AWP Update: Continuation of the Schmooze

1. Slept in a bit this morning, then went down to serve my time at the Two Year Caucus table; they didn’t need me right away, as they had the shift covered, so I spent time wandering the book fair. Met Barbara of Marsh Hawk Press again, and ended up chatting a bit with some other folks I know but for some reason totally forget their names. This is what happens when I don’t write shit down.

2. Ran into Mike Dockins of Terminus and Redactions and his lovely associate Allison (who is both an MFA and an MLS, and so is assured of a secure job unless books start dying. Oh. Wait . . .). Made plans to meet up again Friday evening to attempt to repeat the hijinx of 2007.

3. When I made it back to the Two Year Caucus table, I spent some time chatting with Thomas Montegomery-Fate of College of DuPage; he’s a great writer with stuff for NPR, Chicago Public Radio, essays in the Boston Globe, etc. Also met Margaret Rozga, a contributor to the Spring/Summer 2007 issue of PM, and the publisher of her new book from Benu Press, whose name I am completely blanking on, but who is a really cool guy. Also met Lois Roma-Deely of Paradise Valley Community College. As it turns out, Lois lives in Scotsdale, which is where my father-in-law is a Deacon at a Catholic Church, so we were able to gossip about the goings on in the Phoenix Diocese to kill the time.

4. Also met in person Richard Jeffrey Newman, a fellow conspirator at TGAP (although both he and I have been AWOL over on that particular blog--we’re coming back Victor, I swear!).

5. After my turn in the booth was up, I hit the floor again, and ran into Bruce Covey of Coconut, who I immediately flagged down to inquire about the location for a reading he is sponsoring on Saturday night. As we were standing there chatting, Lee Ann Roripaugh of University of South Dakota and Carly Sachs of George Washington University joined us. Lee Ann and I met in Albuquerque at another conference, and Carly and I met back in the ATL as well. Carly invited us up to her hotel room later this evening for a get together (yeah, I went, details below).

This is one conference where I am constantly introducing people to other people. I am the schmoozer. I work the room, baby! Bruce even suggested I propose a panel for AWP next year on working the room and making the most of the conference. I think it was in jest, but it actually seems like a good idea. Okay people, don’t steal this one.

6. After our chat, I wandered around for a bit and then hit Bruce’s panel on poetry’s electronic communities. It was a bit of a bust, as Robin Beth Shear of the Academy of American Poets talked about how they track visitors to their web site and what their weblog stats revealed about what the general populace search for (three guesses: love poetry). And Stephanie Strickland from Electronic Literature Organization merely pushed her agenda about what is and isn't e-literature (point number 1: if it can be printed, it is not e-literature. Guess how that went over).

Finally things fell in line with some guy who was a substitute on the panel who talked about running poetry listservs and rammed home the point that electronic communities need a "meatspace" counterpart to be productive. Danielle Pafunda of La Petite Zine discussed the role of blogs, and Charles Jensen from LocusPointe discussed how he is attempting to create communities by creating issues of his online journal on a per-city basis.

Then Bruce hit the home run by discussing HOW online communities are created, and then how this leads into the creation of aesthetic movements and debates among “schools”. Fairly good stuff, which essentially boils down to links create associations which create friendships which create communities which creates online social movements that jump offline to create aesthetic schools. Of course, anyone who's read danah boyd's dissertation (PDF) could have told you that. Just kidding, Bruce.

7. On my way out to dinner I ran into Eamon Wall and his wife Drucilla, who both teach at my alma matter, the University of Missouri at St. Louis. I never had classes with Eamon, but he’s a nice guy; I took one of his poems last year for Poetry Midwest. They were waiting to meet another party for dinner, so we had just a quick chat before parting ways.

8. I ended up going to Subway for dinner--I AM NOT eating in the hotel, as the prices are simply highway robbery--and talking a long walk down Michigan avenue. I went from the 700 block of South Michigan to the 800 block of North Michigan. I was on a mission: my daughters insisted that I visit the American Girl Store here in Chicago. So I did my due diligence like any good dad would. But I didn’t buy anything. Nothing was on sale, and they didn’t have a clearance section. I might be a good dad, but I’m not paying more for doll clothes than I do to dress my kids themselves.


9. As I was walking back in to the hotel, I spotted Joshua Kryah of UNLV and Kent Shaw of University of Houston (he’s still plugging away on his PhD) sitting in the hotel wine bar. Josh and Kent and I did our BAs at the University of Missouri at St. Louis before we went our separate ways to grad school (Josh to Iowa and UNLV, Kent to Washington University and then Houston, me right there at UMSL). We chatted and caught up and traded gossip about our mentors, and chided Kent on his state of singlehood. Seriously, Kent--start dating some of those undergrads!

10. Went back to the room for a bit, then went down to Carly Sach’s room. It turned out to be party central; met several people whose names I can't remember, except for Dave, the painter and poet, with whom I had an in-depth discussion about hair bands of the 80s and why painters need studios and assistants (not the same conversation--2 of them). Reb Livingston showed up and then the party got loud and noisy (not because of Reb, just more bodies in the room) and all sorts of people I didn’t have a chance to meet walked in, like Deborah Ager of 32 Poems, and then Kim Addonizio walked into the room. I was floored. I couldn’t even get up the nerve to walk over and talk to her. I mean, Kim is a major celebrity in the poetry world and I am currently reviewing her new poetry writing book for use in my classes, and there I was glued to my chair, nodding as Dave was going on about Michelangelo and his assistants and I was trying to make eye contact with Kim and failing miserably. I am such a coward. I actually had to leave, though, as it was 11:30 and I couldn’t stop myself from yawning because the day had been so long and tiring.

11. One final note: Sandra Beasely is super nice. She's got a hilarious story about Billy Collins and shower stalls. It turns out Billy is a dirty old man.

More updates tomorrow evening!