I’m back in New York–I only had two days to spend at AWP–and I thought I’d quickly wrap up what I saw.  The AWP bookfair is where indie and university presses (and some larger publishers like Norton, and New Directions) go to sell lots of books to 8,000 creative writing types who are madly book-hungry.  A lot of that was happening.  Bookstores may be closing, but people still want books, they still want to handle them, and they still come to AWP and leave with a tote bag (or three) full of the next season’s reading. Publishers, editors and publicists turned into booksellers for AWP, handselling their wares.  (At my own book signing, at my publisher BOA Editions’ booth, I’m proud to say I sold 12 copies of my book by being generally loud, coaxing every passer-by, and promising a free drawing with every book bought–my favorite was a giraffe requested by a sweet young woman, which I rendered horribly.)

That said, e-books are on small publishers minds in a big way. Many small publishers of prose and poetry have a few books in the digital marketplace, but everyone at the conference seemed to sense that they all have to dive in with as many titles as possible soon.  I’ll be learning more about Bookmobile’s Ampersand app in the coming months, and I look forward to talking to publishers about their hopes for and fears about it.  We’ll see.  It sounds like most folks are interested in signing on, but it’s not the only solution they’re looking for.

I haven’t said much about all the panels and readings that have happened and will happened at AWP, mostly because I only had time to attend the one I was part of, a reading by an interview with the winner of last year’s Pulitzer and NBCC award in poetry, Rae Armantrout (I conducted the onstage interview after she read), but lots of amazing writers are on the bill, including Junot Diaz, Jhumpa Lahiri and many, many, many wonderful poets.  And Poetry & Prose, the official conference bookseller, is in the back of each room to sell the readers’ books.

I’ll be having follow-up conversations with lots of publishers in the coming weeks, as well as a more detailed wrap-up in monday’s PW Daily, so stay tuned.

I’m here, in Washington D.C., for the 2011 AWP conference. Most folks seem to have gotten here despite the snow–last night I bumped into plenty of folks from publishers from across the US who had spend the day setting up their booths for the bookfair. The first day of the conference is just about to start.  I plan to spend it talking to folks, asking about their upcoming lists, and prodding indies to find out when we can expect digital editions of their titles. I’m also hoping to talk to someone from BookMobile about their new poetry-digitization tool to get a sense of who’s signing on and what the implications might be for the indie and university press publishers that do most of America’s poetry.  Check back throughout the day for updates.

Despite the snow, the literary world is descending on Washington D.C. this week for the annual Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference (AWP), and PWxyz will be there to cover new developments at the conference between Thursday, 2/3 and Sunday, 2/6–that’s tomorrow!

Alongside panels on topics ranging from how to get your manuscript published to writing from every region under the sun, the main feature of AWP is the massive bookfair, where almost every micro, small, medium, indie and university press comes to sell its wares and meet readers.

I’ll be on the floor, talking to publishers–like Coffee House, Copper Canyon, McSweeney’s and many others–about their e-book plans, how their business is going, what new books are in the pipeline, and anything else I can think of. If you’re going to be at the conference, make sure to say hello.