S198. The Other Track: MFAs in the Book Business

Auditorium Room 2, Level 1
Saturday, April 11, 2015
1:30 pm to 2:45 pm

 

It’s often said that MFA grads do one of two things to earn money: teach writing or work in the book business. Much has been said about MFAs who teach, but writers also fill the ranks of publishing houses and other book biz institutions. This panel will focus on how writers become publishing professionals—editors, publicists, arts administrators, reviewers—and look at the ways their degrees and writerly have shaped their careers and how they do their jobs. Sponsored by Publishers Weekly.


Participants

Moderator:

Craig Morgan Teicher is the author of three books, most recently To Keep Love Blurry: Poems and Cradle Book: Stories and Fables. He works as director of digital operations at Publishers Weekly, has served on the board of the National Book Critics Circle, and teaches at New York University and the New School.

Jeff Shotts is executive editor at Graywolf Press, where he acquires and edits poetry, creative nonfiction, literary criticism, and translation.

Jynne Dilling Martin is publicity director at Riverhead Books. Her poetry has appeared widely including in Granta, Ploughshares, and on the PBS Newshour with Jim Lehrer. She is a Yaddo fellow, winner of the "Discovery"/Boston Review prize, and was the 2013 Antarctica Artist in Residence. 

Caroline Casey serves as marketing and sales director at Coffee House Press and as a director at Unstuck.

Leslie Shipman is assistant director of the National Book Foundation. She has been active in literary programming for over twenty years. She holds an MFA from Warren Wilson College. Her poetry has appeared in Tinderbox Poetry Journal, BOMB, the Kenyon Review, Best New Poets, and elsewhere.

#AWP24

February 7–10, 2024
Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City Convention Center