Wednesday/Thursday report at AWP – Speculative Poets and Old Friends
- At February 28, 2014
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Blog
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A quick report from the first 24 hours of AWP with a few pics: I have to say, so far this AWP I am feeling nothing but admiration and happiness to keep running into, reading with, and hanging out with so many fantastic writers. The best part of this kind of conference is running into old friends, and what’s odd nowadays is that some of these “old friends” are folks I’ve never physically met – sure, we’ve been Skyping or commenting on each other’s blogs for years, but it’s great to really give someone a hug or thank them in person for blurbing your book (or teaching it,) listening to them read poetry for the first time, grabbing dinner together, or even just saying hi on our ways to and from things. I’m exhausted already but at the same time can’t wait to get back to seeing more lovely folks! Today I’ll be signing books at the Two Sylvias book table, right next to Tupelo at the book fair, from 1 PM – 2 PM. Come by! Tomorrow I’ll be signing 1 PM-2:30 PM at the Minor Arcana Press, and reading at the Ray Gun Lounge as part of the Drawn to Marvel book launch with a bunch of terrific poets, starting at 7 PM.
Last night’s Superheroes of Poetry reading was one of those magic offsite readings that went perfectly – everyone kept to their time, read fantastic poetry, and read it really well. I was so happy to be among poets I really liked, the crowd was really sweet, and Glenn said it was the first time I got emotional at a poetry reading in a long time. Because we held the reading at Jack Straw, they also had a professional sound engineer give each reader a CD of their reading – cool, right?
- Evan Peterson, Bryan D. Dietrich, Jeannine Hall Gailey, Lana Ayers
- Jeannine Hall Gailey, Kelly Davio, Peter Davio, Lesley Wheeler
- Jason McCall reading
- Lana Ayers, Jeannine Hall Gailey, Lesley Wheeler, Sally Rosen Kindred, and Molly Spencer
We also have the reading up on YouTube, so check it out when you get a chance. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeT3iv4DjVM&feature=youtu.be&t=1m48s
Before that, I took a brief tour of the South Hall of the book fair (didn’t realize Wednesday there were actually two gigantic halls of book fair instead of just one) and ran into a bunch of friends, including San Diego poet Jeff Walt. Wednesday I thought I was just going to register, but I ended up meeting and talking with lots of friends who were setting up their booths. Publishers really do work hard at these conferences, and much of it is a labor of love rather than spectacular pay, so be sure to stop by and tell folks how much you love their efforts. I didn’t remember to 1. take enough pictures or 2. hand out enough business cards (possibly because being sort of one-good-armed for the conference makes this a teensy bit hard.)
- Jeannine in scarf-sling and Jeff Walt at book fair
Jeannine Hall Gailey served as the second Poet Laureate of Redmond, Washington and the author of Becoming the Villainess, She Returns to the Floating World, Unexplained Fevers, The Robot Scientist’s Daughter, and winner of the Moon City Press Book Prize and SFPA’s Elgin Award, Field Guide to the End of the World. Her latest, Flare, Corona from BOA Editions, was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. She’s also the author of PR for Poets, a Guidebook to Publicity and Marketing. Her work has been featured on NPR’s The Writer’s Almanac, Verse Daily and The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror. Her poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Poetry, and JAMA.
