Featured Events
Photo Credit: Elena Seibert
#AWP23 Keynote Address by Min Jin Lee
Min Jin Lee is the author of the novels Free Food for Millionaires and Pachinko, a finalist for the National Book Award, and runner-up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Lee is the recipient of the 2022 Manhae Grand Prize for Literature from South Korea, the 2022 Bucheon Diaspora Literary Award, and the 2022 Samsung Happiness for Tomorrow Award for Creativity and fellowships in Fiction from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study at Harvard, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. She is an inductee of the New York Foundation for the Arts Hall of Fame and the New York State Writers Hall of Fame. Lee is a Writer-in-Residence at Amherst College and serves as a trustee of PEN America and a director of the Authors Guild. She is at work on her third novel, American Hagwon, and a nonfiction work, Name Recognition.
Read more about Min Jin Lee.
All Featured Events will be held in-person and livestreamed to virtual attendees.
NBF Presents: The Power of Poetry
Thursday, March 9,
12:10–1:25 p.m. PT,
Ballroom 1, Level 5, Seattle Convention Center
Join National Book Award-honored authors Donika Kelly (Bestiary, 2016 Poetry Longlist) and Danez Smith (Don’t Call Us Dead, 2017 Poetry Finalist) in a conversation about the power of poetry for both author and reader, and its influence on the evolution of their own writing across collections. Presented in partnership with the National Book Foundation, and moderated by the Foundation’s Executive Director Ruth Dickey.
Celebrating Pacific Islander Literature with Kundiman
Thursday, March 9,
1:45–3:00 p.m. PT,
Ballroom 1, Level 5, Seattle Convention Center
Pacific Islander literature has a rich history, abundant with poetic styles and oral storytelling traditions, exploring sustainability, imperialism, climate change, decolonization, and so much more. It is vital to discussions of American literature to read and honor the work of Pacific Islanders.
Join Kundiman for a reading and conversation encompassing the multiple genres our featured authors write in and celebrating the breadth of Pacific Islander literature today.
Blue Flower Arts Presents Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Kwame Dawes, and Chigozie Obioma
Thursday, March 9,
3:20–4:35 p.m. PT,
Ballroom 1, Level 5, Seattle Convention Center
Join Blue Flower Arts for a reading and conversation featuring Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Kwame Dawes, and Chigozie Obioma. The work of these three writers spans the borders of the United States, Nigeria, Jamaica, Cyprus, and Ghana and the genres of fiction, short story, and poetry. Together they will discuss the intersections of craft and personal experience across generations, continents, and realities.
Writing Motherhood in Post-Roe America, Sponsored by Hugo House
Friday, March 10,
10:35–11:50 a.m. PT
Ballroom 1, Level 5, Seattle Convention Center
The choice to become a mother, in all its beguiling complexity, has long been a subject of writers. Following the Supreme Court decision overturning the right to abortions, how do we write about the value and essential work of mothering, teach antiracism to our children, and offer new narratives on motherhood towards a more equitable society? This panel draws together multidisciplinary writers to discuss parenting, identity, and what can be done to combat the latest crisis facing American women.
PEN Presents: Kali Fajardo-Anstine and Leila Mottley
Friday, March 10,
10:35–11:50 a.m. PT
Ballroom 2 & 3, Seattle Convention Center
Join us for a conversation featuring American Book Award-winner Kali Fajardo-Anstine and Booker Prize-nominee Leila Mottley, moderated by Clarisse Rosaz Shariyf, PEN America’s chief program officer of Literary Programming. In their debut novels, Fajardo-Anstine’s Woman of Light and Mottley’s Nightcrawling, both authors center the experience of teenage girls and womanhood while weaving complex and multifaceted stories of survival, testimony, and triumph. Together they will discuss writing about the communities they love and the people they call home, and characters navigating lives shaped by love, personal loss, and small joys.
The Changing Myths That Shape Our Culture, Sponsored by Red Hen Press
Friday, March 10,
12:10–1:25 p.m. PT
Ballroom 2 & 3, Level 5, Seattle Convention Center
If white men tell history, it’s a story of law, vengeance, and violence. If the story is told by women and writers of color, how does the story change? Point of view is everything. Through this reading and discussion featuring BIPOC poets, we include a view of history not seen before, the underneath, the dark, the wept on places where children find their way toward compassion.
Stephen Graham Jones and Silvia Moreno-Garcia in conversation with Danielle Trussoni, Sponsored by the Authors Guild
Friday, March 10,
12:10–1:35 p.m. PT
Ballroom 1, Level 5, Seattle Convention Center
Stephen Graham Jones is the New York Times bestselling author of nearly thirty novels and collections. His recent works include The Only Good Indians, My Heart is a Chainsaw, The Babysitter Lives, Earthdivers, and Don’t Fear the Reaper. Silvia Moreno-Garcia is the author of a number of critically acclaimed novels, including Gods of Jade and Shadow, Mexican Gothic, and Velvet Was the Night. Her latest novel is The Daughter of Doctor Moreau. Jones and Moreno-Garcia will read from their work, followed by conversation with best-selling author and columnist Danielle Trussoni.
Lindy West & Jane Wong in Conversation, Sponsored by Seattle Arts & Lectures
Friday, March 10,
1:45–3:00 p.m. PT,
Ballrooms 2 & 3, Summit Building, Seattle Convention Center, Level 5
Join Seattle-based writers Lindy West (author of Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman and Shit, Actually: The Definitive Guide, 100% Objective Guide to Modern Cinema) and Jane Wong (poet and author of the forthcoming memoir, Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City) for a conversation about writing true-ish things and moving between genres. May also feature laughter, vulnerability, as well as hot takes on TV, fashion, feminism, and ceramic dumplings. Moderated by Rebecca Hoogs, Executive Director of Seattle Arts & Lectures.
Vital to Language and Living: Copper Canyon Celebrates its First Fifty Years
Friday, March 10,
1:45–3:00 p.m. PT,
Ballroom 1, Level 5, Seattle Convention Center
Since 1973, Copper Canyon Press has exercised an unwavering commitment to the art of poetry, the creative lives of poets, the alchemy of publishing, and the belief that poetry is vital to language and living. This reading and conversation features poets and translators who represent different aspects of Copper Canyon’s dynamic and diverse mission, who will read from their work, speak to the necessity for poetic truths, and converse with the long-time editor who has championed their work.
Everything All At Once: Readings & Conversation with Four AJB Poets
Friday, March 10,
3:20-4:35 p.m. PT,
Ballroom 1, Level 5, Seattle Convention Center
Four principal poets debut new collections from Alice James Books and discuss the expansive nature of storytelling in poems. Expressing individuality via internal and external landscapes; disabling hierarchies; examining lineage and familial influences; uncovering how personal and collective histories collapse—and inform and obscure our memories, languages, and selves—the poets communicate collective visions of our myriad borders and query origins with an approach akin to transillumination.
The National Book Critics Circle Presents Honorée Fanonne Jeffers and Namwali Serpell, Moderated by Jane Ciabattari
Friday, March 10,
3:20–4:35 p.m. PT,
Ballroom 2 & 3, Level 5, Seattle Convention Center
A literary partner featured event focused on two National Book Critics Circle's honorees who work in multiple genres, moderated by NBCC VP/Events Jane Ciabattari, featuring NBCC Fiction Award winner Honorée Fanonne Jeffers and NBCC Criticism finalist Namwali Serpell. They'll focus on writing in multiple genres (both write innovative fiction and cultural criticism; Jeffers also is a poet), inspiration and research for their work (both write novels with history, justice, surreal elements), the influence of NBCC and other awards, Afro-futurism and other evolving forms, the unique challenges of writing in these times, and the imaginative process that shapes their work. Since 1974, the National Book Critics Circle awards have honored the best literature published in English. These are the only awards chosen by the critics themselves.
Storytelling for Change: Environmental Racism and Literature with Kiese Laymon & Imbolo Mbue, Sponsored by Literary Arts & The Lyceum Agency
Saturday, March 11,
12:10–1:25 p.m. PT
Ballroom 1, Level 5, Seattle Convention Center
A conversation on storytelling, environmental racism, and activism. Set in a fictional African village being polluted by an oil company, Mbue's latest novel confronts environmental devastation, corporate colonialism, and activism. Laymon's multigenerational roots in Mississippi have led him to consider climate justice and the ways that extractive agriculture, corporate interests, and the legacy of slavery impact communities of color in the U.S.
Mutant, Monster, Misfit, Myself: Writing the Disabled/Chronically Ill Body. Sponsored by AWP
Saturday, March 11,
12:10–1:25 p.m. PT
Ballroom 2 & 3, Level 5, Seattle Convention Center
Five disabled and/or chronically ill writers of poetry and memoir talk about how their body influences the way they write, their subject matter, even how they impact their genres and efforts towards publicity. How do we claim/activate our disability or illness? What do we disclose? We’ll discuss how our work has changed over time, how our relationships with disability have changed, how we accommodate or resist the gaze of abled readers, and how disability/illness manifests in genre, line, and metaphor.
A Reading by Brenda Shaughnessy, Jenny Xie, and Kweku Abimbola, Sponsored by the Academy of American Poets
Saturday, March 11,
1:45–3:00 p.m. PT
Ballroom 1, Level 5, Seattle Convention Center
A reading by three award-winning poets with recent work presented by the Academy of American Poets. Founded in 1934, the Academy is the nation’s leading champion of poets and poetry, with supporters in all fifty states. It annually awards more funds to individual poets than any other organization through its prize program; produces Poets.org, the world’s largest publicly funded website for poets and poetry; and established and organizes National Poetry Month each April.
Milkweed Presents: A Celebration of Indigenous Voices
Saturday, March 11,
1:45–3:00 p.m. PT,
Ballroom 2 & 3, Level 5, Seattle Convention Center
A reading featuring Milkweed authors Debra Magpie Earling, author of Perma Red and The Lost Journals of Sacajawea; No’u Revilla, author of the National Poetry Series winning collection Ask the Brindled; and Sasha LaPointe, memoirist and author of the new collection of poems Rose Quartz. This chorus of voices enlivens Indigenous literature and deepens our understanding of lineage, pleasure, identity, agency, mythology, and the natural world.
Cave Canem Presents: Duende & The Harlem Arts Salon
Saturday, March 11,
3:20–4:35 pm PT
Ballroom 1, Level 5, Seattle Convention Center
In 2004, the successful San Diego art gallerist, Margaret Porter Troupe returned to Harlem with her husband, the award-winning poet, Quincy Troupe. Inviting their extensive, international circle of friends as featured guests, Margaret opened their historic apartment, with its sumptuous collection of art, to the public.
