Last
weekend, I spent a day and a half at the AWP conference,
and because I hadn't planned things out in advance, I missed a lot I'm sure that, had I
spent more time studying the program, would have been useful. I went with my gut, with my knee's pain level, and my energy and willingness to scout out a
tucked away presentation room three-quarters of a mile of connecting walkways
and escalators away.
As many
conference attendees do, I sometimes caught the first half of a panel presentation,
then ducked out to listen to the second half of
another. It may be that someone, in one of the sessions I mention below, said something
extraordinarily exciting and I missed it. Nevertheless, here's a potpourri of the takeaways I either jotted into my notebook, or that made their way into my brain.
At
a panel playfully called, "Nope,
That Still Ain't a Story: Developmental Editing in Creative Nonfiction,"
two authors and their editor discussed their joint experiences. Bill Patrick,
of Hudson Whitman Excelsior College Press,
explained that while Amy Ryan
"didn’t have a book" when she brought him her manuscript of living
with diabetes, writer Anthony D'Aries
"had four books" lurking in his manuscript about learning to
understand his father. Ryan talked about getting instructions from Patrick
about chapters she needed to write, often more personal and revealing than
she'd planned; D'Aries discussed the process of locating the essence
of his story, and paring away.
Patrick
also mentioned the value of "bridge chapters". These explore the less
personal aspects of the main memoir topic/story, but are related and connected
to the larger picture. They give the reader a bit of a break from heavy
unfolding narrative, and act as a way of moving the camera from close-up to a
wider angle; they can also provide context of how the narrator's story fits
into the broader world.
> If
you're thinking of running a one- or multi-day workshop, retreat,
mini-conference, there was the panel, "Starting Small: Grassroots Workshops and Conferences".
Dave Housley from Barrelhouse
suggested finding a like-minded organization to partner with—like a college, arts
center, etc.—that can provide free or low-cost space. Tyler McMahon, who runs the Ko`oalu Writers Workshop in Hawaii, warned, "Don't run at a
deficit; you want to break even or make money from the start." Another
good tip: serve a free lunch at a session for which you want a large audience!
For those seeking gigs as presenters or workshop leaders at small conferences,
panelists advised developing a unique program that other writers can't offer,
and/or something you've developed specifically for their audience.
> At "Opening the Doors to
Discovery: The Generative Writing Workshop," panelists offered interesting
ways to utilize prompts, writing exercises, and reading for inspiration when
conducting one-time workshops with time for writers to produce new
material. Baron Wormser (one of my MFA
workshop leaders a decade ago), said he thinks of a prompt as "a quick way
into the unconscious, to get at the unknown, the unbidden." It forces a
writer to access some new area of thought because something must be produced in
the time allotted. Another panelist advised that at one-time gatherings (as
opposed to on-going workshop series), reading and sharing be met only with
positive responses, absent critical feedback. Kim Dana Kupperman recommended locating
prompts within a piece of published work the group reads together.
> "Essaying
the Edge: Teaching Alternative Forms of Nonfiction," focused on the
so-called hermit crab essay, hybrids, collage, and other experimental nonfiction.
Panelists talked of sneaking in these forms without at first identifying them,
so that students might simply read and like them, and decide on their own what
to call them.
> At
the panel, "Just Don't Read the
Comments: On the Joys and Risks of Publishing Personal Essays Online,"
I heard just the last ten minutes, including advice from Laura Bogart to ask for headline
approval and hashtag/tagging approval, pre-publication. Her awareness of this
was spurred by an incident when one of her essays was headlined and tagged in a
way that included Trump's four-word slogan; she asked that it be changed, and
the editor/venue complied, but not before it had resulted in unpleasant emails
and online thrashing.
> At an abundantly informative panel, "Beyond the Classroom: Teaching Outside Academia," I was scribbling so fast, and all four panelists were making so many useful suggestions every minute, I didn't record who said what. The following bits of advice came from Stuart Horwitz, Julie Duffy, Jane Friedman, Andi Cumbo-Floyd, and Gabriella Pereira.
Know what you WANT to teach (not just what you've been teaching all along). You'll earn more by teaching/leading an add-on workshop at a conference than if you are one of the general presenters. Develop packages and products to offer repeat clients/students. Offer a free something to attract mailing list sign-ups. Hand out (or offer to email) something useful following an in-person teaching event. Pitch your online or in-person class with a very specific outcome highlighted ("After four weeks, you'll have two essays ready to submit.."). Students and coaching clients want to be held accountable, so build in a deadline/reporting/accountability component. Offer tiered pricing if possible [$X for the full feedback option; $(X-Y) for a scaled down version.] Include student/client accomplishments in your promotional materials.
I just saw today that Jane Friedman has a new blog post up outlining much of what she talked about at the conference, plus more.
> Finally,
it seemed fitting that, in Washington, D.C., during the final session of
the final day, I ended by listening to one particular panelist whose sincere,
practical and pragmatic, encouraging talk on "How to Publish Your Book Without an Agent," made me want
to stand up and shout, Nevertheless, She
Persisted! That panelist was Janice
Eidus, someone I recognized from Facebook and from her essays, but had never
met. But by happy coincidence I'd share dinner with her later that evening (via invitation of a mutual writing friend). Eidus and her fellow panelists' stories of
perseverance and eventual publication—and the sprawling Book Fair where I found
at least a dozen independent traditional publishers of literary works that I
was not previously aware of (and trust me, I'd already compiled a long list!)—capped
off my personal AWP experience on a hopeful note.
Want
more post-AWP coverage? I'll have a bunch of links to others' blog posts in the
Friday link round up later this week.
