AWP Bookfair
As a continuation of last year’s international book tour and to help broaden the market for St. Lucian books, Dr. Reynolds attended the 2018 Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) Conference and Bookfair held this year on March 7 – 10 at The Tampa Convention Center and the adjacent Marriott Hotel. With over 12,000 attendees, the conference is the largest literary conference in North America.
Sitting on the Hillsborough River in the midst of sky-rise hotels in the middle of downtown Tampa, the convention center provides waterfront views of Tampa Bay and the city’s skyline. The river along with the skyrises straddling it recalls the DSH proposed development.
AWP provides support, advocacy, resources, and community to nearly 50,000 writers, 550 college and university creative writing programs, and 150 writers’ conferences and centers. As part of its mission, the AWP fosters literary achievement, advances the art of writing as essential to a good education, and serves the creators, teachers, students, and readers of contemporary writing.
Dr. Reynolds said that the conference presented several eye-openers. It broadened his concept of what constitutes a book; it made him realize that no matter the subject or style of one’s writings there are publishers and literary journals/magazines to match, and regardless of whether our writings are geared strictly to a St. Lucian or an international audience there is a market out there for it, so we must always seek international outlets for our outpourings. The author said he was taken aback to be among thousands of fellow writers of different races, nationalities, cultures, genres; it was both a humbling, refreshing and comforting/reassuring experience.
Tampa Convention Center
The conference also reinforced the notion that being outsiders or living on the fringes of one’s society is one of the things that predisposes one to be a writer. People can be outsider
s by virtue of their sexual orientation; minority status, be it on the basis of race, culture or religion; childhood trauma; physical and/or mental conditions; unique experiences or unusual upbringings; or simply thinking differently, or having a mindset different than those around them.
The 2019 AWP Conference and Bookfair will be held in Portland Oregon. The AWP is now calling for event proposals for the 2019 conference with May 1, 2018 as the submission deadline. It would be great for St. Lucia to participate in this the largest writers conference and bookfair in North America. A possible St. Lucia event proposal could be: St. Lucian Writers in the Post Derek Walcott Era. The event can be in the form of a panel discussion with writers reading from their works and could include two poets, a novelist, a creative nonfiction writer, and a playwright. Along with the panel discussion, a booth can be rented to display, promote and sell books by St. Lucian authors. Attending and participating in the conference will entail booth rental and conference registration fees, airfares and hotel accommodations. TEPA, Creative Industries, CDF, FRC, St. Lucia Tourist Board, along with airlines and other business can probably combine to make this a reality.
The headline photo in which Dr. Reynolds appears, include Caribbean Women Writers (left to right)—Mercy Tullis-Bukhari, Keisha-Gaye, Donna Weir-Soley, Cheryl Boyce-Taylor, R. Erica Doyle—who were on the conference panel discussion: Writing a New Identity, Caribbean Women Writers from Beach & Carnival culture to Political & Survival Text.
