2011 Schedule

Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday

Friday- February 4, 2011

9:00 a.m.-10:15 p.m.

Coolidge Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F103. Pedagogy Forum Session: Poetry. This session is designed to give contributors to the 2011 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.

Delaware Suite Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F104. The Good Review: Criticism in the Age of Book Blogs and Amazon.com. (Jeremiah Chamberlin, Charles Baxter, Stacey D’Erasmo, Gemma Sieff, Keith Taylor) This panel examines how criticism is changing in a literary landscape increasingly dominated by new media. In this era, who is a critic? What is a good review? Whom does it serve? And what is the impact of criticism on literature and culture? Editors of both online and print publications join writers of fiction, poetry, and criticism to address these questions, as well as to discuss how books get reviewed and by whom, why vigorous reviewing is necessary, and ways to write reviews that matter.

Harding Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F105. Pedagogy Forum Session: Nonfiction. This session is designed to give contributors to the 2011 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.

Hoover Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F106. Art School Faculty Caucus. (Hugh Behm-Steinberg, Monica Drake, Aimee Phan, Casey Smith, Maw Shein Win, Dawn Paul)Annual meeting of Art School Faculty Members to discuss pedagogy, programming, administration, and best practices particular to Art School writing classes and programs.

Maryland Suite Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F107. Channeling Voices: The Persona Poem. (Julie Sheehan, Cornelius Eady, Joan Houlihan, Melissa Stein, Robert Thomas, Robert Polito) Six poets discuss the curious case of the persona poem, its powers, its problems: choosing which voice to channel, handling the ethics of impersonation (a Class 6 felony), negotiating between how a historical or invented “I” would actually speak and how the poem’s language survives the printed page. Why write in persona? Can personas, like actors, be miscast? What does the First Person Historical do that the Third Person Historical can’t? What are the pitfalls of giving voice to someone else?

Nathan Hale Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F108. Relocating Poetry within the Brain: Consciousness, Emotion, and Poetic Rhetoric. (Bruce Covey, Amy Gerstler, Danielle Pafunda, Jenny Sadre-Orafai, Megan Kaminski)In light of cognitive science’s research into the biological basis of emotion, the public perception of poetry as “engaging the realms of feelings and dreams” has caused poetry to appear more than ever disengaged from scientific fact. The truth is, however, that many current poets have already begun revamping poetry’s emotional rhetoric with an understanding of current science. This panel will examine elegies, odes, and other emotionally driven forms within the context of cognition.

Thurgood Marshall East Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F109. Raymond Carver in the Workshops. (Carol Sklenicka, Bret Lott, Maura Stanton, C.J. Hribal, Douglas Unger, Dagoberto Gilb) Writers who knew Raymond Carver will examine Carver’s profound influence on late 20th-century short fiction and his legacy to the genre.

Thurgood Marshall North Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F110. Closing the Distance: Innovations in Low-Residency MFAs. (Lori A. May, Kathleen Driskell, Tod Goldberg, Meg Kearney, Michael Kobre) Low-residency program directors will discuss innovative approaches to providing value-added opportunities for students at a distance—regardless of varied geographic locales. Topics include adaptability in pedagogical training, funded editorships and real-world publishing experiences, online approaches to the traditional workshop model, the inclusion of commercial projects in film and television, and how students may become involved in a reading series or literary journal.

Thurgood Marshall South Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F111. Race in the Creative Writing Workshop. (Cynthia Cruz, Michelle Y. Valladares, J. Michael Martinez, Suzanne Gardinier, Saeed Jones, Carolina Ebeid) When teaching in writing workshops, what allowances ought to be made for the artists, individually, and where do we draw the line? At what point do stereotypes of race get addressed? How does it feel to be the lone writer of color in a college writing workshop? What balance and/or added perspective can a teacher bring to the workshop experience? When does “teaching one's race” begin to interfere with one’s own opportunity to discuss craft?

Thurgood Marshall West Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F112. Written Across Waters. (Patrick Rosal, Elana Bell, Aracelis Girmay, David Wright, Curtis Bauer, Tyehimba Jess) Five award-winning American writers, who have spent extensive time abroad in Africa, South America, Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, explore how various places overseas first called to them, how they made their travels possible, and how looking home across natural and political borders has affected their writing. Each writer will address funding opportunities and challenges, as well as the particular urgency and personal responsibility of being an American writer in an international context.

Virginia B Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F113. Where Science and Justice Meet: The Necessity of Environmental Writing. (Nancy Lord, David Gessner, Gretchen Legler, Kathleen Dean Moore, Catherine Reid, John Calderazzo) Beset by global warming, habitat loss, and industrial waste and pollution, today’s “natural world” demands more than observation and reverence from writers. This panel of established nature and environmental writers will explore the need for scientific accuracy, political acumen, the pursuit of social justice, and at least occasional humor in shaping literary responses to environmental threats and change.

Virginia C Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F114. Arktoi Books Celebrates Five Years of Lesbian Publishing! . (Eloise Klein Healy, Elizabeth Bradfield, Catherine Kirkwood, Rita Mae Reese, Ching-In Chen, Nickole Brown) Established in 2006 by Eloise Klein Healy, Arktoi Books is an imprint of Red Hen Press dedicated to publishing literary works of high quality by lesbian writers. Please celebrate our first five years with a poetry and fiction reading from our diverse group of writers. A discussion of the impact, responsibilities, and conversations these first books have had in the queer community, and how these efforts have played out in the literary world, will follow.

Wilson A, B, & C Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F115. Literary Locavores: Offering Students a Banquet of Local Works. (Jerry Wemple, Claire Lawrence, Yvonne Murphy, Kathryn Paterson) The culinary locavore movement recognizes the bounty of a local region, and shows appreciation for what is sometimes overlooked. The literary counterpart to this movement allows us to examine works by local authors. Students of creative writing often feel both connected to and motivated by a writer who speaks of their place, their lifestyle. We believe these poets and prose writers, who range from well-known to little known, offer an ample harvest to sustain (and inspire) our students.

Ambassador Ballroom
Omni Shoreham Hotel, West Lobby

F116. History in Verse: Poets at the Intersection of Documentary and Art. (Andrea Carter Brown, Marilyn Nelson, Cynthia Hogue, Frank X Walker, Scott Hightower, Robin Coste Lewis) Six poets committed to writing history in verse discuss how they came to their material; other collections that have influenced them; the role of research and the difficult task of balancing information, concision, and lyricism; strategies for approaching their subjects; and the many challenges involved in writing poetry that is true to history as well as good poetry.

Diplomat Ballroom
Omni Shoreham Hotel, West Lobby

F117A. Potomac Review Celebrates Best of 50. (Julie Wakeman-LInn, Kirk Nesset, Sandra Beasley, Jacob Appel, Jennine Capó Crucet, Marilyn Kallet) To celebrate its fiftieth issue, Potomac Review offers a sampling of its history with readings by Kirk Nesset, Sandra Beasley, Jacob Appel, Ethelbert Miller, Jennine Capos Crucet, and others. Based in the Potomac region, PR has always had concern for the environment at its heart, but over the past two decades, its focus has evolved nationally and internationally and culturally; the reading represents the diverse voices and styles who have appeared in the pages and taps our Best of the 50 issue.

Empire Ballroom
Omni Shoreham Hotel, West Lobby

F117B. Starcherone Books 10th-Anniversary Celebration Reading. (Donald Breckenridge, Sara Greenslit, Joshua Harmon, Janet Mitchell, Aimee Parkison, Nina Shope) Featuring Donald Breckenridge, Sara Greenslit, Joshua Harmon, Janet Mitchell, Aimee Parkison, and Nina Shope.

Executive Room
Omni Shoreham Hotel, West Lobby

F118. Sex, Drugs, and Rock ‘n’ Roll: Exploring the Risqué in the Poetry Workshop. (Wendy Barker, Kevin Clark, Kevin Prufer, Jacqueline Kolosov, Fleda Brown) Poetry workshops can be charged with tension when a student’s writing passes barriers of convention or decorum. Depending on their ethnic, religious, political, or gender identification, workshop members can react emotionally to edgy language or imagery. And yet, as teachers, we encourage students to push past the usual borders. This panel will explore ways to maintain our pedagogical tenets when student writing challenges prevailing standards.

Hampton Ballroom
Omni Shoreham Hotel, East Lobby

F119. Balancing Professional Writing With Your Creative Side. (Matt Tullis, Michael Downs, Valerie Due, Jason Tucker, Jolie Lewis) There are precious few opportunities for writers to make money doing what they do best—writing. The money-making writing opportunities out there—public relations, marketing, advertising, even newspaper reporting—can at times be a creative drain on the creative writer. This panel focuses on how writers with these backgrounds have avoided some of the pitfalls that come with writing professionally and found ways to transfer skills from one writing realm to the other.

Palladian Ballroom
Omni Shoreham Hotel, West Lobby

F120. Doubled Voice: Poems and Translations. (Kristin Dykstra, Lila Zemborain, Mariela Méndez, Daniel Coudriet, Eduardo Espina) This reading features short bilingual presentations by two teams: poets speaking alongside the translators who have recently created new versions of their writing. Poetry translation plays a special role in the history of literary translation: it is regularly described as the most difficult, even explicitly “impossible” form of translation. Our presenters have been engaged in recent projects in spite of this characterization (or because of it) and will share the results and challenges of their collaborations.

Virginia A Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F121. $$ CLMP Workshop for Lit Mags—Let’s Get Digital. (Andy Hunter) Discover how to translate literary magazines into formats befitting electronic platforms from Electric Literature’s trailblazing co-founder and editor-in-chief. (Note: CLMP Workshops cost $30 for CLMP members and $60 for nonmembers. To register, please stop by the CLMP booth at the Bookfair.)

9:00 a.m.-11:45 a.m.

Virginia A Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F121. $$ CLMP Workshop for Lit Mags—Let’s Get Digital. (Andy Hunter) Discover how to translate literary magazines into formats befitting electronic platforms from Electric Literature’s trailblazing co-founder and editor-in-chief. (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.

Coolidge Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F122. Jewish Guilt. (Janice Eidus, Ruth Knafo Setton, Elaine Terranova, Mindy Greenstein) Have Jewish writers cornered the market on guilt? Do they express guilt differently from Catholic or Muslim writers? Does guilt change across generations, genders, and genres? Five Jewish writers covering a broad spectrum, from Ashkenazi to Sephardic to Latino, writing fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction, hailing from the Bronx, Los Angeles, Morocco, and Chile, from secular to religious, will explore the evolution and present-day reality of Jewish Guilt in their own writing and beyond.

Delaware Suite Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F123. Unite!: Acts of Radical Poetic Collaboration. (Arielle Greenberg, Rachel Zucker, Dana Teen Lomax, Rodrigo Toscano, Matthew Cooperman, Jason Snyder) How does collaborative poetic work, which destabilizes the single-author voice and resists total control, lend itself to radical themes and aesthetics? In these projects, process, style, and content interrogate notions of authorship and authority, resulting in subversive perspectives on politics and culture. Collage, children participating, live performance, and interdisciplinary media are just some of the techniques used to create work that is as community-minded as it is provocative.

Harding Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F124. The Future of Creative Writing in the Academy. (Terry Ann Thaxton, Joe Amato, Philip Gerard, Nigel McLoughlin, Lisa Roney, Kass Fleisher) Creative writing as an academic discipline is relatively new, with the strongest push forward in the 1940s with Paul Engle’s Iowa Writing Workshop. And now, with budget restraints and the consumerist culture in the academy, creative writing courses in the U.S. and abroad are receiving directives from administration to increase enrollments in smaller classes, which cuts at the very core of creative writing pedagogy. How can we afford to remain stagnant in our pedagogy if our studio workshop courses have thirty, forty, fifty students in them? Should we reform our pedagogy? What strategies can we adopt to protect good practice where necessary? Are there pedagogic methodologies which can be applied which will allow us to successfully integrate the workshop model into a more mixed methods approach? This international panel will explore proactive, theoretical, as well as pragmatic ways in which creative writing can survive in academe amidst budget issues and other pressures.

Hoover Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F125. Indigenous-Aboriginal American Writers Caucus. (LeAnne Howe, Gordon Henry) With the flourishing proportion of Indigenous writers and academics participating in AWP and teaching in affiliated programs (including endowed chairs & program directors), the present time is highly conducive to impart field-related celebrations and concerns as understood by Native writers from the Americas and surrounding island nations.

Maryland Suite Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F126. The Poetry of Truth: the Role of Research in Contemporary Poetics. (Cole Swensen, Susan Howe, Thalia Field, C.S. Giscombe, Jonathan Skinner) Poetic language is often thought opposed to, or at least incompatible with, the language of information, but there is an emergent poetic trend that fuses the two. These poets put research at the center of their practice, thus examining both the construction of truth, which controls our relationship to information, and that of poeticity, which allows language to be perceived as art. Panelists will address these issues by presenting their recent work in light of the research that informed it.

Nathan Hale Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F127. The Experimental and the International. (Hilary Plum, Karen Emmerich, Scott Esposito, Steve Dolph, Anna Moschovakis, Jill Schoolman) This panel considers why literature in translation is often described as experimental: What issues arise as foreign literary traditions enter the U.S. milieu? How does the phenomenon of literature in translation shed light on American conceptions of experimental vs. mainstream? What can happen when highly language-focused (thus experimental?) work moves between languages? A discussion among translators, writers, and book & magazine editors and publishers in the field of international literature.

Thurgood Marshall East Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F128. Women on Wanderlust: Travel Writing. (Stephanie Elizondo Griest, Elisabeth Eaves, Alison Stein Wellner, Johanna Gohmann) Contributors of Best Women’s Travel Writing 2010 will debate the role gender plays in their trade. What safety precautions do they take on their solo expeditions? Have they ever used their perceived vulnerability to their advantage? After exploring the ways gender can impact a journey, they will reflect on how it influences prose. Is there a feminine style of travel writing? What is the market like post-Eat, Pray, Love, and how can new writers break into the field?

Thurgood Marshall North Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F129. One Poem Festival Celebrating Rane Arroyo. (Glenn Sheldon) A diverse selection of fellow writers, friends, and former students each perform a poem by—or about—poet, playwright, and professor, Rane Arroyo, to celebrate his life and work. The session will open with an invocation by Francisco X Alarcon and an introduction by Glenn Sheldon.

Thurgood Marshall South Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F130. One Word Please: Writers on the Words They Love or Loathe. (Sarah Gorham, April Bernard, Jane DeLury, Maureen N. McLane, Nathaniel Taylor, Brock Clarke) Five writers examine the passionate relationship they have with one word in particular—the one that makes them cringe or swoon. Their choices are a wild gallimaufry from sweet to dämmerung, midnight to kankedort to pants. The essays are lyric, zinging one-liners, extended quips, jeremiads, etymological adventures, and fantastic romps. And they are all beautifully collected in Molly McQuade’s anthology One Word: Writers on the Words They Love or Loathe, published in late 2010 by Sarabande Books.

Thurgood Marshall West Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F131. Metafiction Latino: Beyond Magical Realism. (Daniel Olivas, Kathleen Alcalá, Xánath Caraza, Susana Chávez-Silverman, Salvador Plascencia) The novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, is the seminal work of magical realism that has cast a long—and sometimes constraining—shadow over Latino writers. Yet metafiction, (which acknowledges the reader’s role in literature and often breaks the wall between fiction and memoir) has emerged from this shadow to stand on its own. The panelists will share their own works of metafiction and discuss its role in contemporary Latino literature.

Virginia B Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F132. How to start a literary center and thrive through the decades. (Jocelyn Hale, Andromeda Romano-Lax, Gregg Wilhelm, Eve Bridburg, Sue Joerger) Have you realized that your region needs a literary center and wondered how you might get one going? What are your first steps and what will follow as your vision takes hold and your organization grows? Learn about the lifecycle of nonprofits from leaders of literary centers at all stages of development from Idea and Start-up (49 Alaska Writing Center), Growth (CityLit in Baltimore and Grubb Street in Boston) and Maturity (Richard Hugo House in Seattle and the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis).

Virginia C Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F133. Fact and Fiction: Four Women Write About The Disease All Women Dread. (Rita Ciresi, Mary Cappello, Elizabeth Nunez, Suzanne Strempek Shea) Two memoirists and two novelists will discuss the difference between writing “fact” and “fiction” about breast cancer, and explore how race, ethnicity, religion, and sexuality affect their work. Panelists also will explore why (with the exception of celebrity biographies) mainstream American publishers shy away from manuscripts involving breast cancer and how independent presses—such as Alyson, Beacon, and Akashic—have stepped in to fill that gap.

Wilson A, B, & C Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F134. To Tell You the Truth: Strategies in the New Nonfiction. (Jeffrey Shotts, Nick Flynn, Eula Biss, Ander Monson, Stephen Elliott) Creative nonfiction has never been more exciting, as writers from multiple genres explore and define new modes of writing essay, memoir, journalism, and cultural criticism. Four writers at the forefront of the new nonfiction discuss strategies for writing and reading these new forms of “truth-telling.”

Ambassador Ballroom
Omni Shoreham Hotel, West Lobby

F135. George Mason University MFA Alumni Fiction Reading. (Nicole Louise Reid, Liam Callanan, Dallas Hudgens, Ramola D, Steve Amick, Jessica Anthony) With an introduction by Alan Cheuse, George Mason University’s MFA Program celebrates its 30th year in an alumni fiction reading featuring winners of the AWP Award Series in Short Fiction, Willamette Award in Fiction, and authors of books published by top trade and literary publishers. Enjoy a microcosm of the variety of exceptional authors whose voices developed in the vibrant and uniquely exciting Washington, DC, area.

Diplomat Ballroom
Omni Shoreham Hotel, West Lobby

F136. Jets vs. Sharks? (Michael Croley, Richard Bausch, C. Michael Curtis, Elizabeth Cox, Jill McCorkle) In a recent article, essayist and author Elif Batuman stated one of her reasons for not attending a writing program was her aversion to the idea of craft: “I realized that I would greatly prefer to think of literature as a profession, an art, a science, or pretty much anything else, rather than a craft.” The panelists discuss the value of craft, what it means, and how we pass this knowledge onto our students while also addressing the concerns Batuman raises and their legitimacy.

Empire Ballroom
Omni Shoreham Hotel, West Lobby

F137. Page Turners: Asian American Literature in the 21st Century. (V.V. Ganeshananthan, Manijeh Nasrabadi, Amitava Kumar) From Hmong to Iran to Turkmenistan, Asian American literature is broadening its terrain. The Asian American Writers’ Workshop is at the fore of this conversation on “radical inclusivity.” But what unifies these cultures and aesthetics? Join an eclectic group of Asian American Writers in conversation as they come together to discuss the future of the Asian American arts movement in a post multi-cultural world.

Executive Room
Omni Shoreham Hotel, West Lobby

F138. Goatfoot, Duende, Fractals: Teaching Prose by Poets. (Laura Lee Washburn, Oliver de la Paz, Mark Haunschild, Sarah Page) This panel will focus on craft writing by poets. How does the reading of craft essays influence writers and editors in their own work and in the appreciation and critique of writing by others? Three creative writing teachers and a poetry editor will discuss the importance of essays by poets on poetry. We will recommend essays, books, and anthologies, and discuss the pedagogy of teaching craft, revision, and editing through these essays in both undergraduate and graduate classes.

Hampton Ballroom
Omni Shoreham Hotel, East Lobby

F139. The Art of Rejection: Giving and Receiving. (Diana Raab, Wendy Call, Kevin Morgan Watson, Geeta Kothari, Molly Peacock, Philip F. Deaver) Rejection is part of the literary life. Rejection of your manuscript is not a rejection of you as a person or a writer, but of one piece of writing. It says nothing about your potential. It’s equally difficult being an editor turning down work, as being a writer receiving the rejection. These panelists of writers, editors, and publishers will discuss how to establish boundaries between yourself and your work, what we learn from rejections, and how feedback makes us better writers and editors.

Palladian Ballroom
Omni Shoreham Hotel, West Lobby

F140. Walt Whitman Award: Readings and discussion by past and present recipients. (Eric Pankey, J. Michael Martinez, Nicole Cooley, Judy Jordan, Stephen Yenser, Jared Carter) The Academy of American Poets presents the Walt Whitman Award each year to a poet’s first collection of poems. Six poets at varying stages of their writing lives will read from their work and discuss the impact of the award, which publishes the book, distributes it nationally, and provides a prize of $5,000 cash and a month-long residency. The poets will examine the significance each element has had on their subsequent trajectory as writers and will address concerns of unpublished poets.

Regency Ballroom
Omni Shoreham Hotel, West Lobby

F141. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Poetry Reading. (Andrew Hudgins, Linda Gregerson, Rodney Jones, Maurice Manning, Leslie Harrison) To celebrate Michael Collier’s first ten years editing the poetry series at HMH, five of his authors will read. Hudgins will moderate. Michael, a professor at the University of Maryland, also directs the Bread Loaf Writers Conference. Under his editorship, the press has produced a National Book Award Finalist, and won three Kingsley Tufts Awards, the Poets’ Prize, a Pulitzer Prize, and was a finalist for the National Book Award.

Noon.-1:15 p.m

Coolidge Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F142. Who Makes the Best Student?: Growing Your Program with Nontraditional Majors. (Patricia Clark, Simmons B. Buntin, Joe Wilkins, Sean Prentiss) Are the best MFA students always English or Creative Writing majors? Four writers with undergraduate degrees in business, economics, engineering, and political science discuss the rich and various skills, stories, and outlooks they brought to graduate writing programs. They will also discuss ways undergraduate programs can better develop writers through encouraging more diverse academic experience and also widen the pool of students.

Delaware Suite Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F143. Wesleyan University Press Poetry. (Suzanna Tamminen, Joseph Harrington, Ed Roberson, Evie Shockley, Elizabeth Willis, Adrian Blevins) Wesleyan University Press authors read from their new books. Joseph Harrington’s Things Come On is a mixed media work centered on the Watergate years. Evie Shockley’s the new black investigates Black America’s evolution through and beyond history. Kamau Brathwaite’s Elegguas rewrites the relationship between Africa and the “new world” in a wave of remembrance. Elizabeth Willis’s Address exposes the fragility of our founding, republican aspirations. Through Ed Roberson’s To See the Earth Before the End of the World we celebrate and mourn a landscape on the verge of disintegration.

Harding Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F144. Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell the Workshop. (Lori Horvitz, Lee Ann Roripaugh, Carol Guess, Kristin Naca, Catherine Reid) This panel questions the common workshop practice of critiquing through a formalist lens, in which the larger ideological/historical contexts of a piece remain unspoken. What are the implicit tensions between this approach and teachers or students who perceive the workshop as an inherently political space? As queer women writers and teachers, we will discuss strategies and possibilities for raising social awareness in classroom discussions and dynamics.

Hoover Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F145. Two-Year College Caucus. (Kris Bigalk, Sharon Coleman, Pamela Achenbach Novak, Vickie Hunt) With almost half of all students beginning college careers at two-year colleges, and increasing numbers of MFAs landing two-year college teaching jobs, interest in creative writing at the two-year college is increasing every year. Come to this annual networking meeting to find out more about innovations in two-year college creative writing programs, courses, and more. We will discuss creative writing at the two-year college, hold a business meeting, and provide tangible resources for faculty.

Marriott Ballroom
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F146. A Reading by Joyce Carol Oates. (Joyce Carol Oates) Evocative and transformative, as novelist, poet, dramatist, and essayist, It is no wonder that Joyce Carol Oates has become one of the most celebrated and honored writers of our time. Recipient of the national Book Award, the PEN/Malamud Award, the 2005 Prix Femina, and the 2010 national Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandorf Lifetime Achievement Award, Oates has been a dedicated teacher of creative writing at Princeton University since 1978 and is the author of the forthcoming A Widow's Story: A Memoir  and Give Me Your heart: Tales of Mystery & Suspense.

Maryland Suite Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F147. Local Poets With National Reputations. (Linda Pastan, Carolyn Forché , Fanny Howe, Jonetta Rose Barras) A poetry reading of local writers with national reputations.

Nathan Hale Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F148. Literary Science Writing: Don’t Be Scared. (David Everett, Nancy Shute, James Shreeve, Christopher Joyce) Many nonfiction writers either don’t understand or are afraid of the challenges of writing about science, medicine, technology, or other complicated subjects. But this panel of experienced writers argues that the best science writing can be as ambitious as the best literary writing on any subject. Good science writing, in fact, may be more challenging, because it requires a journalist’s regard for accuracy plus the ability to explain complex subjects with grace, passion, and literary skill.

Thurgood Marshall East Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F149. How Stories Within Stories Can Make Great Stories. (Elizabeth Poliner, Cathryn Hankla, Jean McGarry, Donna Denize) Think: Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Chekhov’s "Gooseberries." These are classic examples of a story within a story making a great story. But how are contemporary writers approaching this technique? What innovations have they introduced? This panel will explore the story-within-a-story device through the works of modern and contemporary fiction writers, including Alice Munro and Peter Taylor, and suggest ways in which this form might find new expressions.

Thurgood Marshall North Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F150. Beyond Blackout and Whiteache: Poets Rewriting Race. (Ailish Hopper, Martha Collins, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Jake Adam York, Douglas Kearney) We’ll investigate the ways that poetry about race, from both white and black poets, can use the same language that’s been our “jail” to now invent a “key.” Where’s the line between us using cultural tropes and them using us? What role does the body, or a body’s absence, play in terms of effacement or (in)fidelity to narrative? Looking at constraints we encounter—and possibly enact—we’ll explore how formal choices embody and offer the possibility of Audre Lorde’s naming the nameless… so it can be thought.

Thurgood Marshall South Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F151. Riders on the Storm: Strategies for Getting (and Surviving) the Tenure-Track Job. (Hadara Bar-Nadav, Miles Harvey, John Struloeff, Irina Reyn, Simone Muench) In these difficult economic times, many colleges and universities across the United States are in financial crisis, which has led to hiring freezes, furloughs, and even firings. As recent tenure-track hires, we will present strategies for securing tenure-track jobs. We also will discuss ways junior faculty can survive and succeed in these precarious economic times, while balancing academic responsibilities with our creative lives.

Thurgood Marshall West Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F152. Reverent Irreverence: Women Writing Spirituality. (Lorraine Lopez, Heather Sellers, Kathryn Locey, Meredith Gray, Joy Castro) Academics often shrink from matters of faith, a sensitive topic even without considering gender politics, particularly male hierarchies, and representations of the divine in organized religion. So where does this leave the female writer eager to explore incongruities that erupt between the impulse to create and faith systems that contradict her agency? What if she explores faith fault lines through humor? This panel of writers explores faith and spirituality—irreverently—through personal essay.

Virginia A Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F153. Listening to Literature. (Rachel Louise Snyder, Maureen Corrigan, Christopher Turpin, Sarah Koenig, Karen Munson) Public radio needs writers. Writers need public radio. Yet too often writing programs see radio as solely a journalistic effort. Our panel aims to dispel that notion. The MFA or MA can be a springboard for writing for radio, just as learning to craft a radio story can teach us about the writing craft. This panel will discuss the many avenues in public radio available to writers with imagination and drive.

Virginia B Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F154. A Reading by Faculty of Goucher College. (Kathy Flann, Laura Wexler, Jessica Anya Blau, Bill U’Ren, Leslie Rubinkowski, Jacob Levenson) Goucher College in Baltimore recently celebrated its 125th year. The undergraduate creative writing program, home to the Kratz Center for Creative Writing, has been part of the college’s distinguished history for the past three decades. Many of the program’s graduates have earned MFA’s and illustrious publishing careers. In 1997, Goucher launched the first low-residency MFA program devoted solely to creative nonfiction, the first of its kind in the country. Introductions by Madison Smartt Bell.

Virginia C Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F155. Get Shorty: Readings from the Kenyon Review’s Short Fiction Contest. (Cara Blue Adams, Megan Anderegg Malone, Christopher Feliciano Arnold, Mika Taylor, Nick Ripatrazone, Megan Mayhew Bergman) The KR Short Fiction Contest for Writers Under Thirty is entering its fourth year. This reading is an opportunity to hear work from younger writers recognized as winners or runners-up by judges Alice Hoffman, Richard Ford, and Louise Erdrich from the first three years of the contest. Submission to this contest must be 1,200 words or fewer.

Wilson A, B, & C Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F156. A Tribute to John Haines. (Bruce Guernsey, Dana Gioia, Steven Rogers, John Haines, Sheryl St. Germain, Baron Wormser) A tribute to the noted writer, John Haines of Alaska, the author of nine books of poetry such as Winter News and The Owl in the Mask of the Dreamer: Collected Poems, plus six collections of nonfiction including the memoir, The Stars, the Snow, the Fire. His awards include two Guggenheims, an NEA Fellowship, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Library of Congress. Each participant will speak about a specific aspect of his work and life, and following, Mr. Haines himself will read.

Ambassador Ballroom
Omni Shoreham Hotel, West Lobby

F157. Kundiman from Community to Communities: Reaching out from the Writers’ Retreat. (Jennifer Chang, Sarah Gambito, Margaret Rhee, Andre Yang, Neil Aitken, Tamiko Beyer) While Kundiman is known for its annual retreat and its dedication to the promotion and cultivation of Asian American poetry, what often goes unmentioned is the civic, social, and community work that extends beyond the space of the retreat. Faculty members, fellows, and Kundiman founders will discuss the tenets of community building as it relates to Kundiman, but will also discuss how they channeled and even extended the premise of community building beyond the Kundiman retreat space.

Diplomat Ballroom
Omni Shoreham Hotel, West Lobby

F158. A Reading of Writers Representing Algonquin and New Stories From The South. (Lizzie Skurnick, Tayari Jones, Caroline Leavitt, Lauren Grodstein, Rahul Mehta, Michael Knight) Over forty years ago, Algonquin Books was founded in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Algonquin has grown—widening its scope to be more than a regional press, while still honoring and deepening its southern roots. Come hear five diverse Algonquin writers read from their work.

Empire Ballroom
Omni Shoreham Hotel, West Lobby

F159. The Long and Short of It: Writing, Teaching, and Publishing the Long Poem. (David Hawkins, Kimiko Hahn, David Bonanno, Julie Agoos, Jonathan Farmer) Many university workshops neglect them, all but a few anthologies avoid them, and nearly every literary magazine refuses to print them. Nevertheless, the critical importance of the long poem seems secured by their canonical significance, the poets who continue to write them, and the handful of editors who print them. Two editors and three poets who have a range of experience with the form discuss the long poem, its history, and the 21st century forces which complicate its future.

Executive Room
Omni Shoreham Hotel, West Lobby

F160. Memoir, Spirituality and the Self in the Narcissistic Culture of Our Time. (Elizabeth Kadetsky, Rodger Kamenetz, Farideh Goldin, Julia Spciher Kasdorf) If one believes the detractors, memoir bears responsibility second only to reality TV for fomenting this “narcissistic” age, in Christopher Lasch’s term—an era of therapeutic jargon that celebrates not so much individualism as solipsism, justifying self-absorption as “authenticity” and “awareness.” Here, we consider quests for self-knowledge as linked, rather, to a spiritual project. How can memoir point to places beyond the self—to transcendence, insight or affiliation with human community?

Hampton Ballroom
Omni Shoreham Hotel, East Lobby

F161. Love at First Query: Agents and Authors Share Strategies for Falling in Literary Love. (Catherine Cortese, Bret Anthony Johnston, Paige Wheeler, Matthew Gavin Frank, Gordon Warnock, Michelle Brower) Searching for the right agent or author is complicated. Some forge tight bonds from their first collaboration, while others break up only to reconnect with new, more appropriate counterparts. Is there a formula for a perfect relationship between an artist and his or her representation, or is it all luck of the draw? These agents and authors will share their stories of successful connections, and present strategies and techniques for others to find their own mutually beneficial partnerships.

Palladian Ballroom
Omni Shoreham Hotel, West Lobby

F162. Raúl Zurita, a Reading and Conversation. (Daniel Borzutzky, Raúl Zurita, Mónica de la Torre, Joyelle McSweeney) Come out and hear a dual-language reading by Raúl Zurita, a poet whose ferociously visionary politics and relentlessly inventive poetics have made him one of the most important contemporary Latin American poets. Among other works, Zurita will read from Song for his Disappeared Love, an elegy for youth lost to the Pinochet regime and a re-imagining of the entire Latin American landmass on a visionary scale. CD Wright has praised Zurita’s work for “push[ing] back against the ugly vapidity of rule by force.” The reading will be followed by a conversation with Zurita featuring Daniel Borzutzky, Mónica de la Torre, and Joyelle McSweeney.

Regency Ballroom
Omni Shoreham Hotel, West Lobby

F163. The PSA Presents: A Reading and Interview with Eavan Boland. (Alice Quinn, Eavan Boland) Acclaimed Irish poet Eavan Boland will read her poetry, followed by an interview with Poetry Society of America Executive Director Alice Quinn.

1:30 p.m.-2:45 p.m.

Coolidge Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F164. Poets Wrestling with Research. (Andrea Scarpino, Douglas Kearney, Erica Dawson, Carrie Shipers, Millicent Borges Accardi) Although we are told to write what we know, many poets consider research an integral part of their writing and revision process. Whether that research is historical, literary, or familial, poets who use research in their writing draw on a wealth of techniques in the writing process. Five poets who wrestle with research in their work will discuss how doing so informs, strengthens, and challenges their writing, as well as some of the unique problems inherent in writing research-laden poetry.

Delaware Suite Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F165. Peepal Tree Press 25th Anniversary—Poetry Reading. (Dorothea Smartt, Tony Kellman, Opal Palmer Adisa, Aza Weir Soley, Nii Ayikwei Parkes) Any serious collection of contemporary Caribbean poets will be incomplete without titles from Peepal Tree Press: home of the best in Caribbean and Black British fiction, poetry, literary criticism, memoirs, and historical studies. Celebrate 25 years of award-winning publication and commitment to poetry, with a cross-section of poets from the Caribbean and its diaspora reading from their own work, as well as personal favorites from Peepal Tree’s extensive back catalogue.

Harding Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F166. Separated by a Common Language: Teaching on the Opposite Side of the Pond. (Patricia Ann McNair, Carrie Etter, Mimi Thebo, Kathy Flann, Philip Hartigan, Steve May) As the number of creative writing programs increases here and in the U.K., teachers are crisscrossing the Atlantic for posts. British and Americans speak an almost common language, but educational systems, learning outcomes, publishing, student issues, daily life, etc., are different enough to complicate things. Inhabitants of these parallel universes will share stories of things lost and found in translation, and will help others considering a cross-cultural career path prepare for what’s ahead.

Marriott Ballroom
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F167. National Book Critics Circle Celebrates East Coast Fiction. (Jane Ciabattari, Edward P. Jones, Jayne Anne Phillips, Elizabeth Strout, Colson Whitehead, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie) National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award Winners and Finalists Edward P. Jones, Jayne Anne Phillips, Elizabeth Strout, and Colson Whitehead read from their award-winning fiction; the geographic range covered in their work evokes various regions of the East Coast, from Maine to Brooklyn to Virginia to West Virginia.

Maryland Suite Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F168. Whitman for Writers: Walt Whitman in Washington. (David Baker, Linda Gregerson, Stanley Plumly, Ann Townsend) In 1862, Walt Whitman traveled to the hospital camps of Washington, DC to find his brother George, wounded in the Civil War. The poet stayed for the next decade in the nation’s capital, volunteering as a nurse, writing hundreds of letters for soldiers, clerking in government offices, and writing poems. This panel considers Whitman as witness, healer, and worker, tracing how the Civil War’s grim actuality and the assassination of Lincoln transformed the great poet’s life and work.

Nathan Hale Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F169. The Role of Alumni in Graduate Writing Programs. (Fred Leebron, Robert Polito, Brighde Mullins, Andrew Levy, Jeffery Hess, Jessica Handler) What role do alumni have in graduate writing programs, both in terms of what they can do for their programs and what their programs can do for them? How can programs better serve their alumni, and how can alumni help better their programs? This panel will examine formal and informal alumni programming, and offer an assessment of the obligations programs have to their alumni and that alumni have to their programs.

Thurgood Marshall East Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F170. Camino del Sol: 15 Years of Latina and Latino Writing. (Rigoberto González, Marjorie Agosin, Kathleen Alcalá, David Dominguez, Gina Franco, Sergio Troncoso) This reading panel is a celebration of the recently-released anthology that gathers the best selections from fifteen years of the University of Arizona Press’s Latino literary series, Camino del Sol. During its tenure, the press published 100 titles, shaping the Latino literary landscape and becoming the most important Latino literary series in the country.

Thurgood Marshall North Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F171. George Mason University Poetry Faculty Reading. (Jennifer Atkinson, Susan Tichy, Ben Doller, Sally Keith) Come hear the vibrant poetry created at George Mason University. Five faculty members from the Mason MFA Program will present their newest work. Readers include Jennifer Atkinson, Sally Keith, Eric Pankey, Susan Tichy, and the most recent addition to the group, Ben Doller.

Thurgood Marshall South Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F172. Capital Voices: Fiction from Washington Writers’ Publishing House. (David Taylor, Andrew Wingfield, Elisavietta Ritchie, Elizabeth Bruce) Washington Writers’ Publishing House is a nonprofit literary collective. Through its annual fiction competition, WWPH seeks out and publishes excellent literary fiction from writers within metropolitan Washington, DC. WWPH authors will read from their prizewinning work, showcasing the rich variety of voices sending out stories from the nation’s capital.

Thurgood Marshall West Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F174. A Reading by the 2009 AWP Award Series Winners. (David Vann, Kevin Fenton, Bradley Paul, Christine Sneed) A reading featuring AWP’s 2009 Award Series winners Kevin Fenton, Bradley Paul, Christine Sneed, and David Vann. 

Virginia A Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F175. Being in Uncertainties, Mysteries and Doubts: Negative Capability and the Place of the Imagination in the Academy Today. (Alison MacLeod, Maggie Butt, Derek Neale, Paul Munden) This U.K. panel asks whether Keats’s beloved Mysteries are protected or put at risk by writing programs today. Its writer-contributors explore poetry, fiction, and nonfiction creation in relation to issues of authorial intention and abandon, the alogical forces of memory, artistic acts of becoming, and authors’ experiences of the autonomy of a work-in-progress. They offer, too, models of creativity that might yet help to establish an uncompromised space for the imagination within the Academy.

Virginia B Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F176. Honoring American Writers and their Works. (Tree Swenson, Malcolm O’Hagan, Andy Anway, Max Rudin) Panel members will discuss various aspects of the new American Writers Museum. Members of the audience will be invited to engage in a discussion of what should be in the museum—genres, authors, artifacts, events, etc.

Virginia C Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F177. Finding Identity in Cultural Margins: A Reading and Discussion on Transracial Adoption. (Dana Collins, Jennifer Kwon Dobbs, Catherine McKinley, Lee Herrick, Precious Williams) For transracial adoptees, separation from biological lineage leads to searching for what defines family and home. As adults, they straddle cultural margins between places of origin and places of migration. Nowhere is this more evident than in their vivid personal testimonies. From the Korean diaspora, from within America’s borders, and from the British foster system, come to a gathering of transracially adopted poets and memoirists reading from their work and discussing these potent themes.

Wilson A, B, & C Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F178. Thinking Beyond the Book: The Future of Authorship and Publishing in a Transmedia World. (Jane Friedman, Guy Gonzalez, Kevin Smokler, Al Katkowsky, Christina Katz) According to publishing futurists, we are now experiencing the late age of print. Publishers are beginning to see the print book as the last stage of author development, rather than the first step. A new model is emerging for stories and content distribution, with publishers and authors experimenting with mobile apps, podcasts, and multimedia approaches. This panel discusses the changes underway, what innovations are coming, and how writers can adapt no matter what the future of reading holds.

Ambassador Ballroom
Omni Shoreham Hotel, West Lobby

F179. Stranger Than Fiction: The Choice Between Fiction and Nonfiction. (Robin Romm, Kerry Cohen, Pam Houston, Cheryl Strayed, Richard McCann) Most every writer has a personal story to tell. But with memoir comes potential harm—for friends, family, and themselves. Writers often wonder if they could simply change their stories to fiction. How do authors choose between fiction and nonfiction when telling their stories? Can the same story be both fiction and memoir? Five authors who have made such choices will discuss the reasons behind their decisions, and the ramifications of having done so.

Diplomat Ballroom
Omni Shoreham Hotel, West Lobby

F180. Double Duty: Writers Who Work in the Publishing Industry. (Parneshia Jones, Randall Horton, Toni Margarita Plummer, Dan Bernitt) Join four accomplished writers who happen to be successful publishing professionals from the commercial, independent, and university press backgrounds. They will discuss the pros and cons of being on both sides of the literary coin, as well as how they have learned to make wiser decisions about their own writing careers while being responsible for publishing award-winning writers from all over the world. Get the inside writer’s view of the publishing industry.

Empire Ballroom
Omni Shoreham Hotel, West Lobby

F181. Responding to Disturbing Undergraduate Student Creative Writing. (Joseph Bathanti, Susan Weinberg, Peter Blair, Kim Carter, Derek Davidson, Lynn Doyle) When students submit work that raises fears for their wellbeing, teachers may wish to focus on craft, yet feel compelled to intercede. Being thrust into roles for which teachers are untrained is daunting, so what approach is best in conferences and workshops? How do we offer help, and what happens when it is rejected? What barriers might we encounter from our college, and what innovations might we propose? Experiences and ideas will be shared, with input from a counseling professional.

Executive Room
Omni Shoreham Hotel, West Lobby

F182. Politics in the Novel. (Andrew Scott, Debra Monroe, Margaret Lazarus Dean, Steve Yarbrough) Serious novelists who allow politics to enter their novels must make difficult decisions about how the two meet. Readers bring their own politics to the experience as well, so how do authors negotiate these concerns to craft meaningful work that endures? How does an author reckon with the politics of an issue of central concern to her audience without slipping into didacticism or propaganda?

Hampton Ballroom
Omni Shoreham Hotel, East Lobby

F183. The Virtues of Obsession. (C.J. Hribal, A. Manette Ansay, Lan Samantha Chang, Peter Turchi) Writers often worry about saying or writing something new, about not repeating themselves—but a lot of wonderful writers return to the same essential material, and find new angles, new aspects to explore. Four writers will talk about the virtues of obsession—whether in process, content, or themes—and the value in recognizing and working (and reworking) the material one finds most compelling.

Palladian Ballroom
Omni Shoreham Hotel, West Lobby

F184. Home Front: Women Poets and War. (Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor, Lorraine Healy, Maria Melendez, Alicia Ostriker, Anne Waldman) Despite increasing numbers of female soldiers, women often “stay at home” during times of war. How do women poets respond to issues of war, especially when those wars take place far from the home front? How does one engage with aspects of politics and violence when one’s personal experience may be far from the front line? Armed with poems, women writers from different regions, generations, origins, and aesthetics attack the issue, sharing their approaches to the poetry of war.

Regency Ballroom
Omni Shoreham Hotel, West Lobby

F185. The Language of Conservation, Sponsored by Poets House. (Mark Doty, Sandra Alcosser, Joseph Bruchac, Alison Hawthorne Deming, Pattiann Rogers) In 2008, Poets House initiated a groundbreaking collaboration that launched poetry installations within zoological centers and libraries in five cities; the poems, selected from around the world, encourage millions of visitors to imagine a sustainable future for all cultures and wildlife on Earth. Poets-in-Residence will read poems and speak to the experience of this important conversation between poetry and science.

1:30 p.m.-4:15 p.m.

Hoover Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F186. $$ CLMP Workshop for Presses—Marketing your books online: Virtual Touring, Social Media, and Promotion in the Digital Age. (Kate Travers, Dan Blank) This session outlines ways that book publishers and authors can market their books and engage readers with low-cost, high-value online strategies. The virtual book tour provides a way for indie presses on a shoestring to schedule author readings not limited by cost or coast. Social media tools such as Twitter, can be used to promote authors, publishers, and create a dialogue with the community and readers you are hoping to reach. Learn how you can utilize these mediums in the new digital age of publishing! (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.

Coolidge Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F187. Collaboration—Love it or Leave it. (Marc Nieson, Ed Radtke, Lisa Schlesinger, Sands Hall, Nelson Chipman) Any play or film begins with the word, the writer. Yet whether or not you craft scripts alone, collaboration is a given in our field. Produced plays and films are inherently the synergy of varied people’s visions, talents, and two cents. Yet how do you best collaborate with a fellow writer? Consider and weigh potential partners? Release your creation into another’s hands? Utilize outside input to enhance the scope and practice of your individual craft without compromise or detriment?

Delaware Suite Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F188. The Dream the Dreamers Dreamed: A Tribute to Langston Hughes, Sponsored by Split This Rock Poetry Festival. (Sarah Browning, Derrick Weston Brown, Jericho Brown, Sonia Sanchez) Langston Hughes was working as a busboy here at the Wardman Park Hotel when he slipped poems to Vachel Lindsay, launching his literary career, one of the most influential of the 20th century. Two DC institutions, Split This Rock Poetry Festival: Poems of Provocation & Witness, and Busboys and Poets Restaurant, are named in his honor and claim Hughes as a literary mentor and guiding light. Celebrate Langston Hughes’s February 1 birthday as we pay tribute to the man, his poetry, and his enduring legacy of social and political engagement.

Harding Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F189. Does the Writing Workshop Still Work? (Dianne Donnelly, Graeme Harper, Anna Leahy, Patrick Bizzaro, Mary Ann Cain, Katharine Haake) This panel reexamines the effectiveness of the workshop, reaching beyond the question of whether it works to consider altered pedagogical models. In visualizing what else is possible in the workshop space, the participants cover a wide range of theoretical and pedagogical topics, and explore the inner workings and conflicts of the workshop model. The needs of a growing and diverse student population are central to the panelists’ consideration of non-normative pedagogies.

Marriott Ballroom
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F190. Celebrating 75 Years of New Directions Poetry Now. (Jeffrey Yang, Forrest Gander, Thalia Field, Susan Howe, Rosmarie Waldrop) Since 1936, New Directions has published some of the most groundbreaking poetry of the 20th century. ND continues to introduce pivotal writers from here and abroad. To celebrate the 75th anniversary, poets Thalia Field, Forrest Gander, Susan Howe, Rosmarie Waldrop, and ND Poetry Editor Jeffrey Yang will talk about the New Directions legacy, how past New Directions poets including Duncan, Levertov, Oppen, Pound, and W.C. Williams influenced their work, and will read from their new books.

Maryland Suite Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F191. Hollins Graduate Program 50th Anniversary Reading. (Jeanne Larsen, Madison Smartt Bell, Karen Salyer McElmurray, David Huddle, Jill McCorkle, Luke Johnson) Is it something in the (mineral spring) water? Some noted graduates of Hollins’ one-of-a-kind program in creative writing read their work, and sample more by a variety of other alums. Join us as we look back at our first 50 years, charge on into the next half-century, and celebrate the inauguration of the Jackson Center for Creative Writing, established through the generosity of John and Susan Jackson. Come figure out what makes the Hollins program what it is. Or just come and enjoy.

Nathan Hale Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F192. Pushing the Boundaries in Young Adult Fiction. (Swati Avasthi, H.M. Bouwman, Alexandra Diaz, Jeri Ready-Smith, Michele Corriel) The Young Adult genre has grown up and the boundary between YA and Adult fiction has become murkier, with some suggesting that the distinction is only marketing. We will address the perennial question about the difference between YA and Adult, and will discuss what boundaries do or don’t exist for YA and Middle Grade fiction and how those boundaries are being pushed. We will discuss how recent innovations in structure and form have opened YA and MG up to new, dynamic storytelling opportunities.

Thurgood Marshall East Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F194. Into the Breach: Nurturing and Training Adjunct Faculty for the Future. (Randall Albers, Lad Tobin, Simone Zelitch, Lott Hill)As full-time faculty positions have failed to keep pace with the exponential growth in creative writing courses, adjunct faculty have increasingly filled the breach. Programs must respond by emphasizing the care and development of adjuncts in order to ensure teacher-writers are able to offer students an engaging, challenging, high-quality education. Panelists with university and community college experience will describe different models for training, supervising, and nurturing adjunct faculty.

Thurgood Marshall North Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F195. Flinging the Ink Pot: Resisting Messages About Off-Limits Subjects in Memoir. (Jill Christman, Kate Hopper, Paul Lisicky, Joe Mackall, Sue William Silverman) This panel of memoirists will consider what happens when we write about subjects that are commonly lumped together and dismissed by the publishing industry. It seems we shouldn’t talk about abuse, addiction, or parenting of any stripe. Why are certain subjects seen as played out, clichéd, and sensational? We will consider whether we can avoid categorizing giant facets of human experience as literary no-nos, and find our way back to the serious writing of the stories we need to tell.

Thurgood Marshall South Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F196. Views from the Loft. (Jocelyn Hale, Daniel Slager, Sandra Benitez, Mark Doty) Contributors to the anthology Views from the Loft: A Portable Writer’s Workshop will be featured in conversation with the editor and publisher of Milkweed Editions. Contributing writers Sandra Benitez and Mark Doty will join editor Daniel Slager in a discussion moderated by the Loft’s Executive Director.

Thurgood Marshall West Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F197. Bodies Politic. (Barrie Jean Borich, Judith Barrington, Kekla Magoon, Ann Pancake, Ira SU.K.rungruang, Brian Teare) The literary body is beloved, is bared, is captive, is container, is hidden, is habitat, is dissenting, is taboo, is pleasure, is change. We make literature out of the body’s clashes and communions, and our bodies together create a social mesh we write to maintain and sustain, remake or escape. This panel—a diverse body politic of poets, novelists, and essayists gathering in the political belly of America—will grapple with corporeality, community, and claiming the body for the page.

Virginia A Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F198. Ask Not What the Internet Can Do for You: Shifting Our Perspective on Internet Publishing as an Alternative to Major Market Publishing. (Ralph Pennel, Justin Maxwell, Ravi Shankar, Anmarie Trimble, Lizzie Stark, Max Magee) This panel will discuss electronic publications as central to the needs of 21st-century writers and readers, and not as entities serving as secondary iterations of preexisting publications. We will focus on how the electronic medium is advantageous to editors, and to the editorial and publication processes. We will also cover how the medium allows for a new nexus between writer and user by permitting a more diverse discourse with current and emerging literary modalities.

Virginia B Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F199. Hint Fiction: Stories that Prove Less is More. (Robert Swartwood, Randall Brown, Michael Martone, Daniel Olivas, Roxane Gay) The editor of the recent Norton anthology and its contributors examine stories of extreme brevity. They will discuss whether these stories are considered actual stories, and whether they hold substance, focusing on these questions: Do works of this length help or hinder writers? Can these tiny stories have just as much impact as stories of traditional length? The panelists will share their own hint fiction and discuss its role in the ongoing evolution of literature.

Virginia C Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F200. Environmental Writing in the Age of Global Climate Change. (Janine DeBaise, Paul Bogard, Sheryl St. Germain, Kathryn Miles, BK Loren, Simmons B. Buntin) Environmental writing has moved beyond nature writing to include concerns of urban ecology and the built environment. Six writers and editors from the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment (ASLE) will discuss ways in which writers have responded, in both traditional and new media, to climate change and other environmental crises. They will discuss the ways that writers are linking environmental issues to sexism, racism, and other injustices within our communities.

Wilson A, B, & C Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F201. Advice to Grantseekers from the National Endowment for the Arts. (Jon Parrish Peede, Amy Stolls) Staff members from the Literature Division of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) will address your questions and provide a status update on agency policies, programs, and initiatives that can have an impact on individuals and arts organizations. Topics covered will include grant opportunities and their deadlines, eligibility, applying online, the review process, and tips for more effective proposals.

Ambassador Ballroom
Omni Shoreham Hotel, West Lobby

F202. Is it a book? (Joe Miller, Ayesha Pande, Julia Spicher Kasdorf, Jeff Gundy) At least once or twice a year, a writer shares a particularly complex essay, story, or set of poems with a workshop or a friend, and hears “I think you have a book here.” Others labor for years over what they hope will become books, only to hear “This doesn’t quite make a book.” How do writers discover what will and won’t make a book? Three writers and an agent/former editor share the stories of their successful book projects as well as those that couldn’t quite make it to the next level.

Diplomat Ballroom
Omni Shoreham Hotel, West Lobby

F203. A Tribute to Ontario Review: Raymond Smith and Joyce Carol Oates. (Douglas Unger, Jana Harris, Richard Burgin, Sheila Kohler, Albert Goldbarth, Joyce Carol Oates) Founded in 1974 and edited by Raymond Smith and Joyce Carol Oates, Ontario Review and its press bridged literary/artistic cultures. It is known for introducing new and emerging writers, and maintaining established writers in print for three and a half decades. Forced to suspend publication in 2007 due to the death of Raymond Smith, Ontario Review and Ray Smith’s contributions to letters, and the continuing generous energies of Joyce Carol Oates, are honored by Jana Harris, Richard Burgin, Sheila Kohler, Albert Goldbarth, Doug Unger, and voices from the audience.

Empire Ballroom
Omni Shoreham Hotel, West Lobby

F204. African American Writers on Obama. (Lita Hooper, Renee Simms, Tara Betts, Antoinette Brim, Demetrice Worley) 44 on 44: Forty-Four African American Writers on the 44th President of the United States is an anthology of poetry, essay, and creative nonfiction based on the election of the first African American president of the U.S. The anthology includes contributors’ reflections of the historic election of Barack Obama. Several contributors will read from the anthology and engage in a discussion with one another and the audience.

Executive Room
Omni Shoreham Hotel, West Lobby

F205. The Audacity of Scope: Crafting the Book-Length Poem. (Stacey Lynn Brown, Sherwin Bitsui, Molly Gaudry, Philip Memmer, Thorpe Moeckel) In a contemporary poetic landscape that favors collections of individual poems, what inspires a poet to (re)turn to epic poetry? What are the thematic, aesthetic, and technical concerns specific to poems with a larger scope? How does the poet approach issues of format, structure, and organization? What are the distinctions between book-length poems and novels in verse? Five award-winning poets discuss their experiences working with the limitations and freedoms inherent in this traditional form.

Hampton Ballroom
Omni Shoreham Hotel, East Lobby

F206. Paul Celan in Translation. (Stanley Moss, John Felstiner, Norman Manea, Ian Fairley, Susan H. Gillespie) Paul Celan, whom George Steiner has called almost certainly the major European poet of the period after 1945, created a significant body of work that has long resisted easy translation. This panel of preeminent Celan translators, writers, and scholars will read from and discuss the poetry and translation of the greatest German language poet since Rilke.

Palladian Ballroom
Omni Shoreham Hotel, West Lobby

F207A. I Am Not a Terrorist: The Political Writer. (Terry Hong, Lorraine Adams, Ru Freeman, Nathalie Handal, Porochista Khakpour, Luis Alberto Urrea) As national borders disintegrate through war and technology, fictional ones do not necessarily follow suit, often staying true to place. But must writers whose lives are political, and who function as spokespersons for worlds that American readers may never visit, write politics into their art? Writers with ties to current debates about Iran, Palestine, Algeria, Sri Lanka, Mexico, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, discuss the burden of truth and the choices they make as cultural translators.

Regency Ballroom
Omni Shoreham Hotel, West Lobby

F207B. Cisneros and Viramontes Uncensored: A Conversation with Sandra Cisneros and Helena María Viramontes, Sponsored by the Macondo Writers’ Workshop. (Sandra Cisneros, Helena Maria Viramontes) Two amigas who have known each other for over a quarter of a century reunite to talk about then and now in a conversation about the (very) personal and political. They will say things that they’ve never said before in public or in print.

4:30 p.m.-5:45 p.m.

Coolidge Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F208. Putting the Story in History. (Ron Hansen, Speer Morgan, Philip Gerard, Debra Brenegan) Literary historical fiction is on the rise, especially when the subjects involve uncomfortable social issues like racism, sexism, and crime. But what is the relationship between story and history? How can writers make “facts” and “truth” work in fiction? Can we use the past to better understand the present? Four novelists will discuss their historical novels and the constraints, joys, and challenges they faced regarding maligned perceptions, research methods, and ethical dilemmas.

Delaware Suite Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F209. New Political Writing. (Susan Briante, Alan Michael Parker, Tony Trigilio, Crystal Williams) The label “political writing” often brings to mind classic protest literature from the Vietnam Era or the more recent Poets Against the War website. But what does that label mean today? The poets, novelists, and creative nonfiction writers featured on the New Political panel will discuss their approaches to the issues of the day, their relation to political writing of the past, and how they avoid replicating the polarizing Red State/Blue State rhetoric of so much popular discourse.

Harding Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F210. What the Narrator Doesn’t Know: The Importance of Speculation in Narrative. (Jill McCabe Johnson, David Huddle, Dinah Lenney, Lee Martin, Lia Purpura) Should narrators admit what they don’t know? Does ignorance discredit the nonfiction author? Listen to four writers discuss how they use speculation to openly investigate questions, uncover the narrator’s vulnerabilities, delve more deeply into narrative, and intensify plot. Learn how not knowing can build credibility and open possibilities for the author, while inviting the reader to embark with you on a journey of exploration.

Hoover Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F211. Research in the Creative Writing Classroom: Methods, Pedagogies, Dilemmas. (Laura Valeri, Sonya Huber, Jay Snodgrass, Jessie Thieman, Katie Brookins) Teachers and students discuss pedagogies that lead to meaningful research for prose and poetry: What methods and exercises effectively motivate students to research reliably? How do we facilitate turning facts into lively narratives and poems? How do we research and write respectfully about different cultures, subcultures, and times? Who owns the story, and when does ownership become a problem? How do we handle significant research in sixteen weeks?

Marriott Ballroom
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F212. A Reading by Mary Gaitskill and Sapphire, Sponsored by Wilkes University Low Residency MA/MFA Program in Association with Blue Flower Arts. (Mary Gaitskill, Sapphire) Mary Gaitskill is the award-winning author of Veronica, which was nominated for the 2005 National Book Award, National Book Critics Circle Award, and L.A. Times Book Award; Because They Wanted To, which was nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award; and her recent collection of stories, Don’t Cry. Sapphire is the author of the bestselling novel Push, which won the Book-of-the-Month Club Stephen Crane Award for First Fiction, and was made into the Academy Award-winning film Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire. Her collections of poems are American Dreams and Black Wings & Blind Angels.

Maryland Suite Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F213. 35th Anniversary of the Jenny McKean Moore Fellowship at George Washington University. (Faye Moskowitz, Maxine Clair, Tayari Jones, Jane Shore, Ed Skoog, Honor Moore) The Jenny McKean Moore Trust at George Washington University marks its 35th year of funding poets and writers for a year in residence at the university, typically during crucial early stages in their creative development. Recent and former fellows share reflections on their fellowship year, discuss the impact of the fellowship on their work and the literary community beyond GWU, and celebrate the legacy and generosity of the fellowship’s benefactor.

Nathan Hale Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F214. Don’t Call Me Mother. (Ellen Placey Wadey, Jan Beatty, Miki Howald, Geeta Kothari) You can find books by clock-ticking virgins, infertile women, adoptive parents, single-mothers-by-choice, blissful mothers, or even mothers pulling out their hair. Yet stats show more women are choosing not to become mothers. So where are our voices? These essays and poems will consider the world of nonmothers: issues of legacy, the awkwardness of labels, questions about aging, and more. We’re happy. We’re not bitter or selfish. Don’t call us mother. We’re fine with it. Come hear for yourself.

Thurgood Marshall East Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F215. [WITS Alliance] Poetry and Partnerships: The Critical Elements for Writers-in-the-Schools Programs. (Melanie Moore, Alise Alousi, Loyal Miles, Robin Reagler, Nancy Daugherty, Rebecca Powers) The partnership between working writers and classroom teachers is at the heart of writers-in-the-schools programs, but it’s only one of the critical partnerships required to make a program happen. Panelists from three organizations that have WITS programs will offer insights into the other critical partnerships that enable effective writing initiatives to thrive in schools, including relationships with board members, funders, and key decision-makers for school districts.

Thurgood Marshall South Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F216. Crossing Genres, Boundaries, and Cultures: A Reading of Iranian-American Writers. (Manijeh Nasrabadi, Porochista Khakpour, Saïd Sayrafiezadeh, Ezzat Goushegir, Roger Sedarat) The literary tradition of the United States thrives upon the convergence of disparate cultures. The rising popularity of Iranian American writing especially exemplifies both the successful strategies and the difficulties of turning one’s experience of two very different backgrounds into literature. Four authors, each representing one genre, read from their award-winning writing.

Thurgood Marshall West Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F217. Ripping More Than a Bodice: Historical Fiction as Inquiry. (Debra Dean, Jane Alison, A. Manette Ansay, Jennifer Cody Epstein, Luis Alberto Urrea) Life is messy, history no less so. The panel will discuss the constraints and liberations of writing in this genre. How do writers use history to serve the story and what obligation do we owe to historical fact? Are there effective strategies to avoid being entombed in one’s own research? How does one achieve authenticity of character, voice, and setting in a way that is alive and compelling to the contemporary reader?

Virginia A Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F218. Beyond Ekphrasis: The Endless Possibilities in Collaboration. (Mary Hutchins Harris, Lola Haskins, Patricia Smith, Marjory Wentworth, Kwame Dawes) Poets, artists, and musicians have thankfully influenced one another for ages. But what happens when we move beyond poets reacting to a piece of artwork from another century, to painters, composers, or choreographers reacting to poetry? What if poets become part of the creative process that brings a multi-sensory experience to life? We will discuss how collaborations enhance personal artistic growth, and offer invaluable opportunities to influence and enrich those outside our literary realm.

Virginia B Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F219. To Go Or Not To Go Abroad: Writers In A Global Market. (Peter Murphy, Ann Neelon, Christine Cutler, Martin Roper) Is it a mistake to ignore the global nature of today’s academic marketplace? This panel investigates the growing importance of international experience as an asset for creative writers who hope to succeed in the current highly competitive job market. Five writers with significant experience abroad describe opportunities available to U.S. writers outside the U.S., and discuss strategies for capitalizing on international experience in order to start or jumpstart academic careers.

Virginia C Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F220. Building the Literary Robot: The Lit Journal as New Media. (James Engelhardt, Scott Lindenbaum, Jurgen Fauth, Zach Dodson, Zachary Schomburg, Travis Kurowski) Lit has gone viral, adapted to fit Twitter feeds, iPhone apps, and social networks, and fashioned into flash animation for posting on YouTube. How do literary journals step into these new, far-reaching modes of publishing? What role will e-literature have in contemporary publishing and the teaching of creative writing? What will this mean to the traditional short story, poem, and essay? Writers and editors of online and print literary journals tell how they’ve explored new e-lit territory.

Wilson A, B, & C Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F221. Celebrating 10 years of SABLE LitMag. (Kadija George, Kevin Etienne-Cummings, Carla Murphy, Koye Oyedeji, Wangui wa Goro) Celebrate 10 years of SABLE, the LitMag for new writing for writers of color with past readings from contributors, some of whom are now editors. The panel of writers focuses on the nonfiction contributions, including essays, travel writing, memoir, and translation work.

Ambassador Ballroom
Omni Shoreham Hotel, West Lobby

F222. A discussion and celebration of the work of the poet Ai, 1947-2010. (Lisa Lewis, Marilyn Chin, Major Jackson, Jeff Simpson, Eavan Boland, Charles Fort) National Book Award winning poet Ai died unexpectedly in March 2010 at the age of 62, leaving behind an astonishingly original body of work, most of it dramatic monologue. This panel, which includes her longtime editor and colleague and two former students, will discuss her contributions to American letters as a poet and a teacher, focusing on both her artistic innovations and the political significance of her work.

Diplomat Ballroom
Omni Shoreham Hotel, West Lobby

F223. Interviewing In My Underwear: Adventures as a Female Memoirist. (Wendy Sumner-Winter, Barrie Jean Borich, Meri Nana-Ama Danquah, Kerry Cohen, Brenda Miller) We’ve all heard that confession is good for the soul, but how about for a woman living in the real world? Six memoirists discuss the familial, professional, social costs and benefits—and everything in between—of being a woman who writes candidly about her body, her physical life, her sex life, her carnal appetites. We will talk about what it is like to navigate our various social and political worlds having told, literally, the naked truth.

Empire Ballroom
Omni Shoreham Hotel, West Lobby

F224. Poet/Editors on Inclusivity and Race. (Rich Villar, Dan Chiasson, Don Share, Carmen Giménez Smith, Craig Santos Perez, Barbara Jane Reyes) Poet/editors discuss inclusiveness (and lack thereof) of minority voices in literary publications. Representing both mainstream and more community-based projects, the panelists consider the challenges of inclusiveness, and how successful (and unsuccessful) they have been. They consider how, in an atmosphere of perceived mistrust, constructive dialogue can be forged towards the goal of better presenting the broad spectrum of American poetry.

Executive Room
Omni Shoreham Hotel, West Lobby

F225. Writing the Beltway: Four Washington, DC Publishers Navigate the Capital. (Matthew Kirkpatrick, Reb Livingston, Richard Peabody, Caitlin Hill, Dave Housley) Editors from Barrelhouse magazine, No Tell Books, Gargoyle magazine, and Poet Lore magazine read from their journals and discuss their experiences working to produce and promote literary art within the politics-obsessed sphere of Washington, DC.

Hampton Ballroom
Omni Shoreham Hotel, West Lobby

F226. In Capital Letters: A reading and Discussion with Past and Present Poetry Writing Faculty of American University. (David Keplinger, Kyle Dargan, Barbara Goldberg, Myra Sklarew) A panel featuring past and present poetry writing faculty of American University’s MFA program, read their work and discuss what it has meant to write and foster a studio program in poetry in Washington, DC over the past thirty years.

Palladian Ballroom
Omni Shoreham Hotel, West Lobby

F227. Unseen Mentorship: The Best Poets You (May) Never Have Heard Of. (Jeffrey McDaniel, Paisley Rekdal, Terrance Hayes, A.E. Stallings, Dennis Nurkse, Khaled Mattawa) A panel in which six poets introduce a poet he or she thinks has slipped under the contemporary critical radar, but who the panelists believe deserve a wider audience. These “unseen mentors” span a wide variety of nations and cultures, historical periods and aesthetic movements. Each panelist will present a brief introduction to the poet’s work, read a short selection of the poet’s work, and discuss the poet’s influence on their own work and the work of the poet’s contemporaries.

5:45 p.m.-7:45 p.m.

Stone's Throw Restaurant
Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, Lobby Level

A Reception Hosted by The George Washington University. Join students and faculty at The George Washington University for a reception.

7:00 p.m.-8:15 p.m.

Maryland B
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

A Reception for the Macondo Writers' Workshop, Hosted by the University of Notre Dame & Letras Latinas. Join the students and faculty from the Macondo Writers’ Workshop, the University of Notre Dame, & Letras Latinas for a reception.

Maryland C
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

A Reception Hosted by Emerson College, Department of Writing, Literature, & Publishing. Join students and faculty from Emerson College’s Department of Writing, Literature, & Publishing for a reception.

Virginia A
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

A Reception Hosted by the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. Join the Sewanee Writers’ Conference for a reception.

Virginia B
Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, Lobby Level

A Reception Hosted by the Black Mountain Institute at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. Join students and faculty from the Black Mountain Institute at the University of Nevada Las Vegas for a reception.

Delaware A
Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, Lobby Level

A Reception Hosted by Spectrum of Poetic Fire / Black Magnolias Special Issue. Join the Spectrum of Poetic Fire & Black Magnolias for a Special Issue Reception.

Wilson A
Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, Mezzanine Level

Whale Man Debut -- Alan Michael Parker & Friends.  A Reception Hosted by WordFarm. Join WordFarm in a Reception to Celebrate the Debut of Whale Man, a Novel by Alan Michael Parker.

Wilson B
Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, Mezzanine Level

A Reception Hosted by the NYU Creative Writing Program. Join students and faculty from the the NYU Creative Writing Program for a reception.

8:30 p.m.-10:00 p.m.

Marriott Ballroom
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F228. A Reading by Junot Díaz, Sponsored by Georgia College & State University / Arts & Letters. (Junot Díiaz) Junot Díaz was born in 1968 in the Dominican Republic and raised in New Jersey. He is the author of Drown and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which won the John Sargent, Sr. First Novel Prize; the National Book Critics Circle Award; the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award; and the 2008 Pulitzer Prize. Díaz has been awarded the Eugene McDermott Award, a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation, a Lila Acheson Wallace Reader’s Digest Award, the 2002 PEN/Malamud Award, the 2003 U.S./Japan Creative Artist Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, a fellowship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, and the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is the fiction editor at the Boston Review and the Rudge (1948), and Nancy Allen Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Regency Ballroom
Omni Shoreham Hotel, West Lobby

F229. Academy of American Poets Presents Claudia Rankine and Charles Wright. (Tree Swenson, Claudia Rankine, Charles Wright) A reading featuring readings by two-award winning poets, Claudia Rankine and Charles Wright. Presented by the Academy of American Poets.

10:00 p.m.-Midnight

Thurgood Marshall
Marriott Wardman Park, Mezzanine Level

F230. Party to Benefit AWP! For a donation of $50, this special pass admits you to two dance parties on Friday and Saturday nights of the Conference, featuring DJ Neza, dancing, and free drinks. Part of your donation will underwrite AWP’s services on behalf of members, including its Job List, its national advocacy efforts, and its work to ensure small classes, better pay, and more financial aid for faculty and students. Do a good thing and have fun in the process! Tickets may be purchased at both the Unpaid Registrant Check-In Area and at the door.

Virginia B Room
Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level

F231. The All Collegiate Afterhours Slam. (Jim Warner, Philip Brady) The All Collegiate Afterhours Slam is open to all undergrad and grad students attending the conference. 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 and Etruscan Press. Limited open mic to follow the slam (time permitting). Come visit the Wilkes University /Etruscan Press booth to register.