From AWP

 

I spent the last week in Seattle, Washington at the Association of Writers & Writing Programs Conference, a conference I have been going to off and on for more than fifteen years now.

AWP has provided some great memories for me. I first attended when the conference was in Austin, Texas. I had been invited onto a panel with Jeff VanderMeer, Kelly Link, Laird Hunt, and Brian Evenson. (Wonder what became of any of them?) We also did a reading and had dinner with Michael Moorcock. Is it any wonder I remember virtually nothing else about that conference? Then there was the New York City conference where I worked in the Book Fair trying to sell or give away copies of Best American Fantasy and Weird Tales, which was a really exciting experience at the time because AWP was even more of a big-L Literature conference back then, and anything with "fantasy" in the title (never mind "Weird Tales"!) was quite a shock for some people. Then there was the Boston conference where I got to be moderator/interviewer for a conversation between Samuel Delany and Kit Reed, a great honor. The last AWP I attended before this most recent one was in Los Angeles, and it sits bittersweet in my memory. I had the thrill of seeing my first book published and being promoted by the publisher, but that conference was also the last time I saw my friend Katherine Min in person before her death.

This AWP may end up the most memorable, however, because only a few hours after my plane landed in Seattle, I headed down to Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery to read from my very new book The Last Vanishing Man and Other Stories, which was so hot off the press that I hadn't even seen a copy until my editor, Chet Weise, handed me one at the event. Originally, Maria Dahvana Headley was going to join me in reading, but Maria had a family emergency and had to cancel a week before. Then Jeff VanderMeer valiantly jumped in, booked a flight, and headed to Seattle — only to have to cancel two hours before we began because he was felled by a nasty fever. (He recovered later, but it was not a good time for him.) So I was left alone, with an audience of people who primarily wanted to see either Jeff or maybe Maria (if they hadn't gotten the news). I seem to be the Typhoid Mary of readings. Or maybe the universe just wanted me to celebrate the book alone. I was deeply looking forward to a conversation with Jeff, and my feelings on arrival at Fantagraphics were a mix of disappointment and abject terror. I imagined us announcing Jeff's inability to appear and then every member of the audience just walking out.

But it all went well. The audience was understanding, and very much concerned for Jeff's health. And they stayed! I read for probably too long (still figuring out how and what to read from this book), then Chet peppered me with questions that Jeff had sent along, plus some of his own. It was a fun conversation. The audience was amazingly generous, and then a bunch of folks bought books afterward. I have immense gratitude to all of those folks, because they made what could have been a dispiriting and even disastrous event into something really quite special. I will remember it for a long time to come.

I  spent much of the next day wandering around the epic Book Fair, seeing friends, seeing presses whose work I like, investigating new presses and books I'd never heard of.

It was a pleasure to run into friends at Black Lawrence Press, One Story, Clash Books, Rain Taxi, and elsewhere. There was also the fun of trying to get used to seeing my book among the others at Third Man's table. But I didn't have to get used to it long — by Saturday morning, all copies had sold.

Saturday night, I met up with my New Hampshire friend Liz Ahl, and her brother and brother-in-law, for a fine dinner at Musang. It was marvelous. But by the end of the night, I was exhausted. AWP has a way of doing that to you.

On Sunday, AWP was over and most of the crowd had left, so I took the opportunity to wander the city (including the Seattle Art Museum) and rest a bit. Then on Monday, I met up with Jess Flarity, a PhD student whose dissertation committee I'm on, who grew up in the area. We explored some wonderfully decaying old railroad cars, stopped at the famous falls below the Squamish Lodge & Spa in Snoqualmie, known to all Twin Peaks fans as The Great Northern. (We didn't head into Snoqualmie to see other Twin Peaks sites, but hopefully there will be a future time.) Then we made our way to Holy Mountain Brewing, which a friend had recommended. And what an excellent recommendation it was! Not only is it named after the wonderful Jodorowsky movie, and not only is it the sort of place where they play Ghost Bath's Moonlover on vinyl (yes, they do!), but they also have extraordinarily good beer. Seattle is known for its breweries. They're as common as coffee shops. But Holy Mountain has got to be among the best, because I can't actually fathom how it could be better. (Jess and I did 6 ounce samples of a few beers and shared with each other so we could compare.) The Bottleworks XXIV, an imperial stout aged in bourbon barrels, was one of the most remarkable things I've ever eaten/drunk. I am sometimes skeptical of foodies' claims of complexity, of a sensory experience, but I am here to say that every sip of that beer was memorably complex. It was so rich I could not have drunk more than the little glass, even if I ignored the 13% alcohol content (yes, 13% for a beer!), but every moment with it was memorable. That particular beer was a special one for them, available in very small quantities, but their regular offerings are only a little less remarkable.

On Tuesday, I moved out of the hotel and to my friend Colleen Lindsay's apartment so that I could spend some quality time with her cats, including the famous Mugsy. Colleen and I bounced around for a bit, seeking out interesting shops and restaurants. And there was plenty of time to spend with cats.

I made it home and discovered that though many of the towns around my house got huge amounts of snow during a nor'easter, my house only got a couple inches. Spring does seem to be on the way.

And now back to work, as this was our Spring Break, and Monday starts everything up again. There is much to do, but I remain grateful for the many friends who have brightened my days, and I look forward to the wonderful fun still to come.


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Top image: The book haul — everything I bought or was given at AWP.

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