What is AWP like? One could say the conference is eclectic or that it’s like an explosion of people and ideas. Another might say it’s a series of long lines: at the elevator, in the coffee shop, at registration. Although AWP 2009 was my fourth time attending the annual meeting, one element is the same: the big hotel (Downtown Hilton Chicago), conference rooms, lobbies and elevators look like the old contest where as many people as possible crowd into a telephone booth or a Volkswagen to see how many humans fit into a too-small space. But that’s not what AWP is.
AWP is a family reunion, an explosion of literary journals, an elite collection of publishers, more autograph seekers than attend baseball’s spring training and about a hundred and fifty panel discussions running concurrently each day. Add a dance each night for attendees and special entertainment events like the one Saturday night sponsored by Columbia College Chicago Fiction Writing Department and Story Week featuring ZZ Packer, Joe Meno and Dorothy Allison that included a Ragtag Band wafting through the audience in piecemeal uniforms while on-stage, a smoke machine simulated the ambience of the consummate coffee house. The reading performances incorporated poignant humor from gospel prose to the loud, proud crass truth of Ms. Allison. AWP is more.
Enjoy the cuisine of Chicago, stir in the Art Institute with an impressive Edvard Munch exhibit (Feb. 14-Apr. 26), and Chicago pizza to begin to have an idea of the AWP. If you’re lucky enough to be in town the weekend they’re holding the Winter Festival and Ice Sculpture Competition across the street from the Conference site, the Conference experience is complete. Almost.
The name tag is an important element of the AWP. Diligent volunteers monitor doors into conference sessions and the BookFair to keep out the unregistered bibliophile. When thumbing the thick, slick catalog schedule of readings, book signings and daily sessions, a first-timer thinks she’s won the literary lottery. Very quickly, euphoria fades to doubt that one will be able to cover the entire BookFair and see all the panel discussions that appeal, which presents the biggest dilemma of AWP.
Ten to twenty concurrent sessions for three days offer sessions that pay tribute to recently deceased writers, advice for professors (“New Pedagogy in the Multi-Genre Creative Writing Course”), issues rising in current literature (“The Next Taboo: Writing about Illness”; “Writing Your Passions: Forbidden Topics”), and the sessions that defy identification (“Not Your Usual Workshop”).
One four-time AWP Conference veteran, said “This year’s conference was the best ever.” A first-timer enjoyed meeting up with friends and attending sessions, but added, “I’m just sorry I can’t go to more sessions. With so many going on at the same time, having to choose is a lot of responsibility.”
What is AWP like? For each attendee, the Conference is as different as the sessions and the writers who are there, as different as the publications and presses represented, and as diverse as the colleges and universities promoting their writing programs. What is any group of four to seven thousand people without a complaint or two? The first complaint deals with the long wait for an elevator and the second problem is a session whose content is nothing like its description in the schedule. By the time a person figures out the session is different from its title, time doesn’t allow attendees to benefit from attending a panel that is their second choice. The only defense for the latter is that lecture and seminar proposals are submitted nine months in advance, so a topic may evolve in development during that time. As for the first complaint, think of waiting for the elevator as a tradition.
To find out what AWP is really like, register for the 2010 AWP scheduled April 7-10 in Denver at the Hyatt Regency. More information, including guidelines for panel proposals, is available at www.awpwriter.org. Future AWP Annual Conferences are scheduled in Washington, D.C (Feb. 16-19, 2011), Chicago (Feb. 22-25, 2012), and Boston (Mar. 6-9, 2013).
