My second time at AWP was just as amazing as the first one last year in Seattle (where I moderated a panel with William Dameron, Vanessa Hua, Hattie Fletcher and Dawn Raffel) on Literary Techniques. My website was in transition at the time, so I didn’t post about it, but had a fantastic time, and loved seeing Seattle with Bill and his husband, Paul. (see episode #47 about Bill ), and (episode #32 about Vanessa and episode #34 about Dawn).

This year, I didn’t have moderating duties (which was fine with me). Instead, Melissa Hart, was the fantastic moderator of a panel I was a part of (along with Andrea Ross, Rudri Patel, and Donn Goss) on Parenting Writing Hacks. I loved hearing what everyone had to say, and Melissa’s enthusiastic, and well-informed moderating style.

I also met up with so many of my writer friends (Tess Clarkson, Lisa Cooper Ellison, Diana Reese, Paulette Perhach, Briana Avenia-Tapper, Elizabeth Koster, Nicole Lipson), and was thrilled when other writers and former students came up to me to say hi and that they loved my book or my podcast (or both). Also, loved walking around the bookshop and seeing Athena Dixon and Lara Lillibridge, who I share a Hippocamp connection with. And a big thank you to Pen Parentis and Milda De Voe (see her episode #55 of Freelance Writing Direct here) for giving me a space to do a book signing and for promoting my panel.

I am also a proud 23/24 mentor (for Leslie Stonebraker) in the AWP Writer to Writer Mentor Program, and loved meeting Micaela Tore, who handles the program among other important responsibilities at the AWP Writer to Mentor Reception (pictured below).

A highlight besides my panel was attending a panel sponsored by the Rumpus with Kelly McMasters (episode #39  here), Reema Zaman (who I’ve interviewed before), Joanna Rakoff, Dionne Ford and Maggie Smith, called “Women Who Leave.”

Thank you to everyone. What a fabulous conference #AWP2024.