This is the post that I wrote for the Rose O'Neill Literary House (they paid for the hotel and airfare - a blog post is the least I could do, right?) (http://bitlit.typepad.com/). I have just sent it off to Kate, so I expect she will put it up within the next couple of days. I might expand it later and re-post it here, but for now, here is the brief(ish) version of springtime in Denver for the AWP (Associated Writers and Writing Programs) conference. The Denver Auto Show was also happening in the convention center, but I did not look into that.
One day in April, maintenance decided to paint the walls of the stairwell in my dorm, Middle. They taped thick brown paper to the bottom edges with blue painters' tape to keep the black of the stairs clean. The only thing I can figure is that change has been in the air. After all, no one in their right mind would think that it was worthwhile investment to try to spruce up Middle. While spring finished bringing out flowers and leaves and pollen and the impulse to freshen up in Maryland, some of us sought a more dramatic change and traipsed across the country to Denver, Co. where there was a fresh dusting of snow awaiting us and the Rockies (seen from our hotel window on the 21st floor) remained snow-capped the whole time we were there. There we spent our days rushing about learning about writing, publishing, and the best places to eat. I will tell you about one of them. It is called Mad Greens. They serve salads and sandwiches, primarily. Over the course of our time there, I consumed a Napoleon, an Ernest Hemmingway, and Ty Cobb. They were delicious men, whatever you might think of their personalities and actions.
Perhaps, being literary types, you might like to know about the conference, but I am going to tell you about the art museum first. You will be jealous of this museum, I think. First of all, there was a room full of pillows shaped like words. Most were English, but there were a lot of words from all kinds of languages. There were words cut from paper all over the walls, some giant words hanging from the ceiling, and beanbag chairs. Then we found another little room filled with bungee cords stretched floor to ceiling like a rainbow forest. We bounced around in there for a while and then moved on to look at some more traditional art (by which I mean, it hung on the wall, but we saw some pretty crazy contemporary paintings). There also was a place you could make postcards with stamps from works of art and colored pencils. The Denver Art Museum is one of the best experiences I have had for $10.
And now, about the conference itself. The first thing I went to on Thursday morning was a reading of poetry about birds from an anthology from Anhinga Press. It was a delightful start to the conference. I learned some strategies for putting together one's first chapbook of poetry and wished I'd had the talk several months ago as it is a little late now to change the manuscript I'm working on the in Lit. House Press. I went to a couple of talks about memoir and travel writing, one about some folks' experiences in getting Fullbrights for creative writing (I could go back to Europe!), and one entitled 'Crime, Horror, Sci-Fi and Fantasy... Seriously' which was really good, though I'd like to note that out of a panel of 6, not a one was female. One of the travel writing panels was more of a reading, but they were all evocative, and inspiring pieces. The other readings I went to were also poetry readings. One was 'Poems that Sing, Rhyme, Resound, Syncopate, Alliterate, and Just Plain Sound Great'. It was just as great as it sounds. The other was off-site at a book-lined, armchair-filled room in a wonderfully traditional-looking Irish pub. We got in a little late, but just in time to hear most of Professor Dubrow's reading. Everyone who read that evening was amazing. I also spent a lot of time wandering around or working at the Book Fair. I collected a number of bookmarks, postcards, buttons, and submission guidelines. I bought a couple collections of poetry and 5 beautiful broadsides and got another print for free. Three of the broadsides were a dollar each; silkscreen prints with text from Aesop's fables, the Dao De Jing, and the Bible. The other two cost a little more ($5 and 9) and are a combination of silkscreening and letterpress poems. I love them.
So, all things considered, a good way to spend five days away from Chestertown.
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