Update from the Editors
Sifting Through That Mega Schedule
Next Wednesday, March 6, the 2013 AWP conference rolls into Boston—just across the river from our hometown of Cambridge. TW editors and writers will be there in force, many wearing “We’re Talking Writing—Are You?” T-shirts.
Come see us at TW’s table at the AWP Bookfair: G20.
The annual conference of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs is a moveable feast of authors, literary magazines, presses, craft sessions, and (yes!) talk about writing. With just a week to go, we’ve begun studying the schedule, flagging the panels and readings and parties we’d like to attend, wringing our hands about all we won’t fit in.
We’ve highlighted a few of our session favorites—so far—below. TW staffers will be live tweeting some events, too, so you can follow along even if you can’t make it to the conference. We plan to post a live tweeting schedule on our site next week.
The following “short list” from TW Editor-in-Chief Martha Nichols and Executive Editor Elizabeth Langosy in no way encompasses the cornucopia of literary delights at AWP. Martha and Elizabeth won’t make it to all the sessions we’ve listed as TW picks, no matter how much they believe their bodies and minds can be in multiple locations at once.
But the panels they’ve selected were the ones that hooked them first, and the list does indicate what’s on the mind of Talking Writing editors these days.
So, what’s on your mind, writers and readers? Inquiring editors want to know!
Click here for the full AWP schedule.
TW Picks for AWP
Thursday, March 7
- "Trying on New Bootstraps: Self-Sustaining Models for Literary Magazines" (9 a.m.)
- "Poetry Readings in the Age of Social Media" (9 a.m.)
- "The Artist as Activist: On Seeing and Saving the Natural World" (10:30 a.m.)
- "What About Literary Journalism?" (noon)
- "Second Sex, Second Shelf? Women, Writing, and the Literary Marketplace" (3 p.m.)
- Alice Hoffman and Tom Perrotta: A Reading and Conversation (4:30 p.m.)
Friday, March 8
- "Post-Genre Lit: Form in the 21st Century" (9 a.m.)
- "A Point of View on a Point of View" (1:30 p.m.)
- "A Centenary Celebration of Muriel Rukeyser" (1:30 p.m.)
- "Reading the Radical: Spoken Word In and From Communities of Color" (1:30 p.m.)
- "New Writing From Orion" (3:00 p.m.)
- Alison Bechdel and Jeanette Winterson: A Reading and Conversation (4:30 p.m.)
- Amy Bloom and Richard Russo: A Reading and Conversation (8:30 p.m.)
Saturday, March 9
- "Agents, Editors, and the State of Publishing" (10:30 a.m.)
- "Career Suicide" (noon)
- "Memoir Beyond the Self" (noon)
- "Working as Communicators in a Digital Age" (1:30 p.m.)
- "What We Wish We'd Known" (1:30 p.m.)
- Tracy Kidder and Adrian Nicole LeBlanc: A Reading and Conversation (4:30 p.m.)
Let us know which AWP events hook you by leaving a comment below.
The images in this update are from the front and back of our Talking Writing bookmark, designed by Sheila Walsh for the TW Bookfair table. It includes a detail from "Physical Constants" by Susan Denniston, one of TW's featured artists last year. For more information about Susan's work, see her TW image essay: "At the Seawall."
