Literary Community Comes Together at AWP Conference

This year’s Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) Conference & Bookfair, held March 4-7, offered Emerson students, faculty, and alumni the opportunity to connect, build relationships, and sustain the literary arts.

There were so many Emersonians in attendance, this year’s festival once again featured an unofficial “Emerson row,” where presses, literary magazines, journals, and publishers all connected to Emerson gathered alongside friends and colleagues in the publishing world.

“AWP is a gathering of people who care about the same things WLP’s faculty and students care about, and who are excited to talk about and share those things,” said Steve Himmer, Writing, Literature & Publishing Senior Lecturer II and First-Year Writing Program Director. “For writing and publishing students, AWP is the best chance to find so many writers, publishers, literary journals, and literary arts organizations all in one place.”

For Harper Wood, MFA ’27, the publisher of Emerson’s graduate student–run literary journal  Redivider, the conference—the biggest literary festival in the US—offered a chance to promote Redivider’s 40th anniversary. 

“I’m connecting with a lot of people who’ve published with Redivider, and worked with us,” said Wood. “We’ve had a lot of people come up to us  and say we published them many years ago—or rejected their poems.”

This was Wood’s third time attending AWP and credits the conference with helping shape their path to Emerson. They first attended as an undergraduate at Otterbein University. That year, Wood met members of the Redivider team and WLP Professor and Graduate Program Director Mako Yoshikawa, introducing themselves as a prospective student.

“It’s great to come back and see familiar presses that I love, and I’m connected as a peer who works in the industry with an understanding of the publishing world,” said Wood. “Now I speak with them at a peer level and also learn from them.”

Wood also used the conference to meet editors and leaders from presses, journals, and magazines—both to submit their own writing and to build connections for a future career in publishing.

“There are very few places where someone is going to understand about the submissions process, and production on a semester basis,” said Wood.

Emerson also hosted an off-site reception on March 5, followed by a celebration of Redivider’s 40th anniversary. The event featured readings from past contributors as well as poetry readings organized by Ploughshares, including work by Writing, Literature & Publishing Professor and Ploughshares Editor-in-Chief Jenny Molberg and WLP Assistant Professor Porsha Olayiwola, MFA ’22.

Faculty Help Grow Industry Connections

Many Emerson faculty members attend AWP each year, both to participate in the conference and to help students navigate the professional literary world.

For  Himmer, who has attended the conference about 10 times, AWP represents one of the most valuable professional opportunities for Emerson’s Writing, Literature & Publishing students.

“Many of the panels are designed for early career writers and students, offering perspectives on how other professionals have done what our students are setting out to do themselves,” said Himmer.

The book fair, he noted, is filled with editors and publishers looking to connect with writers. Students who take the initiative to introduce themselves can make meaningful connections—sometimes even receiving invitations to submit their work or apply for positions.

As a faculty member, Himmer often helps facilitate those introductions.

This year, he introduced Nayla Agameya, MFA ’27, to the staff of the literary magazine Barrelhouse, believing her writing would be a strong fit for the publication. He also connected the alumni co-founders of Fork Apple Press—Nico Léger, MFA ’24; Katie Mihalek, MFA ’24; and Vivian Walman-Randall, MFA ’24—with Abigail Beckel, MFA ’05, who founded Rose Metal Press with Kathleen Rooney, MFA ’05.

“Abigail and Kathleen are much further along with their press and are excited to share their accrued wisdom and pass along what they’ve learned,” said Himmer. “Being there—and helping our students be there—makes those moments possible, and makes them the highlights of the conference for me.”

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Alumni Reconnect and Share Publishing Experiences

For many Emerson alumni, AWP serves as both a professional gathering and an annual reunion. Chris Tonelli, MFA ’05, estimates that this year marked his 21st AWP conference. He first attended in 2004 after co-founding Redivider—then known as Beacon Street Review.

“We just catch up and see pictures of kids—and say we can’t believe they’re so big. We talk about new jobs, new houses,” said Tonelli. “We also talk about the biz. A lot of us are still writing our own work, and we talk about, ‘How’s your new book coming?’ ‘How’s your press going?’ We talk about publishing, sales, distribution—trade talk.”

At the conference, Tonelli represented his press, Birds LLC, alongside other Emerson alumni–run presses on Emerson row, including Black Ocean, Rose Metal Press, and Gigantic Sequins. 

The conference also gives small presses a chance to connect with readers and promote their authors’ work.

“Our authors love that their books are exposed to… 10,000 to 20,000 people depending upon the city [and year],” said Tonelli. “They feel supported and AWP gets their book out there.”

This year, Birds LLC hosted three events for its authors, giving them opportunities to read their work before engaged audiences.

AWP also helps Tonelli promote So & So Books, the Raleigh bookstore he co-owns. While exploring the book fair, he discovers new titles to stock and connects with writers who might later appear at the store.

“If I meet an author, or they find out I’m in North Carolina, I say hit me up if you’re in Raleigh and want to set up an event,” said Tonelli.

Like Himmer, Tonelli is eager to support emerging writers and publishers. He encourages newcomers to reach out with questions.

“Small presses are run by a small amount of people who are extremely approachable, and typically generous with their time,” said Tonelli. “Don’t think you’re on your own to reinvent the wheel. Talk to some folks who are farther down the road to help avoid missteps that you would by trial and error. We can talk about staffing, editorial processes, how to promote, or how to design author events.”

For Himmer, those kinds of connections are what make the conference meaningful.

While some people view networking cynically, he said AWP offers something more genuine.

“What I tell my students is that the best networking isn’t like that. AWP is a gathering of people who care about the same things WLP’s faculty and students care about, and who are excited to talk about and share those things,” said Himmer. “There’s nothing cynical about that — it’s how we build the relationships that sustain us as teachers and artists, not to mention maintaining the literary arts.”