The Introverted Writer’s Guide to Attending the AWP Conference
The Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) is an organization dedicated to amplifying the voices of writers and the academic programs that serve them. Every year, AWP hosts a conference in a different city to help with their mission of championing diversity and excellence in creative writing. This is the chance for a huge number of writers get together in one place for readings, panels on craft, publishing, and marketing, with ample opportunity for mingling. Plus there’s information on writing programs, a massive book fair filled with publishers, academics, artists, writers, bookmarks, stickers, temporary tattoos and myriad other cool things.
If all of that sounds like an introvert’s nightmare, don’t worry! It really is a great place to be among fellow writers while seeking guidance on your writing life. Here’s an approach to try to get the most out of the experience while holding onto your introverted sanity.
BEFORE
What do you need? Are you looking for a writing program? Workshops? Professional feedback? A job? Taking the time to answer these questions will help you select the best panels and events to get the most out of this experience.
Register early. It’s cheaper and allows for more time to plan
Download the AWP app. There’s a section called “My Planner” that you can use to organize times and locations of sessions that you want to attend.
Book travel asap. It will be cheaper and give you more options.
Book accommodations asap. I chose a hotel within walking distance. It enabled me to have a safe, sure place to go at the end of long days and get good rest. That mile walk to the convention center ended up being great start and end to the day.
2 month out: look at the schedule and highlight sessions that interest you. There’s a very lot to sort through, taking multiple passes through the list will help ensure that you choose sessions that align with your goals. Within each event description, the link under “Docs” gives a detailed breakdown of how the topic will be discussed.
1 month out: Where will the conference be held this year? The joy of emerging from your writing lair is to see what’s out in the world—don’t just exchange your den for a day indoors somewhere else, see what’s to see! Stepping out of the convention center is a great way to recharge—how about a museum? A cool tour? A fancy restaurant? A food truck?
Who do you know in the area? An AWP conference is a great excuse to connect with friends and family.
Know anyone else attending? If so, arrange to meet at the site or have dinner together to swap experiences.
Where are the cool bookstores? Be on the lookout for readings.
Do what it takes to preserve your social energy: get enough rest, meditate, plan to have a good breakfast, schedule when you’ll fit in breaks, breathers, walks, and chances to integrate notes.
DURING
At the convention:
Where are your people? Look for sessions where you can learn about organizations to join, publications to read and/or submit to, or classes to take when you’re back home. If you don’t see a session that matches your needs, go into the open waters of the book fair, people want to talk writing with you!
Listen to / see in person / and even meet your writing idols.
Get free stuff, discounted books, books signed by authors, stickers, bookmarks, cups of coffee.
You cannot attend every session. Before the conference starts, do your best to select sessions that sound appealing, then whittle the list down to one must-do per day. If you have the capacity to fit more, great, but don’t fry yourself out.
This is an information overload event, so schedule time to process what you are learning—sit for a spell with a cup of coffee and write up your notes, make lists, doodle, recharge.
Strike up a conversation while waiting in line for food, or before a session starts—you’re all there for the same reason, see if you can get others’ thoughts on what you’ve been hearing.
Build in some alone time. It’s about quality over quantity—go as deep as you can with the sessions you do attend: take notes, free write about associations it made you have, and think about how you might incorporate tools and techniques described into your own work.
AFTER
Write about the experience.
All those great writing tips that came up during the panels? Yeah, start trying them out.
Share what you learned with other writers and readers.
Hey, there are more of us introverts out there—write a story set at a conference and we will read it!
GO AGAIN?
I enjoyed the experience and definitely want to go again.
I am going to bide my time and match an AWP to a specific place in my own writing life—say I’ve finished a novel and am looking for all the minutia around getting published, for example. Maybe I will want to connect with specific publishers who will be attending, or it’s being held in a city that has something amazing that I must see.
I’ll use some of the tricks I learned and shared here and will do what we writers do best: write about it.
