by Linda Rodriguez
I live professionally in two worlds as
a writer—the world of crime fiction novels and the world of poetry
and literary fiction. It's not often that those worlds connect. A few
years ago, my then-editor at St. Martin's proposed a panel on women
crime writers to AWP, the huge conference of literary writers,
editors, and academic writing programs, and I sat on it, bringing
together my worlds. But this kind of thing seldom happens, not
because of any problems crime fiction has with literary fiction and
poetry, but more because of the literary world's ignorance and,
occasionally, hostility to all genre fiction.
At Bouchercon 2016 in New Orleans, my
worlds crossed again when a fellow poet, Patricia Smith, finalist for
the National Book Award in Poetry, showed up to give me a hug and
joined Sisters in Crime since she's now working on a crime novel.
This was a lovely bit of serendipity.
I've just come back from AWP, which I
attend every year, and this time my two worlds connected once more.
Friend and acclaimed mystery short story writer and anthology editor,
Art Taylor, attended this AWP for his academic day job, and we had
the chance to get together and chat about both worlds for a while.
This kind of experience is still so rare that it's a lovely treat in
the midst of the high-strung literary world and its politics to sit
with someone from the warmer community of crime fiction, and Art was
a particularly great person to share it with since he's familiar with
both circles. I'm only sorry that I didn't think to get a photo of us
while there.
At AWP, I spent a lot of time helping
my husband in the BkMk Press/New Letters (University of
Missouri-Kansas City) booth in the book fair and a lot of time
involved in administrative and political issues (around diversity in
the lit world) with both the Indigenous Writers Caucus of which I'm
past chair and on the leadership council and the Caucus of Caucuses
of which I'm co-founder. But I also had time to visit the Library of
Congress—such a gorgeous building throughout, so if you get the
chance to see it, snatch it—and record an interview with the
legendary Grace Cavalieri for the Library of Congress' long-running
public radio show, The Poet and the Poem. (If you'd like to
hear it, you can listen here.)
Also, AWP was the launch of the very
special anthology I recently co-edited, The World Is One Place:
Native American Poets Visit the Middle East, and we had a panel
about it at the conference. Over 50 people showed up to surprise us,
since were the last program of the last day of the conference and
hidden away in a room that was difficult to find. We had several
contributors, as well as the co-editors and publisher, on the panel
and several others joined us in the audience to add their
perspectives to the discussion, which developed into a lively and
engaged Q&A session at the end. Many audience members stayed
afterward
AWP also put more panels about genre
fiction on its huge schedule, and for a change, trade publishers have
joined the many literary publishers and university presses in the
book fair. So I anticipate ever more crossovers between my two
professional worlds in the future. I think that's an excellent
development for the largest writers conference (17,000 attendees) in
the United States.
It was great seeing you there—and thanks for the shout-out here! Enjoyed your post and AWP itself as well. And congrats again on the new anthology!
ReplyDeleteIt is always a pleasure when you can bring two of your worlds together. I'm glad that you were able to do that.
ReplyDeleteThat was some conference with 17,000 people. Did you ever pass the same person twice?
What a wonderful conference that must have been, Linda. I've always been a reader of literary fiction as well as mysteries. Many mysteries are as much literary as mysteries. I also write poetry as well as mysteries, too, and some short stories that are not mysteries. I'm working
ReplyDeleteslowly on a mixture of memoir and memorial for my eighteen year old son who died of cancer. It will include the poems I've written for him each year since he died in 1980.
Art, it was lovely to have the chance to spend some time together. A welcome respite in the intense atmosphere of AWP.
ReplyDeleteGrace, as huge as AWP is, I can't walk from one place to another without being stopped by people I know. Art will tell you that I had sat at a table to rest from one of the long walks between events, and first one, then another of my lit friends had come up--the head of a national literary organization and the editor of a prestigious lit journal--before Art made his own presence known behind me. You would think that, with those numbers, I could move about the huge convention center pretty anonymously, but it just doesn't work out that way, for some reason.
ReplyDeleteGloria, it is wonderful, primarily because it's often the only time I get to see some people I dearly love, but also because it's so stimulating, offering new ideas and concepts. But it's also become truly overwhelming and difficult to navigate as it's become so huge. It takes a tremendous toll on me physically, and our disability caucus has real problems getting AWP to make it really accessible in any meaningful way. Plus, the politics is much worse than I find in the crime fiction community. I've taken to swearing each one is my last, and then someone puts me on a panel that makes or my caucuses need something from me, and I give in and go.
ReplyDeleteGlad you survived your trip and meeting with stories to tell.
ReplyDeleteI've always wondered how literary types explain why established literary writers write mysteries. Are they slumming?
ReplyDeleteThanks, Margaret!
ReplyDeleteWarren, I've never quite figured out the convoluted reasoning by which many literary types scorn genre fiction (though they do see mysteries as marginally more literarily respectable than sff, westerns, horror, or (gasp!) romance).
Sounds like a wonderful conference and a great opportunity.
ReplyDeleteWe need more people like you, successful, recognized writers who can see why both literary and genre fiction has merit.
Congratulations on the roll-out of that book of unique poetry.
Thanks, KM! AWP is a wonderful conference and great opportunity--and also a big PITA to get around for anyone with a disability, and in fact, for a lot of folks I know without disabilities. It's so big. It has hundreds and hundreds of panels, thousands of participants, and a huge book fair that fills one entire floor of a massive convention center (and sometimes overflows onto part of another floor). Plus hundreds of offsite readings and events sponsored by publishers, writers organizations, and universities. It's like being injected with pure adrenaline or methedrine--something is constantly going on everywhere you look and there's never any silence. Much of that stimulus is inspiring and valuable, but there's still too much of it all the time. So it's always a challenge for trying to achieve any kind of balance. But there's much of it that I would miss terribly if I didn't go.
ReplyDelete