Instead of going to AWP, I used my vacation days from work to go to Puerto Rico and it was glorious.
Instead of going to AWP, I will show up to work at 8 am each morning and leave at 4:30 pm (hopefully) each afternoon.
Instead of going to AWP, I will purchase spring subscriptions to horse less press and Coconut Books, and I will order copies of Court Green and Lana Turner, and subscribe to two years worth of Bone Bouquet.
Instead of going to AWP, I will e-mail a friend and ask her to send me her manuscript.
I will write a book review for Fanzine.
I will try to attend as many literary events in Philadelphia as I can, but I will also forgive myself if I can’t make them all.
I will not post on Facebook that I am not going to AWP or that I dislike AWP, but I will most likely post a link to this list.
Instead of going to AWP, I will listen to a lot of Nina Simone, just like any other week.
Instead of going to AWP, I will think about power, race, gender, gender expression, and labor and how those concepts interplay in the world of poetry. Also in the world outside of poetry.
I will think about this a lot while I commute to work, but I will also zone out sometimes, and maybe hum along with the car radio.
Instead of going to AWP, I will think about what conferences are and what purposes they serve and for whom. I once attended a tech conference because my day job paid me to do so. As an unassociated poet, attending AWP doesn’t make sense to me personally. I am not a professional poet. (I don’t know what a professional poet is, but maybe they exist?)
When my Twitter and Facebook feeds are full of posts by people who are at AWP, I’m going to try to ignore them so that I can get through my workday. I will occasionally feel like I am missing out on something, but once I leave work and am not staring at a computer screen I will forget this feeling of missing out.
Instead of going to AWP, I will bind 100 chapbooks for my micropress. (I really have to get this done.)
I will watch a lot of basketball, and then I will call my parents to talk to them about the basketball games. We will probably talk some baseball too.
Is it true that there is an all white male panel on small press publishing at AWP? In 2015?
Who does AWP represent?
I attended AWP twice when I worked for NewPages.
When I’m not at AWP, I’m going to think about trying to attend future iterations of the CUNY Chapbook Fest, the Midwest Small Press Fest, the Buffalo Small Press Book Fair, Atlanta’s Letters Festival, and Philadelphia’s Philalalia.
Instead of going to AWP, I’m going to get a new tattoo. I will post a photo of it to Facebook and my dad will comment, “You’re killing, smalls,” as he does every time I get a new tattoo.
At my neighborhood bar, I will bullshit about whatever it is that people there are excited about that day.
I will compulsively read the news.
The last time I was going to go to AWP, I had surgery instead. That was three years ago and I just paid the surgery off. Even though it was after the deadline, AWP refunded my money and for that I was and remain very thankful.
While I’m not at AWP, I will not begrudge the people who are at AWP and are enjoying themselves and are finding it to be a meaningful and worthwhile experience. I will be happy for them.
Why is AWP never in Baltimore—aren’t they based near there? When will it be in Philadelphia? Or Detroit? If I will go to Detroit this summer to see a baseball game (which I will), then certainly(?) I would attend an AWP there. Or if not “officially attend,” I would go to the offsite events and visit the book fair on the day it is open to the public. (The book fair at Philalalia is open to the public every day.) Plus I could see my family. I’m lobbying now for AWP Detroit 2020. Honestly, I don't really want it to invade Philadelphia while I'm living here.
For poetry, 2014-2015 has been a great year of questioning and soul-searching (I don’t believe in the soul, but I believe in soul music). VIDA has been keeping people honest for years. There’s been the very necessary increase in social justice activism around Ferguson, Eric Garner (and so many other men, women, and children), and the #blacklivesmatter and #blackpoetsspeakout campaigns. What options are there for poets and writers who are not sponsored by an institution, whether as graduate students or professors? Is there an AWP count for presenters and panelists?
This was the first year that I was asked to be on panels. Both proposals were rejected and honestly I was relieved. One was on poetry communities while the other was on something called “alt-ac” jobs, or alternate academic jobs—so for people like me who work at a college as a staff member in a non-academic job, where they don’t even know I am a poet. (I hope to use this mystery to my advantage when I enter the school’s library poetry contest this month.)
Instead of going to AWP, I will consider a photo of a young Barry Manilow that hangs in the bathroom at my neighborhood bar. Every time I see it, it makes me think of Dana Ward, but I can’t place what I’m seeing in the features or expression that makes me think that.
Instead of going to AWP, I’m going to blog for the Poetry Foundation.
Instead of going to AWP, I’m going to read several books and probably take a few naps and I will definitely drink some beers and probably eat some nachos.
I will walk around my neighborhood.
I will think about Ted Berrigan saying, “Survival is the hardest test for a poet.”
Will writing against AWP get me kicked out of poetry? Will I never get an NEA grant or a residency at Vermont Studio Center? Will I remain un-anthologized?
For some people, I imagine AWP is a good place for conversations to take place. I like that poetry happens everywhere and that conversations can take place everywhere.
I wonder if Barrelhouse will ever sell a t-shirt that says, “I was forcibly groped at AWP.” I would buy that.
Instead of attending AWP, I’m going to e-mail all the people who have asked me if I will be at AWP, “No, I will not be there this year.” Maybe I’ll go next year. It will be in Los Angeles, yes? I’ve been dreaming of becoming a dropout who lives in Venice Beach. Is that kind of life still possible? What worlds are out there that I don’t know about? Berrigan said, “Do everything. Find it all out.”