AWP, whoa

The only AWP event I attended was the free book fair on Saturday. It was huge-- room after packed room of tables representing schools and journals. The energy was palpable, even though it was the last day of the three day event and it looked like more than a few people had hangovers.

I visited a ton of booths, talked to a lot of strangers, got to say thank you to a few editors who had published me, talked to others that I want to publish me (without saying that, of course)and bought Brian Evenson's Baby Leg.New York Tyrant put it out as a handmade book, complete with Evenson's red hand prints all over the cover. It retails for $35.00, but I picked it up for $20.00-- an awesome deal for such an incredible work of love for all involved. I also got a galley of Kimbell's new book, also by NYT, titled US. I have those two books to look forward to and about eight free journals, including Hotel Amerika and Poet Lore.

It was pretty incredible. I can't imagine being there for the whole conference, though-- one day exhausted me! But, I do want to try to go next year-- plan better, etc. Maybe the economy will be better. Maybe I'll get a raise. Hmmmm, anyway-- it was a good time.