Download AWP Atlanta straight from my addled brain!
(As if I had any brain left. Yesterday at my book signing I had to ask my friend Denise from New Pages how to spell Denise. For some reason I thought it was spelled with a “c.” )
(Music: Breathe (2 am) by Anna Nalick)
The layout of the bookfair was a nightmare, and it was hot as blazes except for Saturday at my booth, where it got so cold my lips and hands turned blue. I think the Chicago AWP was probably the most logically organized one I have been to. I plan to go to next year’s in NYC but I wonder how nightmarish logistics will be. There was a tornado watch the first night (the day that tornado hit that high school in Alabama) and the lightning and sirens kept us jumping. Not too much lightning – or that many sirens – in Seattle.
Best two panels: the Southeast Review reading (including DA Powell, Dorianne Laux, Ander Monson and Beth Ann Fennelly – I was so excited to meet her!) Dorianne read a great new poem, Beth Ann read a hilarious poem about lusting after young male students and another interesting one connecting cow tipping to terrorism, and Ander read a terrific piece about murdered girls that I thought instantly I hope he reads in Chicago since it goes so well with all my dead girl poetry. This was jam-packed – standing room only. The “Fairy Tales in Fiction” panel – run by Fairy Tale Review’s Kate Bernheimer – had Kelly Link on it, which was enough to get me there. They must have had over a hundred people crammed into the room to hear the panel – if this is any indication, fairy tales are taking over! About time. LOL. And I shook hands with Kelly and she remembered me (from the Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror anthology) and said she liked my poetry! I’m such a fangirl, I was so excited! (PS Read her book Stranger Things Happen. It is amazing. I just re-read it and I’m ordering two more copies for friends.) Mostly that panel was just the people reading their work, I would have liked to hear more discussion of the whys and hows of using fairy tale archetypes and characters in narrative – maybe they will have another panel like this next year, given the turnout. I hope so!
The two off-site readings – Switchback’s and No Tell’s – were both terrific. Highlights of Switchback’s – I may be prejudiced, but Kristy Bowen, Amanda Auchter, Mary Biddinger, Brandi Homan, and Simone Muench were some of my favorite readers. I read “the Dead Girl Speaks” from my book and Kristy read right after me and read another dead girl poem in response – and later Simone told me she has a chapbook of dead girl poems coming out. The Django – upstairs from the reading – when we let out – had two huge bouncers patting down customers for guns, police, and a man asking “But where can I find real old-school hip hop?”
I got to the other reading (No Tell, Pilot, Octopus Books) late but it was a friendly and packed space and I got to say hi and goodbye to a lot of friends.
Let’s see, the book signing at the Steel Toe booth went well – Mary’s book sold out by the end of the signing – and mine sold out by the end of today – so we must have sold some books. Tom said to me “I’m surprised how many books you can sell at AWP!” LOL. Peter Pereira’s new book sold out at Copper Canyon before I even caught a glimpse of it! I can’t wait to see it at its debut next week in Seattle!
Oh, and I saw Oliver and Paul G and met John Gallagher (and got his book – yay!) and got to introduce Denise Duhamel to Pacific’s MFA director (hopefully she’ll come out and visit the program!) I got to meet some of Mary Biddinger’s very cool MFA students, saw the wonderful WKU student gang I had met before in Kentucky who came out to work with Steel Toe. I got Simone Meunch’s book and Brandi Homan’s chapbook from Dancing Girl Press and got a new review copy of a couple of cool books and lots of free journals and met tons of nice people. I missed meeting Kate Greenstreet (sorry Kate!) and a few other friends, which always bums me out. There’s never enough time at these things. I saw classmates from University of Cincinnati and two of my former professors from there and saw a surprising number of people from the Northwest represented. You know, it occurs to me at these things that half the people at these conferences – the ones you want to avoid – are kind of smarmy – enter the criticisms about AWP – but the other half are genuinely cool people who I could spend all day talking about real things with but won’t get the chance at AWP. Which is kind of sad. I wish you could intersperse the conference with quiet times and hang out with everyone individually before the end. I got to spend a little time hanging out with Dorianne and talking at the booth we worked at today, and a little time visiting with Mary Biddinger at our signing, and went out to dinner with friends from Pacific – but I wish I had gotten to spend longer with everyone – you know that feeling?
I had to work the booth this last day – and I’d gotten by on nothing but tylenol the whole time til then – from 9 AM til a little after three – and I literally couldn’t walk for a few hours afterwards. I went to the orthapedic surgeon the day before the conference and he said I had a little herniated lumbar disc that was pushing on a nerve and hence the pain and limping (along with problems with some muscles around the sciatic nerve and in the SI joint) but that I didn’t need surgery, just work with a rehab back doctor who usually works with real athletes, which I sadly am not. G ended up carrying all the heavy bags of books and stuff the whole conference, especially helpful at the bookfair, plus he was always handing out my business card (which I always forget to do) and checking at the Steel Toe Books table for things like change and book cards and how many copies were left of what. A gentleman and a half: props to my better half. Without him, I would have had to take a lot of hydrocodone.
Flying home late tomorrow. Looking forward to resting up and processing and reading journals and books. I know I’m forgetting lots of people and highlights and cool weird things – aforesaid brain-pain-muddle-lack-of-sleep problems.