My 2014 AWP Conference Schedule
| Thursday, February 27, 2014 View Full Schedule | |
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10:30 am to 11:45 am | |
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Room 301, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3 |
R156. Writing About Children for Adults. ( Suzanne Berne, Ann Pancake, Melanie Rae Thon, Kent Meyers) What makes for a compelling child character in literary fiction? Four authors of acclaimed novels about children share insights into creating dramatic situations based on a child's perspective and offer suggestions for working with child narrators and adult narrators looking back at childhood. They will also discuss ways to avoid sentimentalizing and oversimplifying childhood experience and provide literary examples of dynamic, believable child characters and why they are so engaging. Suzanne Berne is the author of a memoir, Missing Lucile, and three novels: The Ghost at the Table, A Perfect Arrangement, and A Crime in the Neighborhood, winner of the 1999 Orange Prize. She teaches creative writing at Boston College and at the Ranier Writing Workshop. Ann Pancake is author of the novel Strange As This Weather Has Been and the story collection Given Ground. Her awards include a Whiting Award, an NEA grant, and a Bakeless Prize, and her work has appeared in Orion, among other journals. She teaches at Pacific Lutheran University. Melanie Rae Thon's most recent books are the novel The Voice of the River and In This Light: New and Selected Stories. She teaches in the Creative Writing and Environmental Humanities programs at the University of Utah. |
12:00 pm to 1:15 pm | |
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Room 304, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3 |
R188. Writing the Monster Body. (Carrie Shipers, Andrea Scarpino, Aaron Raz Link, Kwame Dawes, emily danforth) Under the bed, in the real or proverbial closet, in movies, in politics, in history, and even in our own bodies, today there are more “monsters” than ever. In this panel, five writers from three genres discuss the risks and rewards of writing the monster body. Some questions to be considered: How do we depict what’s human about what’s monstrous, and vice versa? How do we best question socially constructed monster-hood? And what does it mean when the monster is us? Carrie Shipers is the author of the chapbooks Ghost-Writing and Rescue Conditions and the full-length collection Ordinary Mourning. Her poems have appeared in New England Review, North American Review, and Prairie Schooner. She teaches at the University of Wisconsin-Marshfield/Wood County. Andrea Scarpino is the author of the chapbook The Grove Behind and the poetry collection Once, Then. She received an MFA in Creative Writing from The Ohio State University and has published in numerous journals including the Cincinnati Review, Los Angeles Review, and Prairie Schooner. Aaron Raz Link is assistant professor at Pacific NW College of Art, nonfiction MFA, historian of science, and mask performer. His book What Becomes You was a Lambda Literary Award finalist in both gay and transgender writing; essays appear in books and journals including Brevity and Fourth Genre. Kwame Dawes is author of eighteen collections of poetry; two novels; several anthologies; and plays. He has won a Pushcart Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and an Emmy. At the University of Nebraska he is a Chancellor's Professor of English and Glenna Luschei Editor of Prairie Schooner. emily m. danforth is author of the YA novel The Miseducation of Cameron Post, winner of the 2012 Montana Book Award and finalist for the William C. Morris and Lambda awards. She teaches creative writing at Rhode Island College in Providence and is co-editor of the Cupboard. |
1:00 pm to 2:00 pm | |
| Spot: 502 |
Author Signing:
Wilkins,
Joe
|
1:30 pm to 2:45 pm | |
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Room 608, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6 |
R205. A Tribute to Vern Rutsala. (Peter Sears, Anita Helle, Lex Runciman, Maxine Scates, Christopher Howell) This panel celebrates Vern Rutsala, a preeminent poet and native of the Pacific Northwest, whose 80th birthday is this year. Rutsala is author of over a dozen books of poems, including The Moment’s Equation – a finalist for the National Book Award. Other honors include the Richard Snyder Prize, Oregon Book Award, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts. This panel of colleagues and friends read from Rutsala's poems and discusses his work and life. Peter Sears is the author of five books of poetry. His volume of poetry, New and Selected Poems: Small Talk, is forthcoming in 2014. He is a member of the faculty for Mountain Writers Series and the Pacific University MFA in Writing. Anita Helle is professor of English and director of the School of Writing, Literature, and Film. She is the editor of The Unraveling Archive: Essays on Sylvia Plath and past editor of the American Literary Scholarship annual chapters on American Poetry 1940s to the Present. Lex Runciman has authored four collections of poetry, including The Admirations, which won the Oregon Book Award. His most recent collections include Starting from Anywhere and the forthcoming One Hour That Morning & Other Poems. He teaches literature and writing at Linfield College. Maxine Scates is the author of three books of poetry, Undone, Black Loam, and Toluca Street and co-editor, with David Trinidad, of Holding Our Own: The Selected Poems of Ann Stanford. She has received the Starrett Prize, an Oregon Book Award, and a Pushcart Prize. Christopher Howell has published ten volumes of poems and has published poems, essays, reviews, and interviews in a long list of journals. He has been awarded three Pushcart Prizes, two NEA fellowships, and a number of other distinctions. He teaches at Eastern Washington University and is director of Lynx House Press. |
2:00 pm to 3:00 pm | |
| Spot: 1201 |
Author Signing:
Wilkins,
Joe
|
| Friday, February 28, 2014 View Full Schedule | |
11:00 am to 12:00 pm | |
| Spot: Q21 |
Author Signing:
Wilkins,
Joe
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| Saturday, March 1, 2014 View Full Schedule | |
12:00 pm to 1:15 pm | |
|
Willow Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor |
S169. Pacific Northwest Authors Speak About Their Landscape . (Kim Barnes, Bharti Kirchner, Joe Wilkins, William Dietrich, Claire Davis) How important is geography when pursuing literary work, be it poetry, fiction, or nonfiction? Accomplished Pacific Northwest authors who are known to derive inspiration from their scenic land will answer that question. This diverse group will read short selections to illustrate how the setting, combined with imagination, memory, and personal interpretation, plays a large role in their stories. To be followed by a moderated discussion detailing tips and techniques that can make the landscape come alive on your pages. Kim Barnes is the author of two memoirs and three novels, most recently, In the Kingdom of Men. Her work has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, has won the PNBA Award for Nonfiction, and has been awarded the PEN USA Award for Literary Fiction. She teaches writing at the University of Idaho. Bharti Kirchner is the author of five critically acclaimed novels and four cookbooks and hundreds of articles and essays for magazines and newspapers. Her latest novel is Tulip Season. Her short story has been selected for the upcoming mystery anthology The Best of Akashic Noir USA. Joe Wilkins is the author of a memoir, The Mountain and The Fathers: Growing up on the Big Dry, a 2013 finalist for the Orion Book Award, and two collections of poems, Notes from the Journey Westward and Killing the Murnion Dogs. William Dietrich is the author of seventeen books and a contributor to several others. His Ethan Gage series of Napoleonic adventures have sold into twenty-eight languages. As a career journalist, he shared a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. He has taught at the university level. Claire Davis has two novels, Winter Range and Season of the Snake, and a story collection, Labors of the Heart. She co-edited the anthology Kiss Tomorrow Hello. Her stories have appeared in the Pushcart Prize Anthology and Best American Stories. She teaches for Pacific University's low residency MFA. |
