Writing: Core Relations in Creative Writing Programs. (Graeme Harper, Chad Davidson, Greg Fraser) The relationship between creative and critical understanding is fundamental to almost all creative writing programs. But how are these things related, and what is the best kind of critical writing to inform creative practice? This panel looks at this all-important relationship asks the question: what is the best critical partner to accompany creative writing? |
Waldorf |
F202. City Slickers: Four Urban Poets Read and Discuss their Work. (Paul Breslin, Alan Shapiro, Alan Williamson, Anne Winters) We are poets who have found the city to be crucially important to our writing, as a threshing-floor of political consciousness, memory, and longing. We will read poems about our cities—New York, Chicago, Boston—and discuss the different ways in which the city enters our poems. Does the city summon the poet, or the poet the city? What challenges to form and representation does the city pose? |
Williford A |
F203. Fiction Reading: A Chip off Philip Roth's Block. (Danit Brown, Deb Olin Unferth, Margot Singer) A reading by Jewish writers who, in the tradition of Roth, investigate contemporary society, faith, and family through narrative, with perspectives by turns generous and scathing. |
Williford C |
F204. Chicago's Global Voices: Other Voices Magazine Celebrates the "New" City. (Gina Frangello, Elizabeth Crane, Bayo Ojikutu, Achy Obejas) Other Voices, an award-winning fiction-focused literary magazine, was founded in Chicago in 1984. In 2007, the magazine released its first-ever "all Chicago writers" issue, celebrating the many styles and heritages of fiction writers who now call Chicago home. This issue of Other Voices received seven nominations from Pushcart Prize editors and included such luminaries as Elizabeth Crane, Aleksander Hemon, Bayo Ojikutu, and Audrey Niffenegger, alongside new writers like Sheba White and Ivan Faute. All twenty-two contributors live in the Chicago area, and a selection will read short excerpts from their work featured in Other Voices and take questions about literary life in the city! |
7:00 p.m. | |
Astoria |
F205. A Reception Hosted by the University of Utah. Join us for a drink! Bar with tickets for free drinks available. |
Continental A |
F206. A Reception Hosted by the Northeast Ohio Master in Fine Arts (NEOMFA). Join us for a drink! Hors d'Oeuvres and bar, with tickets for free drinks available. |
Continental B |
F207. A Reception Hosted by the University of Notre Dame. Join us for a drink! Bar with tickets for free drinks available. |
Continental C |
F208. A Reception Hosted by University of Illinois. Join us for a drink! Bar with tickets for free drinks available. |
Joliet |
F209. A Reception Hosted by the Columbia College Chicago English Department. Join us for a drink! Bar with tickets for free drinks available. |
Private Dining Room 1 |
F210. Reception Zone 3 Press & Reading Reception. Please join us for a Press Reading and Reception. |
Williford A |
F211. A Reception Hosted by Murray State University Low-Residency MFA. Join us for a drink! Bar with tickets for free drinks available. |
Williford B |
F212. A Celebration of Larry Heinemann Hosted by Wilkes University. Wilkes University MA/MFA celebrates Larry Heinemann. Bar with tickets for drinks available. |
Williford C |
F213. A Reception Hosted by Emerson College's Department of Writing, Literature, and Publishing. Join us, along with Ploughshares and Redivider, to celebrate recent accomplishments of Emerson College's MFA and MA programs faculty, students and alumni. |
8:30 p.m.-10:00 p.m. | |
Grand Ballroom |
F214. A Tribute to Gwendolyn Brooks. (Quraysh Ali Lansana, Lucille Clifton, Michael Harper, Major Jackson) A Tribute to Gwendolyn Brooks, presented by the Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Black Literature and Creative Writing at Chicago State University. |
International Ballroom North |
F215. ZZ Packer, Joe Meno & Dorothy Allison. (ZZ Packer, Joe Meno, Dorothy Allison) A reading by ZZ Packer, Joe Meno, and Dorothy Allison, featuring a performance by Mucca Pazza. |
10:00 p.m.-Midnight | |
Boulevard Room A,B,C |
F216. Afterhours Poetry Slam. (James Warner) The All Collegiate event is open to all undergrad and grad students attending the slam. Participation is capped at ten slammers a night. Slam pieces must be no longer than three minutes in length. Prizes, judges, and organization of event will be handled by Wilkes University Creative Writing Program. |
Waldorf |
F217. AWP Public Reception & Dance Party. Sponsored by Wilkes University Low Residency MA/MFA Program in Creative Writing. Music by DJ Neza. Free beer and wine from 10:00 p.m.-11:00 p.m. Cash bar from 11:00 p.m.-midnight. |
