AWP Events!

OK, first of all, I’m NOT going to see John Barr talk on Thursday morning. Apologies. But I’m trying to cut down on things that infuriate me. As for things that don’t infuriate me, first of all, a little business:

The Laurel Review
Table 424

AWP Bookfair subscription offers:

One-Year subscription, starting with 43.1 (on site): $10.00
Bonus: Free chapbook

Two-Year subscription, starting with 43.1 (on site): $15.00
Bonus: Free Chapbook

Single chapbook subscription
or issue 43.1 (the brand-new All-Poetry issue!) only: $5.00

Back issues: FREE


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There are a LOT of things going on around AWP this year. Where do I start?

How about with American Hybrid?

Thursday

4:30-5:45

International Ballroom South
2nd Floor
R200. American Hybrid: The Meeting of Extremes. (Cole Swensen, Forrest Gander, Brenda Hillman, Cal Bedient, Lynn Emanuel, Mark McMorris) This panel will address the critical premise behind the 2009 Norton anthology American Hybrid: that the long-standing division in American poetry between tradition and experiment has given way to myriad hybrids informed by both extremes, bringing them into real conversation for the first time. The panelists chosen demonstrate the rich range of our poetic inheritances; their statements on this trend will be followed by a public discussion to explore its potentials and ramifications.


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A lot of people are signing books I've been looking forward to this year: Rae Armantrout, Joseph Lease, J.D. Smith, Wayne Miller, Kathy Fagan (I think?), Chris Carrier, Joel Brouwer, David Kirby, Jake Adam York, and the list goes on and on.

Anyway, I’ll be signing as well:

Table 422: The University of Akron Press
Thursday
11 – Noon
Map of the Folded World

It’s in limited release, AWP only. And there are a limited number of copies.
The book will officially come out, I think, on or about April 1st?


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And how about those off-site events? There are too many to mention, mostly on Thursday and Friday. Here are a couple:


diode and Anti- Offsite Reading & Reception:

Bob Hicok * Mary Biddinger * Jake Adam York * Paul Guest * Noah Falck * Joshua Ware * Steven Schroeder * G.C. Waldrep * Patrick Lawler * Lee Ann Roripaugh * Brent Goodman * Adam Clay * Matt Guenette * Ada Limon * Beckian Fritz Goldberg

Date: Friday, February 13, 2009
Time: 7:00pm - 10:00pm
Location: Curtiss Hall, 10th Floor, Fine Arts Building
Street: 410 S. Michigan Ave


And then one for Fence on Saturday:

Time: 7:00pm - 10:00pm
Fence/Fence Books
Type: Music/Arts - Listening Party
Network: Global
Time and Place Date: Saturday, February 14, 2009
Location: Ganz Hall, Rockefeller University
Street: 50 Congress Parkway
City/Town: Chicago, IL


I’ll be reading here, which looks like fun:


Thursday, February 12, 2009
6:00pm - 8:00pm
Hopleaf Bar
5148 North Clark Street

Black Warrior Review, Bat City Review, and Mare Nostrum invite you to an evening of drinks, readings, and conversation with recent contributors to each magazine.

Matthew Zapruder * Betsy Wheeler * John Gallaher * Hadara Bar-Nadav * Elisabeth Benjamin * Jamey Bradbury * Rebecca Hoogs * Brandon Krieg * Zach Savich, * Kevin Craft

Conversation and cash bar from 6:00-6:30pm
Readings from 6:30-8:00pm

Directions to Hopleaf from the Loop:

Take the Red Line north towards Howard. Get off at the Berwyn stop. Walk six blocks left on Berwyn, crossing Broadway, to Clark Street. Take a left on Clark and walk a block and a half south. Hopleaf will be on your right. Reading upstairs.

http://www.hopleaf.com/


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On FRIDAY, one gets to choose between perhaps the most unfortunate competing events on the ZWP schedule:


Noon – 1:15

International Ballroom North
2nd Floor
F139. Where Parallel Lines Meet: Discussing Relations Among Our Various Contemporary Poetries. (Richard Silberg, Nickole Brown, Mark Doty, Rusty Morrison, Charles Harper Webb, Matthew Zapruder) American poetry has split into a bewildering number of styles that can be as different as Language poetry and Slam poetry. How do our poetries relate: disdain? benign neglect? interest? cross-fertilization? The panelists, widely spaced within the poetic sphere, will each read one of their own poems and then offer a personal response to the question, opening discussion among panelists and between panel and audience.

OR

International Ballroom South
2nd Floor
F140. The Poets of American Hybrid. (David St. John, Ralph Angel, Alice Fulton, Rae Armantrout, Peter Gizzi) This reading represents the range and diversity of poetry collected in the new Norton anthology American Hybrid, the premise of which is that the day of "poetic schools" is long over and the best of American poetry has been drawing, for many years, from all aspects of poetic endeavor in this country.


Well, that’s a decision. Maybe one can stand at the partition and get a, um, hybrid experience of the both of them?


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Later that day (Friday), I’m looking forward to this:

3:00 – 4:15

International Ballroom North
2nd Floor
F175. The Academy of American Poets Presents Mary Jo Bang & Frank Bidart. (Tree Swenson, Mary Jo Bang, Frank Bidart) Readings by Mary Jo Bang and Frank Bidart. Introductions by Tree Swenson.


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And then, after that, I get to choose between these two. Ouch.


4:30 p.m.-5:45 p.m.

Astoria
3rd Floor
F187. Milkweed Editions Poetry Reading. (Wayne Miller, Eireann Lorsung, Alex Lemon, Melissa Kwasny, Ada Limon, James Cihlar) This reading features new work by five distinctive poets—Ada Limon, Melissa Kwasny, Alex Lemon, Eireann Lorsung, and Wayne Miller—all recently published by Milkweed Editions, one of the largest literary nonprofit publishers in the country. Commemorating Milkweed's twenty-fifth anniversary as a book publisher, this event is an exciting opportunity to discover innovative work. Moderated by Wayne Miller, author of The Book of Props and editor of Pleaides.


Continental B
Lobby Level
F190. Amerika in Chicago. (David Lazar, Kelly Cherry, Ray Gonzalez, Cynthia Hogue, Ander Monson, Diane Wakoski) Come hear a selection of work as Hotel Amerika celebrates its move to a new venue: Columbia College Chicago. Created in 2002 at Ohio University, Hotel Amerika continues to offer its provocative, eclectic mix of work in known and unknown genres by acclaimed and emerging writers.


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If I survive until Saturday, I’ll be on a panel . . . wish me luck.

Also, I'll certainly be here:

Omnidawn Press
Saturday, February 14
1:00pm - 2:00pm

Authors include Paul Hoover, Maxine Chernoff, Bin Ramke, Donald Revell, Elizabeth Robinson, Tyrone Williams, Laura Moriarity, and many others.