Monday, March 11, 2013

AWP RECOVERY



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3 comments:

TC said...

Nin, you are a hero to me all over again for suffering through that.

You have now caused me to summon the courage to view the mug shots of the assembled 2013 AWP presenters.

Of note, in this drone's gallery:

-- Only one presenter is applauding herself

-- Only one is sucking his fingers

-- Only one is wearing a cowboy hat (always useful in Beantown during a blizzard)

-- Only one has a look of consternation suggesting he has just learned the Earth is due to leave its orbit at any moment, and he hasn't yet had time to pitch his great idea for a novel about it

-- Only six have succumbed to "Author with Listing Head" syndrome (but of course that's only six so far...the incubation time may well be weeks, even months... years?)

One attendee, Miles Klee, has posted online a short list of things learned at the Conference. For those of us who missed the occasion, this was almost as good as being there. In fact, far better!

Some highlights:

"2. Writers can’t hold their booze nearly as well as they think they can. Just ask the woman who was meant to lead off a reading around 9 PM and was so drunk she read the same paragraph at least three times. On second thought, ask the organizer who tried to pull her offstage but was told “No, I’m not done.”

"3. Wait a minute: if everyone at this thing is in an MFA program, or teaches at one, or is pitching one, or has already graduated from one, or is just determined to get the phrase “University of Tampa Low-Residency MFA Program” on the official event badge lanyards, then who exactly is being recruited? Security guards.

"4. The catchall answer for any question ever asked of a panel is: “It depends.” Really, it works for everything. Try it! Either it comes across as very anguished and genuine, or glibly defeated and mildly funny. No one will ever challenge you for saying “context is everything.” Brilliant."

(The one thing Miles doesn't tell us is what he was doing there in the first place.)

March 11, 2013 at 3:11 PM
Nin Andrews said...

So funny!

I love that post by Miles Klee!

I suppose he was there to sell his book. Along with 13,000 other writers who were there to see their books.

March 11, 2013 at 8:45 PM
Lyle Daggett said...

A blizzard is a blizzard is a blizzard. A nail, however, is still a unison.

I'll have to find the post by Miles Klee. It sounds hilarious.

As it happens, I was also at AWP this year. I had some good luck finding a couple of panels I really liked. I've written about AWP in my blog, here, if you care to take a look.

March 23, 2013 at 4:19 PM

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