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I mean, I could do that for ten years, but then what?
Two rows back, a shoeless author chatted with a staff member of a residency program.
A flight attendant said to the two women, Are you here for AWP?
I live in Portland; Im so excited.
Turnout was down last year in Tampa, because Tampa.
The weather was good, the Lyft drivers were chatty, and Colson Whiteheads keynote wasactually funny.
It was suggested that she should dose the audience instead.
Below are several high points from a buzzy conference.
It felt like a victory party for a small-market baseball team that keeps beating the Yankees.
The awards are lovely, and we relish them, she said.
But Im most proud of the conversations weve started.
All Graywolf had ever pursued or prioritized in its hunt for talent, McCrae said, were singular voices.
The owners of said voices were mostly in the room, raising a glass.
The other writer agreed, sighing then reconsidered.
Well, they said, maybe Graywolf.
The discussion that followed was refreshingly transparent and sobering.
(Her staff are unpaid except for one employee, who makes $1,000 a month.)
The rest went to contributors and taxes.
I should have taken your class, said the young writer Dennis Norris II.
I recently quit my day job.
My situation is chaos.
Immediately after an April writing residency, Norris plans to visit a temp agency.
Dont be afraid to negotiate.
Always ask for more.
Hire an accountant (if you’re able to).
Deduct everything, yall, Baker said, pounding the table.
Just dont tell the government I told you to do it.
What a relief it was to come away from it with concrete experiences and lessons and even some hope.
All of the panelists spoke of being endlessly misunderstood.
But for every depressing anecdote, there was a moment of triumph.
No one knows what the hell theyre doing in publishing, Kwok said.
Youve got to remember that.
Mira Jacob left her writing group and wound up working with the pioneering black editor Chris Jackson.
Only you’ve got the option to imagine who you are, said Jacob.
No publisher, no agent, no one is going to be able to figure that out.
Mitchell Jackson will turn his Charlottesville experience into an essay.
You have to pick your battles, but keep taking notes, write essays, he said.
Oh, and hold grudges!
Revelations clustered in two areas: personal fallout and legal complications.
Real Women Dont Behave
Male protagonists, like actual men, get away with a lot.
Their abhorrent behavior somehow gets filed under Complex, Passionate, Difficult, or that old standby, Anti-Heroic.
Ladies dont have this luxury.
Youre not having brunch [with these characters].
I felt so much pressure to make her behave, Jones said.
In real life, women dont behave.
Makkai agreed; she also finds it easier to write men.
Thats doubly unfortunate when you consider that good behavior is not conducive to good drama.
Eventually, Jones just stopped showing it to them.
Then Oprahchampionedit, and on Saturday,An American Marriagewonthe NAACP Image Award for Fiction.
Paging Sherman Alexie …
The atmosphere at the panel, What Now?
When Good Writers Act Awful, was almost funereal, like a collective wake for problematic writers work.
(His partner, Nicole Aragi, is Junot Diazs agent.)
Bonnie Nadzam argued for interrogation over censorship.
Michael Croley, a teacher at Denison University, stressed listening to students.
Some things are unforgivable.
She argued that the idea of separating the art from the artist is both privileged and ridiculous.
A person created that work, not a machine.
Most of the people who advocate for this separation are white men.
One thing Sanchez and Freeman agreed on was that there is plenty worth analyzing thatwasntwritten by scumbags.
I wish he would say something, she said.
I want to know why he did what he did.
*Update, April 2: Emily Gould gave an ironically germane explanation for her lateness on Twitter.
