The One Where I Talk About AWP, Star Trek, Revolutionary Road, and Publishing
At Bark, I read a post about magazines who try new things and how most lit mags all say the same thing about their mission. At the AWP Bookfair last year, a woman came to our table and asked what we’re looking for. I said, quite perkily, “We’re looking for great writing,” which was, clearly, the wrong answer but I had already answered that question approx. 1,311 times and wanted to be polite but also had nothing left to say on the matter. She pursed her lips and dropped the issue of our magazine like it was tainted. She said, “That’s what everyone says,” and then she flounced away.
AWP through the eyes of Gena Mohwish
hello. i guess i am gena mohwish. both sam and jereme wanted me to write about my experience and post my pictures on htmlgiant, so here i am. it feels a little frightening to be writing here. my body just shook a little. okay.
**Pictures after the jump!**
El Lit: An HTMLGIANT AWP Reading
There will be plenty to eat, tear, and ram at AWP. But will there be a train to ride on which you can listen to people read/shout things, a train you can ride in a state of listening all the way to a reading at the Book Cellar?
Yes. Yes there will be.
Here’s how it works:
(1) On Friday, Feb 13, we meet at the Library Brown El Line Station (1 W Van Buren St), Northbound to Kimball Platform @ 8:45 pm. Look for the SIGN and the CROWD.
(2) We ride and read and ride to the Book Cellar (4736-38 North Lincoln Avenue), arriving around 9:30 PM, where we read and laugh and see and read and see and yes.
Come! Yes! Come! Spread the Word!
Featuring:
Craig Griffin, Mary Miller, Heather Christle, Blake Butler, Mike Young, Shane Jones, Sam Pink, Joseph Young, Elizabeth Ellen, Leigh Stein, Ryan Call, Daniel Bailey
Magic Helicopter Press Seeks Pilots
I posted this at the NOÖ blog, but wanted to post here as well.
Mike and I will have a remote control mini-helicopter at AWP. We will raffle this helicopter off to a lucky AWP-goer. If you’d like to enter your name in the raffle, come by our table (we’ll be sharing with Publishing Genius Press and No Colony), donate some money or buy one of our Magic Helicopter Press chapbooks, and we’ll enter you in the drawing.
In the meantime, we’ll be flying the helicopter around the bookfair, demonstrating our skillz, etc.
Here is a video of the helicopter doing what helicopters do. When you watch the video, imagine lots of authors in that room, sweating and being scared; that is what AWP will be like:
Of course, if Black Warrior Review hands out those fly-swatters they had in Atlanta, then we might be in trouble.
Official Holistic HTMLGIANT AWP Couchsurfing Post
All sorts of magic people will be at AWP Chicago Feb 11th-14th: you, some guy with a surgical mask, sixteen blind elves, and Tony Danza. You know, as in “Hold me closer, Tony Danza” and “Tony Danza in the sand.”
In our spirit of selfless community service we here at HTMLGIANT have decided to help the needy, the dispossessed, the charlatans, the men and women whose haircuts remain anxiously unaware of where they’ll end up mussed: that’s right, some of usall of usmost of useveryone in the worldat one point or another HTMLGIANT’s readers might need a place to crash in Chicago.
So why not see if we can have one GIANT <A> TAG help another? If you need a couch, post in the comments. If you have a couch free, post in the comments. If you’re a couch, buy a sweater.
GOOD LUCK! GODSPEED! CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS 09!
Countdown to AWP: What I’m (not) looking forward to
One thing that gets me through this awful thing called my life is reading the (dis)likes feature that Aaron and Elizabeth do at the Hobart website. I find myself anxious for the month to pass just so I can see what new things are making their way onto the lists. I feel like I ‘know’ Aaron and Elizabeth that much more, I feel a little involved in their lives (maybe in a creepy way), and I too saw Four Christmases and hated it.
So, with a little nod their way, I’d like to list what I’m (not) looking forward to about this year’s AWP Conference in Chicago. AWP is in a month, so we have plenty of time to think about it.
The Lives of Others: Selections from the Giant family photo album
If you’ve ever seen a copy of Mike Young’s uber-rare chapbook Peter Pan Mocha French Toast, there’s a picture on the back cover of a dude humping a couch–well that’s our own Blake Butler. And that’s MY couch. Here are some photographs from that same evening.
Lin - Malone - Butler
AWP 2008 4EVR.
Ryan tries his luck.
4EVR EVR?
Tao Lin videotapes Mike Young's attempt to negotiate some hummus.
*************BONUS******************
This is the famous picture. Those might be my feet/legs.
AWP Reader’s List
AWP Chicago edition has posted on their website a list of featured readers for the event which will be held in early February.
It’s a solid list. I wish there were more young up-and-coming type writers but still I hope to engage in a wild party with Nick Flynn and Valzhyna Mort (pictured) while Marilynne Robinson makes disgusted faces.
AWP will be a big scene for online writers who will no doubt stare at each other awkwardly after meeting in person. Then realize we are all best friends. Get tickets soon. Last year in NYC it sold out.