Welcome to the AWP Podcast Series. These podcast episodes feature recordings from selected events at the AWP Annual Conference. We are pleased to present readings and discussions from Rae Armantrout, Mary Jo Bang, Charles Baxter, Toi Derricotte, Stuart Dybek, Cornelius Eady, Nick Flynn, Carolyn Forche, William Gass, Linda Gregerson, Donald Hall, Edward Hirsch, August Kleinzahler, Philip Lopate, Heather McHugh, Alice McDermott, Honor Moore, Joyce Carol Oates, Francine Prose, Marilynne Robinson, Patricia Smith, Gerald Stern, Mark Strand, C.K. Williams, C.D. Wright, and many other wonderful writers!

You can listen to the podcasts one episode at a time or subscribe to to our feed which will be updated every time we add a new episode (using a progam such as iTunes).

Podcast Episodes from the 2007 conference will remain open to the public for listening. Episodes from the 2008 conference onward are available to AWP Members only through AWP eLink, an online service portal providing our members with the most up to date AWP resources for writers, teachers, and writing programs. Please check back for the most recently published episodes and below for a complete list of recordings currently available through eLink.

Episode 9 available on eLink exclusively for AWP members

Title: Conference 2010 CLMP Keynote Address-Small Press Heaven: Poetics from the Floating World.
Published: 7/12/10
Duration: 46:09
Recorded: Taped 04/08/10, Mineral Hall, Hyatt Regency Denver
Description: Performer, professor, editor, cultural activist, and author of over forty books of poetry, Anne Waldman discusses her storied history with independent publishers (with a special-guest musical accompaniment on Japanese bamboo flute!).
Presenters: Jeffrey Lependorf, Anne Waldman

Episode 8 available on eLink exclusively for AWP members

Title: Conference 2008 Shaping a Short Story Collection
Published: 10/8/09
Duration: 57:14
Recorded: Taped 01/31/08, Grand Ballroom East, Hilton New York Hotel
Description: Short story collections are notoriously hard to get published. Editors complain that collections don't sell. Agents ask for a novel. Magazine articles regularly proclaim that the short story itself is dead. And yet, every year new short story collections come out, win awards, and generate buzz. Some have recurring characters, others are labeled "a novel in stories." Some center on a specific theme, while others are set in a particular location. What makes for a compelling short story collection? What is the best way to arrange the stories? How to develop an arch? The fiction writers on this panel have published one or more short story collections. They will attempt to answer the above questions by sharing their own experiences, discussing their favorite collections, and trying to identify some useful strategies.
Presenters: Ellen Litman, Daphne Kalotay, Deb Olin Unferth, Steve Almond, Brian Evenson

Episode 7 available on eLink exclusively for AWP members

Title: Conference 2009 Switching Hats: When Poets Write Memoir
Published: 9/17/09
Duration: 00:56:53
Recorded: Taped 02/14/09, Grand Ballroom, Hilton Chicago Hotel
Description: These renowned writers traverse both in the genre of poetry and creative nonfiction. When poets write memoirs, with voices both similar and different to those in their poems, they go deeper into the narrative thread, remembering and telling, using the memoir as different mode of travel through the creative terrain. Please join us on a journey through faith and sexuality, race and addiction, and testimonies from war prisoners in this celebration of courage and versatility.
Participants: Alison Granucci, Nick Flynn, Carolyn Forché, Donald Hall, Honor Moore

Episode 6 available on eLink exclusively for AWP members

Title: Conference 2009 A Reading and Conversation with Charles Baxter
Published: 9/4/09
Duration: 01:11:52
Recorded: Taped 02/14/09, Grand Ballroom, Hilton Chicago Hotel
Description: A reading with award winning author Charles Baxter followed by a conversation between Charles Baxter and Allen Gee.
Participants: Charles Baxter, Allen Gee

Episode 5 available on eLink exclusively for AWP members

Title: Conference 2008 The Poetry of George Herbert: Five Takes by Five Poets
Published: 8/13/09
Duration: 01:01:16
Recorded: Taped 01/31/08, Empire Ballroom, Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers
Description: Why does a self-effacing cleric of the 17th century continue to be so avidly read? Why does he speak to us today? From experimental to formal, from highly rhetorical to lyrical, from devotional to confessional, Herbert contains multitudes. Five poet-critics examine a range of poetry through the lens of the temporal, the formal, the devotional, the architectural, and the erotic. We intend to propose new readings of five poems to open a doorway to the past and reveal his contemporary relevance.
Participants: David Baker, Linda Gregerson, Carl Phillips, Stanley Plumly, Ann Townsend

Episode 4

Title: Conference 2007 Freedom to Write? Our Obligation to Protect Expression
Published: 7/11/07
Duration: 0:43:27
Recorded: Taped 3/3/07, Crystal Ballroom, Hilton Atlanta
Description:The AWP Conference Atlanta 2007 brings you Freedom to Write? Our Obligation to Protect Expression. Are writers being silenced around the world? Are our first amendment freedoms at risk here at home? How do current affairs affect the rights of writers to practice their craft? What is the role of self-censorship in a culture of real or imagined threats to freedom of expression? Join PEN America and PEN USA, the two United States centers of PEN for this discussion about the state of the Freedom to Write. International PEN has been defending the rights of writers around the world for eighty-five years.
Moderator: Joanne Leedom-Ackerman
Related info: For more information, please visit the following sites: PEN American Center & PEN Center USA

Episode 3

Title: Conference 2007 Keynote Address
Published: 7/03/07
Duration: 0:35:49
Recorded: Taped 3/1/07, Grand Ballroom, Hilton Atlanta
Description:The AWP Conference Atlanta 2007's Keynote Address by Lee Smith: A Life in Books. Sponsored by Georgia College & State University/Arts & Letters/Flannery O'Connor Review
Speaker: Lee Smith
Related info: Look for this address to be printed in the September 2007 issue of The Writers' Chronicle

Episode 2

Title: Conference 2007 Poetry Extravaganza part 2
Published: 5/30/07
Duration: 0:32:45
Recorded: Taped 3/2/07, Grand Salon, Hilton Atlanta
Description: The AWP Conference Atlanta 2007 brings you Poetry Extravaganza. Poetry Extravaganza was hosted by the Academy of American Poets. The Academy of American Poets presents a reading by four leading American poets. This recording (part 2 of 2) contains readings from Marilyn Hacker and Thomas Lux, and features a closing by Tree Swenson.
Readers: Marilyn Hacker, Thomas Lux
Related info: See podcast episode 1 for more of this event.
Find out more about The Academy of American Poets by visiting their website at: http://www.poets.org/

Episode 1

Title: Conference 2007 Poetry Extravaganza part 1
Published: 5/22/07
Duration: 0:48:08
Recorded: Taped 3/2/07, Grand Salon, Hilton Atlanta
Description: The AWP Conference Atlanta 2007 brings you Poetry Extravaganza. Poetry Extravaganza was hosted by the Academy of American Poets. The Academy of American Poets presents a reading by four leading American poets. This recording (part 1 of 2) contains readings from David Bottoms and Cornelius Eady, and features an introduction by Tree Swenson.
Readers: David Bottoms, Cornelius Eady
Related info: See podcast episode 2 for more of this event.
Find out more about The Academy of American Poets by visiting their website at: http://www.poets.org/