How to use this Page

This afternoon, I will be flying to Los Angeles for the annual Association of Writers & Writing Programs Conference. Here's my schedule of events, in case you're in the area and want to say hello...

• Thursday, 3/31: Black Lawrence Press reading and party at CB1 Gallery, 7pm
• Friday, 4/1: Signing at Black Lawrence Press booth (#1526), 1-2pm
• Saturday, 4/2: signing at the GLBTQ Caucus Hospitality Booth (#633), 12-12.30pm

And of course I'll be wandering around the conference and spending lots of time at the book fair.

Add a Comment

Back in April, I was up in Minneapolis for AWP 2015. Heid Erdrich snapped this photo. I meant to share it here on AICL then, but time got away from me, as it is want to do! So, here it is, today!

AWP is the Association of Writers and Writing Programs. Here's the blurb about their conference (from their website):

The AWP Conference & Bookfair is an essential annual destination for writers, teachers, students, editors, and publishers. Each year more than 12,000 attendees join our community for four days of insightful dialogue, networking, and unrivaled access to the organizations and opinion-makers that matter most in contemporary literature. The 2015 conference featured over 2,000 presenters and 550 readings, panels, and craft lectures. The bookfair hosted over 800 presses, journals, and literary organizations from around the world. AWP’s is now the largest literary conference in North America.

AWP 2015 was the first time I went to that conference. I was there as a moderator for a panel that included Eric and Debby Dahl Edwardson, too. Good times there, and with Sarah Park Dahlen and her family, too!

Add a Comment

The article--which can be seen in full in these screen shots captured by PW--attempted to defend AWP against recent complaints about the lack of diversity represented in its programming, as well as the lack of transparency in its actions. Gale's article, however, featured inflammatory language that drew its own backlash. (Among other things, the article referred to Native American as Indians.)

I pictured David Fenza saddling up a horse, Stetson in place, going out to shoot Indians.

I pictured David Fenza saddling up a horse, Stetson in place, going out to shoot Native Americans.

Add a Comment

Yesterday (8/24/2015), I read Kate Gale's post, "AWP Is Us." Here's a screen cap of the second and third paragraphs in her post:

Gale recounts being at a dinner where a woman leaned over to her and said that AWP hates Native Americans. She writes that she took out a pen and paper and asked the woman who, at the AWP office, hates Indians. Gale says that she imagined David Fenza saddling a horse and going out to shoot Indians. She says the woman fumbled around and couldn't tell her who the "Indian hater" was.

Her unstated conclusion is that the woman's remark has no merit. I take whatever fumbling there was as a sign that the woman was astounded at Gale's response. Reading Gale's post, it is clear that her demeanor towards the woman was aggressive.

What are the conditions in Kate Gale's world, in her head and heart, that prompt her to hear the words "hate Native Americans" and imagine someone getting on a horse to shoot Indians? She probably thinks her imaginings are clever. Those imaginings, however, illuminate a lot about what-is-wrong-with-literature, and with AWP, and with a huge swath of society.

Past Tense

I wonder if Gale has Native friends or colleagues? I wonder if she reads Native writers? The answer to those questions may be yes, but none of them came to mind in her imagining. Instead, she went to a historical time period. That reflects the tendency to think of Native peoples as part of the past, not present.

Shooting Indians

I wonder if Gale is aware that, today, Native people are on the list of people most likely to be killed by law enforcement?  Here's a chart from the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, published on August 26, 2014:




Gale's imaging (horse/Stetson) sound like something out of a Western, but let's consider a common phrase: off the reservation. That phrase goes back to a period when, if a Native person left a reservation without permission of the government agent, that person could be shot. Indeed, Carlos Montezuma's mother left the San Carlos Reservation in Arizona, without permission, to try to find her little boy. She was shot in the back, and killed, by an Army scout.


Her post was much discussed amongst Native writers and scholars yesterday. Those conversations continue, today. Will there be a response from AWP? from Gale?

We're not the only group that objects to what she said. Others are responding, too. Just before I hit the upload button, I saw a tweet from AWP:



Will Gale have one, too? Will this and other high profile AWP problems, prompt change within AWP?

Add a Comment

AWP: Our panel, "What I Wish I'd Known Before I Started Writing for Children and Young Adults," seemed like a success. At least we had a good time. It seemed as if our audience did. At least there wasn't much shuffling, squirming, and reading of programs while we were talking. :)

Heather Bouwman organized us and moderated the panel. My buddies from my writing group, Shelley Tougas and Kirstin Cronn-Mills, and I joined Sheila O'Connor to fill out the panel.

We all are used to talking in front of groups, so we were surprised by how nervous we were beforehand.

I wonder if everybody who gives presentations runs over what they forgot to say or wish they had said during the program. I do that in school, too, but then I get to see my students again in a few days, so I can add or correct or fix what I missed. There's no second chance when it's a conference.

Anyway, one thing I wanted to say is that I think every writer should write poetry, even if he or she never publishes any...It's such a terrific exercise in conciseness and paying attention to language and lyricism. I think writing for kids uses those skills, absolutely and entirely.
I never felt that as fully as when I wrote Beauty Missing, Hair Hissing: Medusa Tells All for the "Other Side of Myth" series published by Capstone. That book started out as a longish lyrical poem and then condensed itself into the snarkier voice of Medusa in which it was published.

Anyway, AWP was fun, and I had a grand adventure with my two buddies. We were reduced to uncontrollable laughter several times.
We became the Three Musketeers of Vehicular Safety (in our cab to the airport), and the Three Musketeers of Row 19 (in the aircraft). Yeah, we tried to be reasonably quiet. Not sure how well that worked. But we had fun.

Add a Comment

One of the most interesting discussions I saw at the AWP conference was one sponsored by VIDA, with editors and writers talking about the results of VIDA's 2013 count of female and male writers in various publications. This year, they were able to offer a particularly revealing set of graphs showing three year trends in book reviewing at major magazines and journals.

The only report of the discussion I've seen so far is that of VIDA volunteer Erin Hoover at The Nervous Breakdown (although I'm sure it was covered by Twitter when it happened). Hoover gives a good overview of the panel and the issues. I took lots of notes, so will here add some more detail to try to show how the discussion went.

After introductory remarks by moderator Jennine Capó Crucet, the first responses were made alphabetically by last name, and so two men began: Don Bogen, poetry editor of The Cincinnati Review, and Stephen Corey, editor of The Georgia Review. Bogen noted that, inspired by VIDA, he'd done a count of the poetry published by CR during his 7-year tenure and discovered to, really, his surprise that he'd achieved parity between male and female writers (or at least male and female bylines). How had he managed to do this unconsciously, he wondered? The best hypothesis he had was that he seeks real diversity of experience and point of view in poetry and has eclectic taste — indeed, the only poems he said he's not particularly interested in are ones that reflect his own experience. He noted that certainly the idea of parity depends on where one is counting from, as particular issues of the magazine would go one way or the other, and he tends to organize blocks of poems in between other genres in each issue in ways that have sometimes been balanced but also sometimes been entirely female or entirely male. Many times, too, he said, he does his best to read blind, paying little to no attention to a byline, and has often discovered that material he thought was "male" or "female" had been written by someone of another gender. Thus, the magic of literature.

Of the panelists, Stephen Corey seemed perhaps least comfortable with the discussion. His initial statement was simply a set of questions. (I think I managed to write them all down, but may have missed something.) When we talk about gender balance, he asked, are we talking about balance in submissions? In page counts? (Does a 30-page story count the same as a 1-page poem?) Should reviews be counted the same as poems, essays, or stories? Do you want an editor to read your work with gender in mind? Should a publication put out a call for more work by males or females? Should a publication put out an anti-call against one gender? When you read, do you care if what you read is by a man or a woman [audience: YES!], and should an editor care?

After Corey, E.J. Graff said so many interesting things I had trouble taking notes. Here's what I wrote down:

• The count is an example of why all English majors should take a course in statistics. Graff: "I wish I had!"
• The submission gap is enormous. With opinion pieces, women editors solicit women and are often turned down or need more time, whereas men often say yes and offer to get the piece done very quickly (important for current events).
• Men continually send pitches after rejections, women don't.
• Structural acculturation. We have to overcome our own socialization — and not just in terms of gender. The audience, for instance, was overwhelmingly white.
• We must make our own choices conscious because many of our prejudices are unconcious. Graff pointed to the Implicit Association Test.
• For students, there is a dramatic shift between the world of school and the world of work. It can be difficult to learn how to promote yourself. Men tend to do this more comfortably than women, because it's generally more socially acceptable for men.
• Make a posse. Promote yourself and your group. Start a movement or magazine. Challenge each other, help with drafts and careers, but as a group move each other forward.
• When lesbians and gay men started working together in the 1980s, there were many difficulties, suspicions, and prejudices. To overcome these difficulties, many groups decided on a shared leadership structure that required equal power sharing between a man and a woman rather than just one leader. Why not do that with more prizes, editorships, groups?

Display Comments Add a Comment

I traveled down to Boston for the AWP Conference, the first time I'd been to AWP in 5 years. It's always a busy, frenetic, overwhelming, and generally wonderful experience, made all the more wonderful this time by the presence of quite a few friends I only occasionally get to see in person these days. On Thursday, I moderated a discussion between Samuel R. Delany and Kit Reed that was one of the featured events of the conference, and on Friday and Saturday I worked the morning shift at the Rain Taxi Review of Books table, something I enjoyed very much because it meant I got to stand in one spot and talk to lots of people instead of having to move all around to talk to lots of people (which is what I spent most of the rest of the conference doing). It was a great delight to catch up with folks like Rusty Morrison and Ken Keegan of Omnidawn, Dustin Kurz of Melville House, Gavin Grant and Kelly Link of Small Beer Press, Hannah Tinti of One Story, Lawrence Schimel of Midsummer Night's Press, Parker Smathers and Stephanie Elliott of Wesleyan University Press, various folks from Unstuck, and others I'm sure I'm forgetting (sorry! you are so closely woven into my life that I take you for granted!). (Also, everyone who worked the Coffee House Press booth, because each time I walked by, I couldn't help saying, "I love your books!") I had a great conversation with someone at the Copper Canyon Press table about how they handle poetry lineation in ebooks by offering a sample line from which to calibrate, kind of like color bars on a tv. This allows the reader the flexibility to read the lines as the writer intended them, or to not. It also gave me a great excuse to buy an ebook (Laura Kasischke's Space, In Chains).

I went to panels and discussions and readings. Highlights were the joint reading/discussion by Dana Spiotta and Don DeLillo, moderated by Nan Graham, publisher and senior VP of Scribner. It was a highlight mostly because I haven't yet read anything by Spiotta, so it was a nice introduction to her, and because I've often wondered what DeLillo is like in person. He seemed pleasant enough, not particularly uncomfortable on stage, and in discussion his comments were often accompanied by a marvelously dry wit. I'm not a DeLillo fanboy — I like Underworld very much, but haven't ever warmed to the other books of his that I've read or sampled, and I positively hated White Noise. But hey, it's Don DeLillo. And it was an especially DeLilloesque moment because there were lots of warnings about taking pictures, making recordings, etc. We must abjure the age of digito-mechanical reproduction. (It was okay, they said, to use Twitter, though!) Meanwhile, because the event was in a giant auditorium, there was a massive screen up above that broadcast faces to us all. It was difficult not to look at the screen rather than the actual people.

Another great event in the same giant auditorium (indeed, immediately following the Spiotta/DeLillo event) was supposed to be a reading/discussion between Jeanette Winterson and Alison Bechdel, but Bechdel was trapped by snowfall in Cleveland, so it was Winterson alone. And if anybody can hold the attention of a giant auditorium full of writers, it's Jeanette Winterson. But still, I thought the pairing of Winterson and Bechdel was genius, and I desperately looked forward to seeing their interaction. Nonetheless, Winterson was awesome (for a somewhat similar version of the performance she gave us, see this video of her at the Sydney Opera House). I'm not quite in agreement with her Modernist self-help shtick, but I could watch her for hours, because she's a marvelous performer and a great reader of her own work. And I'm looking forward to reading Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal very much, because I'm a total sucker for her writing — reading Art & Lies at 20 was a revelatory experience, and I went on to devour just about everything else she wrote.

But the best event I saw at AWP may have been the discussion of the VIDA Count with various writers and editors. In fact, I have so many thoughts about it that I'm going to make it a separate post. [Which is now available here.]

Of course, I bought some books. Quite a few poetry books, in fact, because I've had a lack of poetry in life over the last few years, and it's a genre I love.

Add a Comment

Robert Coover, author of Noir and over twenty other acclaimed works of fiction, will be at the AWP (Association of Writers and Writing Programs) Conference in Washington this week. AWP holds its Annual Conference & Bookfair in a different region of North America in order to celebrate the outstanding authors, teachers, writing programs, literary centers, and small press publishers of that region. The Annual Conference typically features 350 presentations: readings, lectures, panel discussions, and Forums plus hundreds of book signings, receptions, dances, and informal gatherings. The conference will host a tribute to Robert Coover this year, and the full schedule is now available.

Robert Coover has received many prizes for his many novels and short story collections, including the Faulkner Award, the Rhea Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Lannan Foundation Literary Fellowship. At Brown University, he teaches Cave Writing (a writing workshop in immersive virtual reality), and directs the International Writers Project, a freedom-to-write program. Last year, The Overlook Press published its first book by this distinguished author: Noir, a true page-turner - wry, absurd, and desolate - which finds this American master at the top of his form.

Add a Comment

I'm hung-over, feet sting from hundreds of steps back and forth across the Colo. Convention Center and downtown Denver. Workshops, readings, panels, lit journal tables, accompanying literary tipos, Chicano and otherwise. Someone else can provide an organized report on AWP. These bits are what float my mind from the past two days:

Sudden Fiction Latino panel. Bloguero Daniel Olivas leads Lisa Alvarez, Stephen D. Gutierrez, Pedro Ponce, Alicita Rodriguez and Edmundo Paz Soldán. The readings are way too short; the authors and audience have come such a long way. I want to hear more, about Bisbee, climbing staircases, instructions on singing, the Chinese wall and more. I'll only get to do that from the book.

The panel moves fast to a fine discussion about Raymond Chandler's words:

I wonder if Chandler knew he was anticipating the New Latino 21st Century author. Or what all Chicanos have to be to live where we do?

Con Tinta Celebration honoring Alicia Gaspar de Alba, with a tribute to Lalo Delgado. Lalo's family fills half the room. A Chicano gathering of family, Chicanitos animados running the aisles, beer glasses tapping toasts. Not the best place for a reading. I'm remembering Lalo read Stupid America, decades ago; still seems apropos.

Today, platefuls of comida mexicana and hearing bloguero Jesse Tijerina tell of his daily dealings with cholos, gangs at the Colorado middle school where he works as principal. His kids clearly have an Advocate; Jes, a block, building our gente's future. So where's he find time to do La Bloga posts, I wonder?

Bloguera

8 Comments on AWP impressions, short & random, last added: 4/13/2010

Display Comments

msedano said, on 4/10/2010 9:00:00 AM

where's dan? and olga, liz--she's in puerto rico, me, i'm getting 2010 festival de flor y canto into shape. spread the word. grand report, fotos.

mvs

Mario said, on 4/10/2010 10:09:00 AM

Great time at the conference. We weren't discussing German philosophy so much as we were listening to Sergio the philosopher.

Manuel Ramos said, on 4/10/2010 6:07:00 PM

Yeah, fine report. It was all you said, and more. Quite a buzz. The One Poem event was a genuine thrill - so many great poets in one room, loving one another with their words. And I have to say that listening to my fellow Aztlan panelists was a high point. One thing - I think the Raymond Chandler discussion happened in the Hit List panel - but it is a blur. Thanks for posting this, Rudy.

Manuel Ramos said, on 4/10/2010 6:45:00 PM

I should have mentioned the participants in the Re-mapping Aztlan panel: Stella Pope Duarte, Michelle Otero, Alex Espinosa, and Rich Yañez (who put the panel together.) All excellent -

travian said, on 4/11/2010 6:39:00 AM

By looking at the specifications it is really looking good and hopefully it will >

Daniel Olivas said, on 4/11/2010 10:02:00 AM

My head is still swimming from the great time I had at AWP with all of you gente. Such talent to be around! On to AWP in D.C. 2011!

liz gonzalez said, on 4/11/2010 11:17:00 PM

Rudy G, Thank you so much for your kind words about Mexican Jesus and for including me in your discussion about One Poem. I'm glad you enjoyed your time at AWP.

Rebel Girl said, on 4/13/2010 8:51:00 AM

It was all good. So nice to meet so many. So good to get home (we drove! two days!) and find this fine report that brought it all back - and more.

Add a Comment

On the Road at AWP (Associated Writer’s Program) in Denver Colorado. AWP is an 8,000 number strong writing conference and bookfair showcasing an amazing amount of writer’s programs, presses, panels and readings. The focus is traditionally adult literature but a smattering of young adult and middle grade panels are being offered this year—including the reading author Monica Roe and I did this afternoon—where the crowd was wonderful and so supportive of young adult novels, which was a delight.

Some highlights so far—besides the super friendly feel—has been meeting VC alums from the “adult” program in creative writing, and picking up a copy of Vermont College grad Ricki Thompson’s beautiful new book City of Cannibals. Ricki signed books today at the Vermont College booth.

Speaking of the book fair—it’s deliciously huge—lots of literary presses and poetry journals among the offerings. And this morning Vermont College instructor Uma Krishnaswami was on a fabulous and thought provoking panel titled, “The Transplanted Writer as Literary Outsider,” with Pam Houston, Robert Wilder and Summer Wood.

Just a few quotes from this one that I love.

Pam Houston: “School taught me how to write, place taught me what to write.”

Robert Wilder: We need to practice “an unclenching gaze to experience the intricacies of human habit and character” of a place.

Uma Krishnaswami: “The internal landscape is the last open space there is.”

All the writers talked about the influences of a place “where the sky is big” –like Denver, Colorado.

--Zu Vincent

Add a Comment

As the antithesis to my loot/books, I realize that each and every one of these journals was given to me - in most cases by the editor(s), and in one case, by an author whose story could be found within.

Barrelhouse issue 7 is out and was handed to me outside the men's room on the main floor by none other than Dave Housley himself.  We had a fantastic five to ten minute talk about Bret Michaels and VH-1's Rock of Love Bus.  It's a great looking issue (yep, back to the lit journal, sorry to those of you arriving because you googled Bret Michaels) with fiction from Matt Bell, Blake Butler, and Michael Czyzniejewski for starters.

Black Warrior Review V 35 No. 2 was handed to me by BJ Hollars.  It's the DIY featured issue with pieces from great authors such as Laird Hunt,  Selah Saterstrom and Aimee Nezhukimatathil and Terese Svoboda - pieces that have blanks in them for you to fill in, or paper dolls to cut out, so that they can be completed.

Peter Cole's Keyhole table was right next to ours and issue 6, guest edited by William Walsh, is so hot off the presses I still can't find a cover photo online.  William Walsh solicited from authors like Matt Bell, Blake Butler, Kim Chinquee, Peter Conners, John Domini, Cooper Esteban, Sherrie Flick, Amelia Gray, Michael Kimball, Samuel Ligon, and Michael Martone - can't freaking wait to dip into this.

New Madrid's Intelligent Design issue (Winter 2009) was left at my table by Scott Doyle, whose story inside is quite good.  It also contains a story by Bev Jafek, a writer I've just begun to pay a little attention to, and is edited by Ann Neelon, whom I met at the EWN get together Wednesday night.

Sam Ligon swung by the EWN tables to hand me the last two issues (62 and 63) of Willow Springs.  Looking forward to these as well as there is an interview with Thomas Lynch in one, an excerpt from Robert Lopez's forthcoming Dzanc novel, Kamby Bolongo Mean River, a piece so good Mr. Matt Bell tried three times to get me interested in reading it, each time stopping himself halfway through his pitch with "Oh, yeah, you've probably read this already."

Add a Comment

One nice thing this year, I walked out of AWP with some books, chapbooks and journals, and upon lugging them back to the hotel, or back home to the Detroit area, I can honestly say not once did I look at one of them and wonder why I had done the carrying.  I'm looking forward to each, and also realize, aside from a couple of journals which you'll read about in a separate post, I actually exchanged cash for each of the following:

Modern Love by Andrew Scott (sunnyoutside, 2006), a fine looking (and now signed) chapbook of a short story with art work.  Andrew was also kind enough to help me out, as I was swamped at our own table,walking the length of two entire tables to buy his book for me, and bring it back signed.

Two Tribal Stories by Joshua Cohen (Small Anchor Press, 2007), a nice looking chapbook with two stories in it.  Also picked up from Small Anchor Press were The Viral Lease by Mathias Svalina (2008), which doesn't look like this photo, as each of the 100 copies was made with a unique cover and mine wasn't the one chosen to be the website representative, and Close to Home by Joshua Furst (the reprinted version from 2008).  The folks at Small Anchor are putting out nice looking chaps from authors I've heard of, read before, and liked.

The Fire Landscape by Gary Fincke (University of Arkansas, 2009).  A full collection of poetry from Fincke, a writer whose work I've enjoyed in poetry, stories, and memoir form.  I had the pleasure of getting this one signed and talking to Gary about the band Breaking Benjamin, a favorite of mine, and perhaps not so oddly, his, considering his son is their lead guitarist.  It was nice meeting him for the first time after years of emails.

Quodlibet by Chloe Joan Lopez (New Michigan Press, 2009).  The latest in their chapbook series for 2008-09.  Really, that's all I need to say.  Order the subscription, buy them one at a time, but give yourself the enjoyment that is this series that Ander Monson has been publishing the past few years.  Nicely designed (the rare perfectbound chapbook), sharp covers, and always, great words inside.

Ohio Violence by Alison Stine (UNT Press, 2009).  This poetry collection, sold and signed by Alison, though from the confines of the New Michigan Press table, came with a cool little set of handcuffs.  This is the 2008 Vassar Miller Prize in Poetry winner as selected by Eric Pankey.

American Prophet by Robert Fanning (Marick Press, 2009).  This is Robert's second poetry collection and one I would have bought Saturday even had I not embarrassed myself beyond belief trying to convince Robert he was Dzanc author, Roy Kesey, near the end of Thursday afternoon (I was tired, hungry, and whatever other bs excuse you can come up with).  It wasn't bad enough that I made the initial mistake but kept pushing, demanding Robert accept my congratulations for his winning the Missouri Short Fiction Contest.  Thanks to Dwayne Hayes for leaning over and whispering "That's not Roy" to me and cutting short the demands.  I've had the pleasure of hearing Robert read many of these as well as allowing me to include a couple in the 2007 EWN Holiday  Gift Email.

AM/PM by Amelia Gray (Featherproof, 2009).  Perhaps the book I was most looking forward to picking up while driving towards AWP and nearly done reading it, it hasn't disappointed at all.  Sadly, I didn't even know there was an Amelia Gray about two months ago and now I've scoured the web to find any publishings she's done.  This conveniently puts many of them together and is just a fantastic read.  Also caught her reading at The Beat Kitchen and had a bit of a chance to talk to her afterward and she's as nice as she is talented.  Rush over to the Featherproof site and you can get this one free if you subscribe to their awesome new subscription series.

Next up - AWP 2009 - The Loot (Literary Journals)

Add a Comment

Okay, it's really sort of a tease headline.  Really only meant to note that I will indeed be doing some posting on this past week and my AWP experience.  I will state this much now though, well, it's really not so much a statement as a bit of excitement - while this picture probably isn't the one of my copy, I did get a copy of the book pictured!!!

Add a Comment

Many apologies to my reader (s??) here for the seeming slacking as of late.  I'm off as of early this morning to Chicago for AWP 2009.  Traveling with the rising superstar, Matt Bell, and bunking up with the superstars on the scene already, Kyle Minor and Roy Kesey.  Dzanc Books will be sharing tables 741, 742, and 743 with imprints Other Voices Books, Black Lawrence Press, and Monkeybicycle as well as Absinthe:  New European Writing.  The awesome Keyhole Press will be next to us as well at table 744.

Many more great books have arrived in the mail since my last Source of Lit - The Postman! post and I've read another great book or two.  Some interviews are in process, some Dzanc announcements are around the corner, and some name-dropping posts (my specialty after all) are headed your way from, or just after, AWP. 

Add a Comment

I’m angry today, at the literary academic establishment. Specifically, I’m mad at AWP and Yaddo.

Last week  I called Yaddo (nicely) to ask about residencies for authors of kidlit.  I was told that I should apply with a submission of my adult work, and that then I could work on whatever I like if I got in. But they cannot fund children’s books, no matter the artistic merit of the work.

Grrrrr.  How incredibly stupid is that?

Then, yesterday, I found out that the panel I was on for AWP was declined, a panel about literary fictioneers and poets who also write books for kids.  Not shocking I guess. How else will they make room for another panel about (insert boring topic here)?

I’m really disappointed about this. It was an amazing group of writers, and we had a lot of good things to say.  Not to mentin being something NEW.

But it’s no surprise, in a climate where  many MFA programs  refuse to apply kidlit publications to tenure.  Because those morons will never realize that some of the most innovative writing– the most genre bending, creative, crazy work– is being done for kids.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Add a Comment

We received word today that one of the panels we suggested, well, a reading, has been accepted!

Add a Comment

The following is hardly even a smattering of the literary journals that were at AWP, or even those that I had the chance to have nice conversations with.  For instance, I know I talked to the folks at Ninth Letter, Mid-American Review, Travis at Mississippi Review, Hobart and Juked, Failbetter, and so many more I just can't remember.  But the following, these are the ones that somehow convinced me to carry a copy home with me (though, in many of those cases above, I already had the latest issue, so had no need to carry anything home):

Blue Mesa Review - Spring 2007 - issue 19

This issue contains a story (plus two poems) by Anis Shivani, who I've been hearing some really nice things about from friends online, poetry from Hilda Raz, non-fiction from Bonnie Jo Campbell (seriously - how do read her opening line: "My mother Susanna's expanded interest in chickens started when a guy brought her four roosters because he was going to jail." and not continue to read that essay?), reviews, and some work in translation. 

ep;phany - Winter/Spring 2007-08

They actually brought this one over to the Dzanc Books table to give to me and I've been skimming through it - it posed the fairly unique scenario of having no names in the Table of Contents that jumped out at me as EWN'er or writers I was aware of.

The Hudson Review - Winter 2008 - Volume LX Number 4

I don't know what else is in it, but Holly Goddard Jones told me one evening that she had a story in it and I was waiting when they opened their table the next day to buy a copy.  It was well worth the wait.

Black Warrior Review - Spring/Summer 2008 - Volume 34 Number 2

Poetry from Kevin Prufer, stories from Stephen Tuttle and Steve Davenport, plus four new voices introduced by some voices I enjoy (Deb Olin Unferth, David McGlynn and Gary Fincke), a chapbook, and some comics - a truly fine combination from this journal that continues to churn out great, slightly offbeat, issues.

cream city review - Volume 31 Number 2

Forced into my hands by the fantastic Chrisi Clancy, this new issue has great new work from Yannick Murphy (In a Bear's Eye), Benjamin Percy (Refresh, Refresh), and Kelly Spitzer!  Plus more.

Add a Comment

Every great indie publisher seems to have a cast of great people working for them - how else could they handle the level of work they put out - but they also all seem to have that one person.  The one that's visible to the outside world.  The one who seems to be everywhere, doing great things, and with a smile no-less.

AWP served as a great reminder for me of two of these individuals - those worth their weight in gold.

First up is Emily Cook of Milkweed.  I bumped into her at the Milkweed table, at the Dzanc table, and a few times on the BookFair floor.  Knowing that she hadn't been in town only for AWP, but for also for an additional week for publisher meetings, I was amazed at how upbeat and excited she was each time I found her.  She talked up a couple of Milkweed's titles.  She had nice things to say about Dzanc.  She pointed me towards a couple of other indie publishers she thought I'd like. 

Friday, with only about five minutes before the Bookfair closed, I scrambled my way down to the Akashic Books table.  I had actually been hoping to bump into Aaron Petrovich (I was carrying his The Session, hoping to get it signed) or Johnny Temple (I had seen him on a panel Thursday and wanted to thank him).  Silly me - I had forgotten that if neither of them were there, it would mean I'd have the pleasure of seeing Johanna Ingalls instead!  Even having been at the table for the bulk of the day, Johanna had a big smile to greet me with and was very happy to chat about the new Akashic titles, wish me well about Dzanc, congratulate me about our signing with Consortium, and let me know exactly when Johnny and Aaron would be at the table on Saturday morning.

Both of these women should be held up as examples of what is right with the book business (and please let me also make clear, there are many, many like these two out there - were I to name them all it would take me hours to type - these are just the two I saw at AWP that made me think of this).  They do what they do out of a genuine excitement for the work their house is publishing, for a love of literature, and because they know every little effort they expound does a little bit to both help their authors and companies, and, as Richard Nash likes to say, does a little bit to change our culture for the better.

Ladies, consider this my personal thank you.

Add a Comment

Apologies to anybody who was at the Hudson Bar right at 8 and even stuck around for 40 or 45 minutes, as I didn't roll in until about 8:48 p.m.

Seems there were near 50 MPH winds on Wednesday in NY and LaGuardia was shut down to only one landing strip.  So, our flight from Detroit was delayed over 2 hours, and then when they finally started to board the plane, they realized the door was malfunctioning.  More delay of about an hour waiting for another plane to come in that had no other destination we could borrow.

That meant I missed out on seeing one of my favorite people, Ed Champion, and whomever his four compatriots were that waited until probably 8:40 or so for me.

That aside, the evening was a true pleasure.  There were others still there when I arrived:  Clifford Garstang with a couple of friends (apologies here, and to every other name I forget or butcher) at the bar, Michael Czyzniejewski and a few BGSU folks at a table just inside the door, the great Robert Lopez introduced himself to me early and then I found a larger table of folks, some from OSU - Kyle Minor, Don Pollock, Mike Alber, and I know others (Val Vogrin, is that right?) too.  Anne Rushton and Kelly Shriver of Boundoff were there, as were Laura van den Berg and Peter Selgin.  Rachel Cantor was there with friends and came over to chat.  Aaron Burch and Elizabeth Ellen of Hobart (which sounds demeaning to the great writing they do beyond that), showed up, as did Dwayne Hayes of Absinthe:  New European Writing.  Christi Clancy, Suzanne Heagy, and Monica Rausch of Cream City Review showed up as well (they found Dwayne Hayes particularly fascinating, and to be honest, pretty much ignored me - Christi at least).  David James Poissant stopped by to say hi.  I know at least another five or six, and maybe more, individuals dropped in, kindly, just to say hi before running off to do something exciting - apologies for the aging memory going on here.  If I've ommitted your name, or butchered it, in any way, shape or form, please add it in the comments for me. 

Add a Comment

Due to various technical mishaps, I wasn't able to get into the AWP Bookfair on Friday to help the ever-erstwhile Clayton Kroh with the Best American Fantasy/Weird Tales table. Saturday, though, was no problem, and I spent the day in the labyrinthine world of the Bookfair -- three floors of tables and booths. It took me fifteen minutes just to find our table, placed as it was against a back wall of the farthest room, and once when I wandered out alone I managed to walk in circles for at least ten minutes before realizing the source of the profound sense of deja vu filling my brain.

Tempest Bradford stopped by, and I quickly convinced her to take over the table so I could wander around and give copies of BAF to any magazine or journal whose representatives I could convince to take one. It can be amazingly difficult to give things away at AWP, because so many people are traveling by airplane and cannot carry away piles and piles of the many things it is so easy to accumulate (although BEA is worse by an order of magnitude). But I persevered, and got to learn about a bunch of publications that were new to me. I also got to see folks I hadn't seen in a while, including Eric Lorberer of Rain Taxi, Rusty Morrison and Ken Keegan of Omnidawn, various members of the staff of Tin House (whose amazement that I no longer have a beard made me realize just how long it's been since I saw them last...), Eli Horowitz of McSweeney's, Aaron Burch of Hobart, a bunch of folks from Redivider, the wonder that is Richard Nash of Softskull/Counterpoint, and the great and glorious people of One Story, including editor Hannah Tinti, who, I learned, has a novel coming out in June: The Good Thief (Hannah's story collection Animal Crackers is excellent). I spent a bit of time chatting with Lawrence Schimel, who loaned me a lovely baby-blue bag in which to carry things. Small Beer Press was there in the force of Gavin Grant, Jed Berry, and Kelly Link, and I glanced at an advanced copy of John Kessel's upcoming collection, The Baum Plan for Financial Independence, a book all upstanding citizens will want to place on their bedside tables (no word yet on the deluxe coffee-table edition, which will feature photos of John Kessel and Jim Kelly acting out scenes from the stories). Finally, I got to talk briefly with Charles Flowers, of the Lambda Literary Foundation, who assured me that his excellent literary magazine, Bloom will, indeed, be producing a new issue soon.

And now a list of some of the journals I picked up copies of because they were new to me, though in some cases they are quite venerable publications (listed in the order of which I have pulled them out of my backpack): Third Coast, HOW, Dos Passos Review, So to Speak, Phoebe,The Yalobusha Review, Knockout, and Practice.

By the time I got back to the table, Theodora Goss had joined Tempest. Dora was at AWP to, among other things, help promote Interfictions along with her co-editor Delia Sherman, and there seemed to be a lot of interest among the AWP crowd in the book, as well as in such things as Omnidawn's Paraspheres and our Best American Fantasy. Core genre fiction is still not something that most people who attend AWP seem to get excited about, but particularly among the younger attendees, I noticed a great excitement for fiction that isn't in a strictly realist mode, fiction that draws from all sorts of different sources. Dora said a panel on fairy tales had been extremely popular, as was the panel on realist/nonrealist fiction. There was more interest in Weird Tales than I expected, too, with at least five people asking me, "Is that the Weird Tales?" -- people who seemed to think the magazine had died some years ago. It is very much alive, though, and new fiction editor Ann VanderMeer is working hard to bring its old traditions into the new century.

By the end of the day, I was completely exhausted, and my only regret was that I hadn't been able to be at the entire conference, nor did I get a chance to attend any of the panels, presentations, or parties. Chicago, though, is not so far away... Read the rest of this post

Add a Comment

It's that time of the year again, and this time around some 7000 writers and publishers will be descending upon New York City beginning tomorrow and then dragging their sorry hindquarters back home Saturday or Sunday.

Some things readers of this blog may want to know:

Add a Comment

1.  The Ride Home - Many, many thanks to Stefan Kiesbye, who not only manned the wheel all the way down to AWP, but did again all the way home.  While I was alert on the way to Atlanta, I was in and out all the way home.  We did have the "pleasure" of eating the worst breakfast in the history of the world - much worse than we had ever expected it could be, and as Aaron mentioned afterwards, we'd gone in with pretty low expectations to begin with.

  This photo was taken by Sanaz Kiesbye (look for her art, combining with a great story by her husband, Stefan, in the new issue of Hobart - it's fantastic!).  Sadly, this is what we left behind.  Maybe we should have got up and left after the waitress (a jumpy little woman named Jinty) brought Aaron and Sanaz their "orange juice", an almost yellowish, watery concoction with unknown contents floating near the top?

2.  Apologies for forgetting to mention some folks:  I had the pleasure of meeting Kevin Wilson, one of my absolute favorite unpublished (in book form) authors, Thursday at the Sewanee Review table.  I also met C. Dale Young, a great poet, at the New England Review table Thursday as well.  Not to mention Alyson Hagy for a brief chat Friday before her Graywolf reading.  I'm also pretty sure Andrew Ervin should have made an appearance in the Saturday evening post as well.

3.  More apologies to those of you who've wandered through these last five or six posts, not finding your own name(s), after having met me.  If I omitted your name, it's due to my own memory issues.

4.  In these past AWP posts, I've name dropped like a, well you know the phrase.  I've done so for a variety of reasons:  I think it's really freaking cool that I met all of these great people, especially some that I've known virtually for up to seven years now;  but more importantly, I really hope that readers of these posts will follow the numerous links - visit the journals I did, visit the publishers I was fortunate enough to talk to, and read the work of the many great and generous writers I had the pleasure of talking to.

5.  One more photo, taken on the floor by Nancy Zafris.  I had many people come up and say, you don't look at all what I thought you'd look like (apparently seriously balding doesn't come through in my writing)

 

Add a Comment

Dwayne and Jessica had already taken off to catch their flight, so the rest of our mini-Michigan contingent - Stefan and Sanaz Kiesbye, Jeff Parker and Michigander by proxy, Jon Fink, Aaron Burch, and myself went out in search of a non-hotel restaurant.  Jon, who had some previous experience living in the area took us to the midtown area where we found an upscale restaurant named Einstein's.  It was a great call, as we all paid just slightly more for a pretty gourmet meal, than I had for a fried egg sandwich Thursday a.m.

We headed back to the Hotel Lobby Bar where Greg Downs came up to say hi.  Though I was at least 90% sure it was him, I caught myself glancing down to the badge hanging from his neck - ugh.  We talked a bit about the Flannery O'Connor Short Fiction Award and his reading from the day before - as well as the writing of the other four winners he read with.

I then bumped into there was Greg Michalson of Unbridled Books.  I had a great, lengthy conversation with him about the publishing industry and making it as an independent press.  At times Ed Falco popped into the conversation as well.  With his experience at The Missouri Review, MacMurry & Beck, Bluehen Books, and now Unbridled Books - I'm not sure there was anybody at AWP I would rather have listened to talk about the industry.  Not to mention Greg has been responsible for some of my absolute favorite books being published over the years.

I caught back up with Aaron and he pointed out Christi Clancy, whose story, Frozen Little Universes, was my favorite in the new issue of Hobart.  He introduced me to her and we joined the group of people she was talking to - the bulk of whom were from the Cream City Review, as well as the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Dept. of English - including Suzanne Heagy (Fiction Editor) and Monica Rausch (Creative Non-Fiction Editor).  While I had a great conversation about her writing with Christi (there is a subtle commonality amongst the stories she's working into a collection - one I greatly look forward to based on the couple that I've now read), it was Suzanne and Monica that ended up sticking around the lobby the longest, leading to my learning more about Milwaukee, Cream City Review, and Farewell to Arms than I ever thought I would.

At some point during the conversation with these fine folks, Aaron went to the bar to get drinks.  I wandered off as well and noticed he was still at the bar when I was returning to the conversation so I ducked in to pick up my drink.  He had been talking to Dan Chaon.  Dan had stopped by the table earlier in the day and picked up a copy of the new Hobart, having read past issues already.  As I stepped up, he was just mentioning the name Peter Markus to Aaron, who pointed to me and noted we were publishing Markus next fall.  While I had bumped into Chaon earlier in the week, and introduced myself, we hadn't had a chance to talk at all.  Turns out, besides being a great writer, he's a fan of the things that have been going on in SE Michigan the last year or so - with Hobart and Absinthe and Orchid, and now Dzanc Books.  You can't imagine the excitment when somebody whose book you loved tells you how excited he is about the books you've announced you're publishing!

I then bumped into Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly again, briefly, and then went back to the Cream City Review section of the lobby, where Michael Czyzniejewski of Mid-American Review stopped by.  We had a really nice discussion about MAR, some other journals, and his own great writing.

After Michael left, and Monica and Suzanne bailed on us (if you can call going to bed at that hour bailing), Aaron and I bumped into the quartet that puts out the outstanding Barrelhouse:  Dave Housley, Mike Ingram, Joe Killiany and Aaron Pease.

The evening ended for us, similar to how AWP had started, hanging out with Jeff Parker, Jon Fink, and Andrew Lewellen had also joined us.  Jon had brought the emergency twelve pack he'd had in his vehicle all week, giving one each to Jeff, Aaron and Andrew.  He then began either setting the beer on the floor and stating "Free Beer!" or walking around passing the bottles out to the remaining females in the lobby (at least one small group of which, I've since found out, we're staying up to see the sunrise, only to discover that an abundance of 40 story buildings will block out such a sight).  The free beer brought a couple of rather undesirable guys over to our little group, but it also allowed them to put the perfect ending - not too little, and not quite too much - to AWP.

Add a Comment

I started the day off pretty freaking early, hitting the nine a.m. panel - Beyond Realism: Fiction That Tangles With Tangibles.  Early that is, considering the clock was reading 4ish upon return the evening before.  It was pretty well attended, but that's not a surprise with the firepower on the stage:  Jeff VanderMeer, Eric Lorberer, Gwenda Bond, Brian Evenson, and Gladys Swan, moderated by Ken Keegan.  Jeff has done an incredible recap at his own blog, and I will just point you there as opposed to try to do anything else with it.

This panel was excellent, and before it ended I had decided it would be the last panel I would attend so I could end on a high note.  It would also allow me more time in the bookfair to talk to literary journal editors.

After the panel I briefly talked with Brian Evenson.  He had a flock of people around him looking for signatures in their copies of the wonderful The Open Curtain.  I quickly asked Eric some questions about Rain Taxi, knowing I'd be hitting their booth up later in the day to subscribe.  I was able to grab Jeff quickly - having been introduced to him Thursday in the post-bookfair revelry, I'd not had much of a chance to talk to him.  We discussed The Best American Fantasy 2007 and his novel Shriek: an Afterword, as well as the essay that he'd read during the panel, and a book by the author who had written said essay.  Jeff is truly one of the good guys in this business - he's a fantastic writer, based on all early discussions of the BAF, I'm going to tack on great editor too, and he's out there promoting the work of others as much as possible.  Lastly I had the absolute pleasure of talking with Glady Swan.  Just before coming down to Atlanta, I'd received a copy of her new story collection, A Garden Among Fires, and had loved the first story and had read an old story collection of hers from the University of Illinois Press years ago.  With many years of publishing both realist fiction and this fiction that tangles with tangibles, she's an extremely interesting woman to talk to.

Having decided I was done with panels, I wandered down to the bookfair.  One thing I was able to do was talk to many of my favorite editors and pick their brains about things like print runs, distribution, and other aspects of the publishing business.  These included Fred Ramey of Unbridled Books (again -thanks Fred!), Kathryn Lang of SMU Press, Ben Furnish of BkMk Press, Margaret Donovan of Tupelo Press, Margie Rine of the University of Nebraska Press, Ted Pelton of Starcherone Books, Peter Conners of BOA Editions (who was kind enough to sign the copy of PP/FF I purchased at the Starcherone Books table), Joe D. Taylor of Livingston Press, and the combination of Sarah Gorham and Nickole Brown of Sarabande Books (where I learned that Nickole's first collection of poetry will be published by Red Hen Press next year!).

I also got to talk to some business folks about distribution (after the jump):

Laura Moriary of Small Press Distribution directed me nicely on how to utilize their website to get Dzanc Books listed, and Heather Hart of Consortium led me to who I'll need to talk to with their organization in terms of distribution - both were very kind.

Then it was on to literary journals.  I was both looking for great things to read, and talking to editors about working with Dzanc Books on our first big literary journal subscription drive - luckily I seemed to find both, frequently at the same times!

I ended up meeting two almost simultaneously, as I saw Martin Riker (Dalkey Archive Press) talking to a woman just outside the Denver Quarterly table.  While waiting for his conversation to end, I talked to the DQ's Associate Editor, Danielle Dutton (who happens to be Martin's wife), and purchased a copy of one of their latest issues while discussing the Dzanc Books promotional programs.  Then Martin was kind enough to introduce me to the woman to whom he'd been speaking, it was Jodee Stanley of Ninth Letter.  I told her I thought I'd met everybody from Ninth Letter but her over the past three days and nights and just how much I enjoyed her magazine (the recent issue has two excellent pieces from Roy Kesey and Rachel Cantor - and that's all I've had a chance to read so far).

Next up was Christopher Chambers and the New Orleans Review.  They've been hit with some horrible things this past year and a half, and are just getting back to the point of being as caught up on submissions as most literary journals are. 

I did wander over and subscribe to Rain Taxi, a great publication for reviews and to help you keep up with materials some of the smaller presses are putting out.  Besides the excellent print issues, they do online issues as well.

While in that area, I talked to Ander Monson at the table for Diagram - another great Michigan journal.  The journal itself is almost as inventive as Ander is himself.  I had the good fortune, actually, to have bumped into him a few times over the week.

While standing over by the Hobart / Absinthe table (again), I ran into NewPages.com's Casey and Denise Hill - there are no better proponents of literary journals in the world.  If you've not been to their site, are not sending them review copies, or somehow are just plain unaware of them - visit now!  We set up a very tentative (as in, no dates or anything yet) visiting of their lovely Bay Area home by the Ann Arbor area contingent of literati.

There were some journals I kept hovering past, trying to read the nametags of those manning them, as I hoped to bump into certain individuals.  Black Warrior Review was absolutely one of those journals as I was really hoping to meet Alissa Nutting.  And luckily - on Saturday - she was there.  I've always been a fan of the journal (though don't really find it often in the Michigan area), but was looking forward to meeting Alissa as I've recently discovered her work - the story in Swink recently, and then a poem (? really ?) in Ecotone.  It was great to get to pass on, in person, my admiration of her skills.  As a bonus, the new issue has a poem by Beth Ann Fennelly in it, as well as a short story by Chris Bachelder!

Another I snuck up on, squinting to read, was Kim Dana Kupperman and The Gettysburg Review.  Having emailed back and forth with Kim quite often over various issues the past year, it was a treat to meet her in person as well.  She also showed the fine spirit I noted quite often at AWP, pushing me down the aisle towards the Alimentum table.  This newish (3rd issue) journal is sub-titled - The Literature of Food and is lovely in a squarebound format.  I picked up issues 2 and 3 and talked a bit with Paulette Licitra, the editor.  It was also at this table that I met George Kaplan, the Syntax of Things roving correspondent.

I then realized that it was near two p.m. and the finals of the One-Story Air Hockey Tournament were about to begin.  I wandered over and talked to Hannah Tinti a bit, then with Katie Sexton, about her non-One Story project.  Some of the finer SIU MFA students rolled up as well and then we settled in to watch Agni's Billy Geraldi defeat Tin House's C.J. Evans in the final match.

I stopped by the OmniDawn table to pick up a copy of ParaSpheres:  Extending Beyond the Spheres of Literary and Genre Fiction.  Ken Keegan, the moderator of the panel I went to this a.m. was selling them for half price, and shipping it home for free as the book is a mere 640 pages long.  It contains works from Brian Evenson, Laird Hunt, Jeffrey Ford, Bradford Morrow, Jeff VanderMeer, and many others.

Then, after a great deal of searching, I found the table where Fairy Tale Review was (I'd been looking for their name on the sign, but they were at the Action Books table).  I picked up both the blue issue and the green issue and spoke to them at length about the Dzanc Books projects that would come later this year.  The books are fantastic looking, and having had a chance to dabble into the blue issue on the long drive home, well worth looking for.

I wandered back over to the Hobart / Absinthe table to help pack up (though, they were just on the verge of getting rid of everything they had brought down with them, leaving me to pack up my large box of stuff I'd accumulated over the last two days) and was pleasently surprised by Jeff VanderMeer who stopped by to give me a copy of the paperback of Shriek: an Afterword - a truly nice gesture.  Moments later I looked up and saw the name Jamba on a nametag and took a (HUGE) chance and said, Jamba Dunn?  Surprisingly, I'd guessed correctly - Jamba and I had begun corresponding via email about two months back and we had a nice little conversation.  I look forward to seeing some of his work coming down the line. 

Carolyn Kellogg showed up as Aaron was signing up his last new subscriber of AWP (Thanks Meg, an EWN'er who had come over to sign up based on a recommendation she'd read somewhere!) and we all wandered up the escalator out of the basement for the last time.

Add a Comment

The fine folks at Absinthe arrived on Wednesday a little later those of us from Michigan who drove down, and somehow scored a pretty nice room.  They came down to meet us at the bar Wednesday night and asked, does anybody else have a dining room table in their room?  WTF?  They had a suite.  So, we decided we'd eat some pizza in their room Friday evening before going to the great small publisher party set up at a local tavern by A Public Space, Milkweed Editions, Soft Skull Press, Akashic Books and possibly others that I don't recall, and strongly apologize to for not recalling.

So, pizza was picked up and Dwayne and Jessica hosted Aaron Burch, Stefan and Sanaz Kiesbye, Annie Gilson, Jeff Parker, Jonathan Fink, Richard Jeffrey Newman, Thomas Burke, Maria (last name missed), and myself.  After eating pizza and watching a fine story on CNN about a German brother and sister wishing to be allowed to raised their daughter as a normal family, we headed to Maury's Tavern, or some such bar.

The first big surprise?  Andrew Ervin was there!  Wandering over to talk to him, Juan Sanchez and Russell Evatt, I was also introduced to Martin Riker, Senior Editor at Dalkey Archive Press.  This was great as Martin and I had just started emailing about two weeks earlier, as I'm really excited about a collection he's just finished editing and sent off for galleys - Rosa Liksom's Dark Paradise. 

I wandered from that discussion to one with Matthew Eck, and that spun into one with the always interesting (not to imply that the other names included in this post are not always interesting - just meant to focus on the fact that she really is) Hannah Tinti.  Not only is Hannah always interesting, but she's also a popular target in such a crowd, and so I was given the opportunity to speak to many others whom I might not otherwise ever have bumped into.  Sadly, between my memory issues, and serious inability to hear very well in crowds such as Friday night's - I don't remember the names of those involved.  Well, except for Richard Nash, who put me in the biggest bear hug I've ever had in my life when I introduced myself.  I was also very briefly introduced to Zoe Ward of Archipelago Books.

I wandered over to the table that Aaron Burch was at where the fine couple who run Quick Fiction - Adam and Jennifer Pieroni were seated.  Also present were Blake Butler, Suzanne Pettypiece, and Dana, a young woman who I thought I remembered might have been introduced as an intern to one of the two journals (Quick Fiction or Ballyhoo Stories), or possibly as a poet that Andrew Ervin said was coming to UIUC in the fall (or hell, possibly both).  Also coming up and introducing herself was Laura van den Berg, a woman who is rapidly becoming one of my favorite new writers.

Blake was pretty much a one-man entertainment crew as at one point he ordered seven drinks and carried them all the way across the bar to our table, dousing himself with both red wine and Coke while doing so, and regaling us with an exciting tale about a day at an All-You-Can-Eat restaurant.  This tale will be serialized on the Hobart website beginning with the March issue - if Blake has written it 1/3 as well as he tells it while a "bit" drunk, it will be something you'll be bookmarking soon.

The ride back to the hotel was interesting as well, as Blake called up his girlfriend to come pick up us - nothing like four people in the back of a Honda Civic with the ringleader giving out bad directions.  While Heather probably doesn't read litblogs, if she does, consider this just one more apology.

Aaron and I bounced back over to the Hilton Lobby Bar where we met up again with (surprise!) Andrew Ervin, Jeff Parker and Jonathan Fink.  We also had a lengthy conversation with Kim Chinquee and Claudia Smith while there.  I hadn't really realized that Kim probably resides less than an hour away from me back home before talking to her.

Add a Comment