awp

maggie & i go to AWP for two or three reasons:

1. to wake up in a different city & hang out with almost everyone + in person.

2. so we can buy restaurant guides & visit a city we probably wouldn't otherwise visit.

3. to CHILL w/ prageeta.

we think these are good reasons for you to go, too.

some people only go because they are on a panel or something, but really... there is nothing like a credit card vacation & the freedom to not go to panels if you so choose. & you could run into yr very first writing teacher ever, like i did, charles hood. which is always a pleasure. or yr second. like gillian conoley. OR, even yr first writing teacher's husband, like Forrest Gander.

some people we didn't run into in vancouver [we missed austin for some reason... o, yeah... money]... but would like to run into in atlanta:

1. elise ficarra
2. suzanne stein
3. brandon brown
4. michael nicoloff
5 pamela lu
6. julie reid
7.sarah vap [the winner of, like, EVERY poetry award for 2006...]
8. jack spicer
9. robert duncan
10. judith goldman
11. jocelyn saidenberg
12. maurice blanchot
13. logan ryan smith
14. john sakkis
15. CACONRAD
16. stephanie young
17. everyone who blogs...

o... it is really too long of a list.

so, please. let's all go have cocktails & sleep in the same hotels & eat in the same restaurants & smoke each other's cigarettes in atlanta.

please?