AWP 2011?

I’m over at the Huffington Post today with some tips on how to navigate/survive the behemoth of all conferences, the Association of Writers & Writing Programs. The full article, ‘First Time at AWP? 11 Ways to Tame the Beast,’ can be found here. A sample below:

(1) Re-write your own schedule. The 500 odd page book you receive at the conference, though glossy (and full of clip-and-save glamor shots of sexy writers), will make your head spin. All panels/readings are online, so break it down by day and hour and choose your poison before you get there.

(2) Hang out at the conference hotel bar if you want to meet your friends. Hang out at the conference hotel bar if you have no friends — because you’ll do better with an ingestion of smooth vermouth anyway.

(3) Poetry readings trump readings of fiction hands down (and I am a writer of fiction). When it doubt, go listen to the poets.

I’ll see you in DC!