VCFA Alumnx, Students, and Faculty to Attend AWP 2024

This winter, AWP 2024 will be held in Kansas City, Missouri from February 7-10 at the Kansas City Convention Center. VCFA current students, alumnx, and faculty from our MFA in Writing and our MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults programs will be attending the conference and participating in panels, readings, and book signings off and on site. The VCFA admissions team, VCFA faculty members, and Hunger Mountain, the digital literary publication housed in the MFA in Writing program, will have their own booths in the convention center. Stop in and say hello to the VCFA crew at tables 1331 and 1332. 

View the list below to find information about VCFA community member events. If you’re a part of the VCFA community and would like your event displayed below, please fill out this form so that we can help share your AWP news. 

 

AWP 2024

FEBRUARY 7

Caleb Curtiss (Faculty, MFA in Writing)

Off-Site Reading/Event: Rock ‘n’ Roll Reading

Panelists/Participants: Gira Asim, Matt Bell, Chelsea Bionddillo, Traci Brimhall, MM Carrigan, Caleb Curtiss, Jason McCall, Monica Prince

Time Start: 6:00 PM

Time End: 8:00 PM

Location: The Brick

Event Description: Rapid fire readings themed roughly around music with an apparent Rock ‘n’ Roll sorta vibe.

 

Tyler Friend (WP ‘17)

Off-Site Reading/Event: Kernpunkt, Heavy Feather, & Alternating Current Reading

Time Start: 6:00 PM

Time End: 9:00 PM

Location: The Stray Cat

 

FEBRUARY 8

Sarah Seltzer (W ‘12)

Conference Panel: First Time’s the Charm: Debut Novelists on How to Debut

Panelists/Participant: Jeremy Broyles, Holly M. Wendt, Kate Reed Petty, Sarah Cypher, Sarah Marian Seltzer

Time Start: 10:30 AM

Time End: 11:40 AM

Location: Room 2101, Kansas City Convention Center, Street Level

Event Description: Debuting is a fraught process and the experience and advice varies seemingly year to year in a rapidly changing literary landscape. This panel of novelists from various genres shares tips, tricks, and hard-won lessons from the months before and after their debuts—on everything from publicity and marketing to questions we wish we’d asked. Whether attendees are debuting their own novels next year or still dreaming the book into being, they’ll find fresh, urgent discussion about the processes here.

 

Linda Urban (Faculty, MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults) & Jenny Bailey (WCYA ’17)

Conference Panel: Navigating Age-Based Audiences: Adult to Picture Book & Everything In Between

Panelists/Participants: Shana Youngdahl, Jennifer Moffett, Patricia Park, Laura Ruby, Linda Urban, Jenn Bailey

Time Start: 10:35 AM

Time End: 11:50 AM

Location: Room 2102B, Kansas City Convention Center, Street Level

Event Description: Publishing writers working in kid lit talk truthfully about figuring out which age-based market their story fits into. Some intentionally wrote for one even if their story bent typical rules, others subbed stories in YA and A, some wrote the story and then figured it out. All have learned from their experiences and grown as writers. Panelists will have a lively conversation about what age-based markets mean, and how, over the course of a writing career, to move between them.

 

Jessica Cuello (W ‘24)

Off-Site Reading/Event

Time Start: 12:00 PM

Time End: 3:00 PM

Location: Kansas City Public Library

 

Ricardo Ruiz (W ‘26)

Conference Panel: Voices of Resilience: Celebrating the Strength & Resilience of BIPOC Communities

Panelists/Participants: Ricardo Ruiz, Jose Olivarez, Paul Hlava Ceballos, Salaam Green

Time Start: 12:10 PM

Time End: 1:25 PM

Location: Room 3501

Event Description: This panel of five BIPOC poets will share work that celebrates the hard-won strength that comes with facing adversity, then engage in a dialogue about the ways their poems and their platforms have become tools for confronting and navigating challenges such as systemic oppression, marginalization, and cultural erasure. This panel seeks to honor and uplift stories of resilience while showcasing the transformative power of poetry as a means of self expression, healing, and social change.

 

Sarah Seltzer (W ‘12)

Conference Panel: Crafting the Complexity of Jewish Women’s Lives

Panelists/Participants: Elizabeth Poliner, Margot Singer, Rachel Kadish, Sarah Seltzer, Lauren Grodstein

Time Start: 3:20 PM

Time End: 4:40 PM

Location: Room 2208, Kansas City Convention Center, Street Level

 

Julia Alter (W ‘21)

Bookfair/Booth Signing: Book Signing at Green Writer’s Press

Time Start: 3:30 PM

Time End: 4:30 PM

Location: Booth #3021

 

Bethany Breitland (W ‘19)

Bookfair/Booth Signing: Book Signing for Fire Index at Green Writer’s Press

Time Start: 3:30 PM

Time End: 4:30 PM

Location: Booth #3021

Event Description: Bethany Breitland will be signing Fire Index, winner for the 2023 Sundog Poetry Book Award and nominee for the Vermont Book Award. 

 

Multiple VCFA Alumnx

Off-Site Reading/Event: A Reading by VCFA Alumnx

Panelists/Participants: Cathy Barber (W ‘13), Sarah McCraw Crow (W ‘20), Kali Lightfoot (W ‘15), Dawn Reno Langley (W ‘96), Anne Myles (W ‘21)

Time Start: 4:00 PM

Time End: 5:30 PM

Location: PT’s Coffee Power & Light, 1310 Baltimore Ave, Kansas City, MO

Event Description: Five Vermont College of Fine Arts alumnx share recent works sure to stimulate the mind, heart, and senses. We celebrate literature in this off-site reading at PT’s Power & Light coffee shop close to the Convention Center, where three poets and two novelists will read for five to seven minutes from recently published work. Time to talk and share books afterwards. Featuring Cathy Barber, Kali Lightfoot, Sarah McCraw Crow, Anne Myles, and Dawn Reno Langley. FREE snacks, coffee and tea for attendees. Several GIVEAWAYS available during the event!

 

Jessica Cuello (W ‘24)

Off-Site Reading/Event: Release of The Familiar

Panelists/Participants: Jessica Cuello, Sarah Kain Gutowski, Ananda Lima, Eugenia Leigh, Cynthia Marie Hoffman, and more

Time Start: 6:00 PM

Time End: 8:00 PM

Location: Bliss Books and Wine

 

K. T. Landon (W ‘14)

Off-Site Reading/Event: New Ohio Review Offsite Reading

Time Start: 6:00 PM

Time End: 7:50 PM

Location: Big Rip Brewing Company, 226 E. 9th Ave., North Kansas City, MO 64116

 

Julia Alter (W ‘21) & Bethany Breitland (W ‘19) 

Off-Site Reading/Event: Green Writers Press, Mouthfeel Press, & Noemi Press at Café Corazón

Panelists/Participants: Julia Alter and Bethany Breitland, two alumnx of VCFA will celebrate GWP and read from their books.

Time Start: 7:30 PM

Time End: 9:30 PM

Location: Café Corazón, 110 Southwest Blvd, Kansas City, MO 64108

Event Description: Green Writers Press, Mouthfeel Press, and Noemi Press are excited to welcome you to our off-site event on February 8th at Cafe Corazon, 110 Southwest Blvd, Kansas City, MO, a nine-minute walk from the Kansas City Convention Center (or a quick Uber ride). We will have the entire café reserved for food and drink, relaxing after the day’s events, and selected readings from a few of our authors. The incredible variety of culture, food, language, and music–fostered and appreciated by Latinx cultures–provides beauty and inspiration to us all, and this is what Café Corazón reflects. Doors open at 7:30 PM.

 

Susan Holcomb (W ‘21)

Off-Site Reading/Event: A Cupboard of Rose Metal Blackbirds: Readings from Cupboard, Rose Metal, and Blackbird

Panelists/Participants: Susan Holcomb, S. J. Sindu, Geoff Bouvier, Amy Hassinger, Kim Addonizio, Corey Van Landingham, Chelsea Woodard, Aaron Angello, Kelcey Ervick, Jasmine Sawers, Mark Jednaszewski, Lia Woodall, Kara Dorris, Gwen Paradice

Time Start: 7:00 PM

Time End: 8:30 PM

Location: Nimble Brewing, 1735 Oak St., Kansas City, MO 64108

Event Description: A reading and celebration featuring Amy Hassinger, Kim Addonizio, Corey Van Landingham, Chelsea Woodard (for Blackbird); Aaron Angello, Kelcey Ervick, and Jasmine Sawers (for Rose Metal Press); Susan Holcomb, Mark Jednaszewski, Lia Woodall, Kara Dorris, Gwen Paradice (for Cupboard Press). MCed by S. J. Sindu and Geoff Bouvier.

 

FEBRUARY 9

Multiple VCFA MFA in Writing Faculty

Conference Panel: Our First Universe: The Aesthetics of Home in Fiction

Panelists/Participants: Miciah Bay Gault, Robin MacArthur, Adam McOmber, Samuel Kolawole, Michelle Ross

Time Start: 9:00 AM

Time End: 10:15 AM

Location: Room 2502A, Kansas City Convention Center, Level 2

Event Description: Five fiction writers from geographically far-flung homes discuss how our writing is influenced by where we grew up. These iconic places affect motif, rhythm, imagery, even the color palette of our prose. But how do writers embrace stylistic fingerprints without being limited by them? Bachelard says, “The house is our corner of the world. It is our first universe, a real cosmos in every sense of the word.” We’ll offer practical ways to seek new universes without abandoning the aesthetics of home.

 

Caleb Curtiss (Faculty, MFA in Writing)

Bookfair/Booth Signing: Age of Forgiveness book signing

Time Start: 11:00 AM

Time End: 1:00 PM

Location: Bookfair Booth #T1111

Event Description: A book signing featuring Caleb Curtiss’ new collection of poems, Age of Forgiveness.

 

Samuel Kolawole (Faculty, MFA in Writing)

Conference Panel: Summons and Return: How We Write Globally of Our Homes and Other Destinations

Panelists/Participants: Allen Gee, Oindrila Mukherjee, Samuel Kolawole, Kerry Neville, Faith Adiele

Time Start: 12:10 PM

Time End: 1:25 PM

Location: Room 2215C, Kansas City Convention Center, Street Level

Event Description: How do we as prose writers navigate our current fragile and complex world? What stories do we want to tell with prevalent issues like global migration, climate change, class biases, limited gender roles, restrictive borders, hunger, poverty, language loss, vanishing histories, and the persistent question of American involvement to consider, and how do we best tell and nurture those stories? Five engaging writers offer advice for those who want to travel and expand their writing perspectives.

 

Anne Myles (W ‘21) 

Conference Panel: How the Sausage Gets Made: Debut Poets on Making a First Book

Panelists/Participants: Jocelyn Heath, Sara Burnett, Mary-Alice Daniel, Eileen G’Sell, Anne Myles

Time Start: 1:40 PM

Time End: 3:20 PM

Location: Room 2103B, Convention Center

Event Description: We all dream of holding our first published book, bound and beautiful, in our hands. But how does that stack of printed-out pages on your desk turn into a finished book? Four debut poets from a range of backgrounds will offer detailed, transparent recounting of their journeys to a debut collection, addressing questions of manuscript preparation, publishing process, complications encountered, and post-publication advice. Audience Q&A will follow the presentations.

 

Sue William Silverman (Faculty, MFA in Writing)

Bookfair/Booth Signing: Sue William Silverman, book signing, Acetylene Torch Songs: Writing True Stories to Ignite the Soul

Time Start: 2:00 PM

Time End: 3:00 PM

Location: University of Nebraska Press, booths number 1334-1336

 

Jessica Cuello (W ‘24)

Bookfair/Booth Signing: Book Signing of Yours, Creature

Time Start: 3:30 PM

Time End: 5:00 PM

Location: JackLeg Press Booth

 

Susan Ayres (W ‘19)

Bookfair/Booth Signing

Time Start: 4:00 PM

Time End: 5:00 PM

Location: Book Fair Booth 1207 (Finishing Line Press)

Event Description: Book signing for chapbook of poetry, Walk Like the Bird Flies (FLP 2023).

 

Barbara Carlson (W ‘90)

Off-Site Reading/Event: Lily Writers Read

Panelists/Participants: Barbara Siegel Carlson, along with Jennifer Martelli, Steven Cramer, Robbie Gamble & others

Time Start: 4:00 PM

Time End: 6:00 PM

Location: KC Cafe 1114 Baltimore Ave, KC

Event Description: Lily Poetry Review poets’ reading, hosted by Eileen Cleary

 

Anne Myles (W ‘21)

Bookfair/Booth Signing: Book signing for Late Epistle

Time Start: 4:00 PM

Time End: 5:00 PM

Location: Yetzirah table, T945

Event Description: Signing for Myles’s debut collection, Late Epistle, winner of Sappho’s Prize in Poetry from Headmistress Press. Myles will also be signing at North American Review, table 1544, Saturday 2/10 from 2:30 to 3:15 p.m.

 

Tyler Friend (WP ‘17)

Off-Site Reading/Event: SWING Reading

Panelists/Participants: Lindsay Bernal, Dan Brady, Tyler Friend, Kari Gunter-Seymour, Vera Vaughan Hough, Jayson Iwen, Amina Kayani, Chris Mazza, Kim Roberts, Patrick Paridee Samuel, and Meghan Meredith Williams

Time Start: 4:00 PM

Time End: 5:00 PM

Location: Nighthawk

Event Description: Join us at Nighthawk—a four-minute walk from the Kansas City Convention Center—for short readings by contributors to SWING and Full Bleed. Published annually by the Maryland Institute College of Art, “Full Bleed exists to chronicle the diverse ways that visual and literary artists are participating in this tumultuous historical moment.” SWING, out biannually from The Porch, “is a space for difference and dialogue, a magazine with the energy and verve of its home city, Nashville.”

 

Sue William Silverman (Faculty, MFA in Writing)

Off-Site Reading/Event

Time Start: 6:00 PM

Time End: 8:00 PM

Location: KC Hooley House, 170 E 14th St, Kansas City, MO

Event Description: Sue William Silverman and a group of creative nonfiction writers will read from their work. Sue William Silverman will read from Acetylene Torch Songs: Writing True Stories to Ignite the Soul.

 

Caleb Curtiss (Faculty, MFA in Writing)

Off-Site Reading/Event: Sundress Publications Off-Site Reading

Panelists/Participants: Heather Bartlett, Sandra Renee Beach, Evelyn Berry, Shlagha Borah, jason b. crawford, Caleb Curtiss, Amanda Galvan Huynh

Time Start: 8:00 PM

Time End: 9:00 PM

Location: Nimble Brewing Company

Event Description: A multi-reader lineup featuring poetry, fiction, and nonfiction from the Sundress Publications 2023 catalog.

 

FEBRUARY 10

Dawn Reno Langley (W ‘96)

Conference Panel: The Mean Season: Intolerance and Threats in the Classroom

Panelists/Participants: Luanne Smith, Cherise Pollard, Dawn Reno Langley, Yalonda JD Green, Emily Chiles

Time Start: 9:00 AM

Time End: 10:10 AM

Location: Room 2504AB, Kansas City Convention Center, Level 2

Event Description: Faculty, particularly women and marginalized groups, are facing escalating misogyny, racism, intolerance, and outright threats in creative writing classrooms. In courses designed for self-expression, the current cultural climate is bringing out the worst in some students, causing a contentious and fearful behavior. Often institutions offer no support as first amendment rights come into play. This panel is a grassroots effort to spotlight this growing issue and offer possible ways forward.

 

Kali Lightfoot (W ‘15)

Bookfair/Booth Signing

Time Start: 2:30 PM

Time End: 3:30 PM

Location: CavanKerry Press

Event Description: Selling, and signing previously purchased, copies of the debut poetry collection, Pelted by Flowers.