Post AWP Bliss February 4, 2008: Well, I survived my ninth AWP conference. I’ll say what every New Yorker (including me) said about the conference being held in our city this year: it wasn’t fair. We didn’t get to feel as if we were leaving our duties and obligations behind since we simply skipped over from our respective Big Apple dwellings. But to even out the score, I [...] by Rigoberto González

Orwellian Me February 3, 2008: I have just returned from my second time attending the AWP conference, which (like last year) was wonderfully exhilarating and utterly overwhelming. Here in Pensacola I lead a life rather thoroughly isolated from any literary community or scene, and so the opportunity to see and talk to so many fellow writers was and is particularly exciting to [...] by Reginald Shepherd

AWP, Communazis, and Me January 28, 2008: This post is in two parts. The first is a simple announcement of my participation in the upcoming AWP Conference in New York City. I am chairing a panel on Saturday, February 2 at from noon to one fifteen on Gay Male Poetry Post Identity Politics, featuring “emerging”? poets Christopher Hennessy (whose wonderful blog Outside the Lines focuses [...] by Reginald Shepherd

Writer at Work January 4, 2008: I’m trying to get my blog momentum back, but it’s not going to be easy: I’m currently in residence at Vermont College of Fine Arts up in snowy Montpelier. Yesterday it was ten degrees below zero, this morning it felt warmer: three below. And while I was up here I finished editing my forthcoming book of stories, Men without Bliss, and [...] by Rigoberto González

Responding to Violent Poems in the Classroom April 18, 2007: When I taught creative writing at Lynchburg College in Virginia, I discovered, like many creative writing teachers, that violence pervaded the lives of many undergraduates students. After receiving several poems about assaults, suicide, and abuse, I conducted an unscientific survey. I asked students to anonymously list violence they, their [...] by Emily Warn

Yecch. Home again. March 4, 2007: All AWP attendees should be granted some sort of transitional grace period before re-entering the real world. Oh, yeah. We definitely need it. Today, thousands of us hobbled off airplanes, dragging carry-ons bulging with obscure litmags, new tomes by first-time authors, glossy MFA brochures, a billion business cards, 12 Gettysburg Review sippy [...] by Patricia Smith

And a side of fried okra, please… March 3, 2007: How’s this for poetic inspiration? At about 3 a.m., when I should have been snoozing contentedly, dreaming stanzas, I was in the back seat of a cab hurtling toward Gladys Knight’s Chicken & Waffles because— 1) I’m in Atlanta, where they fry everything but chairs. 2) I’ve always been fascinated by the pairings—hot, sweet, crunchy, [...] by Patricia Smith

Clapping games… March 3, 2007: Yesterday, in the chaotic wonderland that is the AWP bookfair, I happened upon a woman I hadn’t seen in at least two decades. Before she even saw me, I watched as she haggled gently but persistently with someone at the Red Hen table—like so many of us, she was trying to sell herself, trying to convince powerful strangers that her words were [...] by Patricia Smith

“I wasn’t home today” March 2, 2007: —(point of departure - 1) When I taught a week-long "writing workshop" at Naropa last summer, after the first of four meetings, I received a note from a student in my mailbox. She said that she found the material I had presented interesting, but felt that she needed to concentrate more on her own writing. What is this elusive "writing"? I've [...] by Matvei Yankelevich

“Books Every Poet should Read (But Probably Hasn’t).” March 1, 2007: Recommended reading from the editors on the AWP panel “Books Every Poet should Read (But Probably Hasn’t).” 1. Michael Wiegers, Editor, Copper Canyon Press So Many Books by Gabriel Zaid ABC of Reading by Ezra Pound Classics Revisited by Kenneth Rexroth Adagia by Wallace Stevens Letter to an Am Imaginary Friend by Thomas McGrath Note from a [...] by Emily Warn