#AWP19 is happening soon. This this year, it’s going to be a big one. Not only are we expecting a particularly large crowd this year (everyone seems to be excited about converging on the famously literary city of Portland), it’s also our first year officially and formally as part of The Accomplices! Meowza.

It’s been one hell of a year since the last one. We know. We hear you. We’re right there under the bed along with you. And if you’re wondering how you’re going to manage it all this year as a socially awkward introvert who suddenly has to navigate the giant crowds, here’s our annual guide to help you focus. Don’t worry about doing everything. Focus on taking it easy and giving some time to unwind and process. Have more one-on-one conversations, and remember to take care of yourself. This year our guide includes recommendations for panels & off-site events and a curated map to the book fair, plus a literary map of Portland, but we’re also focusing on DIY publishing, community, diversity & equity, self-care, and marginalized voices. See you soon.

Don’t forget to visit us (The Accomplices: Civil Coping Mechanisms & Entropy & Writ Large Press ) at Table 2009 (T2009). Say hello. Give us a hug. Cry with us. Tell us about your favorite book or ramen or ramen/book pairing. We’ll have books and swag and stickers. And cats. Always, cats.

Follow us for live and regular tweeting from the conference all week/end long.
@EntropyMag  /  @the5accomplices / #AWP19

(Also, #AWP19 has it’s own app, in case you’re into that sort of thing: AWP Conference Mobile App)

Quicklinks:

• Portland Literary Map
• AWP Bookfair
• Selected AWP Panels
• Offsite Events

Portland Literary Map:

Check out the Portland Literary Map! Brought to you by the Portland State University Creative Writing Program, Ooligan Press, Literary Arts, and The Accomplices.

Download a PDF of the map, or snag a free copy at any of our tables: Portland State University (4012, 4014), Ooligan Press (T4011), Literary Arts (4056), The Accomplices (T2009).

AWP Bookfair:

(Click map to enlarge)

Just a small selection of some our favorite tables & booths. Find a complete listing of exhibitors here.

Note: The Book Fair is open from 9AM – 5PM each day.

Selected AWP Panels:

A few selections and recommendations. See the complete conference schedule and detailed descriptions here.

Thursday, March 8

9:00 am to 10:15 am

Indigenous Fiction: Intersections in the United States & Canada.
(Erika Wurth, Eden Robinson, Carol Lindstrom, Daniel Justice, Alicia Elliott)  / B114, Oregon Convention Center, Level 1
This panel will feature Indigenous writers from Canada and the United States from a variety of literary traditions, from fantasy to realism, from work that in form moves from post-modern or surreal to linear and narrative.

Create the Literary Future You Want: Writers on Community Organizing.
(Amy Shimshon-Santo, Lawrence Minh-bui Davis, Hiram Sims, Luis Rodriguez, Traci Kato-Kiriyama)  / E145, Oregon Convention Center, Level 1
This panel brings together writer/activists who have founded programs and organizations that aim to change the literary world and advance social justice.

Arab/Indigenous: Palestinian, Indigenous North African, & Arab/Native Art.
(Ahimsa Timoteo Bodhrán, Lisa Suhair Majaj, Katherine Toukhy, Rasha Abdulhadi, Micaela Kaibni Raen)  / E146, Oregon Convention Center, Level 1
Recognizing the importance of constellating Arab diaspora art in multiple ways, including through immigrant/refugee and pan-Asian/African lenses of experience, this panel argues for a creative, critical, pedagogical, and publishing re-evaluative centering of Indigenous Arab realities by placing in dialogue womanist/queer/trans Palestinian, Indigenous North African, and mixed-race Arab/Native American artists, activists, and editors.

10:30 am to 11:45 am

The Oh Shit Moment: Issues of Social Justice & Identity in the Writing Classroom.
(Rachel Simon, Olivia Worden, Seth Michelson, Melissa Febos, Syreeta McFadden) / B110-112, Oregon Convention Center, Level 1
What can you do in the moment a student shocks your class by introducing the language of racism, sexism, classism, colorism, cissexism, ableism, or victim blaming? This panel will offer practical steps to address the uncomfortable moment and ways to use it as a exercise in critical thinking.

Chaotic Good: Genre Fiction as a Tool for Political Resistance.
(Gregory Howard, Porochista Khakpour, Rion Scott, Daniel Jose Older, Danielle Dutton)  / B117-119, Oregon Convention Center, Level 1
This panel will explore how genre fiction, or fiction that uses genre elements, can address politics and even be an act of resistance.

Shape-Shifting Lineages: Conjuring the Feminine Divine, Power, and Creation.
(Purvi Shah, Rosamond S. King, Ana-Maurine Lara, Sun Yung Shin)  / D133-134, Oregon Convention Center, Level 1
This event will engage diverse lineages of the feminine divine to explore power, myth-making, diasporic, and transnational inheritances, and creation in contemporary writing by women of color.

12:00 pm to 1:15 pm

Vietnam Is a 7 Letter Word.
(Dao Strom, Aimee Phan, Nao Vi Khi , Bui Thi, Stacey Tran) / A107-109, Oregon Convention Center, Level 1
Answering back to over-written narratives, these women of the Vietnamese diaspora offer insight into how writers may elasticize and complicate definitions of one’s various assigned “identities” and lend voice to the silenced, obscured, or overlooked.

Show Me the Money: Making Ends Meet in the Literary World.
(Marisa Siegel, Jennifer Baker, Ashley C. Ford, Michele Filgate, Emily Gould) / E141-142, Oregon Convention Center, Level 1
Five writers with experience in developing literary magazines, small presses, reading series, and other literary endeavors will have an in-depth discussion about the financial realities of the literary community that too often remain hidden.

Poetry and Technology: Appendage, Mask, Voice, Body, and Song.
(Samuel Ace, Douglas Kearney, Amaranth Borsuk, Ronaldo V. Wilson, LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs) / F151, Oregon Convention Center, Level 1
Five poets will perform and discuss the ways in which technology extends the content of their work and the reach of their practice.

1:30 pm to 2:45 pm

Wild Girl Poets: A Reading and Reckoning.
(Michelle Peñaloza, Jennifer S. Cheng, Sally Wen Mao, Soham Patel, Diana Khoi Nguyen) / E147-148, Oregon Convention Center, Level 1
This reading and conversation features a new generation of Asian American women poets who declare themselves “wild girl poets,” a term Marilyn Chin used during a Kundiman gathering to signify the spirit of Asian American women who defy stereotypes.

Writing the Personal Through Fiction and Nonfiction, Sponsored by Grove/Atlantic, Hugo House, and Seattle Arts & Lectures.
(Terese Marie Mailhot , TK TK , Pam Houston, G. Willow Wilson) / Oregon Ballroom 201-202, Oregon Convention Center, Level 2
Join three highly acclaimed, award-winning writers—New York Times bestselling author Terese Marie Mailhot, New York Times notable author Pam Houston, and Hugo Award-winner G. Willow Wilson—as they discuss the rewards and challenges of depicting culture, landscape, trauma, and family across genres.

A Reading & Conversation with Dawn Lundy Martin, Morgan Parker, and Evie Shockley, Sponsored by Cave Canem.
(Evie Shockley, Morgan Parker, Dawn Lundy Martin, Fatimah Asghar ) / Portland Ballroom 253-254, Oregon Convention Center, Level 2
Three award-winning poets give brief readings, followed by a moderated conversation about poetry as a space for complex negotiations and radical reimaginings.

3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Debut Authors: Navigating All the Seasons of Book Publication.
(Ingrid Rojas Contreras, Crystal Hana Kim, Lillian Li, Lucy Tan, Lydia Kiesling) / B110-112, Oregon Convention Center, Level 1
This panel of immigrant and working debut women authors who created an email thread six months before their book publications share lessons learned about navigating relationships with publicists, marketers, and editors, using connections to support each other, advocating for yourself, and asking for what you want.

4:30 pm to 5:45 pm

Season of the Witch: Feminism, Ritual, and Independent Publishing.
(Brooke Wonders, Joanna C. Valente, Mary Biddinger, Annah Browning, Jessica Berger) / C125-126, Oregon Convention Center, Level 1
What unnamed experiences might a feminist literary magazine or press want to summon?

Beyond the Page: Literature and Multimedia Adaptations.
(Allison Adele Hedge Coke, Angela Peñaredondo, Rajiv Mohabir, Hari Alluri, Lee Kava) / F151, Oregon Convention Center, Level 1
What happens when literature shifts skins and takes on new forms?

Friday, March 29

9:00 am to 10:15 am

Dystopias and Utopias in Contemporary Asian American Literature.
(Chaya Bhuvaneswar, Jimin Han, Thirii Myint, Anita Felicelli) / B116, Oregon Convention Center, Level 1
Four writers examine the speculative impulse present in literature that on its face is about contemporary political events, combining brief readings, a Q & A on cross-genre literary work and craft, and an audience writing exercise.

Transmogrification of the Transgender Narrative: Cunting-up Trans Nonfiction.
(Cooper Lee Bombardier, Brook Shelley, Colette Arrand, Ryka Aoki, Grace Reynolds) / B117-119, Oregon Convention Center, Level 1
Toward an expansion of possibilities for trans nonfiction through the investigation of process, praxis, and the generously assumed audience, several trans nonfiction writers will discuss writing beyond the transition narrative in an experimental homage to Dodie Bellamy’s cunt-ups, where the remarks of each panelist are taken up at random; allowing the conversation to transcend narrative binaries, and to challenge notions of authorship, expertise, and the myth of a single trans story.

Who’s Got the Power? Enacting Advocacy for Oneself & Others.
(Khadijah Queen, Prageeta Sharma, TC Tolbert, Michelle Whitaker, Christina Olivares) / D137-138, Oregon Convention Center, Level 1
This panel considers how humanities teachers, writers, and scholars can promote greater inclusivity, equity, and professionalism in public and private when it comes to encountering, wielding, and envisioning authority in institutional spaces, with a focus on practical and implementable solutions.

Money Moves & Recruitment Tools: Summer Writing Programs for High School Students
(Patricia Dunn, Seth Michelson, Tori Weston, Tania Pabon, Sylvia Chan) / D133-134, Oregon Convention Center, Level 1
This discussion-based panel will offer participants the opportunity to brainstorm ideas for summer programs, gain strategies for working with administrative challenges, budgets, space restrictions, and faculty recruitment.

10:30 am to 11:45 am

The Sexuality of Textuality.
(Garth Greenwell, Carmen Machado, Lidia Yuknavitch, Alexander Chee) / Portland Ballroom 253-254, Oregon Convention Center, Level 2
Four writers whose work in multiple genres moves from the body under endless revision address how desire, power, and sexuality write us alive or dead.

12:00 pm to 1:15 pm

Game On: Teaching Writing for Video Games.
(Salvatore Pane, Eric Freeze, Julialicia Case, Nick Potter, Natalie Mesnard) / D135, Oregon Convention Center, Level 1
Our panel of professors, grad students, and video game writers will discuss the merits of teaching writing for video games and will provide a variety of pedagogical insights into this growing artistic genre.

Making Sure Everyone is Here: The Empathetic Classroom as Inclusive Space.
(Katie Peterson, Kimberly Grey, Kathleen Spada, F. Douglas Brown, Chiyuma Elliot) / F151, Oregon Convention Center, Level 1
On this panel, teachers from diverse backgrounds and disciplines discuss strategies, uses, and misuses of empathy in the classroom.

The Strengths of Complexity and the Power of Limitations: Writers on Disability.
(Sandra Gail Lambert, Esmé Weijun Wang, Sarah Einstein, Naomi Ortiz) / Oregon Ballroom 201-202, Oregon Convention Center, Level 2
These authors are diverse in identities and disability, but each of them writes in a way that confronts what is considered normal.

1:30 pm to 2:45 pm

Who Has the Rights? The How, Why, and Whom of Translation, Sponsored by ALTA.
(Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello, Rajiv Mohabir, Sawako Nakayasu, E. J. Koh) / E147-148, Oregon Convention Center, Level 1
This panel addresses ethical and practical aspects of translation, including why translation matters, who has the right to translate whom, how texts are chosen and permissions are obtained, what grants and fellowships are available, and what specific issues can arise from translating non-Romanized texts into English.

3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Beauty and the Body, Being and Belonging.
(Porochista Khakpour, Derrick Austin, Beth Bich Minh Nguyen, V.V. Ganeshananthan) / B117-119, Oregon Convention Center, Level 1
To write about beauty and the body is to approach history, space, and prevailing ideas of being and belonging. Poets, essayists, and fiction writers read work that explores our relationships with bodies, and how these ideas continue to evolve.

Teaching Unteachable Books.
(Brian Blanchfield, Leni Zumas, Prageeta Sharma, Sara Jaffe, Jonathan Lethem) / E145, Oregon Convention Center, Level 1
[W]hat about those other books that are cherished by our writer selves, key to our writing practices? Ones that are idiosyncratic or broken or inconsistent or unclassifiable or utterly outside of what gets called “craft.” Do you, and how, keep such a book vital to teaching writing?

Spectral Geographies: Writing About Visible and Invisible Communities.
(Robin Hemley, Justin Clark, Stephanie Elizondo Griest, Colin Dickey, Ada Calhoun) / F151, Oregon Convention Center, Level 1
Five authors discuss writing about communities both visible and invisible, and what it means for places and people to be seen: from migrants and borders to ghosts, to enclave inhabitants and anonymous city dwellers.

4:30 pm to 5:45 pm

Against Witness: Developing Accountability & Participation in Poetry.
(Julia Bouwsma, Sara Borjas, Mia Malhotra, F. Douglas Brown, Ángel García) / B110-112, Oregon Convention Center, Level 1
Definitions of “poetry of witness” are shifting as poets seek to defy the inherent passivity of the term “witness.”

Saturday, March 30

9:00 am to 10:15 am

Native American Voices: A Reading from Recent Works in Native Letters.
(Shauna Osborn, Tommy Orange, Christoso Apache, Rebecca Roanhorse, Cassandra Lopez) / B116, Oregon Convention Center, Level 1
The proposed reading would include all Native American writers in attendance at AWP 2019 with books out in the year prior to the conference.

Embodying Writing / Performing Translation, Sponsored by ALTA.
(Gabrielle Civil, Madhu Kaza, Sawako Nakayasu, Urayoan Noel, John Pluecker) / F149, Oregon Convention Center, Level 1
Beyond merely transferring text from one language to another, translation invites a recognition and practice of embodiment.

Mind Meld: Reimagining Creative Writing and Science.
(Brandi Reissenweber, Amy Catanzano, Adam Dickinson, Will Alexander) / F150, Oregon Convention Center, Level 1
In this panel, writers from a diverse range of genres and aesthetics leverage findings from science and scientific language to imagine new futures, unexpected relationships, radical reconfigurations of the present, and the hyperreal.

10:30 am to 11:45 am

VIDA Voices & Views Transgender, Non-Binary, & Gender-Nonconforming Interview.
(Ching-In Chen, Paige Lewis, Melissa Studdard, Cameron Awkward-Rich) / E141-142, Oregon Convention Center, Level 1
The most recent VIDA Count pointed to an underrepresentation of transgender, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming voices in literature. Seeking to better understand the causes, nature, and ramifications of exclusion, as well as possible solutions, this panel invites interviewees to share works, insights, and concerns relating to representation, identity, bias, publishing barriers, and other issues they have observed and encountered within the literary landscape and society at large.

12:00 pm to 1:15 pm

The Border Against Belonging: American Occupation in Asian American Poetry.
(Asa Drake, Sokunthary Svay, Chiwan Choi, Barbara Jane Reyes, Mai Der Vang) / A106, Oregon Convention Center, Level 1
Join four poets as they discuss the complexities of immigrant narratives in the era of American occupation.

La Raza Cósmica and Other Myths: Telling the Truth About Race Thru Latinx Poetic.
(Lauren Espinoza, Yesenia Montilla, Mario Ariza, Carina Schorske del Valle, Carmen Giménez Smith ) / D131-132, Oregon Convention Center, Level 1
This panel will explore the poetics that might best communicate the nuanced reality of our raza cósmica, and to try to re-imagine the Americas through poetry.

Healing Harm/Harming Heal: The Power and Pain in Writing Through Trauma.
(Diana Arterian, Natalie Eilbert, Vanessa Angélica Villarreal, Tarfia Faizullah, Tiana Clark) / F151, Oregon Convention Center, Level 1
During this panel, each of these writers will attempt to consider what, exactly, writing through trauma does—if it healed or harmed, and how.

1:30 pm to 2:45 pm

Coloring Outside the Gender Binary: How Transgender Poets are Redefining What It Means to Be Human, Sponsored by AWP.
(Joy Ladin, Cameron-Awkward Rich, Ching-In Chen, Max Wolf Valerio, Trace Peterson) / Oregon Ballroom 201-202, Oregon Convention Center, Level 2
Until very recently, the English language, and most of the poetry written in it, has been based on the gender binary assumption that all human beings are always, either, and only male or female, as determined by the sex of their bodies at birth.

From Which We Spring: A Tribute to Los Angeles Iconoclast Poet Wanda Coleman.
(Amber Tamblyn, Kevin Young, Jeffrey McDaniel, Mahogany Browne, Patricia Smith) / Oregon Ballroom 203, Oregon Convention Center, Level 2
Five poets discuss the art, life and legacy of poet Wanda Coleman, known as the unofficial poet laureate of Los Angeles.

Editing into Negative Capability: Methods & Impacts of Manuscript Revision.
(Diana Arterian, Gabrielle Civil, Aisha Sabatini Sloan, Sarah Vap) / Portland Ballroom 252, Oregon Convention Center, Level 2
This panel will consider multiple possibilities of editing including refashioning, opening, reframing, collapsing multiple manuscripts into one.

3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Sex at the Intersections: The Erotics of Queer and Of-Color Poetry.
(Kate Osana Simonian, Rickey Laurentiis, Timothy Liu, francine j. harris, Randall Mann) / A106, Oregon Convention Center, Level 1
What challenges face queer writers of color who write, often graphically, about the libido and its relation to the body?

Support for PoCs in Publishing: A Conversation.
(Jenny Xu, Victory Matsui, Monica Odom, Karen Gu, Annie Hwang) / B110-112, Oregon Convention Center, Level 1
Young PoC publishing professionals will share industry insights and working experiences before an extended Q&A—please bring questions, and let’s have frank conversations about publication, formal and informal publishing relationships, finding and building community, and how identity, money, and class affect access and opportunity.

The Art of the Interview.
(Rachel Zucker , Franny Choi, Danez Smith, Kaveh Akbar, Rebecca Hoogs) / Oregon Ballroom 201-202, Oregon Convention Center, Level 2
This panel will explore the various manifestations, roles, connections, complications, and utilities of the interview within current literary communities.

4:30 pm to 5:45 pm

Women Writing the Forbidden Narrative: From Inception to After Life.
(Leigh Stein, Eileen Cronin, Sue William Silverman, Wendy C. Ortiz, Esmé Weijun Wang) / A106, Oregon Convention Center, Level 1
A diverse, multigenerational panel of women discuss why and how they wrote their taboo stories, how they prepared for public reception, and whether writing the taboo affected their future projects.

Offsite Events:

A selection of recommended offsite events, readings, and alternate book fairs.

Wednesday, March 27

So Homo/No FOMO
7PM-9PM / Dismantle Change Build Center, 14 NE Killingsworth St  / FB
Please join your hosts, TC Tolbert and Kristen E. Nelson for this reading full of queer, trans, and accomplice writers. We will be collecting donations at the door to support the DCBC, no one turned away for lack of funds! Readers include: Andrea Abi-Karam, Sam Ace, manuel arturo abreu, Kay Ulanday Barrett, Cara Benson, Piper Daniels, Hannah Ensor, Raquel Gutiérrez, Zefyr Lisowski, Kristen E. Nelson, Frankie Rollins, Aisha Sabatini Sloan, TC Tolbert, Addie Tsai, and Grace Shuyi Liew.

Cave Canem Fellows Off-Site Reading
7PM-9PM / Literary Arts, 925 SW Washington St. / FB
Experience our annual Off-Site Reading at AWP Portland, hosted by Literary Arts! This year’s reading is headlined by Portland and Seattle-based Cave Canem fellows Quenton Baker, Ashaki M. Jackson, Bettina Judd, Anastacia-Renee and Christopher Rose, who will open the night before an additional 15+ fellows share their work in four-minute, rapid-fire intervals. Fellow and Portland resident Samiya Bashir emcees. Free and open to the public.

Thursday, March 28

Northwest Micropress Fair
10AM-6PM / The Cleaners at the Ace Hotel, 403 SW 10th Ave / FB

Witches in the Woods
5PM-7PM / Secret Forest Books 3561 SE Division St. / FB
Featuring the talents of Hanna Tawater, Rios de la Luz, Katie Farris, and Lizz Huerta. There will also be tarot card readings available prior to and after the show.

CCR, The Accomplices, & Storm Cellar
5PM-7PM / PUSH X PULL, 821 SE Stark St. / FB
Cream City Review, The Accomplices, and Storm Cellar are so excited to present this off-site AWP reading featuring the following fabulous writers: Lisa Low, Anni Liu, Haley Fedor, Soham Patel, John Gallaher, Mike Sonksen, Elaine Terranova, Matt Gavin Frank, traci kato-kiriyama, and Leah Noble Davidson!

Tender Table: Food & Storytelling by Diana Khoi Nguyen, Ashley Toliver, & Amy Lam
6:30PM-8:30PM / PNCA, 511 NW Broadway / Website
Tender Table is a storytelling platform for women, trans men, and nonbinary folks who are black, indigenous, or people of color. We seek out narratives about the sweet, savory, sour, and bitter relationships to food and its connections to identity, memory, and community. At Tender Table, all are welcome—expect to be immersed in stories, and sample delicious food prepared by the speakers.

Offsite From the Edges
7PM-9PM Corporeal Writing, 510 SW 3rd St #101 / Website
Join us for an AWP Offsite reading in downtown Portland. We will be hosting an unforgettable lineup of readers including, Garth Greenwell, Carmen Maria Machado, Terese Mailhort, Alexander Chee, and Lidia Yuknavitch.

Center Justify
7PM-10PM / PSU Native American Student and Community Center, 710 SW Jackson St / FB
An #AWP19 OFFSITE EXTRAVAGANZA co-sponsored by The Accomplices (Civil Coping Mechanisms, Entropy, Writ Large Press), De-Canon: A Visibility Project, Whitenoise Project, The Operating System, Asian American Writers’ Workshop, Indigenous Nations Studies at Portland State University, and NASCC. Featuring readings from Nastashia Minto, Douglas Kearney, Vi Khi Nao, Alex DiFrancesco, Erick Sáenz, Marwa Helal, Theodore Van Alst, Gabrielle Civil, & more. Free dinner (meat & vegan dumplings and fried chicken from XLB) while supplies last.

Platypus Press Presents: Wildness
8:30PM-9:30PM / Mother Foucault’s Bookshop, 523 SE Morrison St. / FB
Join your host, Jenny Sadre-Orafai, for an amazing night of words from two time National Poetry Slam Champion Anis Mojgani, National Book Award longlistee Chen Chen, and Anisfield-Wolf fellow Leila Chatti.

Tin House AWP Party
8PM-12:30AM / Holocene Portland, 1001 SE Morrison St. / FB
Join us as we celebrate our 20th anniversary and welcome the AWP literary conference to Rip City with an evening of poetry and dancing. Tin House Books authors Hanif Abdurraqib, Erica Dawson, Morgan Parker, and Tommy Pico will be reading from their latest collections, with DJ Mami Miami providing the after-reading dance party. $5 cover fee.

Friday, March 29

NO FAIR / FAIR (Alternate Book Fair)
9AM-5PM /BAKERY BUILDING, 2222 NE Oregon /  Website

Counter-Desecration: Collective Remedying
4PM-5:30PM / Passages Bookshop, 1223 NE M L King Blvd / FB
Contributors to Counter-Desecration: A Glossary for Writing Within the Anthropocene will read entries & other poetic works. Please join us for an afternoon of collective remedying with: Dan Beachy-Quick; Anna Lena Phillips Bell; Susan Briante; Allison Cobb; Allison Hedge Coke; Matthew Cooperman; Alison Hawthorne Deming; Adam Dickinson; Lori Anderson Moseman; Linda Russo (co-editor); John Pluecker; Tyrone Williams; and a reading in memoriam to co-editor Marthe Reed.

Beyond Resilience! Lambda Literary & Nat.Brut AWP Off-site
6-8:30PM / Ori Gallery, 4038 N Mississippi Ave / FB
Come and enjoy a dynamic night that centers the work for/by Sick, Disabled, Chronic Pain, & Mad Queer writers! We recognize that writing on disability and ability are not mutually exclusive of other trappings of oppression and experience. Here, we want to honor and celebrate writing where Disabled and Sick people take the charge, spoon out, seek solace, amplify craft & care! This reading uplifts Black, Indigenous, & People of Color Queer perspectives so please honor & celebrate this nuance and brilliance.

Celebrating 10 Years of Electric Lit and the Rumpus
6:30PM-9PM / White Owl Social Club, 1305 SE 8th Ave / FB
It’s My Party, I’ll Cry If I Want To: A 10th Birthday Bash for Electric Literature and The Rumpus. Two of your favorite online literary sites are turning 10 this year, which is basically 100 in Internet years. Help Electric Literature and The Rumpus move into double digits and celebrate a ten years of championing new voices and creating a home for literature online. Six of our cherished contributors will read on the theme, “It’s my party, I’ll cry if I want to.” Then we’ll hang out, have drinks, eat cake, and reminisce about the last decade. You would cry too, if happened to you! Free drinks and birthday cake (while supplies last). Readings from Kaveh Akbar, Marie-Helene Bertino, Ryan Chapman, Bonnie Chau, R.O. Kwon, and Talin Tahajian!

The Best Offsite Reading Ever
7PM-9PM / DreamBox at the Jupiter Hotel, 900 E. Burnside St. / FB
The Iowa Review, Rescue Press, and CSU Poetry Center Present: The Best Offsite Reading Ever! Featuring: Caren Beilin, Paola Capó-García, Camille Guthrie, Meron Hadero, Dora Malech, Madeline McDonnell, Sheila McMullin, Adrienne Raphel, Montreux Rotholtz, Zach Savich and Lisa Wells.

A Vision
7PM-10PM / Psychic Sister, 1829 Northeast Alberta Street #c / FB
A literary spectacular presented by Michelle Tea + Amethyst Editions/Feminist Press with Cooper Lee Bombardier, Jericho Brown, Nicole J. Georges, Ariel Gore, Baruch Porras Hernandez, Chelsey Johnson, Porochista Khakpour, Ali Liebegott, Sassafras Lowrey, Beth Pickens, Sarah Schulman, Jamia Wilson. Seats $25 Presale / Floor + Standing Sliding Scale Day Of

CLASH Books Offsite AWP Reading
7PM-10PM / EAST SIDE DELICATESSEN 1109 S.E. Madison St. / FB
CLASH Books gathers it’s finest writers for an extravaganza of literature on Friday March 29th during the annual AWP lit festival in Portland, OR. Enjoy performances of poetry, fiction & nonfiction from some of the most exciting new & powerful voices on the scene. There will be books, there will be beer & there will be 6” sandwiches for $7. What more could you want! LET’S GET LIT

Chris Kraus, Sophia Shalmiyev & Veronica Gonzalez Peña
8:30PM-10PM / Mother Foucault’s Bookshop, 523 SE Morrison St / FB
Three writers will read whatever they feel like and talk about all the tough stuff and blow your house down. Wolf On!

Asian American Poets Present New Books
8:30PM-10PM / pin De-Canon Library at Milepost 5 // 8155 NE Oregon St.  / FB
Join Kundiman off-site at AWP 2019 as six fellows read from newly released books and chapbooks: George Abraham, Jason Bayani, Ching-In Chen, Shamala Gallagher, Vanessa Huang, Sally Wen Mao

LIT in PDX: AWP Off-site Dance Party
7PM-10PM / 1737 NW 26th Ave / FB
Bennington Writing Seminars, Catapult, PEN America, Stony Brook Southampton, and TSR: The Southampton Review present an Association of Writers & Writing Programs off-site dance party. Featuring literary guest DJs: Hanif Abdurraqib and Eloisa Amezcua Alexander Chee Melissa Febos MC’d by Patrick Boyle. Join us for snacks, a signature cocktail, cash bar, and the musical stylings of your favorite writers! RSVPs strongly encouraged.

Saturday, March 30

NO FAIR / FAIR (Alternate Book Fair)
9AM-5PM /BAKERY BUILDING, 2222 NE Oregon /  Website

Corporeal Writing Offsite Happy Hour
5PM-8PM / Corporeal Writing, 510 SW 3rd Ave. / FB
Please join Lidia Yuknavitch and the Corporeal Writing crew from 5-8pm for HAPPY HOUR at Corporeal Center, 510 SW 3rd Ave, ste 101. We will have libations, lit, and laughter queued up and ready to spin you down from 3 days of go, go, go! For your literary listening pleasure, we welcome writers Teow Lim Goh, Nastashia Minto, Valarie Newman, Joe Nasta, and Rios de la Luz.

The Bookseller’s Ball
6PM-2AM / Star Theater Portland, 13 NW 6th Ave / FB
A raucous party featuring visiting writers with new books from national independent presses (McSweeney’s, Third Man Books, Wave Poetry, and others), along with beloved local authors and popular NW bands (Power of County, The Savage Family Band, Ex-Kids, Morgan and the Organ Donors, and Bergerette). Come celebrate the last night of AWP 2019 at Portland’s historic Star Theater: Saturday, March 30, 5pm-2am, and dance the night away with DJ Cecilia after our roster of readers, rock and shenanigans have properly entertained you.

Literaoke at AWP19
7PM-9PM / Chopsticks Karaoke Bar, 3390 NE Sandy Blvd / FB
It’s time for another epic evening of singing, reading, and joy! Kaya Press, Kundiman, AAWW, AALR, and the Smithsonian APA Center are bringing together an amazing, diverse line-up of performers who will sing one minute of their favorite karaoke banger and then read from their own work. Don’t miss it!!

Queer Syllabus: A Celebration with Foglifter and The Rumpus
7PM-9PM / Local Lounge, 3536 NE M L King Blvd. / FB
Join Foglifter and The Rumpus for an offsite event celebrating the Queer Syllabus! The Queer Syllabus is an act of community and education, but it’s also an act of resistance: When we identify our roots and point to the work that shaped us as writers and as people, we demonstrate that our stories are timeless, essential, and important—and so are we. Featuring readings from Chen Chen, Melissa Febos, Claire Rudy Foster, T Kira Madden, Alicia Mountain, and Dennis Norris II! Emceed by Baruch Porras-Hernandez! Bring a new or used copy of your favorite queer book for our gay book swap!