They Really Need to Turn that Conference into a Week-Long Thing

~AWP 2015 at Minneapolis!~

I posted most of these photos on facewatch, but they're all over the place on my wall. Much tidier here. Thought you'd like to see a pictorial of some AWP 2015 moments. It was a splendid conference. 

I love being a poet. I love writing poetry and reading poetry and I love poets. And if that sounds elementary, so be it. 

With the Staff of Fourteen Hills Literary Journal

Claudia Rankine, three-quarter view

Claudia Rankine, straight on

With Daniel Lawless

With Eduardo C. Corral and Brent Goodman

With Jericho Brown

Displaying Salmon Poetry titles with Salmon Poetry Managing Editor, Jessie Lendennie

With Carolyne Lee Wright and Kelly Davio, at the Tahoma Literary Review Table

Marie Howe, twofold 

With Oliver de la Paz and Lee Ann Roripaugh

The Pink Tuxedos, l to r: Sophie Cabot Black, Rita Dove, Carol Muske-Dukes, Marilyn Nelson

With Fred Viebahn and Rita Dove

With M Scott Douglass, at the Main Street Rag Booth

At the Salmon Poetry Booth, l to r: Yun Wang, Lori Desrosiers, Stephen Powers,
John Morgan, Cynthia, Jessie Lendennie
When directed to express how we feel during the first hours of the first day
of the AWP Conference

And then to express how we feel on the last hours of the last day

Stephen Powers, Cynthia, John Fitzgerald, Helene Cardona and Jessie Lendennie

~See you next year in LA!~

Off to See Just About 11,000 of My Closest Friends

Minneapolis AWP, 2015

As I look forward to boarding the plane for Minneapolis AWP and greeting old poet friends and meeting new ones, and roaming book aisles for select jewels to bring home, and panels and readings to attend, I'm happy to say that with this AWP conference I for once have my schedule down to a perfectly timed note. If it goes askew, it will only be because I've allowed it to do so. I'm sure I too will have photos and anecdotes from the conference of thousands of poets and writers to share. Certainly, there will be one or two stories that can't be disclosed, because in the retelling or the bright light of day, the facts themselves just somehow will seem, shall we say, less or possibly more than luminous. In fact, I'm also looking forward to returning home. An entire summer, albeit a desert one full of bright heat, waits patiently before me and I feel great promise in it. This is a summer to finish my next poetry collection which is so very close to being completed. This is the summer I read all the wonderful books I've collected these past months from glorious poets and writers and the books I will be picking up at the conference. This is the summer for household decisions, and the plotting for machinations required for roads accustomed to less usage. This is a baggage-less form of travel.