Radio Days, AWP Chicago & Valentine's Day

Many, many thanks to Michael Aaron at Virgogray Press Radio for the fun midnight interview earlier this morning. There was more chatting than reading poems, but it was laid back and we cover lots of poetic topics in our discussion (plus politics, religion, music and drugs). I wound up reading "Los Angeles" and "Siege" from After the Poison and "The Virgin Mary Appears In A Highway Underpass" and "Put Yourself In My Place" from Slow To Burn. I closed with "Night 65," which Michael actually inspired three years ago when I met him in San Antonio at the launch of Slow To Burn. The interview has now been archived and you can listen to it at VPR's BlogTalkRadio site.

Many of my poetry friends are at AWP in Chicago this weekend. I have to admit, I'm happy to be at home chilling out. A good friend and fellow poet who is actually in Chicago called last night and described AWP 2009 this way: It's not as big a clusterfuck as last year in New York, but pretty damn close. That's all I needed to know. If you want to catch up on some of the AWP shenanigans (which is the perfect word for it) check out these blogs: C. Dale Young, Reb Livingston, Anne Haines and Paul Lisicky, who has some photos at his blog. Tons of folks are uploading photos to Flickr, too.

Hope everyone has a happy Valentine's Day. If you don't have a sweetheart to love on, don't forget to love on yourself. 

Comments

Kate Evans said…
I'm glad I'm not in Chicago right now too. If I think it's cold here.... And besides, I get totally overstimulated at conferences. I'm in touch with my inner hermit more and more these days...

Congrats on getting the revisions and edits done!!!!
Maggie May said…
Happy Valentine's Day Collin!
Anonymous said…
You guys were funny on the show. I was going to call in but I didn't want to disturb your groove. Michael sounds cute.

GAV
Anne Haines said…
I am having a blast at AWP. It's possible that I am fond of clusterfucks... that would explain my dating history anyway. ;)
January said…
I wish I could have gone this year, but hearing everyone else's reports are just as good.

Happy Valentine's Day (belated).
Anonymous said…
I like to go about every other year. This is my "on" year and you can read about it at http://blog.32poems.com

Deb
Liz said…
Belated Valentino's...looking forward to tuning in to the show later on today.
jessica handler said…
Chicago itself was gorgeous - I had never been, and I am converted.

However, the conference WAS a clusterfuck. So crowded that seminar room crowds spilled into hallways. I had to leave one talk because I felt oxygen-deprived.

Hotel room with no coffee maker. Hotels a mile apart, so that's some serious schlepping back and forth all day. (Seminars were only in one hotel, though.)

All in all, I'm done with AWP, I think. I might do alternate years, but I am so over it today, even though I did have a good time and saw lots of good friends.
jaxx said…
i attended AWP once, several years ago, here in NYC.

once was enough! i can only handle so much compressed pretension in one place at one time....
Collin Kelley said…
I'll be at AWP next year in Denver. Freezing at the Hilton.
JeFF Stumpo said…
Had to jump in because of Jessica's comment - I agree about the room clusterfuck (anybody else want to comment using the word "clusterfuck" simply due to it being so fun?). Devoted an entire blog post to space issues at AWP and some events immediately following. But don't quite give up on the conference as a whole yet. This was only my third, and I've found it to vary wildly in quality each time. Finding the handful of events that lack pretension or at least fess up and decompress it (riffing off jaxx) actually makes it worthwhile.
Collin Kelley said…
Part of AWP's problem is the multi-year deal they signed with Hilton Hotels. The one here in Atlanta is old and the bookfair was a confusing nightmare in the basement and it was 900 degrees and the smell of smoke would occasionally waft through the room and everyone was eyeing the exits nervously. I'm going to AWP in Denver, so I haven't given up just yet.

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