#AWP16 in Los Angeles: Kate’s Events and Advice for First Timers

I am so excited to see many Sacramento Valley writers and friends from the wider region preparing to attend the annual Associated Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) conference in Los Angeles March 31-April 2 this year!

Below, you’ll find the list of events in which I am participating (plus some that I am tracking for the common good), and I would love to see you at any/all of these!

And here I offer some thoughts and advice for anyone attending for the first time:

• AWP is insanely huge. With over 12,00 participants, 800 organizations, 500 panels/readings/craft talks plus countless offsite events (What are those? Read on!), you will feel thrilled, overwhelmed, anxious, excited, happy, sublimely intelligent, utterly stupid, super cool, super un-cool, and–most certainly of all–exhausted and exhilarated during this event (and often all at the same time!). Come ready to embrace the craziness.
• The key to AWP happiness is to LIMIT YOURSELF. List out everything you want to do–all the panels, all the booths you want to hit, all the offsites (Trust me, read on for these!), all the individuals you want to try to run into, have coffee with, etc. Then cut out half. Then cut out half again. Now you have a list that might be doable without certain death-by-overwhelm! Or, an alternate approach: Spend one day in the book fair, one day wandering the panels, and one day wandering offsites. Or: Just show up and see what seems right in the moment to do, and go with it.
• Eat breakfast, lunch and dinner. Drink lots of water. Go easy on the caffeine, and on the alcohol. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. The convention center turns into the ninth circle of hell when you blood sugar plummets, your heart races from that “treat” of a quad latte, and/or your brain says “Goodnight! I’m going to sleep now!” after your third Scotch in the conference hotel bar where you have been waiting for an hour to meet [insert famous writer] and express your undying artistic crush. Trust me. I am a chronic over-doer, and events like this just set that part of me spinning at about a milling RPM. Treat your body and nervous system with some intentional TLC and you’ll have so much more fun!
• Need a place to call home during the conference? You are invited anytime to swing by the Sacramento Poetry Center/Under the Gum Tree booth, number 621, in the Bookfair where you will be greeted with joy. We are all veteran AWP’ers, so come with your embarrassing questions, your victories and defeats, and your fangirl/fanguy freak-out moments. We will be all smiles!
• The Bookfair: Yes, it’s HUGE! One year, I spent almost the entire conference going table to table–yes, to every single table in the bookfair–to really learn the landscape of literary publishing in the USA today. And I still felt rushed. The Bookfair is a great place to quickly say hi to many of your favorite all star writers, and also to connect in person with orgs that have supported your work. Here are the main strategies for the Bookfair that have worked for me: First, go to the orgs that have published your work recently and thank them again for all they do. Then: (1) Pick an interest and list out/wander and look for orgs that connect with that interest; for two years ago, I went to every org that published chapbooks. Last year, I went to all the poetry publishers that run prestigious first book contests. (2) Visit only the literary journals. I did this three years ago, and it was so helpful in upping my submitting game. (3) Check out your bookshelves. What presses seem to be consistently publishing some of your favorite books? Look for them in the bookfair. Connet. (4) Wander and see who or what catches your eye. 
• Okay, so, Offsite events: These are where the good times really roll. Both Under the Gum Tree and Sacramento Poetry Center are hosting offsites. See below for details! And see the conference website for listings.
• Spend an afternoon on the AWP website where you can view the official conference schedule, offsite event listings and download the conference app to your phone. I used the app last year and, while it’s not perfect, I really found it helpful! You can use the schedule on the website or the app to select events into a convenient personal calendar list. In the app, you can make notes about things to remember for when you go to each event. You can also select booths to visit from the list of Bookfair exhibitors and make notes about what to do when you visit them. And, you can add your own to-do’s with notes. You can set calendar alerts, etc. This all–for me, at least–helps combat the overwhelm…

At the end of the day, with AWP, it’s important to be honest with yourself about what you want out of the conference. Don’t try to do what the trendy things are, because it’s all trendy and it’s all completely not trendy, depending on who you are. Focus less on what you feel you should do and instead on what you want to do. What will bring you the most joy in this short time with many of the best writers, publishers, editors, universities and community organizations in our country today? Answer that question as best you can. And then go, and do!

Okay, here are some of the events I am tracking. I hope to see you at one or more of these!

xoxo until L.A.,

Kate

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Thursday AM: R139: Join Kate at The Chapbook Across Genres (Moderated by Yours Truly!)

Robert Muroff Bookfair Stage, LA Convention Center, Exhibit Hall Level One
10:30 am to 11:45 am