UMD at AWP 2017

The Associal of Writing and Writing Program's Annual Convention is being held in Washington, DC from February 8th through the 11th. Those presenting from the Department include faculty members, graduate students, and alumni.

February 8, 2017

7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
32 Poems, Smartish Pace, & Quarterly West Reading
Sixth Engine, 438 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington DC, 20001
Cost: Free
Url: https://www.facebook.com/events/1890356091210187/
Kick off AWP 2017 with 32 Poems, Smartish Pace, and Quarterly West!
Featuring readers Hadara Bar-Nadav (QW), Cortney Lamar Charleston (32P), Garrard Conley (QW), Rebecca Hazelton (32P), Shara Lessley (32P), J.C.Reyes (QW), Marianne Villanueva (QW), David Yezzi (32P), and more.

February 9, 2017

9:00 am to 10:15 am
R130. Contemporary Mythopoetics
Room 204AB, Washington Convention Center, Level Two
(James Allen Hall, Jennifer Chang, Sarah Blake, Jehanne Dubrow, Gary Jackson)
Reginald Shepherd wrote that myths "are a reservoir of cultural knowledge, hopes, fears, and passions...charged materials that each poetic generation can mine and remake." By remaking these "charged materials," the poet reforges the cultural forces that delineate what it means to be human. The panel explores the craft of myth and archetype in our own work and in poems we love, to better understand how re/making myths can change and expand our concept of the mythopoetic and of the self.

1:30 pm to 2:45 pm
R204. Criticism or Chronicle? Poetry Reviewing Today
Marquis Salon 6, Marriott Marquis, Meeting Level Two
(Andrew Ciotola, Kyle Dargan, Shara Lessley, Kaveh Akbar, Kelly Forsythe)
"Sometimes it is hard to criticize, one wants only to chronicle," wrote the 20th-century poetry critic Randall Jarrell. What is the function of poetry reviewing today? This panel proposes to examine the culture and politics of poetry reviewing, addressing such matters as the responsibilities of the poetry reviewer, how poetry reviewing intersects with issues of race and gender, its role as community builder, and the ways in which new media are transforming evaluative commentary on poetry.

R226. The Imitation Game: Adapting Classic Narratives in Contemporary Literature
Room 204AB, Washington Convention Center, Level Two
(Lorraine Lopez, Kathryn Locey, Lynn Pruett, Blas Falconer, Teresa Dovalpage)
Isabel Allende claims that all stories have been told and that writers merely retell these, sometimes deliberately. For example, Jane Smiley drafted 1,000 Acres to rebut Shakespeare’s King Lear. Authors, writing in four genres—fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama, speak to the conscious process of adapting classic literature, sharing ways to eke inspiration and avoid derivation in this practice that can provide new perspectives to highlight and enrich enduring narratives.

3:00 pm to 4:15 pm
R261. From the Fishouse: A Bilingual Reading of Poets from Around the World
Room 204C, Washington Convention Center, Level Two
(Matthew O'Donnell, Jesse Lee Kercheval , Piotr Gwiazda, Katherine Young, Ani Gjika)
Since 2004, From the Fishouse has provided the public greater access to the poems and voices of emerging US poets by using online audio archives, simulcast readings, and other media to bring poetry into the home and classroom. Our revised website now features emerging international poets and translators. This bilingual reading will showcase poets writing in Russian, Polish, Spanish, Albanian, and Filipino, as well as a translator
discussion about process and the joys and challenges of this important work.

R262. Fourscore Feminist Fabulous Years: A Tribute to Alicia Ostriker
Room 206, Washington Convention Center, Level Two
(Aliki Barnstone, Afaa M. Weaver, Cynthia Hogue, Frances Payne Adler, Martha Nell Smith)
This tribute is in celebration of the 80th year of the great feminist poet, activist, critic, teacher, Jewish theologian, and mystic Alicia Ostriker. Four writers spanning the country, generations, and ethnicities discuss Ostriker’s multifaceted contributions to American letters since she came to prominence during the era of Second Wave Feminism. The tribute capped by a brief reading by Alicia Ostriker.

5:00 pm to 7:00 pm
University of Maryland Happy Hour for Faculty, Current Students and Alumni
The Wonderland Ballroom, 1101 Kenyon St. NW, Washington DC, 20010
Cost: Free
Url: http://www.thewonderlandballroom.com/
Join the faculty, current students, and alumni from the University of Maryland's Creative Writing Program on Feb. 9 at 5 PM at the Wonderland Ballroom in Columbia Heights for happy hour fun!

6:00 pm
The Willow Springs, Okey-Panky, Pacifica Tent Show Revival Reading to Save America
The Boundary Stone, 116 Rhode Island Ave NW, Washington DC, 20001
Cost: Free
We’ll be filling the American swamp as fast as it can be drained with readings by Kim Addonizio, Robert Lopez, Gary Lilley, J. Robert Lennon, Margaret Malone, Kaj Tanaka, Swati Prasad, Dinty W. Moore, Su-Yee Lin, Elissa Washuta, and Samuel Ligon.

7:30 pm to 9:30 pm
The Inner Loop - Off the Page and On the Mic
The Pub & The People, 1648 North Capitol St NW, Washington DC, 20001
Cost: Free
Url: https://www.facebook.com/events/1900780803485917/
D.C.'s The Inner Loop Literary Reading Series presents our special AWP edition, celebrating small presses and lit mags. Featuring Sheila Squillante, acclaimed poet, essayist, and editor at The Fourth River & Barrelhouse, followed by 3 readers each from District Lit, The Boiler Journal, and Sakura Review!

8:00 pm to 10:00 pm
The Magnificent Seven: A reading hosted by Pleiades, AGNI, American Literary Review, Boulevard, Cream City Review, Gulf Coast, and Poemoftheweek.org
Bayou, 2519 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington DC, 20037
Cost: Free
Url: https://www.facebook.com/events/1332292320116765/
Come to Bayou to celebrate the Magnificent Seven at a reading by our contributors, including: Chen Chen, Alice Elliott Dark, Matt Donovan, David Keplinger, Shara McCallum, Gregory Pardlo, Caitlin Pryor, Maggie Smith, and Ryo Yamaguchi. Meet us upstairs for a drink in the company of friends.

February 10, 2017

9:00 am to 10:15 am
F119. Home: A Four-Letter Word
Liberty Salon N, O, & P, Marriott Marquis, Meeting Level Four
(Kelly McMasters, Rachel DeWoskin, Hasanthika Sirisena, Sonya Chung, Elissa Washuta)
Home is a loaded word, a complex idea: it's a place that's safe, sentimental, difficult, nourishing, war-torn, and political. It's a place we escape and a place we create. This panel of women writers discuss the ways in which they confront home in their work, including writing within and rebelling against the idea of home as a woman's place. What choices do we make to reveal, deconstruct, and imagine homes for our characters? In what ways do our homes inform our real and imagined selves?

10:30 am to 11:45 am
F144. The Manifesto Project: A Reading and Conversation
Supreme Court, Marriott Marquis, Meeting Level Four
(Tyler Mills, Jillian Weise, Vandana Khanna , David Groff, Rebecca Hazelton)
What does a poetic manifesto look like in a time of increased pluralism and relativism? How can a manifesto open a space for new and diverse voices? Forty-five contributors wrote manifestos and chose their own poems for The Manifesto Project, a new book from the University of Akron Press. Here, four contributors read their poems and discuss the act—their declarations of aesthetic and literary and political principles.

F167. Written on a Woman's Body: A Cross-Genre Reading of Bold Writings about Women and Their Bodies
Room 208AB, Washington Convention Center, Level Two
(Elizabeth Searle, Dolen Perkins-Valdez, Melissa Pritchard, Shara McCallum, Lee Hope Betcher)
Birth, breast cancer, Botox, body art, and what goes on behind bedroom doors: women's bodies and all they experience are being written about more frankly than ever before. DC is a fitting place for bold, politically charged readings. Writing in fiction, nonfiction, scripts, and poetry, the female authors in this reading and Q&A offer samples of their most visceral works. Then, in the same bold spirit, they discuss the unique challenges and rewards of writing about the female body, head on.

1:30 pm to 2:45 pm
F205. The Fifty-First Minute: Beyond the Therapist's Office and onto the Page
Marquis Salon 7 & 8, Marriott Marquis, Meeting Level Two
(Ainsley McWha, Camille Chidsey, Heather Kresge, Christopher P. Collins, Elissa Washuta)
Some say that to write good creative nonfiction the transformative therapy must come well before the writing. But, what if we write about a subject dealt with in an ongoing therapy setting? Writers whose work has addressed mental illness argue the validity of the therapy first/writing second belief, discuss challenges encountered while writing about this often stigmatized topic, and explore the difference between therapy, catharsis, and the inevitable insights brought on by the writing process.

F207. US/Pacific Poets Confronting US Empire
Marquis Salon 12 & 13, Marriott Marquis, Meeting Level Two
(Collier Nogues, Brenda Shaughnessy, Lawrence-Minh Bùi Davis, Lehua Taitano, Lyz Soto)
US military infrastructure in the Pacific enables both global US imperialism and the militarization of local communities there and throughout the US. Join five poets with ties to Okinawa, Guåhan (Guam), Vietnam, the Philippines, and Hawai‘i as they invite the audience to collaboratively envision how writers can use language and performance in our local, national, and international literary spheres to resist the linguistic and cultural violence of military imperialism.

3:00 pm to 4:15 pm
F244. To Grade or Not to Grade: Assessment and Undergraduate Creative Writing
Monument, Marriott Marquis, Meeting Level Four
(Abby Bardi, Kathryn Kysar, Patricia Elam, Robin Marcus, Mark Keats)
In our data-driven era, undergraduate creative writing instructors are caught between the practices of traditional workshop culture and the increasing demand for “measurable course outcomes” that may seem reductionist to creative practitioners. This panel of seasoned and newer creative writing instructors will conduct a lively discussion of grading creative writing from a variety of perspectives, sharing insights and innovative workarounds for navigating the new world of assessment.

F265. Not Invisible: Editors of Literary Journals Speak Out on Disability and Building Inclusive Writing Communities
Room 204C, Washington Convention Center, Level Two
(Sheila McMullin, Marlena Chertock, Jill Khoury, Mike Northen, Sheryl Rivett)
Disability voices are underrepresented in literature; the VIDA Count further points to this. Examining social ramifications of exclusion, this panel explores ableism in the literary world, barriers to accessibility and publishing, and promotion of disability literature. Editors of online magazines actively seeking work from writers routinely excluded from the literary field discuss disability, impairment, and embodiment with the intention of building inclusive and dynamic writing communities.

4:30 pm to 5:45 pm
F296. A Celebration of Michael Collier
Room 206, Washington Convention Center, Level Two
(Jennifer Grotz, Tom Sleigh, C. Dale Young, Alan Shapiro, A. Van Jordan)
On the 30th anniversary of his appointment to the University of Maryland faculty, and in recognition of his ongoing success as director of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, this panel celebrates the writing, teaching, and literary citizenship of Michael Collier. In his many roles, he has recognized, developed, and provided opportunity for the pluralism of American writing to flourish. Panelists will discuss Collier's contributions to literary culture and read from his acclaimed body of work.
 
6:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Bennington Review/Oversound Reading
51st State Bar, 2512 L St NW, Washington DC, 20037
Cost: Free
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.

February 11, 2017

9:00 am to 10:15 am
S126. The Nurturing Ballbuster: Interrogating Gendered Pedagogies Within Creative Writing
AWP Bookfair Stage, Exhibit Halls D & E, Washington Convention Center, Level Two
(Kristine Ervin, Lisa Lewis, Keya Mitra, Nicole Zaza, Eva Foster)
This wouldn’t have happened if I were a male professor: a response many women have when describing their performance reviews, exchanges with students and colleagues, or experiences on the job market. But rather than uphold a system defined by authority, should we instead adopt and value a different approach, one that breaks gendered binaries? A diverse group of women discuss challenges they have faced as instructors and their strategies for adhering to or disrupting privileged pedagogical methods.

1:30 pm to 2:45 pm

S221. Recovering Out of Print Queer Literature
Salon F, Washington Convention Center, Level One
(Philip Clark, Lisa C. Moore, Julie R. Enszer, Jan Freeman, Stephen Motika)
The publications of many important LGBTQ writers have fallen out of print and become inaccessible to readers today. This situation poses special challenges for LGBTQ authors published by small independent presses. As readers, editors, and publishers, how can we uncover and restore LGBTQ writing in danger of being lost? How can this work be brought to new readers’ attention? With our AWP audience, we will reflect on the recovery of this marginalized literary history, culture, and community.

7:30 pm to 9:30 pm
Stadler Center @ Busboys and Poets
Busboys and Poets, Cullen Room, 1025 5th St. NW, Washington DC, 20001
Cost: Free
Celebrate the work of past fellows and residents at the Stadler Center for Poetry.
Readers: Justin Boening, Eduardo Corral, Carolina Ebeid, Leslie Harrison, Donika Kelly, EG Means, Emily Rapp, Mike Scalise, Chet'la Sebree, Tim Seibles, Jane Wong
Host: Shara McCallum
Appetizers and drinks provided.