AWP IN SEATTLE: PACK YOUR UMBRELLA

Note: I can't promise you Seattle will look anything like this photo; the PNW in March is, in general, not a pretty place.  But just IMAGINE this scene as you pack umbrella and boots and raincoat.  

Seems like I just returned from a trip out West ... but on Wednesday I'll turn back around and do it again.  Some weeks are like that.  This trip takes me back to one of my homes, however, and I'm looking forward to seeing not just many amazing poets and writers, but my two grown children and my grandbaby, Turtle!  

Tamiko Nimura, a writerly friend who lives in Tacoma (about 35 miles south of Seattle), has written a TERRIFIC blog post called "An AWP14 Welcome Mat: Eating, Writing, Reading in Seattle" that covers all those bases and more.  Check it out - it will save you enormous amounts of time sifting through restaurants and bookstores and more.

The entire AWP schedule is available online (follow the link) as is a schedule of most (not all) off-site events.  Author signings, too, have their own schedule (I will most likely do a signing for Heyday Books, their first time at AWP! and will post the time and place here when I know what it is).  If you use twitter, my handle is @badndns.

For those of you attending AWP in beautiful downtown Seattle later this week, here are the two panels I am on, and one off-site reading:

Thursday, February 27, 2014

3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

R240. The DIY Book Tour: Take Your Show on the Road

Room 615/616/617, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6

(Ron Tanner, Jessica Anya Blau, Deborah Miranda, William Trowbridge, Benjamin Busch)

How can we find readers for our books? Most writers now live only online, through social media and blogs.  Recently some writers have taken to the road in innovative and enterprising ways and found new readers and expanded their networks as they could not have online. These writers, representing both small and large presses, first-book and multibook authors, will share their road stories, tips, and insights about how best to take your show on the road and maximize the potential of your book.

Friday, February 28, 2014

3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

F262. Weaving Stories from Strands of Truth: Native Writers on Nonfiction

Room 202, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 2

(Elissa Washuta, Debra Magpie Earling, Deborah Miranda, Ernestine Hayes)

Many Native American writers are currently working within the genres of poetry and fiction; fewer writers work in nonfiction. This panel considers the complicated history of Native self-telling alongside contemporary memoir, essay, and other forms in order to examine where nonfiction is situated among the recently published literary works by Native writers. The history of Euro-American influence on the oral storytelling tradition creates a distinct set of issues within Native nonfiction.

OFF-SITE on FRIDAY 2/28:

QUEERTOPIA 2-Part 2

Barnes & Noble, Pacific Place, 600 Pine St Suite 107, Seattle, WA 98101

Cost: Free

Url: http://www.storiesandqueer.org

The second of two QUEERTOPIA events at AWP. This year S&Q is proud to present QUEERTOPIA 2: a reading by LGBTQ poets & writers. The event at Barnes & Noble just steps away from the conference hotel will include 12 poets & writers in 120 minutes.

Also, my steady AWP roomie, Linda Hogan, has a session:

S276 Rounding the Human Corners: Writing the Truth about the Changing World

Room 613/614, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6 
Saturday, March 1, 2014
4:30 pm to 5:45 pm

Straddling mass extinctions and shifting ecosystems, how do we write about the more-than-human in a way that avoids simple metaphor? And how do we write of degradation and extinction in language that engages the (human) reader and remains truthful to these “other nations?” Discussing a diversity of approaches are five authors of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction about horses, wolves, birch trees, killer whales, polar bears—the depth and range of the world just beyond our human skin.

See you there!