Post Con

AWP16 Conference & Bookfair

Twelve thousand authors, editors, publishers, students, and teachers booked it to Los Angeles for the Association of Writers and Writers’ Programs’ (AWP) annual show.

PHOTO COURTESY OF AWP/ROBB COHEN PHOTOGRAPHY
PHOTO COURTESY OF AWP/ROBB COHEN PHOTOGRAPHY

AWP16 Conference & Bookfair
March 30–April 2, 2016
JW Marriott Los Angeles L.A. LIVE and the Los Angeles Convention Center

“Our conference has been typically held in March or April in northern cities where the weather can be mercurial in early spring,” said Christian Teresi, AWP’s director of conferences. “It was nice to know it was going to be in the 70s every day, and I think the attendees felt that as well.”

CHALLENGES or any conference as large as AWP’s, space is at a premium — and that was Teresi’s primary concern heading into this year’s show. (Read our Pre Con profile here.) Happily, attendees had room to breathe and then some. “The LA Convention Center was a great space that provided the flexibility to host all of our events with the appropriate amount of space, and within close proximity to each other,” Teresi said.

INITIATIVES WP16 offered drop-in yoga classes to attendees for the first time this year. “We received a lot of positive feedback about the yoga,” Teresi said, “and already have plans to repeat those sessions next year.” Indeed, because several hundred attendees participated this year, his team is hoping to expand the program at AWP17.

Kate Mulcrone

Kate Mulcrone is digital editor of Convene.