Think back to your first AWP Two-Year College Creative Writing Caucus meeting. Maybe you were in your first year of teaching, or fresh out of grad school, or maybe you happened to live in or near the AWP host city and were attending the conference for the first time. You happened to see the caucus table on the Book Fair list or the caucus meeting on the schedule. The first caucus meeting I went to, I was met by a lively group of people and welcomed into the caucus, and then invited along to the caucus dinner that followed. I kept coming back, just like I know many folks do every year. The Two-Year College is quite different from other college experiences, and meeting people from across the country (and Canada) who share this passion for teaching was amazing to me. As an adjunct instructor, I met more fellow teachers at AWP than I did in my first few years of teaching at my own school.
As we come up on the AWP conference in just a couple of weeks, Feb. 7-10, I’m excited as always to see familiar and new faces! In the past year, the board has done a lot of great work – and I think this next year is going to be even better.
In the second week of January, as many of us were in the throes of trying to prepare for the spring semester, I hosted two open caucus meetings on Zoom. While we had sparse attendance, we did have more people register for the meetings, and I hope that this was the beginning of a larger
community reach throughout the year.
Year-round meetings are something that we have discussed at AWP caucus meetings and on Facebook posts, but I want to make this happen. So many caucus members cannot attend AWP yearly without support, and I know all of us would like to keep our connections going. I know many of us have made wonderful, long-term connections through attending AWP even just once. Hosting virtual meetings on a regular basis I hope will help us connect even more – once a year (or more years in between!) is just not enough.
But to do this, we need support from all caucus members. You all have unique takes on life, writing, and teaching that should be celebrated and shared. As we go forward in building virtual space for us to meet and connect, we need people to propose and host these meetings. I envision bi-monthly or monthly, themed virtual meetings. I hope this will allow us to also consider topics that were not accepted to previous AWP conferences and also a way for us to consider topics that we could propose in the future. One topic I plan to host is a Panel Proposal Feedback where we can get feedback from caucus members with successful proposals before submitting. Finding space to write these proposals is tough, and lacking the background in submissions is hard, too. Since AWP is earlier than usual this year, I hope we have a bit more time to compose and connect panel participants this year. Look for this planning session to follow the conference.
What topics are you passionate about that you can share with others? I hope to see a mix of both craft in teaching and writing, but other topics are welcome as well. Send us your proposals for topics you would like to see or topics you would be able to teach about. You can contact us at the caucus email: cwtwoyearcollegecaucus@gmail.com.
The board and a few additional volunteers have also in the past year worked on changes to our caucus by-laws, including the proposed addition of a statement about students’ right to use their own language. At our caucus meeting on Thursday, Feb. 8, 5 p.m. Central, (both on site and on Zoom), I will propose these changes for a vote from our membership. You’ll also hear updates from our board members, including our VP of Tech, Courtney O’Banion Smith, who has created a gorgeous new website to host our caucus information and our blog. As always, we’ll have breakout sessions, including a panel proposal session, so bring your ideas! We’ll also say a fond farewell
to outgoing board members, Treasurer Sean Chambers, and Secretary Marlys Cervantes. I thank them for all their work in the past few years!
If you are traveling to Kansas City, please support caucus members with events and panels, join us for the caucus meeting, dinner, and our reading at a local two-year school. (Thanks, VP of Events, Joe Baumann, for settig up the dinner and reading!)
Thank you for being part of our caucus. I am excited to connect with you more beyond AWP!
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