Conference Registration

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Attendees who have registered in advance, or who have yet to purchase a registration, may secure their registration materials in AWP’s registration area located in Summit Lobby, Seattle Convention Center, Level 1. Please consult the bookfair map in the AWP mobile app for location details. Students must present a valid student ID to check-in or register at our student rate. Seniors must present a valid ID to register at our senior rate. A $50 fee will be charged for all replacement badges.

From Poetry Hotlines to Kate Bush: Sarabande Writers on Creative Book Promotion

. (Joanna Englert,  Adam O. Davis,  Karyna McGlynn,  Joy Priest,  Karisma Price)

Sarabande has a storied history of creative book campaigns. From collaborative art installations to lip sync battles and everything in between, these four Sarabande writers have changed the game of book publicity, finding new and exciting ways to engage with audiences within local and national communities, both virtually and in person. Listen to them discuss their campaign experiences and how they pushed their books to rise above the noise of a bustling literary landscape.

Building Virtual Community

. (Rebecca Lehmann,  James Hall,  Kai Coggin,  Khalisa Rae,  Lindsey Andrews)

During the pandemic, podcasts, online journals, virtual classrooms, and online arts organizations became vital community hubs. These virtual spaces provide access to the literary community across barriers like geography, income, disability, and parenthood, and are uniquely positioned to build inclusive communities. Representatives from Breaking Form Podcast, Think in Ink, Couplet Poetry, Wednesday Night Poetry, and Night School Bar consider the work, joy, and struggles of building virtual community.

The Pocket Epic: Poets Writing at Length

. (Melissa Crowe,  Meg Day,  Paisley Rekdal,  Sumita Chakraborty )

In a form characterized by compression, what does it mean to write at length? Can such works cleave to standards of precision and concision as they extend beyond the standard one-pager? What kinds of world-building, expansiveness of thought, or complexity of experience might be achieved in multipage or even book-length poems? Panelists will read briefly from their work, discuss both formal and free-verse approaches to writing long poems, and offer strategies for generating and sustaining them.

The Other Deepest Thing: A Tribute to Naomi Shihab Nye

. (Aimee Nezhukumatathil,  Nathalie Handal,  Hayan Charara,  Jenny Browne,  John Phillip Santos)

Persistent political, racial, and religious divisions have made Naomi Shihab Nye’s long-beloved poem “Kindness” one that repeatedly resurfaces with its gentle yet urgent call for human connection. Like the poem, Nye’s vast body of work as a poet, essayist, anthologist, novelist, and children’s book author transcends genres and bridges worlds. Panelists will use the poem as a spark to discuss Nye’s impact on their own work and lives. Nye will then close the event with brief remarks and a new poem.

National Book Foundation Presents: The Power of Poetry

. (Danez Smith,  Donika Kelly,  Ruth Dickey)

Join National Book Award–honored authors Donika Kelly (Bestiary, 2016 Poetry Longlist) and Danez Smith (Don’t Call Us Dead, 2017 Poetry Finalist) in a conversation about the power of poetry for both author and reader, and its influence on the evolution of their own writing across collections. Presented in partnership with the National Book Foundation, and moderated by the Foundation’s Executive Director Ruth Dickey. This event will be livestreamed. ASL interpretation and live captioning will be provided.

The First Crypto Poets: What We Learned from NFTs and Where We’re Going

. (John Poch,  Sasha Stiles,  Ana Caballero,  Kalen Iwamoto)

This panel will discuss the world of crypto-poetry and our experiences: where we’ve been and where we’re headed with our literary NFTs on these dynamic new publishing platforms. The participants’ backgrounds in artificial intelligence, poetry, visual art, and creating / minting / selling / buying on the blockchain provide a new way of presenting poetry to readers. Attendees will benefit from hearing about our own work in crypto-spaces: the technology, successes, obstacles, failures, and triumphs.

Do I Contain Multitudes? Who’s Asking?

. (Sarah Blake,  Rachel Mennies,  Arisa White,  C. Russell Price,  Wo Chan)

“Identity tends to be used as a thing to pin us down … but I am imagining ways to become unpinnable,” Natalie Diaz once said. In this panel, five poets will discuss writing queer identity under the cis-hetero-patriarchal gaze—how they use direct address, performance, epistles, the collective I, and other subversive craft choices to pursue the unpinnable in their poetry. They will explore the generative approaches that worked for them as they broke open against perspective and form.

Cost: Free
Url: https://www.ecotheo.org/upcoming-events

LOGOS gatherings are “liturgically-inflected” reading events. By lovingly, artfully, non-dogmatically incorporating elements of sacred ritual into the format of a traditional poetry reading, LOGOS cultivates a space for sharing poetry that is participatory and dynamic — and seeks to “evoke transcendence through poetry, ritual, and conversation.” LOGOS is a project of EcoTheo Collective, a registered nonprofit that “celebrates wonder, enlivens conversations, and inspires commitments to ecology, spirituality, and art.” Poet bios: https://www.lutherxhughes.com/ and https://www.gabriellebat.es/.

Writing through Apocalypse: Poets at the End of the World

. (Franny Choi,  Saeed Jones,  Brenda Shaughnessy)

How do we write about the dystopian present while making room for possible worlds beyond this one? How might a poetics of apocalypse open space for grief, rage, and resiliency? Three queer poets of color read from their new collections and discuss their approaches to writing through the apocalypses of the past, present, and future.

Stand (or Sit) and Deliver: Inviting Audiences into Poetry through Performance

. (Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor,  NourbeSe Phillips ,  Beth Ann Fennelly ,  Ilya Kaminsky,  Alicia Jo Rabins)

Creative writers use bodies and voices—pitch, volume, pacing—to shape tone. Writers may not all be actors, but if we can diversify and expand audiences through performance, why not call for more rehearsals? Panelists raise the curtain on backstage preparations to show how bodies’ gestures, sounds, sizes, and movements can deepen the audience’s connection to an imaginative world. Working within constraints, panelists model the small and larger techniques to gift an embodied lyric experience.

So You Want to Publish a Poetry Collection

. (Gabrielle Bates,  Luther Hughes,  Shelley Wong,  Paul Hlava Ceballos)

Recent debut authors will briefly share their own first-book journeys, offering practical counsel and sharing resources when it comes to organizing, editing, and soliciting feedback on your manuscript; navigating first-book contest submissions; publishing outside of the contest model; and common emotional, psychological, and financial realities of sending your first book out into the world.

Vital to Language and Living: Copper Canyon Celebrates Its First Fifty Years

. (Michael Wiegers,  Ellen Bass,  Red Pine,  Paisley Rekdal,  Nicholas Goodly)

Since 1973, Copper Canyon Press has exercised an unwavering commitment to the art of poetry, the creative lives of poets, the alchemy of publishing, and the belief that poetry is vital to language and living. This reading and conversation features poets and translators who represent different aspects of Copper Canyon’s dynamic and diverse mission, who will read from their work, speak to the necessity for poetic truths, and converse with the long-time editor who has championed their work. This event will be livestreamed. ASL interpretation and live captioning will be provided.

Leading, Styling, and Other Navigations: Writers and Editors as Designers

. (Lydia Pejovic,  Anna Leahy,  Keith S. Wilson,  Amanda Niehaus,  Allison Blevins)

Reading experiences depend not only on language but also on the design of the material iteration of a given text. What happens when we think about the printed page or screen as a space for text? What should or could a journal or a poem look like? What if someone reads with their ears instead of their eyes? With accessibility and budget in mind, panelists explore constraints and innovations of physical and digital spaces, share practical design tips, and suggest options for visually driven work.

Poetry Alive! Why Teaching Living Poets to Children and Youth Matters

. (Melissa Smith,  Donna Vorreyer,  Joshua Gottlieb-Miller,  Outspoken Bean,  Becca Rose Hall)

Contemporary poetry is vibrant, exciting, inclusive, and relevant. But how do you go about including it in K–12 settings? How do you use it to prompt student writing? How do you deal with its often complex and mature themes? And why does teaching living poets matter? Writers teaching youth in diverse regions and contexts (including the founders of #teachlivingpoets and Seattle’s own Frog Hollow School) speak about how they break past the expected canon and share contemporary poetry with youth.

Metaphor Dice Demo and Throwdown!

. (Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz,  Brendan Constantine,  Derrick Brown,  Nicole Homer,  TAYLOR MALI)

After a brief demonstration of Metaphor Dice, a prompt-generating tool based on the understanding that a metaphor is merely an equation between an idea and a thing, some of the biggest names in contemporary poetry and spoken word will casually compete in a series of improvisational rounds using the dice, rotating on and off several hot seats on stage. By the end, even certain audience members may have earned a chance to write and perform in a round or two of fast-paced, low-stakes, literary fun!

The Other World in This: An Image Journal Reading

. (Scott Cairns,  Joyelle McSweeney,  Sarah Stone,  Fady Joudah,  Shane A. McCrae)

Poets, novelists, and essayists from Image journal upend our assumptions about religion. Rather than escaping the world or evading humanity, writing that grapples with spiritual struggle is deeply attuned to the hopes and heartbreak of this world. Precisely because it doesn’t shy away from enduring themes of religious devotion, such writing probes the depths of human complexity and the visceral experience of being embodied. We will highlight such work across multiple genres.

Growing the Garden: Paying Tribute to Joanne Gabbin and Furious Flower

. (Remica Bingham-Risher,  Shauna Morgan,  Tyehimba Jess,  Jericho Brown,  Opal Moore)

Envisioned by Dr. Joanne Gabbin, the historic Furious Flower Poetry Conference was organized at James Madison University in 1994 and led to the development of the nation’s first academic center for Black poetry. Furious Flower has become a singular institution, supporting the growth of new poets and archiving the work of torchbearers in the Black literary tradition. Gabbin, a veteran educator who pioneered courses in Black Studies, is also an editor, author, poet advocate, culture-worker, and community builder.

Road Dogs: A Celebration of Touring Poets

. (Taylor Mali,  Anis Mojgani,  Derrick Brown,  tara hardy,  Jason Bayani)

Write Bloody Publishing celebrates and mandates that all their authors tour to build a fanbase. A discussion with a diverse group of well travelled poets along with poems, stories, and tips for surviving the modern tour schedule.

Incandescent with Feminine Rage: A Reading

. (Sonia Greenfield,  Abby E. Murray,  Kendra DeColo,  Diamond Forde,  Rachel McKibbens)

From the erosion of Roe v. Wade to the gunning down of children to the cultural indictment of Black Lives Matter, there is no end of fuel for the fire of feminine anger, which still rages on. Whether we’re grieving mothers or activists seeking to decenter the cis/het white hegemony, we find ourselves overcome with a fury so profound, it threatens to consume us. What do we do with its sheer power? We channel it into poems that want to burn it all down in order to rebuild a society fit for us all.

Mutant, Monster, Misfit, Myself: Writing the Disabled / Chronically Ill Body, Sponsored by AWP

. (Sandra Beasley,  Paul Guest,  Rosebud Ben-Oni,  Jenn Givhan,  Jeannine Hall Gailey)

Five disabled and/or chronically ill writers of poetry and memoir talk about how their body influences the way they write, their subject matter, even how they impact their genres and efforts towards publicity. How do we claim / activate our disability or illness? What do we disclose? We’ll discuss how our work has changed over time, how our relationships with disability have changed, how we accommodate or resist the gaze of abled readers, and how disability / illness manifests in genre, line, metaphor. This event will be livestreamed. ASL interpretation and live captioning will be provided.

New Poetry: A Wesleyan Reading

. (Rae Armantrout,  Evie Shockley,  Sarah Blake,  Ranjit Hoskote,  Trevor Ketner)

New work from five poets showing the breadth of Wesleyan’s poetry series. Diverse work includes anagrams of Shakespeare’s sonnets exploring queer desire and pagan tradition; prose poems pondering what makes us human if removed from the human world; poetic word play that nudges us to rethink our modern predicaments; the repurposing of literary modes from across centuries of African diasporic traditions; and lyric poems that replace the sovereign “I” with an ensemble of urgent, questioning voices.

We’re All Imposters Here: On Writing with Imposter Syndrome

. (Katie Manning,  Kai Coggin,  Pádraig Ó Tuama,  Cleyvis Natera)

Our panelists look at each other and see successful, brilliant people, so why don’t we see ourselves that way? Why are feelings of not belonging and not being enough so pervasive for writers? Join the hosts of Poetry Unbound and Wednesday Night Poetry, the editor of Whale Road Review, and the author of Neruda on the Park for a wide-ranging discussion about the origins of imposter syndrome and our strategies for continuing to write and work.

Creative Coding for Creative Writing: Digital Tools in the Poetry Classroom

. (Collier Nogues,  Lillian-Yvonne Bertram,  Lai-Tse Fan,  Doug Luman,  Keith S. Wilson)

Computational and digital poetry tools are increasingly accessible and easy to use, and offer exciting ways to help students compose new work, revise thoughtfully, and hone their sense of purpose as writers. This panel considers the merits of creative coding and other digital practices in poetry classrooms from MFA workshops to undergraduate surveys to high school enrichment programs. We’ll share our experiences using open-source, free, and fun tools to support specific pedagogical goals.

Uprooted / Unrooted: Adopted and Donor-Conceived Poets Rewriting Family

. (Lori Desrosiers,  Stacey Balkun,  Lee Herrick,  Jennifer Givhan,  Leah Silvieus)

The bonds that make “family” have always extended beyond its traditional definition; blood isn’t always thicker than water. Five poets redefine the notion of family, discussing their experiences with adoption-from-birth, late-discovery cross-cultural adoption, and donor-conception, and sharing how such experience has (or hasn’t) impacted the writing and/or publishing of creative work. To widen the discussion and make room for all families, this event will invite the audience to join in via Q&A.