The first morning-after AWP – daylight savings time and I haven’t had my caffeine yet – so this first blog may be a bit incoherent – I am exhausted but pretty happy overall with the way AWP went this year. Went to some great readings, sold a couple of chapbooks, met a lot of the editors I pester on a regular basis – the best part was meeting all the bloggers – of course Kelli Agodon was up there, so we got to hang out, also got to chat with Victoria Chang, Paul Guest, Aimee Nez, Shanna Compton, Peter Pereira, Jennifer Thorton, and a lot of others that I’m probably forgetting – I think I saw C. Dale Young and Laurel Synder but I was too shy to walk up to either of them – also got to meet Kim Addonizio, thanks to Dorianne Laux. Got to say hi briefly to my previous advisor Marvin Bell, and my former professor from UC Don Bogen, which was great. Some fantastic readings – Pitt’s reading with Denise Duhamel, Alicia Ostriker, Virgil Suarez and Bob Hicok was up there, the Canadian and American Cross-Pollination reading with Peter Pereira, Susan Rich, Judith Barrington, Annie Finch, and Rachel Rose (and others I enjoyed but am forgetting), the Northwest Women reading (Lucia Perillo, Dorianne, Nance Van Winckel and Linda Bierds) were some of my favorites. Most surprisingly likable magazine editor was David Hamilton from Iowa Review, a charming grandfatherly type. Great quick conversation with a woman editor at University of Michigan Press, who said that “I’ll believe we’re done with feminism when I don’t see a bunch of male poets here talking about a female poet of equal stature in terms of body parts.” Wow, a cool person. Of course ran into friends from the low-res MFA program at Pacific University, and sat through many panels which I will detail at a later date. Went to the Wompo party and my school’s reception but didn’t party as much as I could or should have. Didn’t get to shop as much as I wanted, but am going home with truckload of free literary magazines, new books by Margaret Atwood, Kathleen Jesme, Alicia Ostriker, Denise Duhamel, Annie Finch (delightful in person) a Canadian Women’s Poetry Anthology, Shanna’s Gamers anthology, and lots of older books with new signatures.
I promise to blog in more detail when I get home. Have a class with Ilya Kaminsky in Seattle tomorrow and will be listening to Matthew Shindell’s radio show tonight.