8:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Exhibit Hall C, Level 2

R100. Conference Registration. Attendees who have registered in advance may pick up their registration materials in the preregistered check-in area, located in Exhibit Hall C on Level 2 of the Hynes Convention Center. If you have not yet registered for the conference, visit the unpaid registration area, also in Exhibit Hall C. Please consult the bookfair map in the conference planner for location details. Students must present a valid student ID to check in or register at our student rate. Seniors must present a valid ID to register at our senior rate, and should do so only at unpaid registration. A $50 fee will be charged for all replacement badges.

8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Exhibit Hall B, Plaza Level

R102. Bookfair Concessions, Bar, & Lounge. Breakfast, lunch, and coffee concessions are available from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in the Bookfair Lounge area of Exhibit Hall B on the Plaza Level, and from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in the Exhibit Hall D Café on Level 2. The lounge will host a bar from 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Please consult the bookfair map in the conference planner for location details.

8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Exhibit Halls A, B, & D, Plaza & Level 2

R101. AWP Bookfair, Sponsored by Hollins University: Jackson Center for Creative Writing. With more than 600 literary exhibitors, the AWP bookfair is the largest of its kind. A great place to meet authors, critics, and peers, the bookfair also provides an excellent opportunity to find information about literary magazines, presses, and organizations. Please consult the bookfair map in the conference planner for location details.

R103. Lactation Room. To gain access to our shared lactation room, visit the AWP Help Desk in the preregistered check-in area of Exhibit Hall C. For reasons of privacy and security, access to the lactation room is granted by permission of AWP only.

9:00 a.m. to 10:15 a.m.

Room 101, Plaza Level

R104. Please Complete Me, Please Don’t Make Me Gag: Love Stories for a Cynical Age. (Marie Mutsuki Mockett, Eleanor Henderson, Maud Newton, Marlon James) We live in a cynical age; readers are sophisticated people. But everyone loves a good love story. So how can we write about something as sincere as love without lapsing into sentimentality or cliché? Five very different novelists talk about when, why, and how they’ve written about love in fiction, how they’ve invested romantic moments and plotlines with emotional depth, and what love means to them—and to their characters.

Room 102, Plaza Level

R105. Trying on New Bootstraps: Self-Sustaining Models for Literary Magazines. (Steph Opitz, Jennifer Woods, Megan M. Garr, Halimah Marcus) As the university-supported literary magazine increasingly becomes a less viable model, literary magazines must find new methods for generating support. Publishers from Electric Literature, Versal, and the Lumberyard Magazine share their secrets.

Room 104, Plaza Level

R106. Using Careless Speech for Careful Writing—The Art of Using Unplanned and Casual Language to Convey Style and Meaning. (Todd James Pierce, Peter Elbow, Kimberly Lojewski, Tracy Daugherty) Jack Kerouac’s public stance was “First thought, best thought.” But his manuscripts reveal that he revised his prose to offer the illusion of spontaneity. This panel explores the connection between spoken careless language and careful literature. Panelists will investigate writing strategies that incorporate casual language into literature. Panelists will also offer exercises that help students create unplanned language as the basis for their own stories, essays, and poems.

Room 105, Plaza Level

R107. The Ten-Minute Play: The Essential Ingredients. (Gregory Fletcher, Jean Klein, L. Elizabeth Powers) In this event, intended for both playwrights and nonplaywrights who want to try their hand at a shorter genre, the ingredients of the ten-minute play are compared and contrasted with the full-length play and sketch writing. This panel explores finding the right size of a story and cast, the art of economy, how the work looks on paper, and the production and publishing opportunities that could follow.

Room 107, Plaza Level

R108. Modern Fairy Tales and Retellings. (Anjali Sachdeva, John Crowley, Jane Yolen, Kelly Link, Kate Bernheimer) Many of us grew up reading the same stories our grandparents read when they were children. But contemporary writers are also creating their own fairy tales or crafting surprising variations on traditional stories, for both children and adults. In this panel, authors who have written modern retellings of old tales will discuss the need for fables in modern society and the literary marketplace, as well as the writing process they use to go beyond archetype and tradition to create new tales.

Room 108, Plaza Level

R109. Landing the Tenure-Track Job without a Book: What to Expect in the Job Market. (Kevin McKelvey, Salvatore Pane, Keya Mitra, Robert Long Foreman) In a competitive academic job market, how do you make yourself stand out without a book? Writers will discuss their diverse paths to tenure-track jobs and how to develop pedagogy for newer fields such as graphic novels and established fields like professional writing, screenwriting, composition, editing, and publishing. Panelists will discuss publications and teaching loads, how a visiting or contract position can turn into a permanent job, and whether or not you need a PhD.

Room 109, Plaza Level

R110. Poetry Readings in the Age of Social Media. (Steven Karl, Christie Ann Reynolds, Emily Kendal Frey, Jared White, Ben Mirov) Readings have been integral to fostering communities, creating shared experiences by bringing together writers and readers in one space. With the expansion of social media, regional barriers are giving way to trans-regional/national exchanges and altering the way people experience readings. How have poetry communities transformed in the digital age? How does the incorporation of other media (music, art, film) in readings challenge the notion of poetry and expand the definition of community?

Room 110, Plaza Level

R111. Looking for Real-Life Humberts: The Unreliable Narrator in Creative Nonfiction. (Elizabeth Kadetsky, Tom Larson, Mimi Schwartz, Michael Steinberg, Daniel Stolar) If creative nonfictionists build a persona, can persona-building also become a source of conflict and dynamism in writing? Can building a less-than-reliable persona be a deliberate strategy, much like the use of unreliable narrators in fiction, such as Nabokov’s Humbert Humbert? Or does any kind of unreliability in the narrator undermine the entire premise of creative nonfiction? Five nonfiction writers brainstorm creative ways for writers to make themselves unreliable narrators—no doubt with playful, conflicted, and imaginative results.

Room 111, Plaza Level

R112. Knowledge and Manifestation: Science in Contemporary Poetry. (Valerie Ellis, Adrienne Cassel, D.F. Dominic, Bruce Beasley, Furaha Henry-Jones) The lyrical expression of cosmological stories told by science forms the center of poems written by Pattiann Rogers and the other poets on this panel. Poetry illuminates science. However, in his book Resistance to Science in Contemporary Poetry, Bryan Walpert argues that what poets identify as a collaboration between the lyrical and the observed is better seen as resistance to science. Through readings and discussions of their poems, this panel will respond to Walpert’s claim.

Room 201, Level 2

R113. Poetry Inside Out: Bridging Cultures through Language. (Marty Rutherford, Sarah Michaels, Patty Padilla, Margaret Welch, Jillian Tamburro) A diverse panel that includes teachers, a principal, a school coach, a researcher, and a program director discuss the Center for the Art of Translation’s school literacy program, Poetry Inside Out. Poetry Inside Out is an engaging, innovative language arts curriculum where participants learn to translate extraordinary poems from their original language and then create their own. The panel investigates the ways participation in Poetry Inside Out affects student learning and teacher change.

Room 202, Level 2

R114. Revival of the Literary Salon with the Cambridge Writers’ Workshop. (Rita Banerjee, Diana Norma Szokolyai, Jessica Piazza, Samantha Milowsky, Jade Sylvan) How do writers create viable writing communities outside of the MFA paradigm? We will explore how the revival of salon culture has created new spaces for literary communities and debates. Having opened its Brooklyn studio in 2011, the Cambridge Writers’ Workshop holds writing workshops, literary cabarets, residencies, and retreats abroad. Panelists will discuss how new local and international literary salons help create viable communities of artists, and push the conversation of cutting edge art.

Room 203, Level 2

R115. A Cappella Zoo: A Reading of Magical Realism and Slipstream. (Laura Miller, Amelia Gray, Erin Stalcup, Mary Lou Buschi, Jack Kaulfus) Join us for a reading of the absurdist, uncanny, fabulist, cross-genre, experimental, bizarro, new weird, mythic, surreal, and fantastic. Amelia Gray, Erin Stalcup, Mary Lou Buschi, and Jack Kaulfus will read fiction and poetry that illustrates the range of stories along a spectrum between modern reality and the imagined.

Room 204, Level 2

R116. Gladly Wolde He Learne and Gladly Teach: Creating Opportunities for Teen Writers. (Chantel Acevedo, Mary Donnarumma Sharnick, Tawnysha Greene, Michelle Hopf) When did you know you were a writer? You’ve heard this question before, and your answer likely took you back to memories of childhood. The writers on this panel have not forgotten those initial influences on our literary lives, and so, have designed programs for teens that encourage their early identification as writers. Join us as we discuss our design and implementation of summer writing camps, writing retreats abroad, poetry slam contests, and more for the writing teens in your community.

Room 206, Level 2

R117. Writing Masculinities. (Samuel Ace, Thomas McBee, Farid Matuk, Rickey Laurentiis, Brian Blanchfield) This panel will offer a cross-genre/cross-sexuality/cross-gendered reading, with discussion to follow, about the interweave of the (other than) masculine in one’s work by writers who use “he” but put the “he” in question. Panelists will read from work that reimagines the landscape of the masculine, directly or obliquely, through a dense exploration of subject matter and language, while raising important questions about how masculinity is defined and what it represents.

Room 207, Level 2

R118. It’s Not the End of the World! A Reading by Contributors to River Styx’s End of the World Issue. (Richard Newman, Albert Goldbarth, William Greenway, Alison Pelegrin) If you’re reading this description, the world has apparently not ended yet and River Styx published its 2012 themed issue, End of the World. To celebrate, join poets Albert Goldbarth, William Greenway, and Dorianne Laux as they read their poems from the issue along with other apocalyptic work. The moderator, River Styx Editor Richard Newman, will discuss special themed issues and how writers can best submit their work to them.

Room 208, Level 2

R119. Religion and Stories: Heretics and Humanists Shift the Perspective. (Mary Johnson, Alan Lightman, Rebecca Goldstein, Donna Johnson, Kristen Wolf) These writers, though not conventionally religious, use religion to explore reality. One novelist creates a physics-bound god (and his Aunt Penelope), another structures a novel using arguments against God, and a third imagines Jesus as a woman. The memoirists demystify Mother Teresa, and recall a childhood under gospel tents. Join them for a frank discussion of issues (creative, cultural, moral, and legal) involved when writers use what others regard as sacred to illuminate the human condition.

Room 209, Level 2

R120. Words to Eat: The Challenge of Writing About Food. (Clara Silverstein, Kathryn Miles, Martha Bayne, Sherrie Flick) With elemental appeal, food writing has become an increasingly popular form of creative nonfiction. Yet, amid the sizzle and smoke, what constitutes literary quality? Drawing from contemporary examples, panelists explore the nexus between food and literature from the perspectives of journalism, blogging, teaching food literature, and cookbook publishing. They address the importance of applying principles of craft and narrative to a subject of interest to everyone.

Room 210, Level 2

R121. The Transatlantic Disconnect. (Eric McHenry, Philip Hoy, Adam Kirsch, Mary Jo Salter, Rosanna Warren) During the age of Eliot and Pound, the poetry communities of England and the United States influenced each other profoundly, but today they’re barely on speaking terms. Major English poets are nowhere to be found in American bookstores and publishers’ catalogues, and vice versa. A panel of eminent English and American poets, critics, and editors will talk about how this disconnect came about, and whether it can or ought to be remedied.

Room 303, Level 3

R122. “The Poem of Creation is Uninterrupted”: Writers Respond to Walden and Walden Pond. (Lindsay Illich, Sandra Castillo, Scott Temple, Kristen Getchell) Readers will present original works of poetry and prose responding to Thoreau’s Walden and to the geographical site of Walden Pond near Concord, Massachusetts. From the perspective of ecopoetics, Walden serves as a centrifuge for nature writing, but the readers will also explore more subversive readings of the work and the geographical site through verse and prose.

Room 305, Level 3

R123. The Translation Workshop: A Student Perspective. (Micah McCrary, Maddison Hamil, Matthew Cwiklinski, Dauren Velez, Colleen O’Connor) Much has been said on the topic and theory of teaching translation in the graduate workshop; however little has been discussed on the workshop from the student perspective. This panel focuses on the strategies, theories, triumphs, and hurdles of the student who learns to translate, and it places a due emphasis on the importance and joy of the translation workshop in the MFA program.

Room 308, Level 3

R124. Choose Your Own Editor: Creating Meaningful One-on-One Services for Writers. (Sonya Larson, Amy MacKinnon, Lynne Griffin, Jennifer Elmore) Feedback from one trusted reader—instead of a workshop full of them—can be far more helpful for a writer at an advanced stage of her project. Learn how one center, Grub Street, began a flourishing nationwide program that matches writers with manuscript consultants who function as editors, instructors, career counselors, and coaches. This panel features practical tips for starting such a program, as well as advice on choosing a consultant, becoming a good one yourself, and cultivating the writer/editor relationship.

Room 310, Level 3

R125. Perugia Press: How Sweet Is Sixteen? An Anniversary Reading. (Melanie Braverman, Jennifer K. Sweeney, Ida Stewart, Lynne Thompson) What can a small Massachusetts poetry press with the narrow focus of publishing first and second books by women produce? A James Laughlin Award winner; a Great Lakes Colleges New Writers Award winner; an L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award winner, an ABA Top Ten Poetry Book, plus many other accolades. One book topped 10,000 in sales. Perugia Press is creating a buzz, one successful book at a time. Having had their starts with Perugia Press, our poets are rising to acclaim. Come see why.

Room 312, Level 3

R126. AWP Program Directors’ Plenary Assembly All AWP member program directors should attend and represent their programs. The executive director of AWP will report on AWP’s new projects and on important statistics and academic trends that pertain to creative writing programs and to writers who teach. The plenary assembly will be followed by regional breakout sessions.

Room 313, Level 3

R127. Disciplinarity and Lore: Modeling Compromise and Vital Pedagogies for 21st-Century Classrooms. (Kate Kostelnik, Claudia Barbosa Nogueira, Rachel Haley Himmelheber) Because of the persisting workshop model and anti-academic lore, creative writing instructors are still characterized as anti-intellectual and unprofessional. In some ways, we are a discipline divided between those upholding New Critical emphasis on texts and those challenging the scope and goals of the creative writing classroom. Our panel will model compromise and pedagogy that keep creative writing relevant in the 21st century while replicating tested lore-based pedagogy.

10:30 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.

Room 101, Plaza Level

R128. West Region: AWP Program Directors’ Breakout Session. You should attend this session if you are a program director of an AWP member creative writing program in one of the following states: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, or Wyoming. This regional breakout session will begin immediately upon the conclusion of the Program Directors’ Plenary Assembly, so we recommend that you attend the Plenary Assembly first. Your regional representative on the AWP Board of Directors, Cynthia Hogue, will conduct this meeting.

Room 102, Plaza Level

R129. WITS Writers on Teaching: A Reading. (Lacy M. Johnson, Giuseppe Taurino, Miah Arnold, Stacy Parker Le Melle, Nicole Zaza) This reading by new, veteran, and former WITS teachers will explore what it really means to be agents of the WITS mission—to engage children in the power of the written word, to nurture imaginations, and to awaken young minds to the adventures of language. Readers will discuss how WITS teaching can sometimes be at least as revolutionary for teachers as for their students, even having potentially life-altering effects on teaching, writing, and overall worldview.

Room 103, Plaza Level

R130. Hurdles and Widgets and Dishes: The State of Literary Publishing. (Jeffrey Lependorf, Richard Nash, Daniel Slager, Julie Schaper, Max Rudin) A panel of distinguished literary publishing professionals discusses the latest challenges, innovations, and intrigues facing literary publishing today.

Room 104, Plaza Level

R131. Baring/Bearing Race in the Creative Writing Classroom. (Aimee Suzara, Kwame Dawes, Debra Busman, Diana Garcia, Lee Herrick) Drawing on Toi Derricotte’s classic essay, “Baring/Bearing Anger: Race in the Creative Writing Classroom,” this panel explores the roles race and identity play in our work as educators. How do we inhabit our own positionalities as writers/professors (how we are seen or perceived and how we see ourselves) in the classroom? How do we encourage students to speak truth and get real in their work, and then negotiate the classroom confrontations that can happen when multiple “truths” collide?

Room 105, Plaza Level

R132. Stories from All Directions: New Native Fiction. (Toni Jensen, Eddie Chuculate, Natanya Pulley, Erika Wurth) This reading showcases fiction from new, award-winning Native writers whose work is diverse in its tribal, geographic, and aesthetic makeup. From the experimental to the realist, from the reservation to the city center, these stories offer fresh perspectives on the lives of 21st-century Native peoples.

Room 107, Plaza Level

R133. Pacific West Region: AWP Program Directors’ Breakout Session. You should attend this session if you are a program director of an AWP member creative writing program in one of the following states: Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, or Washington. This regional breakout session will begin immediately upon the conclusion of the Program Directors’ Plenary Assembly, so we recommend that you attend the Plenary Assembly first. Your regional representative on the AWP Board of Directors, Steve Heller, will conduct this meeting.

Room 108, Plaza Level

R134. Midwest Region: AWP Program Directors’ Breakout Session. You should attend this session if you are a program director of an AWP member creative writing program in one of the following states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, or Wisconsin. This regional breakout session will begin immediately upon the conclusion of the Program Directors’ Plenary Assembly, so we recommend that you attend the Plenary Assembly first. Your regional representative on the AWP Board of Directors, Richard Robbins, will conduct this meeting.

Room 109, Plaza Level

R135. Keeping Track of Your Book. (Mary Kay Zuravleff, Hannah Tinti, Bich Minh Nguyen, Porter Shreve, Lan Samantha Chang) How do you chart plot and subplots, the passing of time, point of view, characters, and structure while working out a book? Participants reveal what methods they have devised, if any, to keep themselves on track. They will tell tales of the seven-foot outline, the illustrated injury map of a character, and other attempts to visualize the arc and architecture of a novel, memoir, or story collection.

Room 110, Plaza Level

R136. Southeast Region: AWP Program Directors’ Breakout Session. You should attend this session if you are a program director of an AWP member creative writing program in one of the following states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, or West Virginia. This regional breakout session will begin immediately upon the conclusion of the Program Directors’ Plenary Assembly, so we recommend that you attend the Plenary Assembly first. Your regional representative on the AWP Board of Directors, Claudia Emerson, will conduct this meeting.

Room 111, Plaza Level

R137. I Didn’t Know I Had It In Me: When Fiction Writers Turn to Memoir. (Marie Mutsuki Mockett, Joanna Smith Rakoff, Porochista Khakpour, Carlene Bauer) We always thought we would write fiction; we never intended to write memoirs. But here with are with our memoirs. What happened? Was it the money? Was it a newfound sense of political passion? Or did we simply realize that certain stories—our stories—would work better as memoir? Come find out, and you may be surprised to learn that you too have a memoir in you.

Room 200, Level 2

R138. Lessons from the Field: Poetry Festivals and Community Building. (Jennifer Jean, January Gill O’Neil, Michael Ansara, Martin Farawell, Michele Russo) In this panel, representatives from the Massachusetts Poetry Festival and from the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival in New Jersey will share best practices about creating, marketing, and running successful poetry festivals. Panelists will discuss poet-wrangling and building a base of core volunteers. They’ll also discuss their poetry-in-the-schools, poetry teacher training, and literacy programs, as well as their passion for poetry and their passion to build community.

Room 201, Level 2

R139. Dancing about Architecture: Writing at the Intersection of Language, Art, and Music. (Michael Mejia, Gretchen Henderson, Katharine Whitcomb, Jeffrey DeShell, Debra di Blasi) This panel is interested in complex intersections between language, music, and the visual arts. Moving beyond the ekphrastic response, we will discuss how our texts seek to conceptually and materially adapt and participate in the practices of other arts, creating innovative hybrids, unclassifiable monsters, and art whose language, style, form, and approaches to authorship remind us of the book’s less genre-bound past and point to continuing opportunities for cross-genre experimentation in the future.

Room 202, Level 2

R140. The Producers: Performing the Sensual Act of Editing. (David Moody, Alisha Karabinus, Elaine Treharne, Guy Shahar, Melinda Wilson) Like Kenneth Goldsmith’s writer, production editors spend hours each day shifting content between containers. They retype poems. They adjust HTML. Far from out of touch with markets, these are the editors who do the touching—the dirty, hands-on work of shaping publications. Managers, editors, and scholars on this panel will discuss how direct work with the material publication is sensual, creative, and focusing—actions that shape and expand each publication’s scope via its maker’s patient labor.

Room 203, Level 2

R141. Marketing vs. Writing with a Nod to the New Media. (Priscilla Long, Waverly Fitzgerald, Cynthia Hartwig, Matt Briggs) Must we writers become marketers (answer, yes!), and if we are to become marketers, how do we market most effectively? This panel explores how best to use new media (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.) and yes, old media (that old-fashioned postcard...). Once we are in communication with our (ever-increasing) audience, how can we best keep our focus on creating and honing work without becoming fragmented, disorganized, distracted? What are some tools to improve both our creative practices and our marketing practices?

Room 204, Level 2

R142. Sources of Inspiration. (Megan Marshall, Matthew Pearl, Natalie Dykstra, Ashley Rivers, Jeffrey Schwartz) Historical narratives in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry are at a peak of popularity. How do writers find their stories, and how do they acquire the skills to write about history convincingly? This panel, which features two biographers, a historical novelist, an MFA nonfiction student, and a recent graduate with an MFA in fiction, derives from a popular course of the same name in which students practice archival and online research and put their discoveries to work in their own writing.

Room 206, Level 2

R143. Odes, Psalms, and Praise Songs: A Living Tradition. (George Kalogreris, Jennifer Barber, Kristen Bulger, David Ferry) What sort of ode will speak to the needs of our times? What kind of psalms can we sing? Can we honestly praise the way we live now? The poets in this reading are teachers in the Creative Writing Program at Suffolk University in Boston. Their poetry has often been inspired by Classical odes, Biblical psalms, or other praise-songs from the tradition. Their readings will show many ways in which these ancient genres can be made relevant and new. A discussion period moderated by Fred Marchant will follow the reading.

Room 207, Level 2

R144. Breaking Silence: The Interior Life of the Poet. In Homage to Adrienne Rich. (Melissa Hammerle, Marie Howe, Kimiko Hahn, Kathleen Graber, Malena Morling) The work of Adrienne Rich has reshaped the landscape of American poetry by engaging language as cultural, political, and gendered construct. Of silence and voice, she wrote, “Every real poem is the breaking of existing silence, and the first question we might ask any poem is, What kind of voice is breaking silence, and what kind of silence is being broken?” In honoring Rich’s legacy, we consider her reflections on silence as a call for authenticity in our work as poets.

Room 208, Level 2

R145. The Artist as Activist: On Seeing and Saving the Natural World. (Tom Montgomery Fate, Alexis Rizzuto, Jennifer Sahn, Jeffrey S. Cramer, John T. Price) In the 19th century, inspired by Emerson’s essay, Nature, Henry David Thoreau initiated a tradition of the nature writer as observer-artist. Today, that tradition continues, but amid a natural world that has been nearly devastated by our own species. This panel of writers and editors will explore the evolving role of the nature writer as artist and activist—how seeing the world and saving the world are part of the same work.

Room 209, Level 2

R146. The Reception of Postcolonial Poetry in America. (Raza Ali Hasan, Paul Breslin, Obi Nwakanma, Juan J. Morales) Anglophone poets, hailing from Pakistan, Nigeria, and the US, will discuss the topic of postcolonial poetry and strategies for improving its reception in the US. Cave Canem and Kundiman have put Ethnic American poetry on the map, while postcolonial poetry still finds itself stuck in the wilderness. The intent of this panel is to bring into dialogue postcolonial poetry’s global impetus with the more inner-directed energies of Ethnic American and American poetry.

Room 210, Level 2

R147. Copper Canyon Press in Translation. (Michael Wiegers, John Balaban, Tomás Q. Morín, Geoffrey Brock, Forrest Gander) During the past forty years, Copper Canyon Press has foregrounded the art of translation as intrinsic to the vitality of contemporary poetry. From Vietnamese to Spanish, Italian to Chinese, the Press consistently makes a place in readers’ lives for the shadow art of translation.

Room 302/304, Level 3

R148. Being a Good Literary Citizen. (Rob Spillman, Alan Heathcock, Emma Straub, Julie Barer, Matthew Specktor) Publishing is a small ecosystem. If you do not support the ecosystem, you can’t expect the ecosystem to support you. An editor, agent, and two writers talk about the importance of being genuinely engaged with all aspects of publishing. Topics include using social media in a nonself-serving way, mentoring fellow writers and editors, helping literary organizations, and hand-selling books and magazines that have nothing to do with you.

Room 303, Level 3

R149. Small Worlds—Flash, Sudden, and Other Very Short Fiction, Internationally and at Home. (Christopher Merrill, Susan Bernofsky, Robert Shapard, Edmundo Paz-Soldán, Alex Epstein) Very short fiction is burgeoning in America. Is this happening internationally? Do micros, flashes, and suddens abroad differ from those in the US? How can they challenge us and energize our own writing and the classes we teach? Are they easily available in English? The panelists write, translate, edit, and teach flash and sudden fiction.

Room 305, Level 3

R150. May Swenson at 100. (Sharon Dolin, Jeanne Marie Beaumont, Paul Crumbley, Kirstin Hotelling Zona, Gardner McFall) On the centenary of her birth, May Swenson remains an under-recognized poet, yet one prized by many contemporary poets for her formal innovation (including her shaped “iconographs”) and her erotic love poetry. A group of poets, editors, scholars, and critics will discuss and celebrate Swenson’s legacy for the 21st century.

Room 306, Level 3

R151. Writing in the Diasporas Across Languages and Cultures. (Domnica Radulescu, Ezzat Goushegir, Danuta Hinc, Biljana Obradović, Stella Vinitchi-Radulescu) What are the joys and challenges of writing from the perspective of the immigrant experience in the United States? From the role that Iranian American writers have had on cultural transformation in the US, to the difficulty of writing as an American Serb after the Bosnian war of the ’90s, to the resilience of poetry in the face of globalization and technology, to the exploration of family stories from World War II Eastern Europe, this panel offers diverse angles on writing in the diasporas.

Room 308, Level 3

R152. Preparing for Liftoff: The Launch Event. (Kevin Fenton, Nichole Bernier, Kris Bigalk, Lightsey Darst, Kathryn Kysar) The launch event is a singular opportunity to celebrate, promote, and extend one’s work. Our authors have overcome performance anxiety, curated reading series, conducted marketing campaigns, and presented their work in bold new ways, including collaborations with artists in other disciplines. By touching on everything from logistics to performance to follow-up, this panel will show authors how to seize this distinctive opportunity and integrate it into their larger marketing efforts.

Room 309, Level 3

R153. Writing the Ends of the Earth: Women Writers on the Arctic and Antarctica. (Camille T. Dungy, Elizabeth Bradfield, Leslie Carol Roberts, Kelsea Habecker, Joan Kane) The Arctic and Antarctic are magnets for real and imagined discovery, death, redemption, and metaphor. Despite extensive scientific research and human habitation, the poles remain potent symbols of wildness. These “uttermost ends” are crucibles for analyzing relationships between humans and their environment. In poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, using science, experience, hearsay, and archival research, these women writers explore the creative and practical possibilities of high latitudes.

Room 310, Level 3

R154. Poetry Reading for Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics. (Tim Trace Peterson, TC Tolbert, Max Wolf Valerio, Dawn Lundy Martin, Trish Salah) This reading will feature poets reading their work from Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics (published by Nightboat Books/Eoagh, Spring 2013). The reading will be followed by a discussion about how issues of trans and genderqueer embodiment and identification influence writing, as well as each author’s personal understanding of the relationship between identity and the body of the poem.

Room 312, Level 3

R155. Northeast Region: AWP Program Directors’ Breakout Session. You should attend this session if you are a program director of an AWP member creative writing program in one of the following states: Connecticut, District of Columbia, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, or Vermont. This regional breakout session will begin immediately upon the conclusion of the Program Directors’ Plenary Assembly, so we recommend that you attend the Plenary Assembly first. Your regional representative on the AWP Board of Directors, Judith Baumel, will conduct this meeting.

Room 313, Level 3

R156. Teaching Creative Writing to Teens Outside of the Classroom: What, How, and Why. (Jennifer De Leon, Katie Bayerl, Aaron Devine, Jessica Drench) Join instructors in local creative writing organizations that serve youth, including Grub Street’s Young Adult Writing Program, Boston Children’s Hospital Writing Program, 826 Boston, and Teen Voices, as they discuss best practices for teaching young writers in nonacademic settings. What are the unique challenges and opportunities involved in teaching outside of school? What keeps students motivated? How can we work together to build the next generation’s literary community?

Alice Hoffman Bookfair Stage, Exhibit Hall D, Level 2

BF10. Cornelius Eady, Book of Hooks: Readings and Music, Presented by Kattywompus Press. (Sammy Greenspan, Cornelius Eady, Robin Messing) “Who tells the story to the teller?” Cornelius Eady presents readings and music from his new double-CD/double-chapbook, Book of Hooks (Kattywompus Press, 2013), which includes “Adrienne Rich,” “Walking While Black,” “A Poet Forgets His Library,” “Rita Hayworth’s Last Film,” “Bed Bug,” and “Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know.” Guest musicians on the CD include Marvin Sewell, Robin Messing, Kim Addonizo, and Joy Harjo.

Patricia Olson Bookfair Stage, Exhibit Hall A, Plaza Level

BF11. Grub Street Presents: The Icon, the Immigrant, the Bookie and the Superhero. (Steve Almond, Andrew Goldstein, Rosie Sultan, Sarah Gerkensmeyer, Christopher Castellani) Des

12:00 noon to 1:15 p.m.

Room 101, Plaza Level

R157. The Changing YA Landscape: A Reading with Jane Yolen and Ricki Thompson. (Anjali Sachdeva, Jane Yolen, Ricki Thompson) How has the world of YA literature changed over the last few decades, and what new challenges and opportunities face YA writers today? Jane Yolen is an award-winning author of over 300 books for children and adults, who has been publishing for over thirty years. Ricki Thompson is an emerging writer whose first book was published in 2010. Both authors will read from their work and engage in a short moderated discussion on changes in YA writing before answering audience questions.

Room 102, Plaza Level

R158. The Blacksmith House Poetry Series 40th Anniversary Reading. (Andrea Cohen, Rebecca Morgan Frank, Mark Halliday, Kate Rushin) Join us to celebrate forty years of Monday-night readings in Harvard Square at a venue that’s showcased many of our most honored poets at all stages of their writing lives. Five poets will share their own work as well as that of poets who graced our stage—such as Joseph Brodsky, Larry Levis, and Jane Kenyon—and are no longer with us. Moderated by Gail Mazur.

Room 103, Plaza Level

R159. The Fulbright Fellow Information Panel. (Summer Hess, Gail Dottin, Minal Hajratwala, Meg Petersen, Patrick Phillips) The Fulbright Program funds undergraduate students, graduate students, and graduates to study, conduct research, teach, or pursue creative activities abroad. These past Creative Writing Fulbright fellows and scholars will describe the application process, the experience, and the benefits of this award. They spent their Fulbright years in Panama, India, the Netherlands, Chile, and the Dominican Republic writing poetry, novels, and creative nonfiction as well as editing anthologies and translating literature.

Room 104, Plaza Level

R160. Team Teaching the Writing Workshop. (Lisa Borders, Michelle Hoover, Pagan Kennedy, Belle Brett) Grub Street has pioneered two yearlong programs using the team-teaching model: Novel Incubator, a course focused on deep revision of a novel draft as well as a comprehensive study of the novel form; and the Nonfiction Career Lab, in which students develop a book-length work of nonfiction while building their professional careers. Instructors and a student in these programs will report on the efficacy, difficulties, and rewards involved with this team-teaching model.

Room 105, Plaza Level

R161. Across the Pond: Fulbright and the Seamus Heaney Poetry Centre. (Jeffrey Thomson, Connie Voisine, Ciaran Carson, Sinéad Morrissey) Director of the Seamus Heaney Poetry Centre, Ciaran Carson, and one of its leading poets, Sinead Morrissey, will join together with two of last year’s Fulbright Distinguished Scholars—Jeffrey Thomson and Connie Voisine—to discuss the role of the Centre in teaching (MA and PhD in creative writing), developing research programs, and emphasizing poetry’s communal presence and international profile. The panel will also discuss the rich opportunities for Fulbright scholars in creative writing.

Room 107, Plaza Level

R162. A Monster for Your Bridegroom: Jewish Mysticism in Contemporary Poetry. (Sheri Allen, Tony Barnstone, Jacqueline Osherow, Joy Ladin, Yehoshua November) A complex Jewish mystical tradition threaded with erotic elements has been a generous source of material appropriated by poets such as Allen Ginsberg amid the sexual and social revolutions of the 20th century. But in a current cultural milieu, which often associates religion with repressive violence and antagonism toward sexual exploration, how do poets make use of this erotic mysticism to speak to contemporary experience?

Room 108, Plaza Level

R163. Reduced to I: Israeli and Iranian Poets. (Maya Pindyck, Hadara Bar-Nadav, Roger Sedarat, Ofer Ziv, Katayoon Zandvakili) With the backdrop of war rhetoric shaping relations between Israel and Iran, four poets, two Iranian and two Israeli, come together to share and discuss their works. Each poet considers his or her own cultural identity in relation to the political rhetoric positioning Israel and Iran against one another. Through a reading and conversation, these poets gather to honor the meaning of we, of you (Adrienne Rich) and to engage in the art and act of poetry.

Room 109, Plaza Level

R164. Epistolophilia: Using Letters and Diaries in Creative Nonfiction. (Julija Sukys, Elsie K. Neufeld, Gabrielle Burton, Joan Sohn, Shannon McFerran) Each panel participant has used collections of letters and diaries to write nonfiction. Topics for discussion that have arisen for us in our work will include: What are the challenges of having a handful of letters to draw on versus mountains of them? What is the role of chronology in this kind of work? How do we fill in the gaps that personal writings inevitably leave? What is the author’s responsibility to her subject? What possibilities open up when working with such rich visual material?

Room 110, Plaza Level

R165. Getting That First University Teaching Job. (Kathy Flann, Jane Delury, Liam Callanan, Lizzie Skurnick, Jehanne Dubrow) Fresh out of an MFA program, how can aspiring teachers get a foot in the door of a university? This panel discusses ways in which to build teaching experience before graduation and ways in which to approach the adjunct market afterward. The panel—comprised of writers who hire adjuncts, who help graduate students find teaching jobs, and who have parlayed their own adjunct work into permanent creative writing positions—offers insight into the strategies that can push a résumé to the top of a pile.

Room 111, Plaza Level

R166. A Supposed Person: Autobiography and Experiment. (Stefania Heim, Elizabeth Willis, Ronaldo Wilson, Brett Fletcher Lauer, Jennifer Kronovet) Autobiographical versus experimental; personal versus project-based. These dichotomies are often posited and presupposed in discussions of contemporary poetry, and yet much of the most exciting poetry written now brings complex ideas of self together with new ways of working with language. This panel probes the complicated relationship between the personal and the experimental in contemporary poetry and attempts to chart new territory for the lyric.

Room 200, Level 2

R167. Only Half as Crazy as We Seem: Exploring Unconventional Strategies for Indie Lit Startups. (Steve Westbrook, Matty Byloos, Carrie Seitzinger, J.A. Tyler, Skyler Schulze) At present, the notion of developing an independent literary startup tends to be perceived as a naïve dream or a bad business idea. Defying conventional wisdom, contributors to this panel discuss their recent experience of founding successful new journals, presses, and a reading series. As they examine how their efforts toward sustainability intersect or contradict industry lore, they offer strategies for developing alternative funding structures, distribution models, and marketing techniques.

Room 201, Level 2

R168. Contemporary Black British Writing. (Kadija Sesay, Dorothea Smartt, Modhumita Roy, Sheree Mack, Koye Oyedeji) Is contemporary Black-British writing standing up on its own, or standing up for itself? Is it gaining credibility? This session focuses on writers’ movements to more diverse contents; examining “Black British” as opposed to “Postcolonial” constructions; “urban” Black male writers; the concerns of Black women writers; the early history and development of this area of growing literary interest; and the future development of the area.

Room 202, Level 2

R169. James Merrill at Home: A Tribute. (Langdon Hammer, Stephen Yenser, Rachel Hadas, Siobhan Phillips, Leslie McGrath) James Merrill’s poetry was awarded every significant literary prize available during his lifetime. Since his death in 1995, Merrill’s literary reputation has coalesced as a great poet of the 20th century. Friends, scholars, and students of Merrill speak about the importance of the theme of home in Merrill’s life and poetry, specifically in Greece, Stonington, and Key West. This tribute features critical readings of Merrill’s work, as well as personal stories from those who knew him.

Room 203, Level 2

R170. A Reading By Contributors to Sudden Flash Youth. (Tom Hazuka, Meg Kearney, Katharine Weber, Pamela Painter, Steve Almond) Sudden Flash Youth, published by Persea Books in 2011, provides a unique perspective on the flash fiction genre: the main characters in its sixty-five stories (none longer than 1,000 words) are teenagers and children. Well-known writers Tom Hazuka, Meg Kearney, Paul Lisicky, Pamela Painter, and Katharine Weber will read their own stories from the book, as well as another favorite piece of their choosing by a different author from the anthology.

Room 204, Plaza Level

R171. Readings from the Afghan Women’s Writing Project. (Valerie Wallace, Stefan Cooke, Susan Postlewaite, Richelle McClain, Mehnaz Rezaie) The Afghan Women’s Writing Project provides a platform for Afghan women to write. Afghan women determined to tell their stories gather in on-the-ground salons and in online workshops to develop their voice through writing. Their poems, prose, and journalistic essays are published in an online magazine, awwproject.org, so that their words are made available without filters of media or societal influences. Selected poems and stories by women of the Afghan Women’s Writing Project will be read by audience members, editors, and one of the writers in the program.

Room 206, Level 2

R172. Literary Writers Writing Popular Fiction: What’s Up With That? (Ed Falco, Julianna Baggott, Lise Haines, Benjamin Percy) What exactly are we saying when we refer to a novel as literary or serious fiction, as opposed to popular or commercial fiction? Can clear distinctions be made? What do these commonly used terms—literary, serious versus commercial, popular—mean to writers? Is it possible to write a commercial novel that is also literary? Writers who have published literary works as well as novels that might be considered popular fiction explore these and other relevant questions.

Room 207, Level 3

R173. The First Five Pages: Literary Agents and Editors Talk About Giving Your Manuscript its Best Shot. (Erin Cox, Rob Weisbach, Alexis Gargagliano, Jill Schwartzman) How do you convey the story, theme, and nuance of a 90,000-word novel or memoir in a powerful query letter? What if the action of your book doesn’t come until Chapter 3, but agents and editors only read the first ten pages? These agents and editors discuss the kinds of submissions that grab them and keep them engaged, and the ways to make sure you frame your story effectively, avoid common pitfalls, and get your foot in the door.

Room 208, Level 2

R174. Being Crafty: The Art of Writing Textbooks and Other Books on Craft. (John McNally, Ned Stuckey-French, Eileen Pollack, Janet Burroway, David Jausss) Every year, publishers send around catalogs to creative writing teachers, hoping to entice them to try their new books on craft. Who’s writing these books? Why are they writing them? What are the nuts and bolts of selling one? Can a book on craft also be a work of art? What are the craft books that have influenced writers of craft books? This panel, comprised of craft book authors, will attempt to answer these and other questions.

Room 209, Level 2

R175. What About Literary Journalism? (Mark Kramer, Clara Germani, Dan Grossman, Ayesha Pande, Robert Stewart) Despite the decline of magazines, newspapers, and book publishers’ budgets, the climate for literary journalism has never been better. Print is trending downwards, yes, but digital is spiking. Book apps, e-books, multimedia—new opportunities for this genre are continually emerging. In this moderated Q&A session, two journalists, two editors, and an agent discuss the possibilities and share ideas about how to develop stories and publish them.

Room 210, Level 2

R176. Graywolf Press Reading. (Sven Birkerts, Mary Szybist, Mary Jo Bang, J. Robert Lennon, Catherine Barnett) For nearly forty years, Graywolf Press has been dedicated to publishing poetry, fiction, and nonfiction and has earned a reputation as one of the best independent publishers in the nation. Recently published writers from all three genres read from their new books.

Room 302/304, Level 3

R177. I Essay to Be. (David Shields, Phillip Lopate, Elena Passarello, Amy Fusselman) This reading traces the lineage of contemporary essay-writing by embodying it: Phillip Lopate reframed and revivified the form decades ago. David Shields looks back to the tradition Lopate articulated and forward to a group of younger literary collagists, including Maggie Nelson and Amy Fusselman. Each generation builds off of and pushes away from the previous one; each of these five essayists finds his or her own way into the form.

Room 303, Level 3

R178. By, For, and About Lesbians: A Celebration of the Life of Barbara Grier. (Rita Mae Reese, Nancy K. Bereano, Katherine V. Forrest, Elisabeth Nonas, Joanne E. Passet) Barbara Grier was a larger-than-life woman. From her years as part of The Ladder to Lesbian Nuns and beyond, Barbara was a fascinating, and often polarizing, figure. Finding audiences from the Penthouse Forum to the Vatican, she shepherded lesbian books into the mainstream. This tribute to her is for anyone interested in lesbian publishing, in the struggles of starting and sustaining a small press, or just in good (and often very funny) stories of a remarkable life.

Room 305, Level 3

R179. Fiction About Creative Artists. (Varley O’Connor, Brock Clarke, Emily Mitchell, Gregory Spatz, Michelle Latiolais) The panel includes writers who have crafted fiction inspired by and based on artists in various creative mediums, including dance, photography, acting, performance art, and writing. How does such subject matter shape and tweak fiction narrative? What light may fiction that depicts art shed on the creative process and the interplay between artists’ lives and their work? Most importantly, we will consider how art inspires other art and provokes fresh perspectives.

Room 306, Level 3

R180. Cooperative Publishing and the Future of the Small Press. (Martin Woodside, Derick Burleson, Jacqueline Kudler, Chris Baron, Geoffrey Gatza) Traditional literary publishing is being upended by new developments in media and technology. In this panel, representatives from Sixteen Rivers, City Works, BlazeVOX, and Calypso Editions discuss the role cooperatives have, may, and will play in the shifting publishing landscape. The panel explores how various cooperative models help reimagine ways for the 21st-century small press to thrive, sustain literary communities, introduce new writers, and keep great literature in circulation.

Room 308, Level 3

R181. Varieties of Historical Experience: Turning History into Theatre. (Andrew Pederson, Deborah Brevoort, Sheila Curran Bernard, Jayme McGhan, Craig Thornton) This panel, made up of award-winning playwrights and documentarians, focuses on the process of creating theatre from historical events. The discussion covers a full range of theatrical projects from documentaries to docudramas to stage plays, and how the raw material of historical fact can be crafted, shaped, and transformed using the dramatic writer’s art.

Room 309, Level 3

R182. Translation as the (Re)Creation of Voice and Self. (Melissa Hammerle, Malena Morling, Wei Shao, Mark Schafer, Jill Schoolman) The art of translation implies a reinvention of text and voice in the context of a newly created linguistic landscape. This panel considers the challenges of literary translation from a range of perspectives, including the ways in which identity is reframed when translating a personal narrative and how questions of form and sensibility are reimagined in the translation of contemporary poetry and fiction. The challenges inherent in publishing world literature in English will also be explored.

Room 310, Level 3

R183. Poetry for the People: A Reading and Discussion of Bringing Poetry into the Community by the Present and Past Poet Laureates of Northampton, Massachusetts. (Lesléa Newman, Janet Aalfs, Martín Espada, Rich Michelson, Lenelle Moïse) The job of the poet laureate of Northampton, Massachusetts is to educate the public about the importance of poetry. The panelists will read from their work and discuss projects they initiated during their two-year terms, including holding readings at the local jail, editing a poetry newspaper column, writing poems to raise money for literacy, distributing books to city waiting rooms, conducting a poetry radio show, and curating exhibits of poetry and visual art.

Room 312, Level 3

R184. Prose and Verse Consubstantial: The New Mixed Form. (Peter Streckfus, Joshua Marie Wilkinson, C.D. Wright, Carole Maso, Julie Carr) Prose is our culture’s default for narrative. Writing organized by the poetic line is our default for lyric expression. This panel presents writers who, in lieu of erasing the boundaries between the paragraph and the line, alternate both forms in the same work. Authors will read from their own mixed-form work and discuss precedents from the rich history of the mixed form, ranging from Zukofsky’s “A” to Basho’s Narrow Road. How can mixed form serve the poet? The novelist?

Room 313, Level 3

R185. Too Much or Not Enough? Expectations in the Introductory Multi-Genre Creative Writing Classroom. (Carrie Shipers, Laurel Gilbert, Heather Kirn Lanier, Casey Thayer) Five teachers from two-year colleges will discuss best practices for teaching introductory-level multi-genre creative writing classes. What are the unique challenges of teaching creative writing in this setting, and how do we respond to them? Panelists will address how much (and what kind) of writing students should do; the appropriate role of reading student and published texts; expectations for revision; and the efficacy of full-class workshop.

Alice Hoffman Bookfair Stage, Exhibit Hall D, Level 2

BF12. Naugatuck River Review Poets Reading. (Lori Desrosiers, Doug Ramspeck, Lauren K. Alleyne, Lauren Wolk, John Victor Anderson) A reading by four poets whose work has appeared in Naugatuck River Review, a print journal of narrative poetry in its fifth year of publication. Doug Ramspeck was this year’s second prizewinner in the annual contest. John Victor Anderson won last year’s first prize and was a finalist this year. Lauren Alleyne and Lauren Wolk were finalists. Poets will sign at table W5 afterwards.

Patricia Olson Bookfair Stage, Exhibit Hall A, Plaza Level

BF13. Atlanta Review Hosts Three Atlanta Writers with Brand-New Collections. (Dan Veach, Katie Chaple, Travis Wayne Denton) Atlanta Review hosts three Atlanta writers with brand-new collections: Katie Chaple, Travis Wayne Denton, and Dan Veach. Before you venture outside, be sure to hear Dan’s warning about March in Boston, “The Truth About Spring!”

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

Room 101, Plaza Level

R186. Writing and Publishing Global Fiction in a US and British-Dominated Marketplace: Struggles and Strategies. (Mary Helen Specht, Amanda Eyre Ward, Dominic Smith, Andrea Eames, Nelly Rosario) Writing fiction set in locales outside the US and Britain for a western-dominated marketplace comes with unique challenges and rewards. A focus on foreign places and cultures often requires authors to address issues like exoticism, privilege, and diaspora as well as make craft and publishing decisions that come with describing a world unfamiliar to many readers. The writers on this panel will explore the struggles and strategies of writing and publishing global fiction.

Room 102, Plaza Level

R187. Party Down: Effective Fundraising Events on the Cheap. (Steph Opitz, Maribeth Batcha, Paul Morris, Eric Lorberer) Fundraising events don’t need to be fancy dinners and formal wear—learn from folks from One Story, PEN America, and Rain Taxi about producing effective and novel small fundraising events and strategies on a budget.

Room 103, Plaza Level

R188. Picture Book Writers in an E-Book and App Era: How Can Writers Change the Way We Envision Story to Take Advantage of New Technology. (Laurie A. Jacobs, Rubin Pfeffer, Jean Heilprin Diehl, Emilie Boon, Julie Hedlund) Children’s picture book writers create stories knowing that pictures will accompany their texts, but works created for e-books and tablet applications can also incorporate music, animation, voice-overs, and subsidiary texts. These e-books and apps are a new mode of storytelling, allowing readers to be immersed in story in a unique way. Panel members will discuss how writers can change the way they envision their stories if they choose to write for this new genre.

Room 104, Plaza Level

R189. Nothing but the Truth: Perspectives on Creative Nonfiction in the Classroom and Beyond. (Catherine Cortese, Michael Martone, Diane Roberts, Robin Hemley, Debra Monroe) Creative nonfiction continues to grow in popularity among readers and students of writing. The genre, however, lacks a standard definition. Some believe the slippery nature of perception affords writers infinite liberties, while others see the genre as one that artfully deploys stable facts. This disparity makes the genre tricky to write and trickier to teach. The writers on this panel will discuss the freedoms and constraints of the genre in their classrooms, as well as in their own work.

Room 105, Plaza Level

R190. Facebook and the MFA Admissions Process. (Emily Maloney, PJ Williams, Andrew Valencia, Delany McKenzie Allen, Hiba Krisht) This panel—comprised of current MFA students who participated in Draft ’12, a Facebook group numbering some 1,500 MFA applicants and current students—provides inside information on how Facebook shaped the experience of applying, sharing information about programs, swapping work, and even negotiating offers. This session, useful to applicants and program administrators alike, serves to help us all navigate the pearls and pitfalls of social media in an era of increasing transparency.

Room 107, Plaza Level

R191. Five Years of Normal: Anniversary Reading for the Normal School. (Steven Church, Adam Braver, Beth Ann Fennelly, Ann Hood, Joe Bonomo) In 2007, the Normal School published its first issue. In just five years, the magazine has achieved national distribution and a strong reputation for publishing high-quality literary fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. This reading will celebrate our first five years of publication with readings by the panelists. Moderator and founding editor Steven Church will introduce the readers and moderate discussion afterwards.

Room 108, Plaza Level

R192. What I Wish I Had Known in Grad School About the Two-Year College. (Mary Lannon, Kristine Rae Anderson, Enzo Silon Surin, Steven Wolfe, Phoebe Reeves) Community colleges range from those with little formal creative writing curricula to those with flourishing creative writing degree programs. Creative writers at very different campuses in Massachusetts, California, New York, Texas, and Ohio share how they use their graduate training in teaching and starting programs, as well as in offering cultural enrichment activities. Discussion of their challenges and triumphs and what they wish they had done in graduate school will lead to a Q&A session.

Room 109, Plaza Level

R193. Science Writing for All. (Robert Frederick, Douglas Starr, Jill U Adams, Jennifer Cutraro) Science writing is one of the most popular nonfiction genres in terms of book sales, emailed stories, and television viewership. Still, relatively few writers take it up. With varied interests, scientific backgrounds, and types of audiences, panelists will address how learning the craft of science writing benefits writers in a variety of nonfiction settings, from crime stories to news features, educational materials to press releases, journal articles to writing for children.

Room 110, Plaza Level

R194. Breaking the Glass Ceiling. (Darrel Alejandro Holnes, Ken Chen, Francisco Aragón, Nicole Sealey, Camille Rankine) Literary administrators of color are still a rarity. Representatives will discuss diversifying the field on a collegial and programmatic level, as well as the retention and recruitment of minority administrators within the literary nonprofit industry, the academy, and beyond. The discussion will be followed by a brief Q&A with the audience.

Room 111, Plaza Level

R195. From Exiled Memories to Cubop City Blues: A Tribute to Pablo Medina. (Fred Arroyo, Pablo Medina, Rigoberto González) This panel pays tribute to the poet, translator, essayist, and novelist Pablo Medina. The author of nine books, and translator of two, most notably Lorca’s Poet in New York, Medina is a gifted teacher and mentor at Emerson College and a recent recipient of a Guggenheim. Medina will give a reading, followed by a conversation with Rigoberto González and Fred Arroyo exploring the writing life Medina has mastered, in particular his movement from a poetics of exile toward a poetics of place.

Room 200, Level 2

R196. From Parts to a Whole: Turning a Bunch of Essays into a Unified Book. (David Giffels, Chuck Klosterman, Sean Manning, Chuck Klosterman, Meghan Daum) Why do some books of essays feel like collections of B-sides, outtakes and orphans, while others carry the thematic and narrative satisfaction of a good concept album? Drawing from their own experiences, this panel of successful authors discusses vital techniques for conceiving, organizing, developing, and enhancing a collection of creative nonfiction essays into a unified whole. We will address how to balance recurring themes, maintain voice and tone, how to build bridges, and other topics.

Room 201, Level 2

R197. A Reading from Writers in the Schools [WITS Alliance]. (Bao-Long Chu, Michael Dickman, Alise Alousi, Tim Seibles) Four poets will share work by young students as well as their own work. They will discuss the ways in which their work with schoolchildren has affected their own writing. Two of the poets will have participated in the AWP WITS Day of Service and will tell about that. Students from the Day of Service project will be invited to the event.

Room 202, Level 2

R198. Supporting, Educating, and Encouraging: How to Set Up and Establish a Successful Community Writing Center. (Patricia Serviss, Jay Lamar, Elizabeth Savoy, Maiben Beard) Join the founders and organizers of The Community Writing Center (TCWC) of Auburn, Alabama as we talk about the ways higher institutions and communities can collaborate to launch and maintain a successful, not-for-profit community writing center. We’ll talk about how the center began, the challenges of running a center for the community in a rural, small-town setting, the obstacles of working simultaneously with a community and a university, the programming a community writing center might offer its community, where to get funding, how to find and keep an interested audience, and the surprising benefits of all that hard work.

Room 203, Level 2

R199. “Lady Lazarus” and Beyond: The Craft of Sylvia Plath. (Sandra Beasley, Tara Betts, C. Dale Young, Shara Lessley, Meghan O’Rourke) Sylvia Plath has enthralled decades of readers, yet discussion of her craft is often overshadowed by biography. Tragic life, yes; feminine icon, perhaps; but what about genius of diction, image, and dry wit? In Ariel, one must sift spiritual inquiry and masterful dramatic monologue from the voice of a suicide. Four poets push past the Confessionalist label to examine Plath’s formal acuity and disciplined revisions, challenging assumptions of how she should be read today—and fifty years from now.

Room 204, Level 2

R200. In Memoriam to Identity: A Kathy Acker Tribute. (Lidia Yuknavitch, Matias Viegener, McKenzie Wark, Lance Olsen, Trevor Dodge) The participants in this reading have all been deeply inspired by the work of the late Kathy Acker and all knew her as a friend as well. The reading will be a celebration of her influence on their work as well as a celebration of a new book from Chiasmus Press that collects conversations she had with Mackenzie Wark, entitled I’m So Into You.

Room 206, Level 2

R201. Plagiarism in Creative Writing Classes. (Becky Hagenston, Lorraine López, Ira Sukrungruang, Nick White, Catherine Pierce) Aren’t creative writing students interested in creating their own work, finding their own voice? Not necessarily. The panelists will offer insights into why creative writing students plagiarize and discuss how they handle plagiarism when it arises. They will address strategies for generating assignments that make plagiarism a less likely and less appealing option than creating original work.

Room 207, Level 2

R202. Stories Wanting Only to Be Heard: Selected Fiction from Six Decades of the Georgia Review. (Stephen Corey, Jack Driscoll, Jim Heynen, George Singleton, Liza Wieland) The editor of the Georgia Review and four of its fiction writers will discuss and read from this long-running journal’s new anthology, Stories Wanting Only to Be Heard. What does it take to end up among the authors left standing after some 200,000 submissions since 1947 have been reduced to some 700 published stories—and then to the twenty-eight in this book? What does it mean to be included? These writers will show you; this editor will tell you.

Room 208, Level 2

R203. Understanding Narrative Medicine: Healing the Medical Profession and Patients through Literature. (Jan Freeman, Sharon Olds, Chris Adrian, Janlori Goldman, Suzy Becker) The panelists will discuss ways that literature can help to heal the writer, improve the relationship between patients and medical professionals, and assist in medical treatment. The panel will introduce Narrative Medicine, a growing field in medical schools, colleges, and care facilities. Panelists will read their own work and address the experiences of Narrative Medicine from all angles: teacher, writer, doctor, and patient. A Q&A will follow.

Room 209, Level 2

R204. Teaching Creative Writing Behind Bars (and Beyond). (Tyler McMahon, Joshua Mohr) In this session, writers from various disciplines will discuss their experiences teaching in prisons, halfway houses, and homeless shelters. Their successes and failures offer lessons to other writers interested in working with underserved populations. They will discuss best practices in all matters, from developing curriculum to navigating bureaucracy. The conversation will offer insight into why such classes are valuable—for the teachers as well as for the students.

Room 210, Level 2

R205. Defining Contemporary Poetry: How Do We Know How Much is Too Much, Not Enough, or Too Little? (David Caplan, Alan Shapiro, Adam Kirsch, Charles Bernstein) Poets have revised traditional artistic norms so thoroughly that some observers deny any prevailing norms exist. The panelists will define our era’s sense of decorum—the conventions that guide the art. Alan Shapiro will examine convention as an inescapable feature of all poetic experimentation; Charles Bernstein will analyze the social and historical assumptions that guide such efforts; and David Caplan will show the compatible ambitions that inspire apparently unlike poems.

Room 302/304, Level 3

R206. Copper Canyon Press: The Next 40 Years. (Matthew Zapruder, Brenda Shaughnessy, Valzhyna Mort, Lisa Olstein) During the past four decades, the world of publishing and the world of poetry have changed significantly. The future of one of America’s most distinguished publishers of poetry, Copper Canyon Press, looks bright, as is evidenced in this reading by some of the most exciting poets currently writing. Speaking from a variety of backgrounds and styles, these poets point to the eclecticism and vitality of Copper Canyon as it looks forward to the next forty years of publishing great poetry.

Room 303, Level 3

R207. Writing the Great Hunger. (Renny Golden, Eamonn Wall, John Menaghan, Ann Neelon, Lawrence Welsh) The Boston Irish Famine Memorial commemorates the 150th anniversary of a tragedy that continues to define the Irish diaspora after four generations. Panelists will discuss writing the Great Hunger in a contemporary context. How do writers today revisit the collective trauma of the Irish famine? Why does An Gorta Mór still qualify as a watershed in the Irish American imagination?

Room 305, Level 3

R208. (Re)Considering the Work of Irene McKinney: Discussion, Reading, and Tribute. (Maggie Anderson, Lynn Emanuel, T. R. Hummer, Jayne Anne Phillips, Aaron Smith) Irene McKinney, poet, editor, teacher, and West Virginia State Poet Laureate, left a far-reaching legacy when she died in February 2012. A central figure in Appalachian literature, her work extends beyond the region, and is widely respected by many established and emerging writers. The panelists, diverse in aesthetic and genre, will bring new consideration to her rich contributions and discuss the long lasting influence of her life and work on their own work and the writing community at large.

Room 306, Level 3

R209. University Presses: Not Just Poetry Anymore. (Kevin Haworth, Kristen Buckles, Elisabeth Chretien, Mark Saunders, Martha Bates) University presses have long considered poetry part of their core publishing mission. Now many presses are expanding their creative writing or creating series in regional or multicultural writing. Others have creative imprints such as Sightline Books or Swallow Press. This panel of press directors and editors, some of whom are also authors, will explore what university presses are looking for in creative manuscripts, and how writers and presses can form mutually beneficial relationships.

Room 308, Level 3

R210. Launching the Literary Journal: New Editors Confess. (Graham Hillard, John Gosslee, Patrick Sugrue) Founding a literary journal is an exhilarating, frustrating, and demanding process. Join the editors of the Coffin Factory, Fjords Review, Bellow Literary Journal, and Cumberland River Review for a discussion on financing the project, soliciting submissions, fostering institutional support (or living without it), building a readership, and developing an editorial aesthetic.

Room 309, Level 3

R211. What a Novella Is. (K.E. Semmel, Owen King, Edan Lepucki, Daniel Torday, Andrew Ervin) According to the Writer’s Chronicle, novellas may be the perfect length for our fast-paced, distracted society. The novella is indeed enjoying a creative revival. Our panel of debut novella authors discusses the recent resurgence of the form, the rich and divergent tradition of the novella in American letters, the benefits of studying novellas in graduate and undergraduate workshops, and how recent technologies make the novella uniquely suited for our current literary climate.

Room 310, Level 3

R212. Literary Boston: A Living History. (Ladette Randolph, Matthew Pearl, Megan Marshall, Michael Lowenthal, Paul Lewis) Boston is the site of the nation’s oldest literary tradition, and is still host to a vibrant writing and publishing community. From the Colonial era writers to Longfellow, Poe, the James brothers, and Robert Lowell to the present, Boston is home to many of the country’s most beloved writers. Many publishers and literary journals have been and are based in Boston, among them, Garrison’s Liberator (which helped establish the abolitionist movement) the Atlantic, Ploughshares, and Houghton Mifflin.

Room 312, Level 3

R213. New Media and Storytelling. (Jeff Parker, Kenneth Calhoun, Victoria Redel, Adam Cushman, Matthew Derby) The relationship between new media and literature is evolving in unexpected ways. From hypertext to book trailers and from literary mobile applications to online marketing, the future forms of storytelling in new media and the uses of new media to gain readership for traditional texts are seemingly infinite. These five panelists, all writers actively engaged in new media and writing, offer visual presentations of their work and discuss techniques, strategies, and where we go from here.

Room 313, Level 3

R214. Zombies, Vampires, and Detectives, Oh My: The Role of Genre in the Undergraduate Fiction Workshop. (Jessica Pitchford, Susan Finch, Danit Brown, Neil Connelly, Elizabeth Stuckey-French) The workshop has traditionally been a place where literary fiction is taught and modeled. However, many undergrad fiction writers are devoted fans of genre—vampires, Harry Potter, and Katniss Everdeen—and sign up for creative writing classes expecting to work in these styles. Join writers who teach undergrads as they discuss the challenges of teaching literary fiction-writing, and share tips on how to incorporate genre writing in the classroom.

Alice Hoffman Bookfair Stage, Exhibit Hall D, Level 2

BF14. New Poetry and Fiction from Elixir Press. (Kathryn Nuernberger, Phong Nguyen, Seth Brady Tucker, Susan Allspaw, Esther Lee) After thirteen years of bringing great literature into print, Elixir Press is still going strong. Please join us as newly published authors from Elixir Press read both fiction and poetry.

Patricia Olson Bookfair Stage, Exhibit Hall A, Plaza Level

BF15. Five from the Hen House: A Red Hen Press Reading. (Peggy Shumaker, Eloise Klein Healy, Katharine Coles, John Barr, Andrew Lam) For nineteen years, Red Hen Press has been publishing exceptional poetry, fiction, and literary nonfiction. Five Red Hen authors read from their newest collections: four volumes of verse and a short fiction debut.

3:00 p.m. to 4:15 p.m.

Room 101, Plaza Level

R216. How Far the Journey: Immediacy versus Distance in Narrative Travel Writing. (Rachel Friedman, Rolf Potts, David Farley, Colleen Kinder, Sarah Menkedick) Travel writers take many different journeys: voyages of expectation and imagination, physical expeditions, and journeys of process once back at the desk. We strive to render a sense of place in vivid detail, sometimes while still enraptured by our latest locale. Yet rapture is a dangerous mode in which to write because of the risk of romanticizing without reflecting. How do travel writers negotiate the need for both immediacy and distance? Panelists will discuss their various experiences.

Room 102, Plaza Level

R217. CLMP Keynote Address—The Library of America. (Max Rudin) Max Rudin, Publisher of The Library of America, speaks about America’s literary cannon and what it means to be preserving it, maintaining it, and fostering it through publishing.

Room 103, Plaza Level

R218. Does Place Still Matter? The Relevance of Regional Fiction in the 21st Century. (Brett Boham, Stewart O’Nan, Susan Straight, Alex Espinoza, Michael Jaime-Becerra) Attempts to categorize American literature often begin and end with region. Southern fiction. New England poetry. Midwestern novel. But to what extent is regionalism a useful lens through which to understand contemporary American literature? How do so-called regional writers conceptualize place? And has the expansion of the American counterculture and social media forever changed the landscape of regional fiction? Panelists will discuss the advantages and limitations of thinking regionally.

Room 104, Plaza Level

R219. Teaching the Writer and the Text: Writers of Color in the Creative Writing Workshop. (Elmaz Abinader, M. Evelina Galang, Faith Adiele, Mat Johnson, David Mura) The efforts to diversify creative writing programs have succeeded in increasing the numbers of writers-of-color and the visibility of their work. However, students-of-color often report that the existing faculty and their own colleagues fail to provide in-depth examination of their writing. We will examine the reasons for and responses to these experiences by writers-of-color in the creative writing classroom, and discuss strategies to create teaching diversity with an obligation to each writer’s experience and legacy. We will offer suggestions for pedagogical resources for teaching all writers, inclusively.

Room 105, Plaza Level

R220. All the Young Dudes: A Reading from Four Debut Collections. (Jared Yates Sexton, Eugene Cross, Andrew Scott, Jensen Beach) It’s said that everyone has stories, but publishing those stories, particularly a book-length collection of them, is proving more confounding a process than ever. Join four emerging writers with debut collections for a short reading from their work, followed by a Q&A session detailing how they got their first book deals, their experiences in attracting presses and navigating contracts, and an array of advice for aspiring scribes.

Room 107, Plaza Level

R221. From Here, From Away: Maine’s Young Poets. (Christian Barter, Gibson Fay-LeBlanc, Adrian Blevins, Jeffrey Thomson) Many great poets call and have called Maine home, but what about the next generation? Kate Tufts Discovery Award-winner Adrian Blevins (Live from the Homesick Jamboree, etc.), Fulbright Distinguished Scholar in Creative Writing Jeffrey Thomson (Birdwatching in Wartime, etc.), Hodder Fellow Christian Barter (The Singers I Prefer; In Someone Else’s House), and Vassar Miller Prize-winner Gibson Fay-LeBlanc (Death of a Ventriloquist) will share recent work. Moderated by Joshua Bodwell.

Room 108, Plaza Level

R222. The Chapbook as Gateway. (B.K. Fischer, Stephanie Lenox, Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon, Susana H. Case, David Tucker) Four poets who have published with Slapering Hol Press, one of the oldest chapbook presses in the US, discuss the vital role the chapbook plays as a threshold to further publication and literary accomplishment. The recent popularity of the chapbook invites examination of the challenges and promise of the form, the opportunities it affords for emerging poets, its role as a creative bridge to the publication of a full-length book, and the renaissance of artisanal book-making.

Room 109, Plaza Level

R223. Breaking Piñatas: A Youth-Focused Community Performance and Mentoring Project. (Octavio (Chato) Villalobos, Jose Faus, Maria Vasquez Boyd, Gabriela N. Lemmons, Miguel M. Morales) The Latino Writers Collective, which includes youth advocates, students, and law enforcement, leads a learning circle on its dynamic performance series, Breaking Piñatas, now in its fifth year. In the tradition of Mexican carpas, or tent performances, Latino youth performers and mentors explore, challenge, and embrace cultural concepts they encounter. Learn how mentors collaborate with local agencies and schools to support long-silenced voices of Latino youth. Recognize simple ways you can help.

Room 110, Plaza Level

R224. Larkin to Love or Hate: British Poetics in Conversation. (Carrie Etter, Carol Watts, Lytton Smith, Tim Liardet, Zoe Brigley Thompson) Four leading British poets of distinctly different styles discuss the current state of British poetics by beginning with the common dividing line of Philip Larkin’s importance for contemporary poetries in the UK. Together, their talks will bring to light and explore the exciting array of recent developments in British poetry.

Room 111, Plaza Level

R225. Women Writers in the Contemporary Literary Landscape. (Susan Steinberg, Fiona Maazel, Mary Jo Bang) What limitations and expectations are placed on women writers by society, and how do these constrain the process of writing? How does critical reception and public perception differ for books written by women versus those written by men? Three experienced writers share their perspectives on gender and its impact on writing, publishing, and the reception of books by women, and discuss how they’ve broken free of cultural limitations in their own works. Moderated by Fiona McCrae.

Room 200, Level 2

R226. Second Sex, Second Shelf? Women, Writing, and the Literary Marketplace. (Christine Gelineau, Erin Belieu, Bobbie Ann Mason, Lydia Diamond, Meg Wolitzer) Statistics suggest a gap still exists. But is there a problem, and if there is, what is its nature? What changes/remedies/metamorphoses can/should be imagined? Do you think about this issue differently in terms of your writing and in terms of your career? Accomplished writers, who happen to be women, theorize and report out of their own experiences and analysis of the current literary scene.

Room 201, Level 2

R227. Research and Community Activism in Creative Writing: Spiral Paths. (Margaret Yocom, Quraysh Ali Lansana, Philip Metres, Debra Lattanzi Shutika, Susan Tichy) Poets and writers will read from their work and discuss their varied research methods and writing projects that engage them and, often, their students in community activism: walking one’s neighborhood to interview, observe, and write; ethnographic fieldwork in an urban, multicultural, immigrant area; service learning, including interviews and performance pieces; archival research (for a book and website) on enslaved families once owned by the writer’s family; and grassroots museum work with local cultures.

Room 202, Level 2

R228. The First Ten Years: An Anniversary Reading by Faculty of Lesley University’s Low-Residency MFA Program in Creative Writing. (Steven Cramer, Barry Brodsky, David Elliott, Alexandra Johnson, Hester Kaplan) Celebrating the first ten years of Lesley University’s Low-Residency MFA Program in Creative Writing, five of its local faculty—from Massachusetts and New Hampshire, but representing the program’s nucleus in Cambridge—present new works. Readings from just-published books of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and illustrated verse for children—as well as actors performing a staged reading of a ten-minute play—showcase the program’s multi-genre and interdisciplinary ethos.

Room 203, Level 2

R229. A Reading with Margot Livesey, Gail Mazur, and Maria Flook. (Steve Yarbrough, Margot Livesey, Gail Mazur, Maria Flook) Emerson College, a long-standing and current sponsor of the AWP Conference & Bookfair, located in the heart of Boston, presents a reading by award-winning Emerson College faculty members Margot Livesey, Gail Mazur, and Maria Flook.

Room 204, Level 2

R230. The Art of Healing: Writing Illness from Both Sides of the Curtain. (Ron Grant, Fenton Johnson, Danielle Ofri, Elisabeth Tova Bailey) How may writing about illness help us develop a more humanistic approach to medicine? Patient and physician come together to read and discuss excerpts from their personal reflections on illness, health, and the practice of medicine. Panelists discuss the growing interest in literature and writing as a means of restoring the healings arts to the contemporary practice of medicine.

Room 206, Level 2

R231. The New Kids in the Class—Teachers Under 35. (Michael Croley, Laura van den Berg, Erica Dawson, David James Poissant, Holly Goddard Jones) Five professors discuss their transition from graduate student to faculty member and the advantages and difficulties their age has posed in negotiating—and finding—their teaching styles with undergraduate and MFA students as well as what role(s) they take on in their courses and departments. The session offers insights and best practices regarding the first few years on the job in and out of the classroom, while also discussing how gender may affect the perception of a young teacher.

Room 207, Level 2

R232. The Dark Room Collective Reunion Reading. (Thomas Sayers Ellis, Sharan Strange, Tisa Bryant, John Keene, Nehassaiu deGannes) After its cofounders attended the funeral of James Baldwin in 1987, inspired by his life and work, they established the Dark Room Collective. This forum for emerging and established writers, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, honors the African American literary tradition. Members will read from their various prizewinning collections, providing a retrospective on their history in letters with the characteristic nod to the Black tradition that has become their signature. Hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winners Natasha Trethewey and Tracy K. Smith.

Room 208, Level 2

R233. Cross-Genre Crushes: Poets and Fiction Writers on Influence. (Nicky Beer, Brian Barker, Alan Heathcock, H.G. Carrillo, Carol Guess) The short-story writer leering over a copy of Borges at The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. The sonneteer furtively pawing through the latest Philip Roth. The dystopian novelist haunting poetry slams with hat pulled low. A writer’s work may be identified as prose, poetry, etc., but what influences writers can defy the literary categories that seem to define them. Five authors will discuss works outside of their genres that have been of influence and celebrate how they’ve enriched their art.

Room 209, Plaza Level

R234. I and Thou: The Dangers of the Self in Writing About Religion. (Jeremy Jones, Jessie van Eerden, Jeff Sharlet, Josh MacIvor-Andersen) How does one write honestly about faith without cliché or dogmatism? Panelists will explore the snares and pitfalls of writing about religion in nonfiction forms ranging from the personal to the journalistic. By exploring classic and contemporary texts, as well as their own work, these writers will discuss how taking on the transcendent experience, whether through an announced or implied I, requires wider eyes, sharper language, and greater ethical diligence.

Room 210, Level 2

R235. Samuel R. Delany & Kit Reed: A Reading, Sponsored by Wesleyan University Press. (Matthew Cheney, Kit Reed, Samuel R. Delany) Two influential American writers, Kit Reed and Samuel R. Delany, read thought-provoking selections from the newest additions to their enormous bodies of work. They address feminism, queer theory, and race in unexpected ways. A discussion, guided by scholar Matthew Cheney, follows the reading, and will allow the authors to address changes that have occurred in the literary world and the evolution of their work over the course of their long careers.

Room 302/304, Level 3

R236. Camouflage and Capitalism: The Intellectual Appropriation of American Poetry, Sponsored by Alice James Books. (Laura McCullough, Tony Hoagland, Kathleen Graber, Reginald Dwayne Betts, Peter Campion) Alice James Books presents Tony Hoagland on the state of American Poetry. Hoagland will present an essay on poetry as camouflage, as something smuggled into the culture and how the poetry community hides behind the overintellectualization of aesthetics. Kathleen Graber, Reginald Dwayne Betts, and Peter Campion respond, offering assessments of the current condition of poetry in this dialogue and debate moderated by Alice James Books board member, Laura McCullough.

Room 303, Level 3

R237. Collective Translation: From Many Mouths, One Voice. (Mariela Dreyfus, María José Zubieta, Nicholas Rattner, Marta del Pozo, Manuel Fihman) The panel aims to discuss the advantages and challenges of translating poetry either as pair work or group work. The questions to be answered include: How to understand and interpret the author’s poetics in the source language as a group; how to decide collectively on what elements—semantics, syntax, rhythm, etc.—should be privileged when translating; and how to negotiate—and turn—the presence of each individual translator into one single collective voice.

Room 305, Level 3

R238. Oh, Grow Up: Writing Kids’ Voices in Literary Fiction. (Alexi Zentner, Alison Espach, Aryn Kyle, Haley Tanner) A lot of literary writers are writing young adult novels, but what about writing the voices of young adults and children in literary fiction? Five novelists talk about how to create believable young voices in adult fiction, how to avoid the imitative fallacy, the power of narrative distance, and how to balance grown-up needs while having kids in the story.

Room 306, Level 3

R239A. Plays Well With Others: Nonprofit Arts Collaboration. (Kate Gale, Robert Casper, Tree Swenson, David Yezzi, Cornelius Eady) Just as the image of the solitary artist toiling alone is mostly myth, so too do nonprofit literary organizations exist in a community of peers. With times still tough for many in the arts, making common cause with others is a wise, if not essential, decision. The nonprofit leaders on this panel will discuss the benefits, challenges, goals, and tactics of collaborating with other nonprofit arts organizations, and whether there might not be some larger ethic at stake in the act of collaborating.

Room 308, Level 3

R239B. Educating Writers in the 21st Century. (Michelle Toth, Marc Foster, Eve Bridburg, Jason Ashlock) How is it best to educate writers in the 21st century? What do writers need today that they didn’t need ten years ago? Grub Street has radically shifted its approach to developing new and emerging writers by broadening the scope of its offerings and by teaching skills in areas traditionally left to publishing houses. Representatives from Grub Street’s board, staff, faculty, and student body will discuss our new approach of educating writers from idea to incubation to publication and promotion.

Room 309, Level 3

R240. Revising Ourselves: The Writing Program of the Future. (James Lough, Beth Concepcion, Vera Haller, Mark Sundeen) Today’s college students, more practical than ever, have legitimate concerns about writing careers. Writing programs must adapt to current artistic and professional opportunities to stay viable in a technology-driven era. The “fiction or poetry” model should be expanded, keeping those genres, but embracing nonfiction (creative or otherwise), new media writing, journalism, and business, promotional, and technical writing—making graduates adaptable, multi-skilled, and confident about their careers.

Room 310, Level 3

R241. The 50th Anniversary of Syracuse’s Graduate Writing Program—An Alumni Poetry Reading. (Jay Rogoff, Joseph Bruchac, Carol Frost, Michael Jennings, John Menaghan) Since it began in 1963, Syracuse University’s graduate creative writing program, one of the first, has nurtured contemporary poets to develop a diversity of voices and styles and explore a variety of themes. To toast fifty years of the Syracuse program, five alumni from the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s—now award-winning poets with over forty published collections among them—read their work and discuss how Syracuse’s faculty and their fellow students helped foster the development of their poetry.

Room 312, Level 3

R242. From the Hamster Wheel to the Sandbox: Dreams and Free Association, New Media, and Playfulness in the Writing Classroom. (Ricco Siasoco, Matthew Burgess, Alden Jones, Jason Roush, Lad Tobin) The writing workshop may be our most important pedagogical tool, but we can significantly improve the quality of our students’ writing by introducing methods that demystify the process of invention. A cross-genre panel of teacher-practitioners shares innovative prompts that push students to write from new personas; to access rich unconscious material through dreams, fantasies, and free association; and to incorporate new media, including blogging and podcasting, into the writing process.

Room 313, Level 3

R243. Warriors Remember: Traditional and Nonntraditional Approaches to Narrative Memoir for Veterans. (Christine Leche, Kevin Jones, Jennifer Orth-Veillon, Kathryn Trueblood) Johnny Comes Marching Home Again: This panel will focus on the transition soldiers face from combat to classroom and the role of narrative in creating awareness and promoting post-war healing. Through the study of war and trauma literature, the analysis and/or creation of multimedia representations of war, or the process of writing and revising one’s own story to revisit the past and heal, narrative becomes essential to the re-creation of both student and civilian society.

Alice Hoffman Bookfair Stage, Exhibit Hall D, Level 2

BF16. Major Jackson’s Ploughshares Issue Reading. (Ladette Randolph, Major Jackson, Maggie Dietz, Emily Bernard, David Huddle) Ploughshares literary magazine editor-in-chief Ladette Randolph will host a reading to celebrate Major Jackson’s guest-edited issue. Jackson will read from his work and speak briefly about his experience selecting work for the magazine. He will be joined by contributors from his issue, including Maggie Dietz, Emily Bernard, and David Huddle.

Patricia Olson Bookfair Stage, Exhibit Hall A, Plaza Level

BF17. Ashland Poetry Press Reading. (Stephen Haven, Robert Grunst, John Hennessy, Gabriel Spera, Catherine Staples) Ashland Poetry Press’s four most recent authors present a reading of their work. Featured readers are Robert Grunst, John Hennessy, Gabriel Spera, and Catherine Staples.

3:00 p.m. to 5:45 p.m.

Veterans Memorial Auditorium, Level 2

R215. Lawless: The Journey from Book to Film. (Susan White-Norman, Matt Bondurant, Alex Glass, Liza Wachter, Rachel Shane) This event will begin with a full screen of the feature film Lawless, an adaptation of the novel The Wettest County in the World by Matt Bondurant. The film, directed by John Hillcoat, stars Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Jessica Chastain, Gary Oldman, Guy Pierce, and Mia Wasikowska. Following the film, a panel featuring the original novel writer, the literary agent, the film agent, and one of the executive producers of the film will discuss the journey from print to film, exploring such issues as screenplay adaptation practices, the role of literary and film agents, the author as consultant, contract negotiations, and the problems associated with book-to-film adaptations.

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

Hynes Ballroom, Level 3

R244. Alice Hoffman & Tom Perrotta: A Reading and Conversation, Sponsored by Grub Street. (Christopher Castellani, Alice Hoffman, Tom Perrotta) Internationally best-selling writers Alice Hoffman and Tom Perrotta, authors of over thirty books between them, read from their recent fiction. After the reading, Grub Street artistic director and novelist Christopher Castellani moderates a discussion that focuses on how these authors continually appeal to wide audiences with novels and stories of great depth, subtlety, and cultural relevance. The discussion will also touch on how these authors use humor and magic in their work, the creative roles they’ve played in their film adaptations, and other topics related to the craft of fiction.

Room 101, Plaza Level

R245. Mini-Craft Workshop: 5 Young Adult and Mid-Grade Writers Talk About Craft. (Michele Corriel, Janet Fox, Alexandra Diaz, Leah Cypess, Anna Staniszewski) Five young adult and mid-grade writers who write in different sub-genres will talk about specific craft areas and how they have honed and applied them specifically for use in young adult and mid-grade literature. Craft elements to be discussed include voice, character, plot, and dialogue.

Room 102, Plaza Level

R246. Rowing Your Boat Across the Curriculum [WITS Alliance]. (Amy Swauger, Sarah Dohrmann, Margaret Dougherty-Goodburn, Andrew Proctor, Terry Ann Thaxton) From lyrics on the nesting habits of eagles to odes to the ozone layer, teachers are incorporating creative writing projects in science, math, and social studies curricula. From kindergarten to college, instructors are being asked to merge the disciplines. In this session, panelists will share strategies to engage students in creative writing across the curriculum.

Room 103, Plaza Level

R247. NewBorder: Contemporary Voices from the U.S. Mexico Border. (Brandon Shuler, Dalel Serda, Sergio Troncoso, John O. Espinoza) NewBorder: Contemporary Voices from the U.S./Mexico Border explores the issues affecting la Frontera residents on both sides of the fence. Through fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry, NewBorder readers explore the area’s borders in a broadly defined sense of the term. Dalel Serda explores the exploitation of women through the lives of border prostitutes, Sergio Troncoso explores the loss of identity and childhood through Juarez’s drug wars, and John O. Espinoza’s poetry explores the liminal spaces of self.

Room 104, Plaza Level

R248. Eros in the Classroom. (Heather McNaugher, Michele Morano, BK Loren, Eileen Myles, Barrie Jean Borich) More than a few academic careers in literature and writing were ignited by a crush on a teacher. But desire in the classroom is constructed, often for good reason, as threatening and inappropriate; we therefore don’t acknowledge or talk about it. This panel, inspired by Michele Morano’s recent Ninth Letter essay, “Crush,” speaks plainly and honestly about the overlap of desire and pedagogy, and how the writer-teacher has constructively channeled it into her/his creative work.

Room 105, Plaza Level

R249. Poems Sprung from Granite. (Laurie Zimmerman, Ewa Chrusciel, Alice Fogel, Jeff Friedman) Donald Hall says he always writes about death, sex, and New Hampshire. New Hampshire, though small in the sense of being northern and rural, remains a poetry nerve center for New England. The panelists will read their poems and comment on regional inspiration in their work, which include major NH literary influences, such as, Frost, Hall, Kenyon, Kumin, and Simic.

Room 107, Plaza Level

R250. Sentenced to Death: Translating Resistance and Liberation. (Marcela Sulak, Evan Fallenberg, Dairena Ní Chinnéide, Elizabeth Macklin, Cecilia Vicuña) Writers of Irish, Czech, Modern Hebrew, Basque, and indigenous languages spoken in the Brazilian Pantanal have expanded or established literary canons only within the last 150 years. Translators discuss tensions in translating into the language of the conqueror, while viewing translation as a liberation that allows texts to become players in the international literary arena. The challenge is remaining true to the most important and politically/culturally relevant features of each text.

Room 108, Plaza Level

R251. Women Poets on Mentoring. (Allison Joseph, Rebecca Dunham, Brittany Cavallaro, Shara McCallum, Tyler Mills) Women poets today have a wealth of literary models to turn to in their reading. Cultivating relationships with other female poets during key stages in their development is, however, equally important. Female mentors can fill a crucial role in helping other women reflect on writing, pedagogy, professional development, and even lifestyle choices. Panel members will reflect on their own mentor-mentee relationships as well as discuss how individuals and writing programs might foster such connections.

Room 109, Plaza Level

R252. Poetry and/as Play. (Kristi Maxwell, Cathy Park Hong, Kevin McFadden, Kiki Petrosino, Joshua Ware) From the frequently disdained pun to constraint-based challenges that require writers to play with letters and words, forms of play often emerge in poems. Four poets will discuss ways of using play to generate material, along with the value of play in their own writing. They will address the ways that play can invigorate writing practices and change a writer’s relationship to language and composition, increasing his or her understanding of language’s possibilities and abundances.

Room 110, Plaza Level

R253. Lyricist Maximus: Maximalism and the Lyric Essay. (Daisy Pitkin, Amy Benson, Steve Tomasula, Joni Tevis, Kyoko Mori) Usually applied to artists like David Foster Wallace and Thomas Pynchon, maximalists are writers who embrace juxtapositions and chase limitlessness in their work—where anything, from white space to syntax to statistics, can become an expressive instrument of the artist. In this session, panelists will look at the lyric essay to examine how this hybrid nonfiction form both breaks down borders between, and binds together, complex systems of disparate raw material inherent to maximalist texts.

Room 111, Plaza Level

R254. Writing and Reconsidering Regional Fiction. (Susan Hubbard, Juan Martinez, Julie Iromuanya, Rita Ciresi) As Eudora Welty noted, place is more than a source of inspiration—it’s a source of knowledge. Some writers feel that being born in a region is essential to evoking its essence in prose, while others maintain that distance offers a better perspective of place. Our panel participants, all award-winning fiction writers, explore these issues and discuss techniques they use to depict a region and make it matter in a story. Is it time to redefine, or abandon, the term Regional Fiction?

Room 200, Level 3

R255. Thoreau’s Granddaughters: Women Writing the Wild. (Suzanne Roberts, Cheryl Strayed, Pam Houston, Gretchen Legler, Li Miao Lovett) Do women approach writing both the wildness of the land and the wilderness of their own bodies differently from men? Do women have a uniquely feminine vision of what it means to be wild? Are they judged by a different set of aesthetics? These five women panelists, including memoirists, novelists, and poets, will discuss their literary influences, the joys and challenges, and the internal doubts and external criticism they face in writing the wild.

Room 201, Level 2

R256. Emergences: Ambiguity, Uncertainty, Entropy, and Creativity. (Nigel McLoughlin, Steve May, Graeme Harper, Derek Neale) Drawing on a multidisciplinary approach combining poetics, linguistics, literary criticism, and cognitive psychology, members of an international panel will present short papers that address aspects of the creative process and their relationship to tolerance of ambiguity, defocused attention, negative capability, and the emergent properties of the writing process. This will lead to a Q&A session and short plenary discussion.

Room 202, Level 2

R257. Mantra: “When I am Sad, I Sing Remembering”: Ruth Stone (1915–2011). (Kandace Brill Lombart, Abigail Stone, Phoebe Stone, Bianca Stone) This session honors the artistic life of celebrated poet Ruth Stone, Pulitzer Prize nominee, with the participation of her daughters and granddaughter. Writers and artists Abigail and Phoebe present retrospectives of their unique mother/daughter artistic collaborations; poet-publisher Bianca exemplifies the third generation influence of her grandmother’s literary legacy. This event includes a brief overview presented by Stone’s bibliographer, Kandace Lombart, and a reading of Stone’s poems by her family.

Room 203, Level 2

R258. University of Massachusetts MFA Program for Poets and Writers Reading. (Sabina Murray, Peter Gizzi, Noy Holland, James Tate, Dara Wier) For nearly half a century, the University of Massachusetts Amherst MFA Program for Poets and Writers has nurtured new writers, cultivated innovation, and served as a vibrant center of New England literary life. Its faculty has shepherded dozens of important works of contemporary poetry and fiction into being. Join us for readings showcasing the breadth and talent of distinguished faculty members Peter Gizzi, Noy Holland, Sabina Murray, James Tate, and Dara Wier.

Room 204, Level 2

R259. Beyond Ekphrasis: The Pedagogy and Practice of Other Art Forms in the Creative Writing Classroom. (Rachel Marston, Caitlin Horrocks, Shena McAuliffe, Nicole Sheets, Robert Glick) Whether a text/image hybrid, such as the paintings of Frida Kahlo, or a photo/text novel like W.G. Sebald’s Austerlitz, the combination of artistic media can create an emotional and intellectual power greater than its individual parts. Techniques used in painting, sculpture, and music can be invaluable in teaching the creative writer new ways to think about his or her work. In this panel, we’ll show you how, without outside expertise, you can bring other arts into the creative writing classroom.

Room 206, Level 2

R260. Growing Up in a Warzone: Voices of Writers on War and Childhood. (J.L. Powers, Peauladd Huy, David Griffith, Aria Minu-Sepehr, Marnie Mueller) Three nonfiction essayists read memoir pieces about the way that war shaped them as children. The editor of a collection on children and war leads a discussion with the three writers on writing about violence, childhood, and war.

Room 207, Level 2

R261. Convergence of the Twain: Building the Combined Creative and Professional Writing Major. (Frank Tascone, Gwen Schwartz, Danielle Cordaro, Rodney Dick) While there are BA programs in creative writing and in professional writing, not many schools mix the two intentionally. Panelists with backgrounds in both creative writing and rhetoric and composition will share their experiences collaboratively designing and developing this hybrid undergraduate writing major, which exposes students equally to areas traditionally termed “creative” and “professional.”

Room 208, Level 2

R262. What to Do Before You Debut. (Randy Susan Meyers, Nichole Bernier, Jane Roper, Carleen Brice) Authors are often naïve about their role in finding readers, and they are rarely taught the iterative steps involved in the process of a book launch. Panelists will share specific methodologies, from best practices for websites, publicity, marketing decisions, and working with publishing houses, to assessing the line between awkward hawking and reasonable audience building. Timelines, methods, and tools offered will be balanced with discussion of the art of finding comfortable promotional voices.

Room 209, Level 2

R263. Bending Genre. (Margot Singer, Nicole Walker, Robin Hemley, Dave Madden) The hot debate over ethics in creative nonfiction has sidelined important questions of literary form. Hybrid, innovative, and unconventional, nonfiction is arguably the most exciting area on the literary scene today. But how does nonfiction actually work? How does it recombine and transform elements of other genres? What techniques distinguish nonfiction from other kinds of prose? Contributors to a groundbreaking new anthology of critical essays share their perspectives and ideas.

Room 210, Level 2

R264. Staggered Tellings: Immediacy, Intimacy, and Ellipses in the Verse Novel. (Kevin Clark, Wendy Barker, Rita Dove, Andrew Hudgins, Kevin Young) Marrying intimacy of voice to the dramatic arc of a story, the verse novel continues against all odds as an engrossing genre. Our panel will offer answers to key questions, including: What does the verse novel do that the prose novel does not? What is the effect of elliptical plotting? Is narrative subordinate to character? Do authors outline before writing? Do readers find it a more intimate form? How does the poet balance interior life and exterior events?

Room 302/304, Level 3

R265. An Afternoon with Adonis, Sponsored by Poets House. (Stephen Motika, Khaled Mattawa, Adonis) A poetry reading by Adonis, the leading Arabic-language poet, and his English-language translator, Khaled Mattawa, will be followed by a lively discussion about poetry and politics. Adonis is credited with modernizing Arabic poetry and witnessing the complicated history of the Middle East during the last half century. He is able to speak with great erudition about the importance of poetry in this complicated world.

Room 303, Level 3

R266. Tribute to DeWitt Henry. (Derek Alger, Sam Cornish, Susan Tepper, Rusty Barnes, Lee Hope) A tribute to DeWitt Henry, cofounder and longtime editor of Plougshares, memoir writer, teacher at Emerson College, major literary figure in Boston, and, responsible for publishing the first stories of many accomplished writers throughout the country. The panel will consist of diverse writers who have benefitted from exposure to DeWitt Henry and his writing.

Room 305, Level 3

R267. Contemporary Chinese Literature in Translation. (Lucas Klein, Xi Chuan, Jonathan Stalling, Eric Abrahamsen, Eleanor Goodman) Panelists will discuss the pleasures and frustrations they encounter translating contemporary Chinese literature, including issues of linguistic differences between Chinese and English, problems of copyright, the rise of web-based literature, and how to identify appropriate projects. Each panelist will read a short excerpt of recent work to illustrate. Xi Chuan will speak as a poet whose work has been translated into English and who has also translated literature into Chinese.

Room 306, Level 3

R268. The Cutthroat World of E-Books: A Primer. (Leah Thompson, Iris Febres, Claire Schulz Ivett, Keira Bunn, Erica Hartnett) This panel looks at the good, the bad, and the ugly in publishing’s digital revolution. Discussion will include key topics like the agency model, the Department of Justice lawsuit, issues in digital rights management, and more. For writers, publishers, or anyone involved with the written word, this panel is an overview of some of the critical issues that are shaping the digital publishing discussion.

Room 308, Level 3

R269. Every Calling is Great When Greatly Pursued: Managing and Motivating Editorial Volunteers. (Marianne Kunkel, Jessica Jacobs, Farren Stanley, Emilia Phillips, Jennifer Luebbers) Even for established journals, unpaid volunteers often hold key editorial positions. Editors representing varying tiers of leadership, including an editor who served as a volunteer, will explore issues raised by this unique and sometimes difficult-to-negotiate dynamic, including decisions about doing versus delegating, if and when to grant autonomy, learning to compromise and resolving conflicts, and ways to keep volunteers motivated through praise, encouragement, and professional development.

Room 309, Level 3

R270A. Southern Writers in Exile. (Michael Croley, Richard Bausch, Michael Griffith, Steve Yarbrough, Brad Watson) Writers who identify as southern don’t often stray far from home, but as some have moved into teaching positions, they find themselves now living all over the country, out of their comfort zones. This panel explores how that distance has affected each writer’s approach to their craft and teaching, as well as what it means to be a southern writer no longer living in the South, and what role regionalism plays in the landscape of American literature.

Room 310, Level 3

R270B. A Tribute to Jake Adam York (1972-2012). (Jon Tribble, Dan Albergotti, Adrian Matejka, Nicky Beer, Stacey Lynn Brown) A celebration of the life of Jake Adam York through readings of his poems and remembrances from some of the many people whose lives he touched. Jake was the author of three books of poetry, editor of the journal Copper Nickel, and associate professor of English at the University of Colorado Denver.

Room 312, Level 2

R272. The Decolonial Imagination: Chicana Historical Fiction. (Gabriela Baeza Ventura, Emma Perez, Graciela Limon, Alicia Gaspar de Alba) Based on the concept of decolonizing the historical record, which traditionally features the stories of great men and great events, this panel presents readings from three recent Chicana historical novels: Emma Perez’s Chicana lesbian western, Forgetting the Alamo, or, Blood Memory, Graciela Limón’s intimate portrait of the ill-fated French empress of Mexico, The Madness of Mamá Carlota, and Alicia Gaspar de Alba’s tale of pirates, witches, and diaspora in Calligraphy of the Witch.

Room 313, Level 3

R273. Creative Writers in Basic Writing Classrooms. (Jill Stukenberg, Phoebe Reeves, Mary Cantrell, Jeff Becker, Kristine Rae Anderson) Creative writers who work with developmental students in two-year colleges will discuss specific activities to encourage creativity and confidence and to help students transition to credit-bearing courses. The habits and values of our discipline help us to connect with students and guide them in process-oriented revision, academic reading, and the art of sentence construction, thus fostering truly transformative learning experiences.

Alice Hoffman Bookfair Stage, Exhibit Hall D, Level 2

BF18. The Marsh Hawk Poetry Buffet: Poets Published by Marsh Hawk Press Read from Their Work. (Sandy McIntosh, Burt Kimmelman, Jane Augustine, Mary Mackey, Jason McCall) Marsh Hawk Press, one of the few juried not-for-profit collectives in publishing, is twelve years old, with a diverse author list and more than seventy titles in print. Readers have been recipients of PEN literature awards, published in The Best American Poetry, and featured on Garrison Keillor's The Writers Almanac. Included is the recipient of the 2012 Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize.

Patricia Olson Bookfair Stage, Exhibit Hall A, Plaza Level

BF19. Four Way Books Spring 2013 Author Reading. (Allison Benis White, Melissa Ginsburg, Yona Harvey, Louise Mathias, Bruce Willard) Four Way Books is pleased to present the first of our two AWP 2013 readings, celebrating our 20th anniversary. Please join us for the bookfair stage reading featuring our newest authors and their dynamic spring poetry titles. Four Way Books brings an aesthetically diverse group of books to our readers year after year. We know you’ll find that to be true when you attend our reading events at this year’s conference. Please visit us at tables F24/F26 throughout the week for author book signings, great discounts, and good conversation.

6:00 p.m. to 7:15 p.m.

Room 107, Plaza Level

R274. Women’s Caucus. (Lois Roma-Deeley, Sarah Pollock, Rebecca Olson, Keli Stewart) Where is the place for the women writer within AWP and within the greater literary community? This roundtable discussion focuses on this as well as continuing inequities in creative writing publication and literature. In addition, issues centering on cultural obstacles in the form of active oppression, stereotypes, lack of access to literary power structures, historical marginalization of women’s writing, issues and perspectives, and the diverse voices of women will be explored. Networking opportunities.

Room 108, Plaza Level

R275. Indigenous-Aboriginal American Writers Caucus. (Sherwin Bitsui, Natalie Diaz, Santee Frazier, LeAnne Howe, Gordon Henry) Indigenous writers and scholars participate fluidly in AWP, teaching and directing affiliated programs, or working as independent writers/scholars in language revitalization and community programing. It is necessary to annually impart field-related celebrations and concerns as understood by Indigenous-Native writers from the Americas and surrounding island nations. In 2010–2012, AWP conferences began to include representative caucus discussions. Program development continues in 2013.

Room 109, Plaza Level

R276. Low-Residency MFA Program Directors’ Caucus. (Kathleen Driskell, Xu Xi) This is a regular annual meeting of the directors of low-residency MFA programs, providing a forum for discussion on program development and pedagogy particular to the low-residency model. All low-residency directors are welcome to attend and vote.

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

Room 207, Level 2

Circus Maximus: The Poems of David Starkey; A Reception Hosted by Biblioasis. Join former Poet Laureate of Santa Barbara David Starkey in celebrating the launch of his eighth volume of poetry. The Vatican’s Gallery of Maps, the Capella Paolina, La Pietà, The Ecstasy of St. Theresa—tour these and dozens of other Italian landmarks with Circus Maximus, Starkey’s garrulous new guide to Rome. .

Room 209, Level 2

Lesley University Low-Residency MFA Program in Creative Writing. Join the students and faculty from Lesley University’s Low Residency MFA Program in Creative Writing for a reception.

Room 204, Level 2

University of Massachusetts Amherst MFA Program & Juniper Institute. We’re having a birthday! Come help us launch the MFA Program for Poets and Writers’ 50th anniversary year and the Juniper Summer Writing Institute’s 10th with food, drink, and friends. Alumni, friends, prospective applicants, and all others welcome. .

Room 301, Level 3

University of New Hampshire MFA Program/Barnstorm: Charles Simic Reading & Reception. Please join us as former US Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winner Charles Simic reads. We honor him on the publication of his Collected & New Poems, celebrating his four decades of inspired teaching at the University of New Hampshire..

Room 202, Level 2

The Poetry Foundation. Join the staff of The Poetry Foundation for a reception.

Room 208, Level 2

Sierra Nevada College. Join the students and faculty from Sierra Nevada College for a reception.

Room 307, Level 3

Salamander at Suffolk University. Join the editors and staff of Salamander for a reception.

Room 205, Level 2

WordFarm Press and Ruminate Magazine: A Reading & Reception. Featuring Jessie van Eerden, author of the debut novel Glorybound; Nahal Suzanne Jamir and Jessica Wilbanks, two of Ruminate’s 2012 prize winners; and others!

Room 303, Level 3

Writers in the Schools (WITS). Come celebrate with the Writers in the Schools (WITS) at a reception.

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

Veterans Memorial Auditorium, Level 2

R277. AWP 2013 Keynote, A Conversation Between Nobel Laureates Seamus Heaney and Derek Walcott, Moderated by Rosanna Warren, Sponsored by Bath Spa University. (Rosanna Warren, Seamus Heaney, Derek Walcott) Celebrated poet and translator Seamus Heaney is the author of more than twenty volumes of poetry, essays, and translations, including Opened Ground; District and Circle, winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize; Human Chain; and Finders Keepers: Selected Prose 1971-2001. Poet, playwright, and essayist Derek Walcott is the author of eight collections of plays, a book of essays, and fourteen poetry collections, including Omeros, Tiepolo's Hound, and most recently, White Egrets. Playwright and novelist Steve May, Director of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University, will introduce the two Nobel Prize-winning poets, who will present readings of their work. A discussion will follow, moderated by the poet and critic Rosanna Warren, author of Ghost in a Red Hat.

10:00 p.m. to 12:00 midnight

Room 102, Plaza Level

R278. The All Collegiate Afterhours Slam. (Jim Warner, Phil Brady) The All Collegiate Afterhours Slam is open to all undergraduate and graduate 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 the organization of the event will be handled by Wilkes University Creative Writing Program and Etruscan Press. A limited open mic will follow the slam (time permitting). Come visit the Wilkes University/Etruscan Press booth to register.

Sheraton Boston Hotel, Constitution Ballroom, Level 2

R279. AWP Public Reception & Dance Party, Sponsored by Columbia College Chicago Fiction Writing Department & Story Week. A dance party with music by DJ Neza. Free beer and wine from 10:00 p.m. to midnight.