Tuesday, February 17, 2009

AWP Conference

AWP is a yearly conference in which a lot of writers, mainly poets, get together and pretend that if they make it as a poet they will be "famous." They all walk around acting like top shit kissing everybody's ass even though if they were the most famous living poet in America nobody would care outside of the ten thousand people gathered at that one conference. The most ridiculous phrase I've ever heard in my life is "rock star poet" used to describe some young poet who had two moderately successful books. But the thing is that a lot of these poets branded with that asinine label will act accordingly - doing drugs, sleeping with poet groupies (the lowest of all groupies), and showing up an hour late for poetry readings. The demise of poetry in America can only be blamed on poets. AWP is the most wretched display of delusions and sycophancy outside of a graduate workshop but I'm still sorry I couldn't make it this year.

RATING: 24%

15 comments:

laurie said...

Are there seriously 10,000 in this country that care about poetry? No way. I'm not buying that.

LoCo said...

Like a third of them might be there for fiction, so yeah, not even 10 thousand/K/G/M.

John said...

No one cares about Poetry. Everyone likes poetry.

Jacqui said...

Oh writing conference memories--how bittersweet they are! I too am sorry I couldn't make it this year, though.

Walter Benjamin and the Mechanical Reproductions (the band) said...

Asshole Writing Prickfest

Walter Benjamin and the Mechanical Reproductions (the band) said...

hey let me ask yall a questoin if yall think peotry is so great why are yall so poor (im rich

Jacqui said...

So that's what AWP ACTUALLY stands for. Thank you, (not)Brent Newland!

John said...

When nursery rhymes stop delighting children and the radio plays nothing but atonal clanking accompanied by the bleating of sheep and goats, I'll accept the proclamation that poetry is dead in America. If no one cares about the parochial circle-jerk that passes for a university-sponsored creative industry, I think that suggests that the literate public has better taste than some people realize.

laurie said...

Did anyone else notice that there is something seriously wrong with MS Paint poetry girl's boobs?

Belabras said...

Laurie - Hey, we can tell it's a girl. For the MS Paint art, that's pretty good.

LoCo said...

she also has no nose. damn coke fiends at certain southern schools.

DCP said...

There's something wrong with all real life poetry girls' boobs, too, so I think it's a fairly accurate representation no offense poetry girls reading this.

Walter Benjamin and the Mechanical Reproductions (the band) said...

wat about joyelle mcsweeney she STACKED

LoCo said...

lolololol

Evan J Peterson said...

I actually had a great time at AWP this year, far better than my first time. I like to see the similarities between AWP and comic book and other nerd conventions I've been to. AWP is just a bunch of fans who are really, REALLY into writers and writing. Lots of networking going on, but what do you expect from a field in which so few people "make it"?

I got laid at AWP. That counts for something, right?