The best part of AWP was visiting with Sherwin.
Denise Duhamel, Nick Carbo, Josh Beckman and others gave a great panel on visual poetry. Josh made a great statement about all poems having a visual presence and therefore being visual poems. We see a poem before we read it. Josh is doing some interesting work with cut poems - exacto cutting out poetic lines from books and placing them inside numbered glassine envelopes collected together in a sewn pouch. Very tiny editions.
I met the Richard Hugo House people from Seattle where I am reading in May.
Saw old faces from Boston - Afaa Weaver, Cris Mattison and John Mulrooney. Grad school profs Bin and Rosellen. Met one of the poets who'll be reading for WordSpace this summer, Natasha Marin.
The appropriative writing panel with Mairead, Laura and Gregory went well - we had a solid turnout of about 100. Mairead spoke eloquently on the relationship between her life as a former journalist and its impact on her practice as a writer. All of the panelists were warm and wonderful people. Greg came in all the way from Canada to speak.
Ran into Thea Temple who was out from Dallas. Skipped a ton of readings and panels, but in the end, I feel like the experience was exactly what it needed to be.
I liked talking on a panel more than I thought I would which makes me think that maybe AWP in NY in '08 might be enjoyable.
