AWP Day 1 Morning

So many people!!!!

For every session time there are at least ten offerings and choosing what to go to has provided me with some serious anxiety.

So far, I've been to three sessions:
1. The Meandering River:
An Exploration of the Subgenres of Nonfiction

2. Hip Hop and the Future of the Black Writer

3. Bob Hope, Joey Ramone, the Wolf Man, and Me:
The Use of Pop Culture in Fiction

And the tone in each room was as disparate as the content- older women silently transcribing every word; spontaneous "that's right" and "uh-huh's" erupting form the crowd; and ironic, post-ironic and post-post-ironic folk nervously clicking their pens. I felt at home in all three and therefore, truly at home in none of them.

What all there have similarly done for me, however, is remind me of how much I hate the Q & A portion of panel presentations. Seriously. If I ever have the pleasure to run one of these things I will implement the question-written-on-notecard-then-collected-and-prioritized/
edited-by-knowledgable-moderator-model or have said moderator ask intelligent and relevant questions of the panelists. It's not that hard people.

I had intended to go to a discussion on Constructing the Chapter, but the room was so crowded that folks were clustered in the hallway...no thanks. And since there is no set lunch time at this lollapalooza style literary affair, I snuck out into the windy streets to get some grub. I went to the Starbucks across the street first, but all, no really, ALL, of the food was gone, save for Oatmeal and three brownies so I walked another block and had a pretty yucky Tuna Melt from the only viable food option in the area which happens to be in the lobby of my hotel, the illustrious Travelodge.

But now, I must again venture out into the wind, to return to the Hilton and listen to some more published authors and dumb-question-asking-novelists-to-be!