This Week: Are You Writing a Novel? And…are you going to Tampa next week?

Dear TWB readers,

On Monday and Tuesday, The Writing Bull Podcast will be all about writing fiction, everything from building interesting characters to outlining to the horrors of doubt. Listen in!

Also, on Thursday my wife Michelle and I head to Tampa, FL for the Associated Writing Programs annual conference. And I’m kinda nervous.

I find AWP to be a little…strange. Think about it: thousands of professors and college students of creative writing get inside a huge hotel for a weekend.

Thousands of hungry, ambitious, narcissistic lovers of the written word, all together. It’s unnerving.

The last time I went was sixteen years ago. I hated the vibe. Lots of sizing one another up. And tons of desperation to get published. And horrible pickup lines. I heard an old fart of a professor from a creative writing program say to a woman who was studying in another program, “I really love your sonnets, would you like to go to my room to discuss them?” Pre Weinstein, just as bad.

But what really bothered me was how white AWP was back then. And Latino writers? Please. This country has yet to respect our U.S Latino worlds I’ve written here before about the literary racism in creative writing college programs, how Spanish is seen in this country as a language useful only to speak to the maid.

So I’m interested to see if things have changed, specifically for Latino writers.

So I should ask you, ¿’Ey, compa, te vas pa’a Tampa a meterte en esa jodida conferencia? ¿Eres escritor y mexicano, salvadoreño, guatemalteco, o  nacido aquí  como yo y con raíces de Latino America? ¡Buscáme vos!

I’ll be interviewing writers, publishers, other professors, students of creative writing, and I’ll report both here and on Instagram. My wife will be holding my hand. We plan to have a good time.

And I’ll be on the lookout for Raza-writers.