10 Takeaways from #AWP25
Notes on originality, innovation and courage from America’s largest writing conference. Or, how to be a writer who has something to say and gets published. (And read! By readers!)
Hello dear writer friends!
The annual Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference is always a literary booster shot for me. I get fueled up on writing craft and super-smart about the book business, plus I get to hear writers like Emily St. John Mandel and Maggie Shipstead.
I also get to meet up with friends from all the literary places I’ve haunted, such as the Naslund-Mann School of Writing at Spalding University, where I got my MFA in Writing, and The Lighthouse Book Project in Denver, where I finished my newly released book, BOUNDLESS.
Order it here
I got to hang out at First Draft in downtown LA with my publisher, Atmosphere Press, and fellow authors Charles Westerman (whom I know from two writer lifetimes—Lighthouse, now Atmosphere) and Colleen Alles (Atmosphere author, now at Spalding). The Kyiv Mules were great, but the conversations were especially great!
And I get to walk down the hall at the convention center greeting author-clients and retreat participants, getting hugs and hearing their happy author news.
This year, I arrived as an author with a book that’s doing phenomenally—BOUNDLESS—and as a book coach/developmental editor looking for insights that will help me help my author-clients get their books out into the world.
Because the conference was in Los Angeles, at the LA Convention Center, there was a strong book-to-film presence, and because I have a film producer interested in BOUNDLESS, I included some of those panels on my planner.
10 quick takeaways
#1 MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS ARE WHERE IT’S AT.
The panel on matrilineal narratives drew such a crowd that the aisles were lined with writers and their laptops. We were a fire hazard, which is to say that by our very numbers, it is clear that we need stories that center feminine lineage and kinship.
TAKEAWAY. Telling these stories IS a form of pushing back. We all knew what we were pushing back against. That despair brought us to the room and will bring us to the page.
HOW IT GUIDED ME. This assured me I’m on the right track with my next manuscript, about halfway drafted, which is a matrilineal story that centers the body of the feminine, I describe Dear Grace as Kate Bowler’s Everything Happens for a Reason and Other Lies I Love meets the poet Maggie Smith’s You Could Make This Place Beautiful.
In Dear Grace, I look at the DNA of femininity through the lens of a year grappling with breast cancer, tapping into my Irish-Scottish-Cherokee women ancestors for wisdom about marriage, childbirth and motherhood—and all the glorious things the female body can hold and become.
In Dear Grace, I go way, way beyond the typical illness narrative to examine why a woman must always make a careful choice with marriage (my engagement comes to a shattering end during treatment), and then I examine what grace truly is through letters to my daughter Grace and my grandmother Grace.
I explore these themes through my Irish and Scottish ancestral line by traveling to those countries, arriving in the end to my Cherokee ancestor in Kentucky, the one I call “The Girl with the Rainbow Hair.”
#2 THE UNCANNY IS EDGY, AND IT’S THE MOMENT WE’RE IN NOW.
This panel examined stories with ghosts, magical realism, manipulation of time (such as time travel), liminal spaces (the space between life and death) and flow space (dream space) in literary work. “We constantly co-exist with ghosts,” one panelist said. Tapping into the uncanny can reveal the violence of a place or repressed emotions.
TAKEAWAY. The uncanny should lead you to a question, not an answer. (Otherwise, it’s simply a gimmick. But it could be so sci-fi, it could get you a movie deal. More about movie deals coming up…)
TAKEWAY. The plural second person point-of-view—the “we” perspective—lends itself well to this literary device.
HOW IT GUIDED ME. In Dear Grace, I have a conversation with Eve. I finished this draft on the train home to Albuquerque.
#3 PODCASTING IS COOL. BEING A PODCAST GUEST IS EVEN COOLER.
I have a book to promote, and this Stanford University-based panel broke it down for me. I’ve worked in media for 30+ years from the other side, being the interviewer, the moderator, the booker, the editor who assigns the stories and equips the writer with questions. Now I’m sitting in the other chair. This panel provided a lot of practical tips that I’ll include in a post for paid subscribers and in my media coaching for author clients.
TAKEAWAY. Hone your storytelling bona fides, and rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. When you tell the story of how your book became a book, tell it in scene. In other words, if you’re a writer who writes “in scene,” you’ve got this!
HOW IT GUIDED ME. I crafted my six-word story about BOUNDLESS.
From no one, to someone. BOUNDLESS.
My eight-word story that’s like a billboard:
What if the road to nowhere goes everywhere?
#4 BOOK COACHES LIVE IN THE REAL WORLD, AND THEY ARE REAL PEOPLE.
We are mighty, we are strong. And writers need us.
TAKEAWAY #1. One star on this panel was Courtney Maum, author of Before and After the Book Deal, whom I met when she keynoted at Lighthouse. Much of her coaching is about laying the foundation for success, and I agree. It’s more than the words on the page—it’s the process of becoming an author.
I say early and often to clients that their greatest superpower is knowing their creative process and mastering it. That’s why I developed the Uncommon Hours curriculum, which is about managing time, space and love so you can write. This program includes support for the rhythm of your life, as well as meditation techniques to quiet the Inner Critic. I call Uncommon Hours coaching the ultimate in writer self-care.
The program is on hiatus as I launch BOUNDLESS, but I intend for it to return in 2026, and I’m always available for 1:1 coaching on this.
HOW IT GUIDED ME (and how this will guide you). Much of my work as a book coach is around becoming an author. That’s more than drafting and polishing a manuscript—more than wrangling the words, more than the skill—it’s about becoming an author-ity on your way of seeing the world, which means learning how to mitigate, synthesize and maximize feedback from peers and professionals; how to sharpen your vision so you can tell the story that only you can tell.
To get started on your book, or jump-start a stalled-out book, schedule a free Find Out More! Zoom meeting with me here.
#5 IS IT A NOVEL? IS IT A COLLECTION OF SHORT STORIES? IT CAN BE BOTH.
Some call this form a novel-in-fragments or linked short stories. (My mentor K.L. Cook -- Last Call—is someone I consider a master at this…)
Others call it a constellation novel or, my favorite term, the mixtape novel. Notable examples of this are Jennifer Egan’s Pulitzer-winning A Visit from the Goon Squad and Joan Silber’s Ideas of Heaven: A Ring of Stories. Both inspire me.
TAKEAWAY. The book business will always need to categorize it, so let them call it a novel, and let yourself be “pleasingly hard to classify.” Readers don’t know these terms—they only know how the book makes them feel. This approach can be like shards of a broken mirror, allowing you to see the same thing from different angles. That approach fits our fragmentary times.
HOW IT GUIDED ME. I’m working on a ring of stories, Allegiance, that interweaves the stories of Ukrainian, Irish and American characters across the borders of country and home, through war and famine (the Great Hunger in Ireland, the Holodomor in Ukraine) and activism (the Freedom Summer of 1964 in America, in Mississippi, where I worked as a journalist interviewing historical figures from the Civil Rights Movement).
#6 HOW TO GO FROM PAGE TO SCREEN? IT’S RANDOM. NO, IT’S ABOUT KINDNESS. AND IT’S ABOUT MERIT.
Emily St. John Mandel (Station Eleven) and Charles Yu (Interior Chinatown) told the stories of how their novels made it to television hits.
The answer: Do great work, be a good literary citizen and be kind to everyone. They made connections, and their work spoke for itself.
TAKEAWAY. Mandel’s advice for writers whose work is being adapted for screen: “You have to blow up work to take it to a different medium.”
TAKEAWAY. Yu’s insight, as someone who participated in the adaptation: “The writer’s room puts me in fighting shape.”
HOW IT GUIDED ME. I’m excited about the cross-fertilization between novels and film, and I’m eager to see what happens with BOUNDLESS.
#7 YOU CAN GO FROM PAGE TO SCREEN AND BACK AGAIN.
This panel was full of writers who have written novels, comic books, films and television series. Every writing experience informs the other.
TAKEAWAY. The quiet of returning to the solo work of a novel is delicious after being a showrunner. But, there is no wardrobe consultant or prop guy. You have to make that up yourself.
#8 PITCH LIKE A HOLLYWOOD PRO.
One of the best panels was a slate of the screenwriting professors at Loyola Marymount, all of whom gave direct, actionable and specific advice on how to prep for a pitch meeting I’m working up a more detailed post for paid subscribers, and it will include tips on elevator pitches, pitch decks, series pitches, agent pitches.
TAKEAWAY. “When you pitch, remember someone is supposed to catch it.”
HOW IT GUIDED ME. After the session, the panelists answered my specific questions about how to pitch to my connection with the film producer. I came back to Albuquerque and met with my connection, and we fine-tuned our pitch.
#9 YOU CAN BE A MEDIA MASTER.
I know media from my side of the table—doing the interviews—so I almost didn’t go to this panel because….couldn’t I know this already? Don’t I?
It took a journalist-ally to spur me to go, to remind me that while we think we know what it’s like to be a hot media topic with a crisp, clear and captivating message, we are too tied up with being our complicated selves to actually know.
After 16 years as editor-in-chief of Sage magazine, I’ve heard all the pitches, and I know when you lose me. Now, with BOUNDLESS out, I want to sharpen my skills so no one loses me.
This panel was revelatory and practical. Here are some basics, and you can find out more in a post for paid subscribers, where I will talk about identifying the “three slices of you” so you can target your book publicity.
TAKEAWAY. Hold up your book (if in person) early and often. Give your title early and often. Have your elevator pitch down. Really have it down.
Identify “three slices” of you for media hooks. This will be a post for paid subscribers, and I’ll provide opportunities for those of you with books coming out to work with me 1:1 on media coaching.
HOW IT GUIDED ME. This panel told me I was on the right track! I have already mapped out the “three slices” of me, and I’m landing interviews and media writing gigs.
#10 AGENTS WANT YOUR BOOK.
And they want to help you get your book to them. Agents listed on Manuscript Wish List gave one of the best panels I’ve ever heard on a time-worn topic.
Honestly, I almost didn’t go. I provide publishing consulting around selecting agents and preparing query letters, so what more could they say that I hadn’t already heard?
It turns out this panel was fresh and eager and supportive in a way that stood out from every other agent panel I’ve ever seen (and I’ve seen a lot!).
One of my fellow alums from Spalding’s MFA in Writing program was also in the audience and agreed.
Notes on this one will end up being a longer post for paid subscribers, with oodles of resources and tips.
TAKEAWAY. Master your comps. They are your broad brush strokes. More about this in a paid post!
And that’s a wrap! Consider becoming a paid subscriber for $7/month or $70/year (2 months free) to get more content about writing craft, publishing tips, media platform-building and mastering your creative process.
Been ridin’ lots of trains…
I took the train over to LA, so that means….”been ridin’ lots of trains.” Here’s a trippy video as I leave LA, and I’ll close us out with Gregory Alan Isakov.
Here’s a listen to his song “Liars”:
Plus: A beautiful sentence from Joan Didion, who knew the California dream like no other. This is from her 1968 book of essays, Slouching Toward Bethlehem.
"Los Angeles weather is the weather of catastrophe, of apocalypse.”
https://www.npr.org/2025/01/18/nx-s1-5256939/opinion-great-writers-on-los-angeles
Sounds like you had an exciting and productive AWP. I hope to attend my first next year in Baltimore. Maybe we'll catch up there? Congratulations on all your successes. So exciting!