Quinn's Blog Seven

I think that the professional community most relevant to my work as a writer is the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP). The AWP has a yearly conference at which all sorts of writers meet and go to readings and panels on things such as "Memoir Without a Net" and "The Care and Feeding of Long Poems." In order to participate in my professional community, I intend to attend this year's AWP conference in Chicago, Illinois. Yes, it will be freezing and I will have to take a plane. But the cold and flying are worth learning about chapbook publishing, "keeping a debut book alive", and the "relevance of print culture in a digital age." I know nothing about creating a website, other than I need to have one. So I plan to enlist a person to help me create a website. Having a website and/or blog is tricky, though. Because some journals won't accept work that's been previously published online, even in a blog. Another way to stay connected with the professionals in my field is through Facebook groups such as "Writers' Colony," where people share calls for submissions and ask and answer questions about publishing or writer's block or whether or not the metaphor about the chandelier and the ovaries is working in a story. On "Writers' Colony," which is a private group, so I don't know how to provide a link to it, people even ask questions about whether certain character names are good. People swap poems and stories. Attending conferences such as the AWP conferences seems like a good way to stay up to date in my field. Another way to stay up to date is by reading articles in The American Poetry Review or Poetry Magazine. Hugely important to staying up-to-date, however, is reading the work of my contemporaries. Reading first books. Reading what's been published in print and online journals.