Association of Writers & Writing Programs

The Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) is a nonprofit literary organization that provides support, advocacy, resources, and community to nearly 50,000 writers, 500 college and university creative writing programs, and 125 writers' conferences and centers. It was founded in 1967 by R. V. Cassill and George Garrett.

Association of Writers & Writing Programs
Formation1967
TypeProfessional/Academic literary organization
Location
Websitewww.awpwriter.org

History

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AWP was founded in 1967 as a non-profit organization initially named Associated Writing Programs. Its founders were fifteen writers representing thirteen creative writing programs. The new association sought to support the growing presence of literary writers in higher education. It accepted both institutional and individual members, and it aimed to persuade the academic community that the creation of literature had a place in the academy as important as the study of literature did.

AWP has helped North America to develop a literature as diverse as its peoples.[citation needed] Member programs have provided literary education to students and aspiring writers from all backgrounds, economic classes, races, and ethnic origins.[citation needed]

AWP has also supported the development of hundreds of educational programs, conferences, reading series, and literary magazines, as well as thousands of jobs for writers and new audiences for contemporary literature. AWP's membership fees have grown exponentially since their inception.[citation needed]

AWP Conference and Bookfair

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The AWP Conference & Bookfair is a large and inclusive[1] literary conference in North America. AWP hosts an annual conference in a different region of North America, featuring presentations, readings, lectures, panel discussions, book signings, receptions, and a large bookfair. The conference is held in the late winter or early spring of each year, and attracts thousands of attendees and bookfair exhibitors.[2]

AWP enters into partnerships with allied literary organizations like the Academy of American Poets, the Authors Guild, Cave Canem Foundation, the Center for Fiction, Community of Literary Magazines & Presses, Kundiman, National Book Critics Circle, Poetry Society of America, and Writers in the Schools to serve our association's various constituencies and to provide programming at the conference. Two or three featured events, including the keynote address, are created by the Conference Steering Committee of the AWP Board of Trustees.[3]

Conference history

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AWP's first conference was held in 1973 at the Library of Congress, and it hosted six events and 16 presenters. George Garrett, one of AWP's founders, planned the first gathering with help from the National Endowment for the Arts. Presenters included Elliott Coleman, founder of the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University, Paul Engle, founder of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, poets Josephine Jacobsen and Miller Williams, and novelists Ralph Ellison and Wallace Stegner, among others.

The AWP Conference & Bookfair has shown significant growth since the early 2000s, transforming from a small conference of only a couple thousand attendees, 300 exhibitors, and less than 200 events to over 12,000 attendees, 800 exhibitors, and 550 events today.

The 2023 conference, held in Seattle, had over 9,000 attendees and 563 on-site exhibitors at the bookfair.[4]

Every year, conference presenters include winners of literary prizes, including the Man Booker Prize, the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, as well a MacArthur and Guggenheim fellows. Past lectures and readings have featured Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Margaret Atwood, Anne Carson, Michael Chabon, Sandra Cisneros, Don DeLillo, Rita Dove, Jennifer Egan, Louise Erdrich, Nikki Giovanni, Terrance Hayes, Seamus Heaney, John Irving, Ha Jin, Erik Larson, Carolyn Forché, Roxane Gay, Ursula K. Le Guin, Jonathan Lethem, Barry Lopez, Jhumpa Lahiri, Chang-rae Lee, Alice McDermott, Joyce Carol Oates, Sharon Olds, Robert Pinsky, Annie Proulx, Claudia Rankine, Marilynne Robinson, Karen Russell, Richard Russo, Cheryl Strayed, Amy Tan, Natasha Trethewey, Derek Walcott, Colson Whitehead, Jeanette Winterson, and Tobias Wolff.[5]

Past and future conferences[6]
# Year City State/Province Country
1 1973 Washington   District of Columbia   United States
- 1974-1977 Hiatus
2 1978 San Francisco   California   United States
3 1979 Nashville   Tennessee   United States
4 1980 San Antonio   Texas   United States
5 1981 Seattle   Washington   United States
6 1982[7] Boston   Massachusetts   United States
7 1983 St. Louis   Missouri   United States
8 1984 Savannah   Georgia   United States
9 1985 San Diego   California   United States
10 1986 Chicago   Illinois   United States
11 1987 Austin   Texas   United States
12 1988 San Francisco   California   United States
13 1989 Philadelphia   Pennsylvania   United States
14 1990 Denver   Colorado   United States
15 1991 Miami   Florida   United States
16 1992 Minneapolis   Minnesota   United States
17 1993 Norfolk   Virginia   United States
18 1994 Tempe   Arizona   United States
19 1995 Pittsburgh   Pennsylvania   United States
20 1996 Atlanta   Georgia   United States
21 1997 Washington   District of Columbia   United States
22 1998 Portland   Oregon   United States
23 1999 Albany   New York   United States
24 2000 Kansas City   Missouri   United States
25 2001 Palm Springs   California   United States
26 2002 New Orleans   Louisiana   United States
27 2003 Baltimore   Maryland   United States
28 2004 Chicago   Illinois   United States
29 2005 Vancouver   British Columbia   Canada
30 2006 Austin   Texas   United States
31 2007 Atlanta   Georgia   United States
32 2008 New York City   New York   United States
33 2009 Chicago   Illinois   United States
34 2010 Denver   Colorado   United States
35 2011 Washington   District of Columbia   United States
36 2012 Chicago   Illinois   United States
37 2013 Boston   Massachusetts   United States
38 2014 Seattle   Washington   United States
39 2015 Minneapolis   Minnesota   United States
40 2016 Los Angeles   California   United States
41 2017 Washington   District of Columbia   United States
42 2018 Tampa   Florida   United States
43 2019 Portland   Oregon   United States
44 2020 San Antonio   Texas   United States
45 2021 Virtual (due to COVID-19 pandemic[8])
46 2022 Philadelphia   Pennsylvania   United States
47 2023 Seattle   Washington   United States
48 2024 Kansas City   Missouri   United States
49 2025 Los Angeles   California   United States
50 2026 TBA[9]

Magazine

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The Writer's Chronicle
Frequency6 Issues per Year
Circulation40,000
PublisherAWP
Founded1967
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The Writer's Chronicle is a source of articles, news, and information for writers, editors, students, and teachers of writing. Published six times a year, each issue features essays on the craft of writing, as well as interviews with authors.

Awards sponsored

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AWP sponsors six contests, and also provides an extensive listing of literary grants, awards, and publication opportunities available from organizations and publishers throughout North America. Their contests include the AWP Award Series, the George Garrett Award, the Small Press Publisher Award, the Intro Journals Project, the Kurt Brown Prizes, and the National Program Directors' Prize.

AWP Award Series

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Annual contests are held in four categories, with the winner receiving a cash honorarium and publication of their book-length collection.

Sue William Silverman Prize for Creative Nonfiction

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Named for author Sue William Silverman, the prize is awarded to a book-length collection of creative nonfiction, with publication through the University of Georgia Press.[10]

James Alan McPherson Prize for the Novel

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Formerly named the AWP Prize for the Novel, the prize was renamed for author James Alan McPherson in 2023.[11] The prize is awarded to a novel, with publication through the University of Nebraska Press. Previous publishers of the award winners include New Issues Press.[12]

Donald Hall Prize for Poetry

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Named for poet Donald Hall, the prize is awarded to a book-length collection of poetry, with publication through the University of Pittsburgh Press.[13]

Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction

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The Grace Paley Prize is an American literary award presented by the Association of Writers & Writing Programs. The award carries a prize of $5,000 and a publishing contract with the University of Massachusetts Press.[14]

Controversies

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Vanessa Place was removed from the 2016 Los Angeles Subcommittee to satisfy concerns of the AWP membership after Place received criticism for a Twitter art project where she retyped the entire text from the 1936 novel Gone with the Wind in an effort to call attention to the novel's inherent racism.[15] While some have argued the Twitter account was meant to scrutinize and call attention to stereotyping and racism in Gone With the Wind, others accused it of being racist or insensitive itself, which resulted in not only the removal of Place from the subcommittee, but also a number of other literary organizations canceling appearances by Place.

In anticipation of the 2016 AWP Conference & Bookfair in Los Angeles, some members of the organization objected to what they felt was a lack of programming specific to literature and disabilities. A petition was started that claimed the subcommittee responsible for selecting the events rejected all proposals having to do with disability, while some sources responded this claim was erroneous, the Deaf & Disabled Writers Caucus is not a panel but a networking event.[16][17] AWP implemented changes for the 2016 conference to further efforts to provide increased accommodations for disabled attendees, which included an onsite location where attendees could report accessibility issues, improved signage, and reserved seating throughout the conference, as well as updates to the Accessibility Services throughout the event.[18]

For the 2017 AWP Conference & Bookfair in Washington, D.C., the number of proposals related to literature and disability increased, and the subcommittee accepted twenty of them for inclusion.[19] At each conference, AWP provides many accessibility services including ASL interpretation, cued speech transliteration, computer assisted real time captioning, assistive listening devices, braille programs, accommodations for those requiring an attendant or assistant, and much more to attendees who need these services.[20]

Notes

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  1. ^ op de Beeck, Nathalie. "At AWP23, Programs Celebrate Milestones and New Arrivals Get in the Game". publishersweekly.com. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
  2. ^ "AWP Conference & Bookfair Overview", Association of Writers & Writing Programs.
  3. ^ "How Conference Events Are Selected", Association of Writers & Writing Programs.
  4. ^ op de Beeck, Nathalie. "At AWP23, Programs Celebrate Milestones and New Arrivals Get in the Game". publishersweekly.com. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
  5. ^ "Conference Archives and Photo Albums", Association of Writers & Writing Programs.
  6. ^ "Association of Writers & Writing Programs". www.awpwriter.org. Retrieved 2024-01-24.
  7. ^ Domini, John (1982-04-20). "Pens before butter: The AWP's survival network". The Boston Phoenix. Retrieved 2024-08-20.
  8. ^ Kellogg, Carolyn (2022-03-30). "The largest annual writers convention re-emerged last week. Here's AWP by the numbers". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2024-01-24.
  9. ^ "Association of Writers & Writing Programs". www.awpwriter.org. Retrieved 2024-01-24.
  10. ^ "The Sue William Silverman Prize for Creative Nonfiction". ugapress.org. Retrieved 3 April 2024.
  11. ^ "#AWPSpringJAM May Kickoff". awpwriter.org. Retrieved 3 April 2024.
  12. ^ "The James Alan McPherson Prize for the Novel". nebraskapress.unl.edu. Retrieved 3 April 2024.
  13. ^ "The Donald Hall Prize for Poetry". upittpress.org. Retrieved 3 April 2024.
  14. ^ McGrath, Charles (15 January 2011). "The Family History Is Grim, but He's Plotted a New Course". New York Times. ProQuest 839953280.
  15. ^ "Update Regarding the AWP Los Angeles 2016 Subcommittee", Association of Writers & Writing Programs.
  16. ^ "Response to Members' Concerns". Association of Writers & Writing Programs. Retrieved August 19, 2015.
  17. ^ Logue, Josh. "Disabilities and Writing". Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved March 28, 2016.
  18. ^ Morgan Teicher, Craig. "M.F.A. Update May 2016: How the American Creative Writing Community Can be Made More Inclusive". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved May 6, 2016.
  19. ^ "Communities of the 2017 AWP Conference & Bookfair". Association of Writers & Writing Programs. Retrieved August 1, 2016.
  20. ^ "AWP: Conference & Bookfair Accessibility Services". www.awpwriter.org. Association of Writers & Writing Programs. Retrieved April 18, 2017.