AWP Report – Part VI

Swag: Slang. Stolen property; loot.

This is my AWP Swag Report, although some of this stuff I paid for, so it doesn’t technically qualify as swag, I think.

Pens: It looks like I came away with only 3 pens – from Harpur Palate, Water-Stone, and Iron Horse (the latter doesn’t actually say Iron Horse on it but it’s the most useful of the three – it’s a 2008 calendar).

Buttons: Press 53, Five Points

Coasters: Southeast Review, [and a cooler one from another magazine that I now can’t seem to find]

Stress-ball: failbetter.com

Calendar: Gettysburg Review

Miscellaneous postcards, bookmarks, submission guidelines, teaser mini-journals and contest come-ons.

Journals (Warning: this is a long list): The most exciting of these are the ones I had not heard of before, including HOW (Helping Orphans Worldwide), which has a goal of raising money and awareness for children worldwide orphaned by HIV/AIDS. Also, it’s a beautiful magazine. Another favorite is Bateau, a fantastic looking little letter-press book started by James Grinwis, a friend of mine from Bread Loaf and a terrific poet. Then there were quite a few journals I’d heard of but had never actually seen, including the brand new Grist, out of the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. Issue 1 has contributions from some heavy-hitters, so this might be one to keep an eye on. Then there is Practice: New Writing + Art, a beautifully designed magazine from San Francisco, Copper Nickel, an attractive over-sized journal from Denver, The Dirty Goat an international magazine based in Austin, and Absinthe: New European Writing, which features only European authors, a unique magazine from Michigan. I picked up a copy of New South, formerly known as GSU Review (whose contest I won last year), The Journal, based at Ohio State, Passages North from Northern Michigan University, and roger, from Roger Williams University. Also: Yemassee, from University of South Carolina, Lake Effect from Penn State Erie, The Evansville Review from University of Evansville, Cutthroat: A Journal of the Arts, Iron Horse Literary Review from Texas Tech, which is embarking on an interesting format change, turnrow from University of Louisiana at Monroe (which is way nicer than I’d have thought), Blue Mesa Review from the University of New Mexico, which is also an attractive magazine, the florida review from the University of Central Florida, and ep;phany (that’s not a typo) from New York. And finally, I picked up two issues of both The Laurel Review from Northwest Missouri State University and Cutbank from the University of Montana, and I’m looking forward to reading both (I mean all four).

When, you might reasonably ask, is he going to read all those?

I believe I’m done writing about AWP now, but for more you might want to check out these other fine blogs: Phoebe, Emerging Writers Network, Cutbank, the Writer, and NewPages.com.