AWP's Annual Conference & Bookfair has sold out. There will be no on-site registration in Chicago.

"We are sorry we can't accommodate anymore attendees, but we need to make sure our conference goers have the best possible experience," said Christian Teresi, AWP's Director of Conferences. "We don't like turning folks away, but we have really reached the capacity of what the hotels can handle. For the coming years, we have made arrangements for sites with convention centers that can better handle the spectacular growth in the conference—although it will still be a good idea to register early."

The conference will begin February 29, 2012. Approximately 10,000 people have registered for the conference. A total attendance of 11,000 is expected, as a few events, like the Bookfair on Saturday, will be free and open to the public. In 2004, when the conference was also held in Chicago, the total attendance was 4,100 people, so attendance has more than doubled since then.

The conference will bring together many of today's most prominent writers, including eight Pulitzer Prize-winning writers, two Poets Laureate, eight National Book Award winners, and nine recipients of the National Book Critics Circle Award, among hundreds of other readers, speakers, and panelists. The conference will feature 400 events, as well as exhibits by more than 550 presses, magazines, and literary arts organizations.

Since 2007, a growing caravan of additional literary programming has followed the AWP Conference from city to city. This satellite conference of events (not organized by AWP) provides another 100 events: AWP- 2012 Conference- Off-site Events.

"A special ingredient to the growth of the conference," said AWP's Executive Director David Fenza, "has been AWP's partnerships with other literary organizations and presses. Our partners and sponsors have helped us build the biggest and best and most diverse programming possible. When events created by our membership couple with the events developed by our partners, it makes for one mighty and irresistible vortex." The Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Arts, back in the 1970s, were AWP's first partners in producing the conference. This year, the conference benefits from the help of hundreds of sponsors, partners, and presses. "It's not just AWP's conference. It's a big public square for all of contemporary literature," Fenza said.

The next AWP Conference & Bookfiair will be held in Boston, Massachusetts, March 6-9, 2013. Proposals for events for the Boston Conference must be submitted via AWP's website by May 1, 2012.