Two more sessions on my schedule before leaving AWP 2012. There have been truly high points: panels that presented riveting approaches to craft or promotion. A playful Margaret Atwood keynote address. Sparkling readings. Camaraderie, collegiality and collaboration. And there have been sessions that didn’t quite hit the mark, presenters who feared a microphone, crowds that occasionally discouraged raising a hand. A sign of how well this conference is organized is that even the weaker sessions were valuable for some participants. All part of the staging of a large, complex conference. Jerod Santek and his team did a grand job.

This morning’s session about preparing and submitting proposals for sessions in the 2013 AWP Boston conference drew a decent group. The guidelines are online and the process isn’t that difficult. As I see it, people who value this community and save up the money to participate as often as possible also have an opportunity (maybe responsibility) to volunteer their time to building future conferences through the proposal process. Whether academic or writer, publisher or editor, many AWP members have experience and knowledge that would benefit others.

So think about what sessions you would like to attend in Boston (or Seattle or Minneapolis) and visit the AWP site to learn about how to make the next conference as successful as the one you’ve attended.

Thanks again to everyone who gave of their time to make AWP 2012 happen.