Event Title: Disability’s Influence on Literature: Realism as a Craft Concept, Sponsored by AWP
Description: Literature has long defined disability erroneously. Movements started by disabled people have shifted the narrative. With false, manipulated, or erased narratives surrounding us in a 24/7 news cycle, the truth is more important than ever. Disability literature offers a deeper exploration of adaptation, survival, and humanity.
Participants: Marlena Chertock, Eileen Cronin, James Tate Hill, T.K. Dalton
Location: Lila Cockrell Theatre, Henry B. González Convention Center, Street Level
Date & Time: Saturday, March 7, 12:10 p.m. to 1:25 p.m.

Q: What are some of the conference events or Bookfair exhibitors you look forward to seeing at AWP?
PANEL DISCUSSION F136. Hollywood Endings: Seeing Your Story Adapted for Film.
PEDAGOGY S259. Out of Sight: Teaching Form and Writing Blind.

Although I read digitally and through audio, I always look forward to the Bookfair for an opportunity to chat with editors of presses and journals. The Barrelhouse table is always a can’t-miss.

Q: What do you remember most about your first AWP? What advice would you give to an AWP first-timer?
The advice I give most often is not to overschedule yourself. Also, evening events and offsite readings can be a great way to decompress.

Q: What is your favorite AWP conference memory?
2017 was the first year I attended after a few active years on social media and getting a chance to hug friends I had previously only known online was priceless. Also, Jhumpa Lahiri’s keynote address in 2011 changed my life, altering what I wanted to write about.

In Chicago 2012, attending with my wife, not a writer but an artist and comics fan, she learned that the journal Hobart featured comics and asked whoever was working the table at the Bookfair how many issues she could get for $20. They lowered the price so she could walk away with a copy of each.

Q: What book or books that you’ve read over the last year would you most highly recommend?
Sugar Run by Mesha Maren, Give Me Your Hand by Megan Abbott, Deep Creek by Pam Houston, The Third Rainbow Girl by Emma Copley Eisenberg, Wild and Crazy Guys: How the Comedy Mavericks of the 80s Changed Hollywood Forever by Nick de Semlyen.

Q: If you’ve been to San Antonio before, what places do you recommend that our attendees should visit?
Have never been!

James Tate Hill is the author of Academy Gothic, winner of the Nilsen Prize for a First Novel. His work has appeared in Literary Hub, Prairie Schooner, Waxwing, and Hobart, among others. He is the fiction editor for Monkeybicycle and a contributing editor for Lit Hub, where he writes a monthly audiobooks column.