Switchback Guide to AWP

Overwhelmed by the lists of AWP panels and offsite readings? Calm your bleary eyes: just stick with the Switchback staff, who are all pros at getting through the Chicago winter. We recommend the Pick Me Up Cafe for your Links Hall pregame, as well as the Belgian beer at the Hopleaf.

As for Switchback hometown trivia: Three-and-a-half blocks northwest of the conference hotel, in Room 311 of the 33 E. Congress building of Columbia College Chicago, a little press called Switchback Books was born three years ago. Over on Dearborn, many a Switchback meeting has unraveled into hooliganry--feminist hooliganry, mind you!--at Hackney's and Kasey's.

Oh, and we've got some poetry for you, too, including this brand-new beauty, now available exclusively at AWP:




SWITCHBACK BOOKS TABLES
Southwest Hall 754 and 755 [floorplan pdf]
with Featherproof Books and dancing girl press

Wednesday, February 11, 7:30 p.m.
Bookslut Reading Series with Brandi Homan, Idra Novey, and Hilda Raz. The Hopleaf (second floor), 5148 N. Clark.

Friday, February 13, 2:00 p.m.
Kathleen Rooney signs Oneiromance (an epithalamion) at the Switchback Books AWP Bookfair tables, 754/755.

Friday, February 13, 6:30 p.m.
The Poetry Center of Chicago 36th Annual Reading Series: Chicago Poetics featuring Melissa Severin, Simone Muench, Kevin Koval, Larry Sawyer, Ray Bianchi, Chris Glomski, Jennifer Scappettone, William Allegrezza and others. SAIC Ballroom, 112 S. Michigan Ave.

Friday, February 13, 8-11:30 p.m.
Red Rover Series "Experiment #26: A Small Press Showcase." With Action Books, Effing Press, Flood Editions, Futurepoem books, Les Figues Press, Slack Buddha Press, Switchback Books, Ugly Duckling Presse. Readings by: Jessica Bozek, Kathleen Rooney, Amina Cain, Marcella Durand, Bill Fuller, Gloria Frym, Kim Hyesoon, Lara Glenum, Alta Ifland, Nancy Kuhl, Dan Machlin, Don Mee, Mel Nichols, Hoa Nguyen, Susan Schultz, John Tipton, Ronaldo V. Wilson. Links Hall, 3435 N. Sheffield Ave., 2nd floor.

Saturday, February 14, 2:00 p.m.
Jessica Bozek signs The Bodyfeel Lexicon at the Switchback Books AWP Bookfair tables, 754/755.

(click to enlarge) Design by Michael Renaud.