I took this shot at the AWP booth with friends Janna Marlies Maron (writer of Bold is Beautiful, and publisher of Under the Gum Tree) and Peter Grandbois (author of Nahoonkara, winner of the Gold Medal in literary fiction in ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year Awards for 2011, and the forthcoming short story collection Domestic Disturbances —Subito Press 2013).

Today’s the last day of the conference, and I feel like there’s still so much to do! I never got my hug from Stephen Elliott over at the Rumpus booth, GOT MY HUG-at the top of the escalator! Thanks Stephen (hugs ARE analog) I did enjoy a chat with the Rumpus poetry editor, who was hawking Write Like a motherfucker mugs. I met up with Red Hen Press author, Kelly Davio, then enjoyed a chat with a novelist I worked with over at AHLM in 2009. I picked up my candy cigarettes from Smokelong Quarterly where they had spent an unbelievable amount of time cutting and pasting (in the old school sense) stories onto candy boxes! That’s a labor of love.

Just had a Bloody Mary with Craig Bueltell…

It’s fun, if a bit overwhelming. And I don’t want this to turn into some kind of namedropping exercise.

I am taking notes and will post relevant details of the panels after I’ve had time to decompress.