AWP 2009: Day 3

Friday was a productive day for me here at AWP.

1. I attended a panel titled “The Night Shift: University Continuing Education Programs as Centers of Creative Writing Instruction” which, from the program description, seemed to be a panel that might have lent something to me in terms of pedagogy that I could take back to my classroom at JCCC, as I usually teach an evening Intro to Creative Writing course each spring.

The panel, featuring Angela Pneuman, Greg Harris, Patricia Bellanca, and David Gessner (who was filling in for a panelist who couldn’t make it), lead a lively conversation (lots of talk about the “ficitonal habit”, like it’s an addiction or something) about teaching writing to students whose primary goal is not becoming professional writers. The demographic they see in their classes are degreed professionals from the upper echelon of the economic classes, people who are already successful in their chosen career paths and are seeking enrichment opportunities.

However, a more proper title for this panel should have been “Harvard and Stanford Discover How to Make More Money from Wealthy People Who Want to Write.” Why the fuck are Stanford and Harvard just now realizing that the undergraduate student population is shifting away from recent high school graduates to older adult learners? Aren’t they supposed to be major research institutions? Seriously--providing enrichment opportunities is what community colleges have been doing for ages. STOP STEALING MY LIVELIHOOD, HARVARD!

ADDITION AS OF 2/16/2009:
In reality, I really do like the work of Gessner and Pneuman. Top notch. Never heard of Harris or Bellanca. I assume they have never heard of me, either.

2. Hit the Two Year College Caucus meeting. Met up with Jim Sullivan of Illinois Central College in Peoria, who I’ve met before at a few TYCA-Midwest conferences. Also ran into Ryan Stone, another UM-St. Louis MFA grad, who had the distinction of being the second managing editor for Natural Bridge. I was the first. But Ryan made the magazine better. Ryan’s now at Danville Area Community College. Introduced Jim to Ryan. Left the room. Remember, that's what I do.

3. Went to a fantastic session called “Textbooks: How to Propose, Write, and Edit a College Textbook” featuring Todd James Pierce, Kevin Clark, Jeff Knorr, and Vivian Garcia, an editor at Pearson. This was a good hands-on session with good advice about things to consider about writing a textbook. I was interested in this not because I want to write a textbook myself, but because when I look at textbooks to adopt for a course, I’m always a bit underwhelmed or a bit overwhelmed about the book, and looking at it from the writers and editor's perspective gave me new insight about how these books are put together and the various student populations they serve. I took twelve pages of notes during this session. Seriously. I had a hand cramp.

4. Finally hit the book fair floor for real. Ran into Alison Joseph of Crab Orchard Review and thanked her for running the CRWOPPS listserv, as roughly a fourth of Poetry Midwest’s traffic data suggests vistitors come from posting to that list.

5. Had a lovely conversation with the people at the table for Kore Press about their new Powder: Writing by Women in the Ranks, from Vietnam to Iraq, which looks like a book many of students could get in to. JCCC pulls lots of students from Ft. Leavenworth, and I frequently have both active and inactive duty Iraq and Afghanistan War vets in my classes. I’m itching to tackle this in my Honors English class. Maybe I will next year.

6. Ran into Ryan G. Van Cleave of C&R Press again. They just published Stacey Lynn Brown’s Cradle Song, a lovely and gorgeously produced book (see below for why I say this). If you’ve been following the poetry world for the past year, then you know the whole saga about this book (start at the bottom post and read up).

Ryan G. Van Cleave is my nemesis, but in a good way. When I first started publishing work in journals, wherever I had a poem accepted, Ryan G. Van Cleave had a poem in the same damn issue of the same damn journal. I have an entire shelf of journals in which the list of contributors includes us both.

Additionally, who else should be sitting at the table but Todd James Pierce. Yeah, it’s a small world (wait, it gets better: see below).

7. Ran into Jay Rubin of Alehouse Press. I owe him a beer for the nice time we had at AWP Atlanta in 2007, but he had to run off to attend a session, and I never reconnected with him.

8. Finally went back to the room, took a break for a few hours. Went for a walk, hit Subway again for an early dinner, and then took a nap. Around 8, I called Mike Dockins and went up to his buddy’s room on the 25th floor. Met Chris Gordon and Manual (Man) Martin, the founding editors of New South, two friends of theirs, Michelle and Amy, some other dude named Todd who kept talking about Breadloaf and how he broke Robert Frost's bed, and Jamie Iredell (who I met at AWP ATL 2007), a book designer who’s done work for Terminus and Redactions and, wait for it . . . C & R Press. Yeah, he did Stacey’s book. Oh, just wait, it gets even better.

After a late dinner at Bar Louie, we go back to the room for a few drinks, and who should show up? Chad Prevost, the other other editor of C & R Press . . . and RYAN G. VAN CLEAVE AND TODD JAMES PIERCE. I tell you, they are stalking me. Or perhaps I am unconsciously stalking them. We had a nice little get together, lots of chat and talk, etc.

9. Around 1:00 am, Man and Chris convinced Dockins and me to walk to Lake Michigan. In the snow. It was gorgeous. We pissed in the lake. We had a snowball fight. I will write a poem about this some day.

10. Hit the bed around 2:30 am. Fell asleep around 4. Woke up at 9. Further updates later.