I had a great time catching up with friends and meeting new people in Portland.  The AWP conference always recharges my creative batteries, and I’m already looking forward to and planning for AWP 2020 in San Antonio.  For the second time ever, I’ve assembled a panel and a panel proposal, this time around focusing on managing mental health and the demands of the publishing writer’s life.  I’ll hold off on planning my presentation until I find out whether it’s going to be accepted, but I’m hoping it will be because this panel would address a great need for the conference.

At Mother Foucault’s Bookshop, I read from my recently completed novel.  The space was beautiful, and my fellow readers are wonderful and talented.

I’m also a two-time mentor participant in AWP’s Writer-to-Writer Mentorship Program, and I spent some time talking about the program to interested writers.  It really reignited an urge to participate again.

Here are some pictures from #AWP19.