#AWP17 is happening next week. It’s an understatement to say that it’s a chaotic time. It’s hard to focus on AWP at all with everything else that is happening. So here’s our annual guide. It includes recommendations for panels & off-site events and a map to the book fair, but we’ve also added various political events that will be happening during the conference. Plus, a Resistance Guide from Trumpwatch, that we’ll also have hard copies of at our table. See you soon.

Follow Entropy on Twitter for live and regular tweeting from the conference. @entropymag / #AWP17

(Also, #AWP17 has it’s own app, in case you’re into that sort of thing: AWP Conference Mobile App)

Selected AWP Panels:

Thursday, February 9

9:00 am to 10:15 am

It’s the End of the World as She Knows It: Apocalypse Poetry by Women
(Maggie Smith, Dena Rash Guzman, Meghan Privitello, Leah Umansky)
Supreme Court, Marriott Marquis, Meeting Level Four
Four poets discuss and read from recent, timely collections of poems focused on doomsday and depictions of disaster in American culture. How are these popular, hyper-masculinized narratives and tropes treated—and twisted—by women? How do feminist, futuristic, and dystopian themes intersect? Employing varied formal and conceptual approaches, these poets engage with the environment, religion, politics, and popular culture.

10:30 am to 11:45 am

The G Word: Writing and Teaching Genre in a Changing Literary Landscape.
(Katie Cortese, Art Taylor, Idra Novey, Matt Bell, Porochista Khakpour)
Marquis Salon 6, Marriott Marquis, Meeting Level Two
Historically, creative writing workshops shunned so-called genre fiction in favor of literary realism. Today’s college- and graduate-level writing students, though, were raised on graphic literature, flash fiction, hybridity, and novelistic television shows featuring stellar dialogue and world-building, and they often want to challenge the constraints of conventional, realistic fiction. The writers and teachers on this panel discuss how they treat genre in the classroom, and in their own work.

But That’s Not How It Was: Memoir Writers on Pushing Back Against Expected Narratives.
(Alice Anderson, Wendy Ortiz, Laurie Cannady, Lynn Hall, Zoe Zolbrod)
AWP Bookfair Stage, Exhibit Halls D & E, Washington Convention Center, Level Two
When we’re writing about hot button topics such as sexual assault, domestic abuse, and poverty, there are often expectations about how the story should go. These common archetypes can be deeply held not just by general readers and publishing’s gatekeepers, but also by our inner selves. The writers on this panel share strategies for sorting out how society thinks we ought to have responded to trauma from how we actually did, and when and how to resist the pressure to conform to an expected line.

12:00 pm to 1:15 pm

Black Magic Women: Black Women Examine Creativity in Digital Spaces
(Renée Alexander Craft, Jacqueline Bishop, Michele Simms Burton, Rochelle Spencer, Audrey T. Williams)
Room 208AB, Washington Convention Center, Level Two
Five black women examine different forms of creative expression—poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and film—in digital spaces. The presentation, which will feature both sounds and images, will explore the different ways that artists can navigate digital spaces and push their vision forward. It will also address some of the challenges women and people of color may face in garnering an audience for their work and offer strategies for overcoming these challenges.

1:30 pm to 2:45 pm

Asian-American Generations at Coffee House Press.
(Karen Yamashita, Bao Phi, Vi Khi Nao, Sun Yung Shin, Evelina Galang)
Marquis Salon 3 & 4, Marriott Marquis, Meeting Level Two
Since its founding, Coffee House has striven to make its publishing list as diverse as America. This has meant publishing many authors from “underrepresented” groups, but in particular it’s become known for publishing some of the most exciting Asian-American writers in the country. Younger generations have been drawn to the press because they have been inspired by those mentors that came before them. These writers talk about influence and what it means to share a publisher and a community.

Speaking of the Dead: Craft & Ethics in Nonfiction.
(Peter Selgin, Dustin Beall Smith, Lidia Yuknavich, Gayle Brandeis)
Archives, Marriott Marquis, Meeting Level Four
Writing about the living poses obvious risks: broken trusts, wounded feelings, turn ties, damaged reputations, and possible legal and social repercussions. But what risks confront us in writing about the dead? That the dead can’t defend themselves does not free us, as writers, from our responsibilities toward them and their legacies; if anything it increases them. In speaking of the dead, what are those responsibilities? The panelists share their experiences.

Beyond the Spoken Word: Black Poets In and On Performance.
(Samiya Bashir, Duriel E. Harris, Erica Hunt, LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs, Rosamond S. King)
Room 207B, Washington Convention Center, Level Two
Black poets who also perform are too often lumped into one “spoken word” category. Two generations of black poets tracing their lineage to different parts of the USA, Africa, and the Caribbean discuss the process of bringing poems to life and the benefits and challenges of collaboration. Speakers have performed with musicians, singers, video, dancers, and in theatre, club, site-specific, and nontraditional settings, drawing on oral, lyrical, musical, and (post)modern traditions.

3:00 pm to 4:15 pm

Agents of Change: Social Justice and Activism in the Literary Community.
(Ashaki Jackson, Elmaz Abinader, Tony Valenzuela, Leigh Stein, Nicole Sealey)
Archives, Marriott Marquis, Meeting Level Four
How do we, as writers and literary arts organizers, bring about change in the greater literary community? And how do we move from intention and discussion about race, gender, and inequality to action? This panel brings together literary organizations to discuss their roles as social justice activists in the writing community. These prominent members of national literary organizations examine the current issues and challenges facing the community and the steps necessary to move forward.

4:30 pm to 5:45 pm

Iranian Diaspora Writers as Cultural Ambassadors: Engaging Iran After the Nuclear Agreement
(Persis Karim, Sholeh Wolpe, Anita Amirrezvani, Jasmin Darznik, Soraya Shalforoosh)
Salon F, Washington Convention Center, Level One
This dynamic panel features writers/translators who engage Iran and Iranian culture through poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and translation. By sharing their work, these Iranian American writers offer a literary window at a time when we need cultural ambassadors to shape a powerful dialogue about US-Iran relations. Panelists read from their work, discuss the challenges and opportunities for publishing, translating, and participating in a cultural shift as diaspora writers in both the US and Iran.

Fractured Selves: Fabulism as a Platform for Minorities, Women, and the LGBT Community.
(Sequoia Nagamatsu, Aubrey Hirsch, Brenda Peynado, Zach Doss, Ramona Ausubel)
Room 207A, Washington Convention Center, Level Two
Fabulist writers and editors define Fabulism (often used with other terms like magical realism and slipstream), illuminate individual approaches to the genre alongside brief readings, and discuss how fabulism can be a rich territory for expression, exploration, and power for minorities, women, and the LGBT community. What does it mean to write about the other from other worlds or hybrid spaces?

Friday, February 10

9:00 am to 10:15 am

Translation and Power, Sponsored by ALTA.
(John Keene, Lucas de Lima, Erica Mena, Eunsong Kim)
Monument, Marriott Marquis, Meeting Level Four
Translators discuss the power dynamics between translator and author, original and derivative, dominant language and nondominant language, exploring questions of appropriation, exploitation, representation, and ethics. Thinking about how systems of exploitation and oppression are reproduced by cultural creation along lines of linguistic power, these practicing translators consider the ethics at stake in acts of literary translation.

10:30 am to 11:45 am

Writing in the Internet Age.
(Mark Neely, Esmé Weijun Wang, Sandra Simonds, Ashley C. Ford)
Room 101, Washington Convention Center, Level One
The internet is the most significant advance in writing and publishing since Gutenberg, and it’s also one of the defining subjects of contemporary literature. It can be a powerful tool and a supreme distraction, an interruption or inspiration. Writers of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction talk about how the web has influenced their work and working lives, and discuss the internet as a subject, compositional instrument, publishing platform, and (sometimes troubling) extension of the writer’s brain.

12 pm to 1:15 pm

Slow Reading: Creative Writing, Experiential Learning, and Values.
(Evan Klavon, Dale Smith, Jonathan Skinner, Taylor Brorby, Megan Kaminski )
Marquis Salon 9 & 10, Marriott Marquis, Meeting Level Two
In this media age, students read more, and faster, than ever before—in the form of texts, tweets, posts, emails, etc. What are the differences between this reading and the ways we hope for them to engage with literature? How might students benefit—as writers and as persons—from the attention to experience, ecological thinking, and emphasis on values promoted by the Slow Food/Slow Culture movements? This panel will explore Slow Reading as a concept and its practice in teaching creative writing.

The Shape of Fiction: A Look at Structuring Novel-Length Prose.
(Christian Kiefer, Jeff Jackson, Esmé Weijun Wang, Janet Fitch, Kirstin Chen)
Salon F, Washington Convention Center, Level One
When we talk about the structure of narrative, it is often by using the Freytag pyramid: rising action, plateau, denoument, climax, and so on. This panel will discuss the reality of plotting/structuring a novel, often using criteria that has little or nothing to do with Freytag. Structure can be based on criteria unconcerned with plot and plot can go far from structure. What possibilities exist and how might we offer such possibilities to ourselves and our students?

Raising Hell: Writing from the Extremes.
(R. O. Kwon, Roxane Gay, Téa Obreht, Laura van den Berg, Catherine Chung)
Room 202A, Washington Convention Center, Level Two
Terrorists! Cult leaders! Violent criminals! Psychopaths! This reading presents fiction writers who have given voice to the baleful extremes of human experience. What are the joys, risks, and responsibilities of writing sinister characters whom many readers might have trouble understanding? How should fiction writers think about depicting evil? What are potential difficulties? Join the panelists as they share perspectives and read from their work.

1:30 pm to 2:45 pm

A Reading and Conversation with Alexander Chee and Valeria Luiselli, Sponsored by Coffee House Press and Kundiman.
(Lisa Lucas, Valeria Luiselli, Alexander Chee)
Ballroom C, Washington Convention Center, Level Three
Two award-winning writers will read from their work and join in conversation with National Book Foundation Executive Director Lisa Lucas. Chee is the Whiting Award winning author of Queen of the Night and a contributing editor at the New Republic. Luiselli is a 5 Under 35 honoree and the author of The Los Angeles Times Fiction Prize–winning The Story of My Teeth.

Translating Contemporary African Poetry.
(Todd Fredson, John Keene, Janis A. Mayes, Kazim Ali, Hodna Nuernberg)
Room 204C, Washington Convention Center, Level Two
Ivorian poet Tanella Boni identifies fringe literature as work marginalized by dominant literary economies because it is written in a language with limited market potential, or because the work represents a social world that seems unimaginable for nonlocal readers. Five translators discuss their experiences accounting for the plurality of social worlds in African poetry—the convergence of languages, the nuances of ethnic and cultural difference—and read from their translations.

3 pm to 4:15 pm

Troubling Objects and Bodies: Experimental Women Writers Redefine the Archive.
(Nicole Cooley, Amaranth Borsuk, Tisa Bryant, Tracie Morris)
Room 102B, Washington Convention Center, Level One
Our cross-genre panel looks at the archive, the library, and the collection through the work of five women writers and asks how we can rethink the way we write about history in this fraught moment where we are deeply aware of the ways it has been constructed. A diverse group of women panelists—poets and fiction and nonfiction writers from all over the country—will discuss how they redefine archival work, integrating new approaches involving digital images, photographs, and found text.

Legacies of the Badass: Black Feminist Writing in the Millennium .
(Ruth Ellen Kocher, Lillian-Yvonne Bertram, Dawn Lundy Martin, Duriel Harris, Khadija Queen)
Room 209ABC, Washington Convention Center, Level Two
This reading features five black women writers who represent the legacies of innovation, experimentation, and political conscience characteristic of such pioneering poets as Jayne Cortez and June Jordan. The increasing visibility of a poetic practice that is bold, brave, radical, subversive, progressive, and very much black and female indicates a cultural continuum that embraces the fearless social interrogations and influence of black feminist writers of the past, present, and future.

4:30 pm to 5:45 pm

Good Grief.
(Heid Staples, Janet Holmes, Steven Karl, Prageeta Sharma)
Supreme Court, Marriott Marquis, Meeting Level Four
Faced with the loss of a loved one, people struggle with overwhelming emotions and feelings of disorientation, often vacillating between anger and despair, and at times reaching a state of acceptance and gratitude. This panel investigates the role of poetry in articulating and transforming one’s loss, exploring how poetry can translate the intimacy of grief into a shared experience between author and reader. Four writers share their recent work and discuss their navigation of the grief process.

Beyond the Hospital: The Memoirist on Writing About Health, Illness, and Injury.
(Elizabeth L. Silver, Porochista Khakpour, Christine Hyung-Oak Lee)
Monument, Marriott Marquis, Meeting Level Four
This event explores the tragedies, pitfalls, miracles, and realities of living in a world of evolving medicine, as panelists contribute varying perspectives on how their journeys in and out of the medical establishment have impacted their work. What makes us embrace or reject modern medicine? What terrifies us about it? It is through the symbiotic relationship between memoir and medicine that we can begin to understand how to interact in this transforming world.

Writers Organizing the Future.
(Kimiko Hahn, Zakia Henderson-Brown, Elizabeth Bradfield, Christopher Shannon)
Salon F, Washington Convention Center, Level One
As the planet spins into deeper social and environmental crises, how can writers participate in finding solutions? Whether we care or not, our voices are out in the world. Panelists explore writers’ unique tools and social connections and see what has worked in the past and what could be in the mix? Issues include the environment, labor, and grassroots organizations with or without a cultural component. Is action a writer’s responsibility? No, no more than any other citizen.

Saturday, February 11

9:00 am to 10:15 am

Money, Power, and Transparency in the Writing World.
(Natalie Shapero, Kima Jones, Morgan Parker, Jane Friedman, Rachel Mennies)
Marquis Salon 6, Marriott Marquis, Meeting Level Two
As writers, we’re too often in the dark about how money is allocated in the institutions where we work, publish, and produce. When we’re negotiating paychecks and contracts, we often don’t know how much to ask for, or we don’t have access to how the surrounding systems work. When we’re asked to do uncompensated work, we often don’t know if it’s worth it. Join us for some much-needed frankness about money from the worlds of publishing, publicity, academia, and freelancing.

The Art and Importance of the Poetry Interview.
(Kaveh Akbar, Melissa Studdard, Camille Rankine, Emilia Phillips, Lindsay Garbutt)
Room 207A, Washington Convention Center, Level Two
The intricacy of poetry calls for a unique kind of interview, one that invites wonderment as much as answers. Series hosts for Poetry, Cave Canem, VIDA, Divedapper, and 32 Poems, the panelists have conducted interviews via a variety of platforms and methods. Panelists will compare platforms, discuss the relevance of poetry interviews, and highlight techniques for fostering conversation that honors the complexity of poetry and maximizes an interview’s contribution to the poetry community and beyond.

10:30 am to 11:45 am

Being the Change You Want to See: The New Literary Leadership.
(Lisa Lucas, Ken Chen, Jen Benka, Britt Udesen, Andrew Proctor)
Room 207A, Washington Convention Center, Level Two
What will a new generation of literary leadership look like? While many literary institutions have a reputation for being stodgy or slow-moving with regards to change, here are five directors who bring unique experience and fresh perspective to literary nonprofits, national and local. They will discuss how youth, technology, and diversity can bring traditional literary institutions into the modern landscape and create a bold, more inclusive future for readers.

12 pm to 1:15 pm

Immigrants/Children of Immigrants: A Nontraditional Path to a Writing Career.
(Ken Chen , Monica Youn, Marie Myung-Ok Lee, Juan Martinez, Irina Reyn )
Liberty Salon N, O, & P, Marriott Marquis, Meeting Level Four
Not only do you not have an uncle in publishing or see people from the neighborhood get MFAs, immigrants and children of immigrants are inculcated to opt for “safe,” “secure,” often well-paying jobs; a writing career may seem like an unimaginable luxury or a fantasy. This panel of working writers looks at both psychic and structural issues that add a special challenge for writers from immigrant families.

Dance, Movement, and Meditation as Part of the Writing Process.
(Kazim Ali, Julie Carr, Tracie Morris, Koshin Paley Ellison)
Room 102A, Washington Convention Center, Level One
We locate the mind in the physical body and believe that the manipulation and use of that body can be an integral part of the creative process. A dancer, a yoga teacher, a zen priest, and a performance artist lead you through a series of breath, awareness, and movement exercises designed to open up new gates to language and creative expression. The activity is appropriate for all levels of physical ability and mobility, but please wear comfortable clothing and bring your favorite writing equipment.

1:30 pm to 2:45 pm

Girls Who Run the World: Readings of Women in the Apocalypse.
(Alexander Lumans, Claire Vaye Watkins, Lucy Corin, Manuel Gonzales, Sandra Newman)
Marquis Salon 7 & 8, Marriott Marquis, Meeting Level Two
To ignore the role of women in apocalyptic literature is to deny over half the world’s population their opportunity to survive, let alone thrive. In this panel, five established and emerging fiction writers give voice to female protagonists in dystopian landscapes ranging from a giant sand dune to a regional office. Through individual readings of their apocalyptic visions, these writers challenge outdated versions of women at the end of the world.

A Reading and Conversation with Aracelis Girmay, Tim Seibles, and Danez Smith. Sponsored by BOA Editions and Split This Rock.
(Sarah Browning, Aracelis Girmay, Tim Seibles, Danez Smith)
Ballroom C, Washington Convention Center, Level Three
Split This Rock and BOA Editions are proud to present three of the most vital poets writing and publishing in the US today. Representing three generations and writing in a stunning variety of poetic styles, the poets presented here take on the big questions with verve, power, and beauty: race and identity, our bloody history and its unrelenting legacy, the erotic as liberation and muse.

Fracturing Memory, Crossing Borders: Transnational Memoir Writers Discuss Hybrid Necessities.
(Minal Hajratwala, QM Zhang, Amarnath Ravva, Abeer Hoque, Tania De Rozario)
Room 202B, Washington Convention Center, Level Two
For transnational writers who spend their lives constantly negotiating borders—geographic and personal—hybridity no longer becomes a choice. This panel features diverse writers whose experimental memoirs include nonlinearity, multiple genres, photographs, and other multimedia. We will discuss how these hybrid strategies succeed or fail when trying to reconstruct family histories or address personal trauma, and how this can be especially challenging when moving between nations and identities.

3 pm to 4:15 pm

The Speculative Essay.
(Robin Hemley, Lia Purpura, Nicole Walker, Brian Blanchfield, Leila Philip)
Capital & Congress, Marriott Marquis, Meeting Level Four
Many essayists have employed speculation throughout the form’s history, relying wholly on speculation (relating nothing verifiable) rather than engaging “fact.” Virginia Woolf’s “Death of a Moth,” for example, does not require a verifiable moth to achieve its power. But what are the limits to speculation? Must essayists always signal their speculative intentions? Can an essayist delve into the traditional realm of the fiction writer, overturning traditional notions of point of view in the essay?

The Art of War: The Power and Role of the Writer in Times of Crisis.
(Pireeni Sundaralingam, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Lidia Yuknavitch, David Shields)
Room 202A, Washington Convention Center, Level Two
As an increasing percentage of the world is plunged into conflict, our panel brings together award-winning novelists, poets, and nonfiction writers to explore how creative writing can shape, distort, and challenge the way we understand war. Drawing on examples from our own work and the work of others, we will discuss the power of the written word in relation to image and other forms of propaganda, and share our personal experiences of how our books have influenced a wider political discussion.

Religious Metaphors in Nonreligious Poetry.
(Jennifer Michael Hecht, Kim Addonizio, Matthew Zapruder, Timothy Liu)
Room 207A, Washington Convention Center, Level Two
Poets who are not religious still may use religious words, such as heaven, prayer, sin, sabbath, hell, soul, ghosts, karma, or nirvana. “Ghosts” may be a way to talk about grief. “Soul” can mean one’s truest inner self. “God” isn’t “God,” yet the word shows up. What do these metaphors help us to see and what do they hide? The panel members—poets from diverse worlds also well known for their insight on poetry—talk about it, reference poetry, and read our own poetry that relates.

4:30 pm to 5:45 pm

The Personal (Essay) Is Political: Nonfiction as an Agent of Social Change.
(Katie Cortese, Jaquira Díaz, Eric Sasson, Gabrielle Bellot, Matthew Salesses)
Liberty Salon I, J, & K, Marriott Marquis, Meeting Level Four
Online nonfiction venues such as Salon, Slate, and The Atlantic, among others, invite writers to respond to world events through the lens of personal experience while also allowing works to be shared virally via social media. The best of these spur public conversations about issues as pressing as police brutality, rape culture, LGBTQ rights, and more. This panel explores the various roles of the personal essay in contemporary culture, and discuss how words effect change on the world.

De Melancholy Evolution of Me: Resurrecting the Staged Black Body.
(Tyehimba Jess, Amaud Johnson, Ruth Ellen Kocher, Ronaldo V. Wilson )
Room 102B, Washington Convention Center, Level One
This reading features four black poets who rewrite the staged body as a multivocal performance of conceptual and lyric innovation. The dismantled structures of minstrel give way to characters resurrected from caricature who negotiate the uncivil discourse of cultural legacy and re-establish the disembodied “I” of a subject otherwise lost in the archives of an unforgiving past. This evolution of subject fashions the staged body as musical genius, gifted performer, and melancholy sage.

AWP Bookfair:

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

(Click map to enlarge)

Off-Site Events:

Wednesday, February 8

#Lit-in-Color Write-a-Thon: Writing the Resistance
12-5PM / Dupont Underground: 1583, 1527 New Hampshire Ave NW / Website
#LITinCOLOR will celebrate the invention and imagination of writers of color who seek to represent realities that lie outside of the mainstream imagination, be it the lasting impact of American concentration camps or the navigation of racially profiled notions of sexuality. Poets and novelists from various communities and generations will come together to honor the ways in which writers of color have changed how we think, feel, and live.

Thursday, February 9

Rescue Press & the Cleveland State University Poetry Center Present: Capitol Letters (A Book Launch)
7PM / The Black Squirrel, 2427 18th Street NW / FB
This book release and reading extravaganza will include new poetry & prose by these fine writers: Vanessa Jimenez Gabb, James Allen Hall, Douglas Kearney, Andrea Lawlor, Jane Lewty, Sheila McMullin, Hilary Plum, Adrienne Raphel, & Zach Savich.

Write Together, Fight Together
7PM / U Street Music Hall, 1115 U St NW / FB
Barrelhouse, Catapult, Lit Hub, and The Rumpus present WRITE TOGETHER, FIGHT TOGETHER! Featuring readings from Jericho Brown, Nicole Dennis-Benn, Melissa Febos, Morgan Parker, and Sarah Sweeney, and emceed by Jonny Diamond, Lit Hub Editor-in-Chief.

A Very Avian Reading
7PM / The Big Hunt, 1345 Connecticut Ave NW / FB
BIRDS, LLC: Camonghne Felix, Monica McClure, Lauren Hunter, Ana Božičević, & Dan Boehl. SIXTH FINCH: Candace Williams, Anne Cecelia Holmes, & sam sax

Plays Inverse, The Lettered Streets Press, Ghost Proposal
8PM / Bloombars, 3222 11th St NW / FB
Plays Inverse, The Lettered Streets Press, and Ghost Proposal will host Joshua Young, Toby Altman, Catherine Theis, Joshua Maria Wilkinson, Jennifer Moore, Dennis James Sweeney, Jasmine Dreame Wagner, Alexis Pope, and David Bersell for an evening of poetry, playwriting, and prose.

The Magnificent Seven: A Reading
8PM / Bayou, 2519 Pennsylvania Ave NW / FB
The Magnificent Seven: A reading hosted by Pleiades, AGNI, American Literary Review, Boulevard, cream city review, Gulf Coast Journal, and PoemoftheWeek.org.

Friday, February 10

Truth to Power Offsite Reading
2PM / Sixth & I Historic Synagogue, 600 I St NW
This reading features Joy Harjo, LeAnne Howe, Marilyn Kallet, Martin Espada, Abel Salas, Teresa Mei Chuc, Metta Sama, Patricia Spears Jones, Patricia Jabbeh Wesley, Bryce Milligan, Sarah Browning, Dough Anderson, Hedy Habra, Aliki Barnstone, Jesse Waters, Melissa Suddard and more. Copies of Truth To Power: Writers Respond to the Rhetoric of Hate and Fear will be on sale and for signing by authors.

Kick-ass Writers and Teaching Artists
3PM / Busboys & Poets, 1025 5th St NW / FB
Fair Treatment for Adjuncts in Higher Ed: Claudia Cortese, Roy Guzman, Chen Chen, Jen Knox, Melissa Studdard, Vandana Khanna, Richard Peabody, Jeanne Marie Beaumont, Lee Ann Roripaugh, Octavio Quintanilla, Kaveh Akbar and Cynthia Atkins read poems and fiction in solidarity with part-time educators.

Kelsey Street & Chax Press: A Reading in DC
3PM / Busboys & Poets, 1025 5th St NW / FB
Join Kelsey Street and Chax Press in DC for an amazing line-up featuring Jennifer Barlett, Ching-In Chen, Andrew Levy, Steffi Drewes, Tracie Morris, Anna Morrison, Sarah Rosenthal, Soham Patel, Trace Peterson, Cameron Awkward-Rich, Jessica Smith, and Jasmine Dreame Wagner.

Fiction Stranger Than Fiction Presents!
4:30PM / The Big Hunt, 1345 Connecticut Ave NW / FB
Join us for an early evening of readings featuring Gabriel Blackwell, Rikki Ducornet, Robert Lopez, Michael Martone, Martin Riker, and Amber Sparks! Hosted by John Madera.

Cocktails & Conversation with Lidia Yuknavitch
6PM  / Busboys and Poets, City Vista, 1025 5th St. NW
Bestselling writer and teacher Lidia Yuknavitch has crafted her body-centered art-making philosophy into a groundbreaking workshop practice. With both Face2Face and online workshops, Corporeal Writing has quickly established itself as a writing revolution. Come have a free drink and learn about it.

Bennington Review/Oversound Reading
6PM / 51st State Bar, 2512 L St NW
Readings by contributors: Sara Deniz Akant, Ari Banias, Julie Carr, Dan Chelotti, Erica Dawson, Robert Fernandez, James Allen Hall, Paul Killebrew, Evan Lavender-Smith, Adrienne Raphel, Lindsay Turner, Candace Williams, Ronaldo Wilson, Jane Wong, Ryo Yamaguchi, and Magdalena Zurawski.

Rhizomatic Presents!
6:30PM / The Big Hunt, 1345 Connecticut Ave NW / FB
Join us for an evening of readings featuring Harold Abramowitz, Abraham Burickson, Alexandra Chasin, Joe Milazzo, Laurie Stone, Robert Vaughan, D. Harlan Wilson, and Angela Woodward. Hosted by John Madera.

Lit Up: Readings from CCM/Entropy, Dzanc Books, Two Dollar Radio, Dorothy, a Publishing Project, & Action Books
8PM / The Black Squirrel, 2427 18th St NW / FB
Readings from Jen George, Danielle Dutton, Javier Etchevarren, Jesse Lee Kercheval, Victor Rodríguez Núñez, Katherine M. Hedeen, Robert Lopez, Lindsey Drager, Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib, Chiwan Choi, Wendy C. Ortiz, Lynn Melnick, Christopher Higgs, and Gabrielle Civil. 

These Weird Times: A Poetry Séance
8PM / The Black Squirrel, 2427 18th St NW
A celebration of new books and other voices, featuring poets: Elena Karina Byrne, Sueyeun Juliette Lee, James Meetze, Mariko Nagai, Kelli Anne Noftle, Jasmine Dreame Wagner, Andrew Wessels, and Ken White + others TBA. Food and drink available onsite.

Literaoke II
8PM / Dupont Underground, 1900 Massachusetts Ave NW / FB
We’re back at #AWP17 for another round of LITERAOKE, where we invite the hottest writers to belt out their Karaoke favorites and share some of their work. What better way to come together and feel good in the face of these dystopian times than raising our voices.

Saturday, February 11

AWP Afternoon Tea: Belladonna / Earshot / Nightboat Offsite
3PM / The Potter’s House 1658 Columbia Rd NW / FB
Please join us for an afternoon tea (plus coffee and pastries and fresh fruit!) featuring readers from Belladonna* Collaboratve, Nightboat Books, and the EARSHOT reading series at DC’s beloved activist bookstore.

In Bloom: Kundiman Fellows and Friends Read from New Works
5PM / BloomBars, 3222 11th Street NW / Suggested: $10 / FB
A celebration of new books by Kundies and friends! Featuring: Neil Aitken, Gina Apostol, Marci Calabretta, Chen Chen, Ching-In Chen, Jennifer S. Cheng, Kazumi Chin, Rachelle Cruz, Muriel Leung, Jane Lin, Michelle Lin, Marco Maisto, MG Roberts, Chris Santiago, Melissa Sipin, and Jane Wong

Nightboat Books + Turtle Point Press
6:30PM  / Sixth & I, 600 I St NW, 2nd Floor / FB
Please join us for wine, snacks, books, and the latest from these fine writers: Brian Blanchfield, Philip Clark, Erdağ Göknar, Ariel Goldberg, Duriel E. Harris, Paolo Javier, Mike Lala, Dawn Lundy Martin, Juliet Patterson, Trace Peterson, Brandon Som, and Alli Warren.

The Small Press Party
7PM / Petworth Citizen, 829 Upshur St. NW / FB
Join Curbside Splendor Publishing, Deep Vellum Publishing, featherproof books, Sarabande Books, and Two Dollar Radio for a cocktail party delightfully devoid of readings! Celebrate the final night of AWP with drinks, snacks, mingling, and dancing, hosted by some of your favorite small presses.

Am I a Monster or Is This What It Means to Be a Person?
7PM / Rhizome DC, 6950 Maple St NW / Suggested $5 / FB
Readers: Aaron Apps, Nat Baldwin, Claire Donato, Johannes Göransson, Elizabeth Hall, Brandon Hobson, Robert Lopez, Vi Khi Nao, Julie Reverb, Joanna Ruocco, Abe Smith

This is Queer: Lit Spectacular at AWP
8PM / The Potter’s House, 1658 Columbia Road NW / FB
An epic queer literary event. Featuring Imogen Binnie – Nevada, Jericho Brown – The New Testament, Alexander Chee – The Queen of the Night, Tom Cho – Look Who’s Morphing, Lucy Corin – One Hundred Apocalypses and Other Apocalypses, Melissa Febos – Abandon Me, Holly Hughes – Memories of the Revolution, Tennessee Jones – Deliver Me From Nowhere, Eileen Myles – Chelsea Girls, Morgan Parker – There are Things More Beautiful Than Beyonce, Hosted by Michelle Tea – Black Wave

Political Action / Anti-Trump Events / Resistance

Friday, February 10

AWP Writers Resist Trump
1:30PM / United States Capitol / FB
Writers attending AWP (and anyone who wants to join) will meet in the lobby of the Marriott Marquis in DC to go to Capitol Hill to let our representatives and senators know how we feel about the Trump agenda.

Saturday, February 11

Candlelight Vigil for Free Speech
6:15PM / Lafayette Square, Pennsylvania Ave & 16th Street NW / FB
A candlelight vigil to keep symbolic and real watch over our rights of free speech and freedom of expression. Speakers will include Eric Sasson and Melissa Febos.

Resistance Guide from TRUMPWATCH:

Come by our table (Booth #448) to get a one-sheet Resistance Guide. For now, here are links to digital resources, collected by Trumpwatch.

• False, Misleading, Clickbait-y, and Satirical “News” Sources – A Google Doc helping you decide which news sources to trust.
• How to Do Journalism in Trump’s America by Michael Massing (The Nation)
• Find Your Representative – The easiest way to find your member of the House of Representatives.
• Who are my representatives? – Another helpful tool helping you find representatives at all levels of local, state, and national government.
• Template Letters to Send Government Officials – Downloadable, personalizable templates opposing the president-elect, the electoral college, DAPL, and supporting LGBTQ+ rights.
• “We’re His Problem Now” Calling Sheet – Collaborative resource for calling your Senator/Representative, including script and weekly call to action.
• 99 Ways to Fight Trump – A long list of potential actions, from joining a union to satirical tweeting to turning photos of Trump into kittens.
• How to Effectively Lobby Your Congressperson by Emily Ellsworth (The Slot)
• How to Call Your Reps When You Have Social Anxiety by Cordelia McGee-Tubb (Echo Through the Fog)
• 7 extremely useful sites and apps to help you organize in Trump’s America by Heather Dockray (Mashable)
• Donald Trump Is Corrupt AF – A website that tracks charges of corruption against Trump.
• What Has Trump Done – A simple and helpful website that keeps track of Trump’s actions day-by-day.
• Speak Up: Responding to Everyday Bigotry (Southern Poverty Law Center)
• Ten Ways To Fight Hate: A Community Response Guide (Southern Poverty Law Center)
• Post-Election: Recommendations for School Administrators, Educators, Counselors, and Undocumented Students by Carolina Valdivia (My Undocumented Life)
• A Bystander’s Guide to Standing up Against Islamophobic Harassment (and Other Types of Harassment, Too) by Maddy Myers (The Mary Sue)
• How to Convince Someone When Facts Fail by Michael Shermer (Scientific American)
• Resources for Intervention & Deescalation – A site compiling readable, watchable, and actionable resources related to bystander intervention and deescalation.
• Opportunities for White People in the Fight for Racial Justice: Moving from Actor → Ally → Accomplice – A guide that supports White people in acting for racial justice.
• #ImmigrationSyllabus
• Call 5 Lawmakers In 5 Minutes To Demand Action With This New Website by Ed Mazza (Huffington Post)
• The White House closed its public comment lines, so activists launched a tool to call Trump properties instead by Cory Doctorow (BoingBoing)
• We are the 65 (Weekly Call to Action) – Making Congress Work For Us.
• How to Protect Your Digital Privacy in the Era of Public Shaming by Julia Angwin (ProPublica)
• White House Inc connects callers to Trump businesses while White House comment line is closed by Emma Sarran Webster (Teen Vogue)
• Shy Person’s Guide to Calling Representatives (Action Friday)
• How to Protect Yourself Digitally In the Trump Era by Vivian Wagner (AlterNet)
• Defending Free Expression: A Toolkit For Writers and Readers (PEN America)
• Resistance Manual
• Fake Or Real? How To Self-Check The News And Get The Facts (NPR)
• Find Your Closest Swing District (SwingLeft)
• What to Bring to a Peaceful Protest by Samantha Cole (VICE)
• How to Use Social Media at a Protest Without Big Brother Snooping by Lily Hay Newman (Wired)

Check out daily updates on news, more resources & links at TRUMPWATCH.

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