#AWP24 LIGHTNING READINGS
Quick reads performed by published writers from the AWP Writer to Writer Mentorship Program. We invite you to enjoy a mix of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction from these talented writers. Organized and emceed by alumni P.d. Keenen.
S219 Lightning Readings by Writer to Writer Alumni
#AWP24 Kansas City
Bookfair Stage
Saturday, Feb 10, 2024
Time 1:45 PM – 3:00 PM
Registration options for the conference can be found here you can register for the full conference or get a Saturday-only pass that gives access to the Bookfair and all Saturday onsite conference programming.
About Writer to writer:
AWP’s mentorship program, Writer to Writer, matches emerging writers and published authors for a three-month series of modules on topics such as craft, revision, publishing, and the writing life. We hope you apply and join our growing community.
PARTICIPATING MENTEE ALUMNI:
Dawn Angelicca Barcelona is a poet from New Jersey. She won Epiphany’s Fresh Voices Fellowship in 2023 and the San Francisco Foundation/Nomadic Press Literary Award in Poetry in 2022. She is an alumna of the Fulbright Program, Community of Writers, and VONA. Writer to Writer Spring 2022, Poetry.
Laura Joyce Davis writes fiction/creative nonfiction, and teaches podcasting at Stanford. She is a Fulbright scholar, a Podcast Magazine Top Influencer in Podcasting, a Poets & Writers Exchange Award winner, and International Women’s Podcasting Award for “Changing the World One Moment at a Time.” Writer to Writer, Spring 2022, Fiction.
Katherine Gaffney is a poet and specialized faculty at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her first full-length collection. Fool in a Blue House, won the 2022 Tampa Review Prize for Poetry. Her work has appeared in Best New Poets, jubilat, and Meridian, among other publications. Writer to Writer 2021, Poetry.
P.d. Keenen, our event emcee and founder, is a writer, empathy activist, and Washington-based constellation facilitator. They write memoir and poetry. Their work focuses on our shared humanity, points of cognitive dissonance, and advocating for the less visible. Writer to Writer 2015, Hybrid Poetry/Nonfiction.
Amy Lerman is a poet and Residential Faculty at Mesa Community College. Her manuscript, Orbital Debris, won the 2022 Jonathan Holden Poetry Chapbook Contest, she has been a Pushcart nominee, and her work has appeared in Rattle, Prime Number, and Radar Poetry among other publications. Writer to Writer 2019, Poetry.
Ananda Lima is the author of Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil (Tor, 2024), and Mother/land (Black Lawrence Press, 2021), winner of the Hudson Prize. Her work has appeared in The American Poetry Review, Poets.org, Kenyon Review, Gulf Coast, Witness, and elsewhere. Writer to Writer Spring 2016, Poetry.
Lisa Moore’s poetry has appeared in Nimrod International Journal, Borderlands Texas Poetry Review, Feminist Formations, and elsewhere. In addition to her chapbook, 24 Hours of Men (Dancing Girl, 2018), Lisa is the Lambda Award-winning author or editor of five other books. Writer to Writer Spring 2015, Poetry.
Ellen Birkett Morris’s novel Beware the Tall Grass won the Donald L. Jordan Award for Literary Excellence, judged by Lan Samantha Chang, and will be published on March 15, 2024. She is the author of Lost Girls: Short Stories, winner of the Pencraft Award. Writer to Writer Fall 2017, Fiction.
a. adenike phillips (she/her) is a Black, feminist poet, visual artist, and oral history practitioner based in New Jersey. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Amistad, Gulf Stream Magazine, The Hellebore Press, and elsewhere. Writer to Writer Fall 2022, Poetry.
Robin Pickering (she/they) is a queerpunk guitarist, yoga teacher, and chronically-ill human. An excerpt of her work was published in an anthology by Soft Skull Press. She is currently working on Atomic: A Gen X Memoir of Altered Family and Altered States. Writer to Writer Spring 2023, Nonfiction
Erin Robertson, founder of BoCo Wild Writers, has been a guest of the U.S. Consulate in Kazakhstan, Voices of the Wilderness Artist in Residence, and Boulder County Artist in Residence. Find her poetry in the North American Review, Cold Mountain Review, and elsewhere. Writer to Writer Spring 2017, Poetry.
Daniela Paraguya Sow is a Filipina American poet and serves as an Associate Professor of English at Grossmont College in San Diego, CA. Her poetry has appeared in Mixed Asian Media, The Hyacinth Review, and elsewhere. Writer to Writer Program, Fall 2022, Poetry.
Kathryn Temple is a poet and professor who lives on the Chesapeake and teaches at Georgetown in Washington DC. She has published in Persimmon Tree and Delmarva Review, among others, and recently was a finalist for the 2023 Lori White Non-Fiction Fellowship. Writer to Writer Spring 2023, Poetry.
Leah Tieger is a doctoral candidate at the University of Southern California. As a 2023 Wrigley Institute fellow, her ecopoetic practice led to a qualitative study of communities surrounding the Santa Susana Field Lab. Related work appears in Waxwing, Blackbird, and Tupelo Quarterly. Writer to Writer Fall 2019, Poetry.
Michael Allyn Wells is a writer living in Kansas City. He is a poet with interests in essay & memoir as well. His work has appeared in a number of online & print journals. His poem Tiananmen Mother was published by the Independent Chinese PEN Center. Writer to Writer Spring 2017 – Poetry.
Alice White is a poet from Kansas City who lives in rural France. Her poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in The Threepenny Review, The Poetry Review, Black Warrior Review, Gulf Coast, New Ohio Review, and Best New Poets 2023. Writer to Writer Fall 2022, Poetry.
PARTICIPATING Mentor ALUMNI:
Gustavo Adolfo Aybar is a Dominican-born poet living in Kansas City. His first full-length collection, We Seek Asylum was published in 2017 by Willow Books. His poems, essays, and translations have appeared in SpanglishVoces, ¡Manteca! “ An Anthology of Afro-Latin@ Poets, ABC-CLIO, Asymptote, EZRA. Writer-to-Writer Fall 2023 poetry.
Danielle Hanson strives to create and facilitate wonder. She is author of Fraying Edge of Sky, winner of the Codhill Press Poetry Prize, and Ambushing Water, Finalist for the Georgia Author of the Year Award. She is Marketing Director for Sundress Publications. She teaches poetry at UC Irvine. Writer-to-Writer Spring 2019 poetry.
Lara Lillibridge is the author of The Truth About Unringing Phones; Mama, Mama, Only Mama; and Girlish: and Growing Up in a Lesbian Home. She is the Interviews Editor for Hippocampus Magazine and holds an MFA from West Virginia Wesleyan College. Writer to Writer 2019-2023 Nonfiction.
Ellen Meeropol is the author of five novels, most recently The Lost Women of Azalea Court. She is a founding mother of Straw Dog Writers Guild and coordinator of the WriteAngles Writers Conference. Ellen lives in western Massachusetts. Writer to Writer Fall 2020 and Spring 2021, Fiction.
Karen Rigby was born in the Republic of Panama. She is the author of Chinoiserie (Ahsahta Press, 2012), which won the 2011 Sawtooth Poetry Prize, and Fabulosa (JackLeg Press, 2024). A National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow, she lives in Arizona. Writer to Writer Spring 2023, Poetry.
Claire Wahmanholm is the author of Meltwater (Milkweed Editions, 2023), Redmouth (Tinderbox Editions, 2019), and Wilder (Milkweed Editions, 2018). A 2020-2021 McKnight Writing Fellow, and the winner of the 2022 Montreal International Poetry Prize, she lives in the Twin Cities. Writer to Writer 2023, poetry.
#AWP24 Panels + Events Featuring Writer-To-Writer Alumni
T158. Ripped (Gently) from the Headlines: The Ethics of Writing Fiction Based on Fact featuring alumni Ellen Meeropol
S115. Writing for the Ear: How To Create, Launch, and Grow a Podcast featuring alumni Laura Joyce Davis
Offsite Events
Wednesday Wild Patience: A Poet-Mom Reading featuring alumni Lisa Moore. Free, with donations accepted for Transformations, a 501(c)(3) c that supports Trans communities of color & trans youth in survival to build capacity and leadership skills in Arkansas, Kansas, and Missouri.
Thursday JackLeg Women Writers & Another Chicago Magazine featuring alumni Karen Rigby. Free with registration.
Sponsorship Opportunity
We are still looking for a sponsor for this event! If you are interested in having your programs and services included in our marketing materials, please reach out to miranda@awpwriter.org.
Writer. Intersectional Activist. 