Charles Jensen | Writer

AWP wasn’t what I had hoped it would be. I felt like I was trying to have a good conference and a good time in the city and failing miserably at both.

Maybe some of you noticed that as I sped by you running here, there.

I didn’t get to see many of the people I care about, which was a big disappointment. But I did get to spend some wonderful quality time with a few people and that made me very happy.

I was also shut out of getting Mary Biddinger’s book for a second consecutive year because it sells out every time.

I drowned my sorrows by doing the entire book fair in an hour and getting these:

The Octopus Books 8-pack of chapbooks
White Boots: New and Selected Poems of the West, William Pitt Root
Key Bridge, Ken Rumble
The Bad Wife Handbook, Rachel Zucker
Sanctuary, Adrienne Su
Magic for Beginners, Kelly Link
Protection, Greg Shapiro
Want, Rick Barot
Lawnboy, Paul Lisicky
Horror Vacui, Thomas Heise
Columbia Poetry Review
Court Green
Our Aperture, Ander Monson
Jacket of the Straights, Vincent Zompa
A Conventional Weather, John Pursley III
Creation Myths, Mathias Svalina
Exit Interview, Paul Guest
In the Particular Particular, Stephanie Anderson
Harlot, Jill Alexander Essbaum
The Myth of the Simple Machines, Laurel Snyder
Never Cry Woof, Shafer Hall
Shy Green Fields, Hugh Behm-Steinberg
Witness
Mid-American Review
Your Ten Favorite Words, Reb Livingston
The Man Suit, Zachary Schomburg
Glean, Joshua Kryah
Scorpionica, Karyna McGlynn
Some Nights No Cars at All, Josh Rathkamp
Anne Boyer’s Good Apocalypse, Anne Boyer
World Jelly, Tony Tost
National Anthem, Kevin Prufer
A Fiddle Pulled from the Throat of a Sparrow, Noah Eli Gordon

I will spend the rest of my life reading.