AWP LA Part I: Day 1 and 2, All the Gossip, Disability and Travel, Poets!

AWP LA Part I, Day 1

Ah, the trip to LA – delayed flights, turbulence the whole time, and snafus with the rental car at LAX (the worst! do Burbank if possible!) meant we were racing across traffic after waking up at six AM and being in travel mode until 8 PM to make it to my Moon City Reading at least partially on time, after the hotel decided “accessible” meant something other than actually accessible (this happens a lot.) Anyway, we made it there, I got to see some friends, snap a pic or two, and then get home to the hotel and collapse without eating, because honestly, too tired to eat! That’s Day 1! (Pic from the Moon City Reading with Lee Horikoshi Roripaugh in the next paragraph.) The weather this whole trip was a little overcast and cool for Californians, which you can tell from the pics, although still warm to me (in the sixties, til nightfall.)

Lee Horikoshi Roripaugh and I at the Moon City Reading, Day 1 of AWP: Purple Light

Day 2 of AWP: So Many Friends, Poets, Publishers

So waking up bright and early day 2, I took a walk on the beach (I always stay away from downtown LA when I go to LA, from the time 25 years ago that I used to come down and present when I was a Microsoft tech person. Because downtown LA is not really LA.) And then hustled down to the conference, to register and meet up with people. I did not get to go to all the talks I wanted to – Beth Ann Fennelly and Hybrid writing, the speculative memoir (what?? right?) and many writers I wanted to see I just didn’t. But there were 10,000 people at this LA, so I guess that’s just statistics.

Anyway, I caught up with several former professors, lots of blogger friends, and some new people that were fans of my work that I hadn’t met yet, which is always a pleasure (and a surprise! Somehow I don’t realize real people actually read my books until I go to these kinds of things.) It was a b

Here’s the book haul from Day 2 and lots of friend pics: Got books by friends but also from good presses like YesYes Books and Word Words and tons of others. Did I come home with too many books? Yes I did!

It is so great to meet press editors and publishers you’ve never heard of. It is great to see West Coast lit mags you didn’t already know about. This is part of what makes AWP fun and worth going to, even if you’re tired and your MS is acting up and you have anxiety about travel and the world. the other part is catching up with people who know and love and might not have seen for a couple of years.

I don’t remember much about the night of Day 2 because I may have fallen asleep literally between events and didn’t make to several things I meant to (Roxane Gay’s keynote was great, but I watched it virtually later on.) Gossip: Roxane Gay bought The Rumpus. I was very happy to hear that as a former Rumpus reviewer, I must admit. She seems good at managing things.

All right, since I am typing this from the hotel and getting ready to fly back to Seattle, I will end there. Guys, stay safe and strong until I can post again. Also: LA is much friendlier and more diverse than Seattle, and you can do something that you couldn’t in Seattle: wake up, stroll across the ocean, pick up fresh masa corn tortillas with honey butter, and eat breakfast on the beach. I’m not at all an LA girl but I’ve got to admit the people are fun (People at LAX – at the airport! – stopped and complimented my clothes, my hair, and my luggage. Before I got  a rental car!) Locals recommended the best restaurants and local music to you, just standing around. and the food is amazing, just stuff we don’t get much in Scandanavian Seattle. Anyway, wait for Part 2: the Reckoning, AWP LA style.