2013 AWP Conference & Book Fair

2013 AWP Conference & Book Fair

Grant:
Lecturers' Professional Development Fund (LPDF)
Academic Year:
2012 - 2013 (June 1, 2012 through May 31, 2013)
Funding Requested:
$1,516.00
Project Dates:
-
Applicant(s):
jcodyw
Overview of the Project:
I'm requesting a grant to help fund my trip to the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) Conference in Boston. The conference, which runs from March 6-10, 2013, will further my professional development in several key ways. First, my press (The Waywiser Press, with offices in London and Baltimore) will have a table at the conference, and the press's editors have asked me to be available for a book-signing and a poetry reading. (My poetry collection, Shuffle and Breakdown, was published by Waywiser in the fall of 2008.) Second, I plan to attend a number of panels that will encourage me to investigate both my practice (as a poet) and my pedagogy (as a Lecturer). Third, I'll have a chance to establish (or strengthen) ties with other poets and educators with whom I share interests. I've attended the AWP Conference the past several years, and I've found it to be wonderfully invigorating. A Lecturers' Professional Development Grant would be a boon and a blessing.
Final Report Fields
Project Objectives:

My primary objective was to further my immersion in the world of contemporary American and British poetry. I also hoped to discuss the progress of my second poetry manuscript with the publisher of my first book (and to gauge the press's interest in considering the new manuscript for publication).

Project Achievements:

I attended a panel called "The Transatlantic Disconnect" that featured a number of poets and publishers whom I admire: Eric McHenry, Philip Hoy, Mary Jo Salter, Adam Kirsch, and Rosanna Warren. The panel spurred my thinking about the disconnect (perceived and real) between contemporary British and American poets. Those thoughts have led to surprising and wide-ranging conversations in several of the poetry classes I teach at U of M.

Continuation:
Yes, in that I'm always readjusting my reading lists and discussion prompts in the various poetry classes (both workshops and literature seminars) that I teach. I'm especially trying to include more contemporary British poetry on my syllabuses.
Dissemination:
With encouragement from Waywiser Press's Editor-in-Chief Philip Hoy, I submitted my new manuscript to the press for its consideration. It's now under contract and will be published by Waywiser in 2016. I look forward to sharing the book with my colleagues upon its publication.
Advice to your Colleagues:
Events like the AWP Conference provide a wonderful (and relatively easy) way to remain connected to friends and editors that you otherwise would rarely see. I'm not sure that my second book would be under contract had I not made the trip to Boston and spoken in person with the Waywiser editors. These trips take some effort, but the results are often worth it. So my advice is this: mark your calendars, book your flights.
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