An AWP Review for SLF
This past March, I attended the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) conference https://awpwriter.org. The conference is a chance for huge number of writers to gather in one place for readings, panels on craft, publishing, and marketing, plus information on writing programs, all while mingling and visiting a massive book fair filled with publishers, academics, artists, writers, bookmarks, stickers, temporary tattoos and myriad other cool things. Every year, AWP is held in a different city, this year beautiful Los Angeles was the setting.
I had first heard of AWP in grad school, but it wasn’t until this year, six years after completing my MFAW, that I was able to attend. Since graduation, I have been writing short stories, submitting them to literary magazines, participating in writing groups, getting published, and reading a very lot. Now it was looking to up my game. I went to the conference with the intention of leaving with a more holistic understanding of what it is to be a writer. I wanted craft ideas, business of writing and publishing lessons, and an opportunity to hear what paths professionals have chosen to sustain themselves while writing.
AWP runs an organized conference. There were a kabilliondy sessions to choose from, making it easy to attend ones that aligned with my goals. Although there were a very, very lot of writers attending, there were plenty of volunteers helping attendees navigate the convention center, and always space in the sessions themselves. Here’s a look at a few I attended:
New Literary Forms for a New Los Angeles: Five writers of genre-defying poetry, creative nonfiction, cultural criticism, and fiction consider what it means to effect social change. What informs twenty-first-century Los Angeles writing?
What started as a disappointing list of local bookstores and publishers no longer in existence ended up being really inspiring. It was hopeful to hear how L.A. writers who weathered the ups and downs of the industry and changes in local writing culture keep showing up and writing great stuff. In the evening, I attended a reading at North Figueroa Bookshop and bumped into many names of those same authors and publishers right there on the store shelves. Later, I saw an exhibit at the Central Branch of the L.A. Public Library that included a profile of Sesshu Foster, one of the panel members. All the writers on the panel had made deep connections with L.A., such that I could see their effect out in the community when I wasn’t even looking. They inspired me to ask what’s going on in my town, challenging me to connect and contribute toward boosting the writers around me.
Understories & Mycrocosms: What cues can we take from the remarkable pathways ignited by trees, fungi, and other species in activating our understories?
As a member of the Speculative Literary Foundation (SLF), I am naturally fascinated by weirdo tree roots, fungi, mushroom networks, or bizarre fish at the bottom of the ocean that seem like aliens…it’s all worldbuilding material. This was a great reminder to look to nature for inspiration and for solutions when I am stuck on a story.
The Long & Short of Craft: Authors Publishing Novels and Flash Fiction: Experts in both the flash and novel form discuss tips and strategies for finding the best size for your story, what the two opposite ends of the writing spectrum have to learn from each other, and how stretching your expertise helps a career.
I liked the ideas here. One panelist described flash fiction as the minimal elements a writer gives readers to finish the story in their heads. Ohh!
Good nuts-and-bolts craft techniques such as free writing a story, reading through and highlighting interesting sentences, then just using those sentences to put together a story. Write a scene with a beginning, middle, and end. Then put that scene on the bottom of page 5 and write toward it. Finally, let that scene go (ouch). Or describe a scene or setting as fully possible. Then take from that description just one element, say an orange on a table in a house, for example, and let that one element be the description. Not sure about that last one, but I will try it.
In addition to the AWP organized panels and bookfair at the convention center, a handful of extracurricular activities greatly enhanced my whole experience. I attended a reading at an independent bookstore, visited the magnificent Central Branch of the L.A. Public Library, met fellow SLF Saturday writing session member Margaret Frey, and just walked the streets of a city that was new to me.
I went to the conference looking ideas, for instruction, and for directions on my path. I got that, but even more. AWP was a chance to dig into my love of writing, recharge my batteries, explore, discover, and best of all, talk writing with writers and readers.
