The good folks at The Raven Chronicles invited me to sign my books at their J29 table on Thursday, February 27, 2014, from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturday, March 1, 2014, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., at the AWP Bookfair in the Washington State Convention Center. The Saturday Bookfair is free and open to the public from 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. the Stranger noted, "It will be the biggest bookstore in Seattle for the one day that it's open."
"An annual showcase of over 650 exhibitors, AWP’s bookfair is the
nation’s largest marketplace for independent literary presses and
journals, creative writing programs, writing conferences and centers,
and literary arts organizations," according to the AWP site.
While the Saturday Bookfair is free, panels/presentations require registration with deep discounts for students.
At the conference, I am looking forward to "R278 -- The Literary Legacy of Nirvana and Kurt Cobain,"
Room 302, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3, Thursday, February 27, 2014, 4:30 p.m. to 5:45 p.m., and Saturday events. Saturday events I plan to attend are:
| 12:00 p.m. to 1:15 p.m.: | |
Aspen Room, Sheraton Seattle, 2nd Floor
|
S166. The Greening of Literature: Eco-Fiction and Poetry to Enlighten and Inspire.
(John Yunker, JoeAnn
Hart, Mindy Mejia, Ann Pancake,
Gretchen Primack
)
From mountaintop removal to ocean plastic to endangered species, ecological issues are increasingly on writers’ minds. Authors on this panel discuss how their ecologically themed fiction and poetry engages readers in powerful ways that nonfiction can’t. Panelists discuss writing in these emerging sub-genres as well as their readers’ responses and offer tips for writing about the environment in ways that are galvanizing and instructive without sacrificing creativity to polemics. |
| 3:00 p.m. to 4:15 p.m.: | |
Room 302, Western New England MFA Annex, Level 3
|
S254. A Tribute to the Poetry of Raymond Carver.
(Justin Bigos, Rick
Ryan, Ashley Reis, Jynne Dilling Martin, Carol Sklenicka)
Raymond Carver is widely considered a master of the short story form, and yet Carver was also, from the time he began writing in 1957 and until his death in 1988, a poet. Carver’s partner, Tess Gallagher, describes the poems as the spiritual current running through the stories. While this is true, the poems also ask to be reckoned with in their own right. This panel gathers three poets, a poet/eco-critic, and Carver’s biographer in order to praise the poetry of Raymond Carver. |
| 4:30 p.m. to 5:45 p.m.: | |
Room 613/614, Washington State Convention Center, Level 6
|
S276. Rounding the Human Corners: Writing the Truth about the Changing World.
(Marybeth Holleman,
Linda Hogan, Ann
Fisher-Wirth, Eva Saulitis, Juan Carlos Galeano)
Straddling mass extinctions and shifting ecosystems, how do we write about the more-than-human in a way that avoids simple metaphor? And how do we write of degradation and extinction in language that engages the (human) reader and remains truthful to these “other nations?” Discussing a diversity of approaches are five authors of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction about horses, wolves, birch trees, killer whales, polar bears—the depth and range of the world just beyond our human skin. |
