AWP 24 is in the books
I went to Kansas City to make friends, and I did
On the plane leaving Kansas City yesterday, it seemed like nearly everyone had a book in their hand. The two people in front of me chatted about their memoirs as the person across the aisle feverishly jotted notes on a manuscript covered in track changes. “How was your AWP?” I asked the woman who, paperback in hand, took the window seat next to me. “What?” She had absolutely no idea what I was talking about.
The highlights:
This Little Engines off-site event. A 9:30am reading? Before we’ve all dragged our dehydrated bodies for miles around a convention center and sat through panel after panel in windowless rooms? A reading with free coffee and donuts? At a very chill bar where the owner will remember you when you return for another reading ten hours later? Yes to all of it. It didn’t hurt that every reader in the lineup was fantastic.
Staying in the cutest little Airbnb with Rachel León of Pub Cheerleaders. Rachel is not only one of the kindest and hardest-working writers I have ever met, but she also put up with the fact that I wanted to TALK from the second we woke up until way past our bedtime like it was a middle school sleepover. While hobknobbing at the convention center, we told the story of how we met dozens of times, and if you haven’t heard it yet, here you go —>
Shayne: We’re from the same hometown — Rockford, Illinois — but that’s not how we met.
Rachel: We met at Tin House the summer of 2021.
Shayne: Because it was virtual that year, they did these Zoom coffee break things where they would throw you into a breakout room with a handful of people. You’d do ice breakers and then they’d mix it up and throw you into a new breakout room. It was awful.
Rachel: We got thrown into the same breakout room, but we still wouldn’t have known we were from the same hometown except for the fact that it happened to be “T-shirt Tuesday” at Tin House.
Shayne: I was wearing a T-shirt from Rockford Art Deli.
Rachel: And I was like, “Is that T-shirt from Rockford Art Deli?”
Shayne: And I was like, “How do you know Rockford Art Deli?”
Rachel: And the rest is history.1
Meeting (technically for the second time, but first time since the acquisition) my publisher, Michael Wheaton, along with a bunch of other people who are involved with/published by Autofocus. Every one was super nice and the Autofocus table looked amazing, all those beautiful books together in one place. I felt really proud to be associated with the press and excited for next year.
THE BOOK FAIR. My favorite part of AWP is wandering around the book fair just glorying in all the books. It’s like the Scholastic Book Fair but fifty times the size and I’m shopping with my own money so if I want to spend it all on books, I can! I did have to cut myself off at a certain point because I didn’t want to check luggage on the way home, but I managed to return with quite the haul.
From left to right, top to bottom:
Dear Edna Sloane by Amy Shearn, Red Hen Press
Heaven is a Place on Earth: Searching for an American Utopia by Adrian Shirk, Counterpoint Press
Nilling by Lisa Robertson, Book*hug Press
Slim Confessions: The Universe as Spider or Spit by Sarah Minor, Noemi Press
Cleave by Holly Pelesky, Autofocus Books
The Vertical Interrogation of Strangers by Bhanu Kapil, Kelsey Street Press
Picture Window by Danny Caine, Autofocus Books
A Whale is a Country by Isabel Zapata, translated by Robin Myers, Fonograf Editions
Outtakes by Joanna Acevedo, WTAW Press
The Bulgarian Training Manual by Ruth Bonapace, Clash Books
Lesser American Boys by Zach VandeZande, Mason Jar Press
The New Animals by Pip Adam, Dorothy, A Publishing Project
Wild Milk by Sabrina Orah Mark, Dorothy, A Publishing Project
And Yet by Jeff Alessandrelli, Future Tense Books
I also ordered, after hearing the two of them read on a panel, Niina Pollari’s Path of Totality and Kwoya Fagin Maples’s Mend.
My AWP motto was “I’m here to make friends,” and I did! I met so many kind/smart/funny/fun writers and had all these invigorating conversations about books/writing/life. Now I am tired, but so happy, and feeling very ready to dive into Leave revisions.
Back to our regularly scheduled reading and writing updates next week, and until then I’ll leave you with the new Camera Obscura single, which I listened to on repeat the whole way home from KC.
NOT ACTUAL QUOTES but you get the point.
So lovely to see you there (and always)!
Gah, I had so much fun with you!