Checking In With AWP

AWP is that convention writers and publishers and agents and authors and literary enjoyers go to once a year. Next year the convention is in Washington, DC and more than a few people have asked me “Where is the Fictionaut table!” So, I think next year, we should have a table and host a Fictionaut organized reading. Meanwhile, let me tell you about how it’s been going out here. First of all, I left my cellphone in Boston, secondly, everyone has been a hoot. Thursday night, I read with our Fictionauter Kathy Fish as well as JA Tyler and some other wonderful writers and readers. Sherman Alexie came to watch, which was “cool.”

I’ve been spending most of my time at the Dogzplot/Paper Hero table with Barry Graham but had a chance to attend the Indie Press Panel. Some of the Panelists were Blake Butler, Aaron Burch and Mike Young and the room was eager to hear their thoughts on Indie press publications and the growth from MFA journals. Blake mentioned that MFA journals are often riddled with inconsistencies because the journal itself is passed down from class to class, and thus the journals change state as they change hands yearly. Though he did speak well of both self-publishing and MFA journals saying, “All of these things come out of passion.”

Aaron Burch talked about HOBART‘s roots. “I started a literary journal by accident.” What everyone on the panel was getting at, seemed to be a similar vibe which was that if a writer chooses to begin a career as a public reader, as an observer, as a critic, as a publisher, it is “do-able” that a love of literature and heart actually can begin to take shape professionally. Mike Young chimed in, echoing Blake and Aaron, “We hadn’t intended on starting a literary journal.” The elevation here has me slightly dizzy and I’m sorry friends this is so short and vague, but I’m left with and leaving you this week with this: Go For It.

Nicolle Elizabeth checks in with Fictionaut Groups every Friday, unless there’s a conference or something. You can follow Fictionauts in Denver with our #AWP10 Twitter list.