Baby's First AWP

A recap of my trip to Kansas City for the AWP Conference

As promised, here’s my recap of my trip to AWP!

One of my biggest goals for this year has been to try to get out from behind my computer screen, put myself out there a bit more, and network with other writers. This can be a rather difficult task when you’re a little goblin rat that wears the same sweatpants for 9 days in a row and eats the same sandwich for lunch every single day.

That’s the main reason I signed up to go to AWP late last year. It was easy to come up with a million possible excuses not to go (my book isn’t actually finished, basically all of my published work is satire, I would have to speak to humans, etc.) — but one thing about me is that once I’ve committed to someone that I’ll be somewhere, I show up. So, once I’d applied for the work exchange and was accepted, there was no way out (this sounds ominous but was actually a good thing).

And I’m so glad I did it!

This was the first time I’d ever been to a conference for something I really love. Many years ago I attended the Grace Hopper Conference for women in tech, and while I had a good time at those (mostly because I’d collect tons of tech company swag — my wardrobe was made up of free t-shirts for better part of a decade), I never felt like I was sitting through panels I really connected with. There were some interesting lectures, but it’s not quite the same.

This was my first time being immersed in and surrounded by ~writing~, and it couldn’t have been a better or more inspiring experience.

So, without further ado, here’s how I spent 4 days in February:

Wednesday (2/7)

I arrived in Kansas City early Wednesday evening, around 5PM.

AWP had sent out an email saying they hadn’t received all of their tote bags that they give away to attendees (devastating), and at first I thought maybe I could get one if I went straight over to register Wednesday night. Turns out they weren’t giving any out at all (more devastating), so I decided to just stick to my original plan and go through registration on Thursday.

Once I got to my hotel, I ordered some takeout. I forgot to ask for silverware, so I tried to eat pad thai with two plastic straw-esque coffee stirrers as chopsticks. It did not go particularly well (most devastating).

Then I headed over to OffKey to meet up with my internet (and now real-life!) friend

Rachel Mans McKenny

(of

Midwest Nice-ish

) to hang out and celebrate her birthday! It was super, super fun, and OffKey has a pretty cool setup where you can search their catalog and add songs to the queue all from your phone!

I did a couple of country duets with Rachel, discussed weird song lyrics with Mia Mercado, panted through some Olivia Rodrigo songs with Katie Runde, then went back to the hotel and crashed.

Thursday (2/8)

Honestly? I was tired. I mean, I stayed up till midnight doing karaoke like some kind of … person who doesn’t wear the same pair of sweatpants for 9 days in a row.

So, I took my time rolling out of bed and then headed over to the conference.

The weather was fabulous and downtown KC is so lovely!

Once I got signed in I still had some time to kill before the next round of sessions started, so I headed in to peruse the bookfair.

I was INSTANTLY intimidated! There were sooo many people, and I am…not great at approaching folks. I wanted to look at some books, but I wasn’t quite ready to talk to anyone. So for starters, I’d only go to the booths where someone had already engaged the person working there so I could browse in peace.

I was chastising myself internally. Get your shit together! Say hello to someone!

Then it was time for a panel, and I chose one on the ethics of writing fiction stories based on true events. It was surprisingly interesting — one of the panelists, Ellen Meeropol, is married to Robert Meeropol, the son of Julius & Ethel Rosenberg. She had a very unique perspective on the topic, considering her husband’s actual newsworthy life was the focus of many fictional tales. I really enjoyed listening to her speak.

After sitting through a panel like a regular person, I’d worked up a little courage and went back to the bookfair. I picked up my first book, Team Photograph by Lauren Haldeman, and chatted with a few folks representing lit mags I was unfamiliar with. (Disclosure: if you buy any books from the links I share, I may get a tiny pittance from Bookshop.org.) I started getting my first little stack of books going and a kind woman took pity on me and gave me her own extra tote bag so I could carry my things around.

I do not know her name, but 🙏🏻 blessings unto you, giver of tote bags, who saved my shoulders and back on this day and two days thereafter.

Finally, I realized I was starving and extremely sweaty. There was a coat check at the convention center, but I figured I could just carry my down coat all day, which was a huge mistake. HUBRIS! I left the conference, stopped by Chipotle 😎, then went back to the hotel room to eat, change, and take a quick nap because I was very tired from talking to people.

Then I got up and walked over to the “Women Aren’t Funny: A Discussion With Funny Women Who Disagree” panel at the KC Library, moderated by

Julie Vick

(of

Humor Me

), and featuring Emily Farris, Mia Mercado, and Kristen Mulrooney.

Emily, Julie, Mia, and Kristen

It was fantastic. The ladies were all very funny and thoughtful, and I think had a lot of really pertinent things to say on the topic of women writing humor.

Afterward, I headed to dinner with Rachel and Katie, along with new friends Nicole and

Penny Zang

(of

Mourning Pages

). We had a delicious dinner, lots of great conversations, and celebrated Penny’s debut novel, Doll Parts, with a giant tower of onion rings!

The aforementioned onion ring tower

Katie told us about her insane Marriott points upgrade that got her a room with … a staircase?! Of course we insisted on seeing it, so after dinner, we walked over to her hotel. She also gave us friendship bracelets 😭 which is honestly the thing I wanted most from the Taylor Swift concerts that I didn’t get to go to?? I love it so much.

Then I went back to the hotel and crashed, again.

Friday (2/9)

On Friday, I slept in! Wild, huh? But I knew I had my work exchange ahead of me, so I had planned for a longer day anyway.

In the morning, I went to a panel about self-promotion. It was somewhat helpful, but I felt like some of the tips were pretty personal to the panelists. I did get some notes on more generalized topics, but mostly just listened to the discussion.

Then I ate some lunch at the convention center and tooled around the bookfair again while waiting for my work exchange to begin.

I “exchanged work” for the better part of the afternoon, and ending up being assigned a position as an Event Floater. Basically, I was stationed in an area of the convention center where I monitored a few rooms and made sure that they didn’t get overfull, closed the doors when the sessions started, then hung around and answered questions and provided directions.

It was pretty easy and I talked to a lot less people than I expected! I really appreciated how organized the conference was for those of us volunteering.

Once that was done, I did a quick change/dropped off ~15 more pounds of books at my hotel and met up with Rachel, and we headed over to Parlor KMCO for the “Battle of the Genres.”

I got an amazing pile of “totchos” (nacho tater tots) which I scarfed while we watched Melissa Febos, Kenyatta Rogers, Ruth Joffre, Sequoia Nagamatsu, and Maurice Carlos Ruffin battle it out to some (very difficult!) questions posed by host

Rebecca Makkai

(of

SubMakk

). It was hilarious and fun.

Ruth, Sequoia, Kenyatta, Rebecca, Maurice, and Melissa

Also, while we were at the event, I got a text from United that my flight that I bought with miles had been upgraded to First Class?? I don’t even know how that happens but I’ve never felt cooler. Plus, the remaining outfit I had for the last day and flight home was a black turtleneck so I was excited to channel my inner Elizabeth Holmes and look like some kind of rich tech mogul scam artist while I stood in boarding group 1 at the gate.

After the event ended we stayed around and chatted for a while. I had a very long conversation about neanderthals with a lovely person whose name I did not get, but who does have one of my very fancy homemade business cards. Rachel kindly dropped me off at my hotel, and I conked out.

Saturday (2/10)

Saturday morning I packed up my suitcase which was so incredibly stuffed I had to squeeze it with my legs to get it closed, and I left it at the front desk while I hiked back over to the convention center for the last day.

I listened to two panels that I really enjoyed — one about how important it is to have the correct details and information when giving your characters a job (basically, don’t make your character an architect and then have no idea what being an architect is actually like), and one about adding different mediums, like comics and collage, to your writing.

Both were fantastic, and after the second panel ended, I went straight over to the bookfair to pick up the book the panelists had all contributed to, The Field Guide to Graphic Literature. I was lucky enough to snag autographs from all the panelists, too! They each signed their section of the book, and were all very lovely and friendly.

Since it was the last day of the conference, everybody at the bookfair was marking down books, giving things away for free, and the next thing I knew my gifted tote bag was full as hell (again). I finally had to make an executive decision to leave the conference because we were getting dangerously close to “there’s no way I’m getting all of this shit home” territory.

I headed back to the hotel, got my luggage, and repacked it all right there in the lobby. My suitcase was like weirdly warped and barely zipped, but I figured I’d be okay since it was a carry on (and with my fancy upgrade 💅🏻 I wasn’t worried about bin space). I had to put like 4 books into my personal item as well.

Finally, I called my Uber and headed to the airport. The driver was super sweet and we talked about the Chiefs the entire ride, and then he helped me get my suitcase out of the trunk and was like “Wow, this is…really heavy,” and I said “Yeah, I honestly have no idea how I’m going to get it into the overhead bin without hurting myself!” And he said “Eh just stand there for a minute, some man will help you,” and you know what? He was right!

I am 100% a feminist till I die but if a man would like to lift my heavy suitcase for me I am absolutely fine with that.

ALSO the KC airport has a Cinnabon, and I got this thing I’ve never seen before that is a cup of ALL MIDDLES. ALL CINNAMON ROLL MIDDLES. Just in a cup, covered with icing. I’m going to dream about it for years.

I finally made it home around 8PM, where I immediately showered (because I touched literally any part of an airplane), put on my favorite sweatpants, and crashed (again).

---

All in all, it was a fantastic and super inspiring few days. I really loved getting to meet new people (all of whom are wonderfully smart and talented and amazing). And I’m so excited to dive in to all the amazing books I got (I have them sitting on my desk right now so they don’t disappear into the TBR ether of my bookshelves)! Here’s a link to all the books I picked up at AWP on Bookshop.org, and one on Amazon *spits* that wasn’t available elsewhere.

I have no idea where to start!!

I’m definitely be planning to go to AWP again (hopefully next time with a finished novel)! How ‘bout you, been to any cool conferences or events lately?