Just a heads up that L.A. is HUGE, 503 square miles, so uber, lyft, and taxis can be quite expensive. You can get to LACMA museum with one bus along wilshire; ditto the Hammer and UCLA, and so please consider our efficient public transportation system for activities outside the convention hall. DASH is a shuttle that makes "loops"; fare is 50 cents or 25 for seniors; buses run everywhere although you need to know that DTLA is riddled with one way streets. Fare is $1.75 or 35-75 cents for seniors. Fare is same for subway but requires a tap card you can get before boarding ($2). Quick and efficient. Within walking distance of convention hall is our fabulous central library, 5th and grand; the last bookstore, 7th and spring; central market for all kinds of ethnic foods, 4th and hill, and a gazillion places to eat, especially the Figueroa mall just up the street from the hall. HAVE FUN.
Thanks for mentioning the public transportation -- inexpensive compared to my city. My plan was that I found a less expensive hotel about a 15 minute ride on a metro line.
This will be my second time attending AWP. Last year in Kansas City was my first, and I was disappointed that there were no panels that applied to my job as a managing editor. So, I proposed one, and it was accepted! Pretty big deal for a newbie! This time, I'm not only working at the bookfair, but moderating a panel, and we are co-hosting an off-site reading, so I think it will be a fuller experience for me. As the ME, I take care of all the registration and travel details for myself, the other editors and students we are bringing, plus planning for the bookfair and my panel, so I'm looking forward to it all being over after months of worrying about a million AWP details on top of my regular job's list of tons to keep track of. I've never been to California, so I'm looking forward to that part, and hope to have a little energy left for after-hours fun!
I go often (DC, Philly, Boston, Seattle, Portland). I'll be presenting, ironically enough, on creative writing pedagogy in community colleges this year. The conference can be overwhelming: thousands of people, endless options. The book fair can induce vertigo. I choose several panels that seem interesting and wait until vibes tell me which one to choose. I build in down time during the day, to avoid burnout. I choose a couple of off-site events, for fun, to balance the feeling of business. If a panelist I enjoyed also has a booth, I make a point to visit. I also visit the table of one dream journal, one journal I don't know much about, and one indie press. Beyond that, it's all about connecting with people/enjoying the inspiration of pockets of solitude.
First off, I will be at AWP this year and would love to say hi to any other Lit Mag news readers!
I've been a few times in the past (Philly and Kansas City)-- and while it is not my favorite conference (I think that would be Barrelhouse's Conversations and Connections or the Indiana University Writers Conference--the scale is what sets AWP apart. I'm guaranteed to run into old friends, meet people I know only from online, and realize that the journals I've been submitting to are run by real human beings! I also definitely get overwhelmed at the size.
I try to go to a few panels, do good at the one I am presenting on, be brave and introduce myself to strangers at the bookfair, and try to not to have too much fomo. There's no way to do everything.
I recommend scheduling a meal with friends. That is always the highlight for me.
My only skill at attending AWP is playing hooky, so let me, as an Angeleno, share with you the perfect convention getaway: visit the creatures-in-their-habitat dioramas at the Natural History Museum. It's dark and hushed, full of wonder and majesty & just the right amount of creepiness. If you really want to make a prose poem out of it, take the 10 minute E train from the convention center west toward Santa Monica. It will give you an expansive view of our spectacularly tagged skyscrapers and an indelible immersion in street-level LA.
These lines are so lovely...thank you: <We all hurt and write not to make a spectacle of ourselves, but towards ourselves. People took things home with them, not because they wanted free stuff, but because those stickers and bookmarks are evidence of us.>
Thank you for this! This will be my 13th AWP conference in a row, and I have WILDLY adjusted my expectations over the years. Some years I only make it to a handful of panels, but I go to a lot of readings off-site. One year (in Philadelphia) the MAJOR highlight of my conference was not at the conference at all: it was a visit to the Barnes Foundation ... a museum I wouldn't have heard about except a neighbor told me "don't come back without having paid a visit to the Barnes or I'll never speak to you again!" And he was only half-joking. I too spend a LOT of time at the book fair. As a poet who has published quite a lot in journals over the years, I very much like to visit the tables of places where my poems have appeared and thank the editors/readers face to face. And yes, it IS spendy to attend ... I have to budget for this "indulgence" but I have never regretted attending. Getting to see places that my ordinary life would not take me has been a major bonus--so glad to have gotten to spend time in Minneapolis and San Antonio. And the other enormous plus: because I am a member of an online community of women poets, I have lots of "friends I have never met face to face" and I make a point each year of arranging to get together (for coffee, often) with at least one of them.
At my best AWPs, I have pre-selected a coffee shop to walk to, where I'll write-- 7am-9am or 8am-10am, something early so it's out of the way. It can be intense to talk about writing for a whole weekend without actually writing, and I just feel... less guilty and harried later if I've done this early.
I "did" AWP differently each year depending on where I was in my career. Sometimes I was networking with publishers and lit mags-- meeting people who had just published me. Sometimes I was attending tons of panels to dig into craft or career questions. Sometimes I focused on meeting writers I'd met virtually while just doing the things *I* specifically was there for--serving on a panel or giving a reading.
This is the first year I'm only going for a day (it overlapped with an important family event)-- I'll be on the panel "This Beautiful Body: Writing Into Illness" Saturday morning and the reading "Spill the Beans: AWP Nonfiction Reading" at Sunset Strip Tattoo Saturday afternoon.
This is my first time attending AWP, and I'm thrilled to be a panelist. (Would be honored if anyone wanted to join our session on Saturday afternoon; it's called "Abroad as an Escape: International Exchange and Trauma-Informed Writing"). I have attended large academic conferences and a Fulbright conference as a speaker in the past. What I've personally found helpful is to determine my schedule far in advance (that way I prioritize the talks that matter most to me). I've also blocked off time to visit the book fair and have made a tiered list of the lit mags/booths that I most want to visit. I'm planning on packing a light lunch that I can quickly eat between events to maximize my time. Otherwise, maintaining a notebook with a distinct page of action items that I can easily access without flipping through dozens of pages of notes will make following up after the conference helpful.
To add to your great answer about talking to magazines at the #AWP25 Book Fair. I will be there with Ponder Review and Poetry South at table T1133. Stop by and talk to me about anything! Ask about our magazines (we'll have sample copies), ask for some candy (we plan to give some away), ask for swag (ditto), ask about our low-residency MFA program at Mississippi University for Women (we'll have brochures). Tell us about yourself and what you write. We may not remember after talking to around 14,000 other writers, but we like to be reminded that the writers who submit to us are human beings. And we like you to know that we're people, too. Submitting to magazines can feel so impersonal at times, but opportunities like AWP can be places to put the human back in your submission practice. And we love it when writers we've published stop by so we can meet them. We don't bite (usually), and you don't need to impress us. We're just happy to talk.
I'm going to #AWP25. My eldest daughter lives in LA. She's worth the price of the flight, I've reasoned, and the conference is worth the price of an apartment close to the venue, which—blessings to the Winds of Good Fortunes—I'll be sharing with two MFA-era friends.
This will be my second AWP. My first was in DC. Two people who planned to share the hotel room with me had to back out, which turned out to be fine. I appreciated having a place of my own to unapologetically crash after the daily exhaustion of running around plus evenings out to off-site readings. I caught up with folks I'd met at Vermont College of Fine Arts Postgraduate Writers Conference and Disquiet International Literary Program as well as instructors from online courses and some old friends—one being interviewed at AWP by NPR. (Brilliant!) I attended many panel discussions, some of which offered chances to see my favorite authors and literary giants. IOthers were fun for being downright quirky, like Grace Paley's daughter, friends, and colleagues discussing her life and work. Nice. It seemed as if most of the panels I'd earmarked ran concurrently, which was a bum. Hard choices. Loved the Bookfair. I'm located in Switzerland, and it's not easy for me to access print issues of magazines (our libraries don't carry them) unless I have them shipped to me, which gets expensive. The Bookfair was a brilliant one-stop-shop. I created a list ahead of time and visited magazines that I had submitted work to and magazines I was considering submitting to. One editor I visited was quite warm and animated. When I got home from AWP, I had a story acceptance from her in my mailbox!
My LA focus will be on small-press exhibitors and attending their off-site readings. I've been working on my first novel, so I what to familiarize myself with the kind of authors and books that get the hearts of particular publishers pounding. I'll also visit "good ink" presses, places that warmly rejected my MSS of collected short stories (which I've set aside to focus on my novel). I'll be wanting to buy small-press pubs for sure! (I'm taking along that extra suitcase. For the DC conference, I nested it in my big suitcase.) I made my purchases during the conference, but if you're on a tight budget, know that the last day, final hours, is basically a Bookfair Fire Sale. The exhibitors prefer that YOU schlepp home their materials. Great bargains.
AWP is also famous for its nasty germs. I didn't catch anything in DC, and I don't want to catch anything in LA. I'll be traveling onwards after the conference and seeing my daughter (who will join me for one day and be buying lots of books herself!), to spend time with my elderly mother. Actually, to give my brother, her primary caretaker, a break from mom-sitting duties and stress. I can't afford to catch any bugs, so I'll be masking.
I'm as nervous as an introvert can get (writing this gives me the sweats!), but I'm also excited and ready to go! If you can recommend a panel discussion or off-site reading to attend, or want to meet up, please reach out!
Meredith - CH is my home-away-from-home (I work remotely for UZH) and I’ll be at AWP. There’s a meetup for Substack writers Thursday evening at Bar Magnolia a short walk from the Convention Center. I plan to be there (it’s in the schedule on the app). Maybe we can hi then.
That sounds great! Thanks for letting me know. I'm just sitting down to plan out my AWP schedule, and I'll put it straight in. Hope to see you there. (You have a connection to Texas? I happen to be a 5th-generation Texan, born in Harlingen, lived in Waco and Lubbock, but left at an early age; my dad was career military, so we moved a lot.)
I attended Kansas City last year, virtually. Even though I live 60 miles south of Seattle, I was on our City Council during that year and couldn’t get away to attend (sadly). So this year is my first year to attend in person. I am not going with anyone (although I know a number of poet friends that will be there), so I’m a little worried I’ll feel overwhelmed and “alone” in a mass of strangers. However, I did chose a number of workshops/panels I want to attend and will “choose” the one that intrigues me the most when I’ve chosen several at the same time. I am worried about getting around to offsite places. I’m 82 but healthy enough to walk if it isn’t too far. However, I’m a little panicked about transportation any farther than say the bookstore—-big cities are my jungle nightmare (although I have been in LA for a National League of Cities conference but then we had planned transportation and “helpers” for their meetings and conference.) I will be taking breaks though. I learned this attending several State and National City conferences. I just couldn’t do everything and I gave myself permission to not feel I have to cram every moment with activities.
Cynthia - last June I went to the Writers League Texas conference in Austin. I didn’t know anybody. A woman at the first event looked at me and said, “it seems like everyone here knows each other.” We were both singletons that day, but now we’re in a writing group together!
At least a couple of people in the masses will be good candidates for becoming your next new friend.
We haven't been to an AWP since the pandemic. The costs are just so prohibitive if you are shipping a large number of display stand items, books and mags. And it gets even worse when the convention center charges almost as much to take your materials from the loading dock to your table as it does to ship it cross country. Hotels, airfare, meals... it's an expensive few days! We loved meeting so man cool teachers, students, readers -- and hey yes! we did get to meet Becky Tuch (how many times did we cross paths?). Nice of you to do this column, Becky. I'm sure it is helpful to a lot of newbies to the AWP scene.
If anyone is an early bird with lots of stamina, come to my panel about writing stories in a world of novels which is at...drum roll...9AM on SATURDAY morning! Yikes!!!! Or, say hi to me in the aisles of the bookfair, which sounds more pleasant.
Just a heads up that L.A. is HUGE, 503 square miles, so uber, lyft, and taxis can be quite expensive. You can get to LACMA museum with one bus along wilshire; ditto the Hammer and UCLA, and so please consider our efficient public transportation system for activities outside the convention hall. DASH is a shuttle that makes "loops"; fare is 50 cents or 25 for seniors; buses run everywhere although you need to know that DTLA is riddled with one way streets. Fare is $1.75 or 35-75 cents for seniors. Fare is same for subway but requires a tap card you can get before boarding ($2). Quick and efficient. Within walking distance of convention hall is our fabulous central library, 5th and grand; the last bookstore, 7th and spring; central market for all kinds of ethnic foods, 4th and hill, and a gazillion places to eat, especially the Figueroa mall just up the street from the hall. HAVE FUN.
Thanks for mentioning the public transportation -- inexpensive compared to my city. My plan was that I found a less expensive hotel about a 15 minute ride on a metro line.
I hope to catch up with you, Diana!
This will be my second time attending AWP. Last year in Kansas City was my first, and I was disappointed that there were no panels that applied to my job as a managing editor. So, I proposed one, and it was accepted! Pretty big deal for a newbie! This time, I'm not only working at the bookfair, but moderating a panel, and we are co-hosting an off-site reading, so I think it will be a fuller experience for me. As the ME, I take care of all the registration and travel details for myself, the other editors and students we are bringing, plus planning for the bookfair and my panel, so I'm looking forward to it all being over after months of worrying about a million AWP details on top of my regular job's list of tons to keep track of. I've never been to California, so I'm looking forward to that part, and hope to have a little energy left for after-hours fun!
I am so happy that you're doing a panel about being a managing editor. I have always wondered about that but didn't even know I could ask.
I go often (DC, Philly, Boston, Seattle, Portland). I'll be presenting, ironically enough, on creative writing pedagogy in community colleges this year. The conference can be overwhelming: thousands of people, endless options. The book fair can induce vertigo. I choose several panels that seem interesting and wait until vibes tell me which one to choose. I build in down time during the day, to avoid burnout. I choose a couple of off-site events, for fun, to balance the feeling of business. If a panelist I enjoyed also has a booth, I make a point to visit. I also visit the table of one dream journal, one journal I don't know much about, and one indie press. Beyond that, it's all about connecting with people/enjoying the inspiration of pockets of solitude.
First off, I will be at AWP this year and would love to say hi to any other Lit Mag news readers!
I've been a few times in the past (Philly and Kansas City)-- and while it is not my favorite conference (I think that would be Barrelhouse's Conversations and Connections or the Indiana University Writers Conference--the scale is what sets AWP apart. I'm guaranteed to run into old friends, meet people I know only from online, and realize that the journals I've been submitting to are run by real human beings! I also definitely get overwhelmed at the size.
I try to go to a few panels, do good at the one I am presenting on, be brave and introduce myself to strangers at the bookfair, and try to not to have too much fomo. There's no way to do everything.
I recommend scheduling a meal with friends. That is always the highlight for me.
My only skill at attending AWP is playing hooky, so let me, as an Angeleno, share with you the perfect convention getaway: visit the creatures-in-their-habitat dioramas at the Natural History Museum. It's dark and hushed, full of wonder and majesty & just the right amount of creepiness. If you really want to make a prose poem out of it, take the 10 minute E train from the convention center west toward Santa Monica. It will give you an expansive view of our spectacularly tagged skyscrapers and an indelible immersion in street-level LA.
Thank you for sharing! I plan to attend and hope it will be as wonderful as last year. Here's my experience with AWP: https://brevity.wordpress.com/2025/03/06/awp-evidence-of-us/
These lines are so lovely...thank you: <We all hurt and write not to make a spectacle of ourselves, but towards ourselves. People took things home with them, not because they wanted free stuff, but because those stickers and bookmarks are evidence of us.>
Thank you for this! This will be my 13th AWP conference in a row, and I have WILDLY adjusted my expectations over the years. Some years I only make it to a handful of panels, but I go to a lot of readings off-site. One year (in Philadelphia) the MAJOR highlight of my conference was not at the conference at all: it was a visit to the Barnes Foundation ... a museum I wouldn't have heard about except a neighbor told me "don't come back without having paid a visit to the Barnes or I'll never speak to you again!" And he was only half-joking. I too spend a LOT of time at the book fair. As a poet who has published quite a lot in journals over the years, I very much like to visit the tables of places where my poems have appeared and thank the editors/readers face to face. And yes, it IS spendy to attend ... I have to budget for this "indulgence" but I have never regretted attending. Getting to see places that my ordinary life would not take me has been a major bonus--so glad to have gotten to spend time in Minneapolis and San Antonio. And the other enormous plus: because I am a member of an online community of women poets, I have lots of "friends I have never met face to face" and I make a point each year of arranging to get together (for coffee, often) with at least one of them.
I love AWP, for all its flaws and its excess. I tried to write about some of why Iove it just recently:
https://open.substack.com/pub/sebastianstockman/p/why-i-go-to-awp
At my best AWPs, I have pre-selected a coffee shop to walk to, where I'll write-- 7am-9am or 8am-10am, something early so it's out of the way. It can be intense to talk about writing for a whole weekend without actually writing, and I just feel... less guilty and harried later if I've done this early.
I "did" AWP differently each year depending on where I was in my career. Sometimes I was networking with publishers and lit mags-- meeting people who had just published me. Sometimes I was attending tons of panels to dig into craft or career questions. Sometimes I focused on meeting writers I'd met virtually while just doing the things *I* specifically was there for--serving on a panel or giving a reading.
This is the first year I'm only going for a day (it overlapped with an important family event)-- I'll be on the panel "This Beautiful Body: Writing Into Illness" Saturday morning and the reading "Spill the Beans: AWP Nonfiction Reading" at Sunset Strip Tattoo Saturday afternoon.
This is my first time attending AWP, and I'm thrilled to be a panelist. (Would be honored if anyone wanted to join our session on Saturday afternoon; it's called "Abroad as an Escape: International Exchange and Trauma-Informed Writing"). I have attended large academic conferences and a Fulbright conference as a speaker in the past. What I've personally found helpful is to determine my schedule far in advance (that way I prioritize the talks that matter most to me). I've also blocked off time to visit the book fair and have made a tiered list of the lit mags/booths that I most want to visit. I'm planning on packing a light lunch that I can quickly eat between events to maximize my time. Otherwise, maintaining a notebook with a distinct page of action items that I can easily access without flipping through dozens of pages of notes will make following up after the conference helpful.
To add to your great answer about talking to magazines at the #AWP25 Book Fair. I will be there with Ponder Review and Poetry South at table T1133. Stop by and talk to me about anything! Ask about our magazines (we'll have sample copies), ask for some candy (we plan to give some away), ask for swag (ditto), ask about our low-residency MFA program at Mississippi University for Women (we'll have brochures). Tell us about yourself and what you write. We may not remember after talking to around 14,000 other writers, but we like to be reminded that the writers who submit to us are human beings. And we like you to know that we're people, too. Submitting to magazines can feel so impersonal at times, but opportunities like AWP can be places to put the human back in your submission practice. And we love it when writers we've published stop by so we can meet them. We don't bite (usually), and you don't need to impress us. We're just happy to talk.
Other essential advice for AWP that I haven't seen in these comments yet: wear comfortable shoes.
I'm going to #AWP25. My eldest daughter lives in LA. She's worth the price of the flight, I've reasoned, and the conference is worth the price of an apartment close to the venue, which—blessings to the Winds of Good Fortunes—I'll be sharing with two MFA-era friends.
This will be my second AWP. My first was in DC. Two people who planned to share the hotel room with me had to back out, which turned out to be fine. I appreciated having a place of my own to unapologetically crash after the daily exhaustion of running around plus evenings out to off-site readings. I caught up with folks I'd met at Vermont College of Fine Arts Postgraduate Writers Conference and Disquiet International Literary Program as well as instructors from online courses and some old friends—one being interviewed at AWP by NPR. (Brilliant!) I attended many panel discussions, some of which offered chances to see my favorite authors and literary giants. IOthers were fun for being downright quirky, like Grace Paley's daughter, friends, and colleagues discussing her life and work. Nice. It seemed as if most of the panels I'd earmarked ran concurrently, which was a bum. Hard choices. Loved the Bookfair. I'm located in Switzerland, and it's not easy for me to access print issues of magazines (our libraries don't carry them) unless I have them shipped to me, which gets expensive. The Bookfair was a brilliant one-stop-shop. I created a list ahead of time and visited magazines that I had submitted work to and magazines I was considering submitting to. One editor I visited was quite warm and animated. When I got home from AWP, I had a story acceptance from her in my mailbox!
My LA focus will be on small-press exhibitors and attending their off-site readings. I've been working on my first novel, so I what to familiarize myself with the kind of authors and books that get the hearts of particular publishers pounding. I'll also visit "good ink" presses, places that warmly rejected my MSS of collected short stories (which I've set aside to focus on my novel). I'll be wanting to buy small-press pubs for sure! (I'm taking along that extra suitcase. For the DC conference, I nested it in my big suitcase.) I made my purchases during the conference, but if you're on a tight budget, know that the last day, final hours, is basically a Bookfair Fire Sale. The exhibitors prefer that YOU schlepp home their materials. Great bargains.
AWP is also famous for its nasty germs. I didn't catch anything in DC, and I don't want to catch anything in LA. I'll be traveling onwards after the conference and seeing my daughter (who will join me for one day and be buying lots of books herself!), to spend time with my elderly mother. Actually, to give my brother, her primary caretaker, a break from mom-sitting duties and stress. I can't afford to catch any bugs, so I'll be masking.
I'm as nervous as an introvert can get (writing this gives me the sweats!), but I'm also excited and ready to go! If you can recommend a panel discussion or off-site reading to attend, or want to meet up, please reach out!
Meredith - CH is my home-away-from-home (I work remotely for UZH) and I’ll be at AWP. There’s a meetup for Substack writers Thursday evening at Bar Magnolia a short walk from the Convention Center. I plan to be there (it’s in the schedule on the app). Maybe we can hi then.
That sounds great! Thanks for letting me know. I'm just sitting down to plan out my AWP schedule, and I'll put it straight in. Hope to see you there. (You have a connection to Texas? I happen to be a 5th-generation Texan, born in Harlingen, lived in Waco and Lubbock, but left at an early age; my dad was career military, so we moved a lot.)
Yes! I’m a 5th gen Texan myself, back in Houston after LA and Zurich. Look forward to meeting you later this week!
I attended Kansas City last year, virtually. Even though I live 60 miles south of Seattle, I was on our City Council during that year and couldn’t get away to attend (sadly). So this year is my first year to attend in person. I am not going with anyone (although I know a number of poet friends that will be there), so I’m a little worried I’ll feel overwhelmed and “alone” in a mass of strangers. However, I did chose a number of workshops/panels I want to attend and will “choose” the one that intrigues me the most when I’ve chosen several at the same time. I am worried about getting around to offsite places. I’m 82 but healthy enough to walk if it isn’t too far. However, I’m a little panicked about transportation any farther than say the bookstore—-big cities are my jungle nightmare (although I have been in LA for a National League of Cities conference but then we had planned transportation and “helpers” for their meetings and conference.) I will be taking breaks though. I learned this attending several State and National City conferences. I just couldn’t do everything and I gave myself permission to not feel I have to cram every moment with activities.
Cynthia - last June I went to the Writers League Texas conference in Austin. I didn’t know anybody. A woman at the first event looked at me and said, “it seems like everyone here knows each other.” We were both singletons that day, but now we’re in a writing group together!
At least a couple of people in the masses will be good candidates for becoming your next new friend.
Never had an interest in going. I don't get along with writers and editors.
We haven't been to an AWP since the pandemic. The costs are just so prohibitive if you are shipping a large number of display stand items, books and mags. And it gets even worse when the convention center charges almost as much to take your materials from the loading dock to your table as it does to ship it cross country. Hotels, airfare, meals... it's an expensive few days! We loved meeting so man cool teachers, students, readers -- and hey yes! we did get to meet Becky Tuch (how many times did we cross paths?). Nice of you to do this column, Becky. I'm sure it is helpful to a lot of newbies to the AWP scene.
If anyone is an early bird with lots of stamina, come to my panel about writing stories in a world of novels which is at...drum roll...9AM on SATURDAY morning! Yikes!!!! Or, say hi to me in the aisles of the bookfair, which sounds more pleasant.
This panel was already on my short list!
Oh, how lovely to hear! Stop by after to say hi if you're not pressed for time, and if you don't decide to sleep in instead. xoxox
I’ll be in the front row.
Oh, so looking forward to seeing you!!!