Tayari's Blog: What You're Missing If You're Not Here
Posted by TayariJones on February 13, 2009 09:57 AM
Filed under
The Writing Life
How do I love thee, Blog Family? I love y'all so much that paid $19.99 for one day on broadband service in my room. I am finally blogging from AWP-- two days in. The conference has been high-energy. It must be a Chicago thing, every time the conference in here, the festivities kick into high gear. (New York, despite it's rep, is a really crappy place to hold a conference. Go figure.)
Well, I don't have anything much insightful to say. So I am going to bullet-point the highlights. (photos are in the post below.)
Yesterday, the contributors to PMS issue #8 gathered in the book fair to toast its success and to bow before the editor, Honoree Fanonne Jeffers. Just imagine the pretty staid book fair suddenly home to about 25 screaming and toasting black women writers!
The Jericho Brown Love Train kept on chugging. He threw a party in his room. By party I mean about 50 people in a single hotel room throwing money at Jericho begging for copies of his too-hot-to-keep-in-stock poetry debut, Please. (And Jericho is so beautiful, that you just love to have a reason I say "please" to him.)
THE WOMAN WHO MADE MY HAIR ORNAMENTS WALKED UP TO ME IN THE LOBBY! I was rocking my Ododo Originals Flower Barrette and my Cozbi dress when this gorgeous woman walked up to me and said, "I made those. I'm Lesley. I know my work." Amazing.
At the Indiana Review party, I met Kelly the angel who sent me the Pink Oil when I was out in the Adirondacks this summer.
People I have run into include Tiphanie Yanique and seeing her makes any day seem like a holiday. Natasha Trethewey is here with her dad, which is cool to see that multi-generational word-smithing. Patricia Powell is here somewhere and I just have to me her and tell her thank you for her role is granting me one of the USA Artists Grants. (The problem is that there are a lot of people who look kind of like her. I keep walking up to them and saying "did you hook me up?") If you know her, call her or txt her and tell her that i want to buy her a glass of champagne!
Sweet Tyehimba Jess is in full peacock mode. He's got something to crow about, but I can't post it yet.
And I have been up everynight until 3am, yet I am still alive. This is an accomplishment.
The Affrilachian Poets were said to have rocked the house last night, but I, sadly, was on the clock and couldn't go.
And it is superficial for me to point out what a good looking crowd there is this year? I thought ATL was supposed to be the home of the beautifulest brothers in the world.
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