Forum / AWP in Chicago

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  Bill Yarrow

  Sep 23, 04:08am

  Just wondering who is coming to Chicago for AWP this year. Hope we can meet up!

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  Ann Bogle

  Sep 23, 12:16pm

  Bill, I registered as a non-presenter/member, so I guess that means I'm going. I have renewed interest in it after not going last year and attending Barbaric yAWP instead!

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  Susan Tepper

  Sep 23, 04:12pm

  Every year I register, and every year I don't get there. Is there an existential meaning I'm facing re this AWP conundrum?

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  Robert Vaughan

  Sep 23, 09:51pm

  I'm in, Bill, and I will be reading at at least one off-site event called "A Festival of Language" (I know Meg Tuite and several talents are, too!). I am interested in meeting up also!

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  Joani Reese

  Sep 23, 11:48pm

  Oh, how I wish! My best friend lives in Palatine. It might be doable. If so, you'd better come hang out at The Palmer House with me, Bill.

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  Ann Bogle

  Sep 24, 05:58pm

  I can see we're all eager to make the Hilton rich. I, for one, look forward to furthering Delta, who voted out their union when it acquired Northwest Airlines. See you there! I've already decided to eat lamb in a restaurant, pay 30 per cent taxi tip, and order oysters in the half-room. When it comes to panels, I'll likely bump into Lance again. Lance (who lives in Utah) and I chose the same panels in Atlanta. One of the panels was called On Moral Fiction, and I went, hoping to hear news of John Gardner (from beyond the grave). Charles Baxter was there, with apologies to Charles Baxter, and Gardner's name wasn't even mentioned, but a professor from Missouri at the dais described trying to drive in Missouri after 9-11. He was gay, making it even wilder.

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  Ann Bogle

  Sep 24, 06:21pm

  I say: be there. It's February 29.

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  stephen hastings-king

  Sep 24, 10:44pm

  can someone give me an idea of whether AWP is worth attending and why?

  i've been to many academic conferences and generally find that they're less than impressive. but i've met some lovely folk at them--typically other alienated types hovering in the margins applying their own calculations to the most important single issue that attends these things: at what point can we adjourn for a beverage?

  but what sort of stuff happens at this one? is it primarily a social thing? a networky thing? a self-branding thing? has anyone advanced a goal of, say, getting a book out for having gone?

  just curious.

  as an aside: i like chicago & would be happy to hang out there. february is a less than awesome time, though. and hanging out in the loop....um....well...it is what it is.

  but the map room's not that far.

• 
  Ann Bogle

  Sep 28, 04:07pm

  Stephen, what's so overpowering about AWP is its size. 5,000 attended Atlanta in 2007. 9,000 attended NYC in 2008. I don't know the number for Chicago in 2009. I always see old school friends when I go, and they are all financed to be there. I pay my own way as an independent editor and writer, so after attending four of the last five conferences, I feel entitled to enjoy it as a short holiday. The book fair is really large, and it wouldn't surprise me if more than a few writers and poets have made publishing contacts by visiting booths. Also, if you already have a publisher at the book fair, they arrange signings and readings. There are many, many offsite events, and a schedule of those begins to circulate about a month before the conference. Highlighted offsite events are listed at the AWP website. Many of the mainstage presentations I've seen have been inspired. Anne Waldman's performance with Gary Snyder in Denver in 2010 was astonishing. The setting is usually horrible, though, the large, low-ceilinged or crated-walled so-called ballrooms for mainstage events. A lot of people turn the event into an opportunity to meet new friends they have interacted with online, to dine, go to museums, and otherwise see the host city. True, there is drinking, but that seems mostly to involve a certain crowd who hang at the main bars. I go to the main bar myself. I regard the academic writers and poets -- many of them -- as bureaucrats. They may see themselves as famous, and some of the people are stuck up! I always remember Katherine Anne Porter's statement from the 50s (I think) about the dubious value of subsidizing writing. There are parties at other bars as well, organized by schools and publishers. When I went to Atlanta, I attended panels all day and retired early each night. It astonished me: the logistics of finding someone to eat dinner with in a crowd of 5,000 writers. Age is a factor! It helps to make a few plans with people you know you'd like to meet ahead of time.

• 
  Ann Bogle

  Sep 28, 04:20pm

  The Hyatt in Denver was ghastly, and the convention center no better, but those in the know (I wasn't one of them) stayed at the Magnolia. The Palmer House, on the other hand, is great.

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  Meg Tuite

  Sep 29, 05:40pm

  I'll be there doing two readings! Am looking forward to meeting all of you!! Can't wait!

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  Jules Archer

  Oct 01, 06:29pm

  I really want to go but I am going to wait until the 2013 (?) one in Los Angeles. It will be a closer jaunt for this West coast girl. Although...really wish I could...

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  Linda Simoni-Wastila

  Oct 01, 09:51pm

  Not this year. I really enoyed the DC meeting, most of all because it was local and the off-site readings are super. But 2013 might be a maybe! Have fun in the windy city. Peace...

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