VONA’s guide to AWP 2025

Written By Vona Director

We thought we’d share the who, what, when, where, and how of AWP 2025 in Los Angeles. We’ll include where and when you can find VONA community at AWP (tag VONA on social media as #AWP25VONA) and what AWP even is. 

Hope to see you in Los Angeles, and read on for more details!

WHAT is AWP?

AWP is the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, and this organization holds an annual conference (not the writing kind but the socializing, interacting, and learning kind). While AWP is strongly affiliated with MFA programs, the conference is also a kind of “floating city of writers” that comes together once a year, featuring readings, panels, social opportunities, and a bookfair filled with booths and tables by lit mags, publications, and writing organizations like VONA. It’s a chance to say hello in person. It’s a chance to attend a panel (or propose and participate in a panel topic of your intellectual interest) and learn. 

It is a very large conference, one that has grown to 9,000 writers in attendance, making it the largest annual writers convention in North America. In 2025, AWP will be in Los Angeles. 

It is NOT a workshop. And very little writing probably happens there. (Let us know if you got any writing done while at AWP, because we need to know your secrets)!

WHO goes to AWP?

VONA goes to AWP. Publishers go to AWP. Literary agents go to AWP. Creative writing professors go to AWP. MFA students go to AWP. Non-MFA students go to AWP. Writers go to AWP. 

Not everyone goes to AWP, of course. Many writers have never attended AWP. But many people have attended at one point or another. 

WHEN is AWP?

In 2025, AWP happens March 26 - 29, 2025. A conference schedule contains all the official events, including caucuses, readings, educational panels, and the keynote speech by Roxane Gay. But AWP happens day and night; writers are hanging out at the hotel conference bar, holding offsite readings, hanging out in large social gatherings, and hanging out at offsite parties hosted by publishers and literary agencies. 

WHY look for VONA at AWP?

Come for community! VONA goes to AWP so that we can connect with our family of writers and teachers. We’ve been a consistent presence at AWP for most of our journey, and we want to ensure you feel a homebase at such a large conference among so many other writers. 

WHERE is VONA at AWP?

VONA is in your heart, your soul, your community, and we are in the air.

A Reading!

We’re saving a seat for you. You're warmly invited to a VONA pre-conference reading and get-together.

Join us on Wednesday, March 26th, from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM for an evening of great readings, cool refreshments, and warm connection.

Here's what we have planned:

  • 5:00 PM: Arrive and enjoy nibbles.

  • 5:30 PM - 6:30 PM:  VONA Reading.

  • 6:30 PM onwards: Light dinner and mingle with fellow attendees.

  • Wine, beer, and non-alcoholic beverages will be available throughout.

Important Details:

  • This gathering will be held at a spacious private home in Los Angeles’s historical View Park neighborhood. 

  • RSVP is required. Once you RSVP, we'll send you the exact address.

  • Plentiful parking is available.

  • Admission is free.

We look forward to sharing this evening with you! Please RSVP at Evenbrite.  


We’d love to find VONA at AWP online, too. Please tag VONA on social media as #AWP25VONA so we can find you and your lovely faces!

The Bookfair!

We are at Booth #857 in the exhibition hall. Our booth is in the middle section, near the stage. We’ve circled the spot.

A bunch of us, including folks who signed up for booth duty, will be there. Come over, drop off your backpack, and cool your heels by the booth.

And Panels!

VONA also has a panel on Saturday, March 29, 2025 at 9am:

Peeling the Layers of Race and Identity Through Narrative Craft with Diana Diaz, Vincent Toro, Edward Gunawan, and Dr. Grisel Acosta:  

When writing characters outside our own race, writers have to pay particular attention to ensure characters are three-dimensional and go beyond stereotypes. How can writers push past imago (the first impression) and reveal the nuanced complexity of race and identity as it serves the narrative arc? 

We’ve identified other panels featuring VONA alum and/or faculty. More information on these panels are available on the AWP conference schedule or on this Google doc. 

In order of appearance on the schedule:

  • Divergent Writers: A New Bloomsbury Anthology on Neurodivergence & Ableism with Christie Collins, Leigh Camacho Rourks, K. Iver, Saul Lemerond, and Said Shaiye

  • Strange Pilgrims: Asian Americans on Writing About Asia with Karen Tei Yamashita, Kevin Chong, Emmline Chang, Christine Ma-Kellams, and David Mura

  • Creativity as Armor: Crafting Narratives of Power & Resilience with Julissa Arce, Yaccaira Salvatierra, Christopher Rivas, and Reyna Grande

  • Predictable Unpredictability: Celebrating the Poetry of Reginald Shepherd with Camille Rankine, Jericho Brown, Timothy Liu, Kevin Prufer, and Charles Stephens

  • Fighting Tropes, Changing Narratives: BIPOC Adoptee Writers Break Out with Susan Kiyo Ito, Alice Stephens, Angela Tucker, Shannon Gibney, and Ansley Moon

  • Breaking Walls: Heirs of Angel Island Write Against the Anti-Chinese West with Jeffrey Thomas Leong, Teow Lim Goh, Claire Hong, Tom Lin, and Paisley Rekdal

  • Filipino Writers on Diasporic Subjectivity & Postcolonial Prosodies with Oliver de la Paz, Paula Mendoza, Kimberly Garza, Alleliah Nuguid, and Kay Ulanday Barrett

  • Writing Our Way: Career & Self-Care Insights from First-Gen Women with Hannah Eko, Amanda Awanjo, Connie Pertuz, and Tanya Shirazi

  • Crowned with Laurels: The Role of the Poet Laureate in a Contemporary Age with Jennifer Militello, Oliver de la Paz, Mag Gabbert, Patricia Jones, and Tess Taylor

  • Pain & Prose: Navigating Difficult Emotions in Storytelling with Faith Adiele, Steve Almond, and April Davila

  • Becoming a Debut Novelist: The Journey from Agent Queries to Book Launch with Laura Spence-Ash, Megan Cummins, Denne Michele Norris, Lilliam Rivera, and Jemimah Wei

  • The Long & Short of Craft: Authors Publishing Novels & Flash Fiction with Alan Michael Parker, Sherrie Flick, Venita Blackburn, and John Dufresne

  • California Counternarratives: Stories That Remap the State with Jean Guerrero, Vanessa Hua, Susan Straight, Keenan Norris, and Alex Espinoza

  • Failing Again, Failing Better: The Joys of Revision with Lauren Markham, Chris Feliciano Arnold, RO Kwon, Camille Rankine, and Ingrid Rojas Contreras

  • Can I Write That? At the Crossroads of Social Change & Conscious Language with Stephanie Lenox, Kavita Das, Sonya Huber, Paisley Rekdal, and Karen Yin

  • The Explosion of Oral Storytelling: The Power of Moving from Page to Stage with Andrea Askowitz, Beth Ann Fennelly, Jitesh Jaggi, and Devan Sandiford

  • Perspective & Perseverance in Writing Sobriety: Hemingway Is Not the Only Way with Caitlin McGill, Kerry James Evans, Paul Haney, Natalie Lima, and Joy Priest

  • A Poetics of Radical Parenting with Katie Schmid Henson, Stacey Waite, Saddiq Dzukogi, Brandon Som, and Hope Wabuke

  • Fragmentos: Reclaiming Hybridity & Fragmentation Through Latine Narratives with Ofelia Montelongo, Norma Cantu, Gloria Muñoz, Emilly Prado, and Viktoria Valenzuela

  • It Takes a Village: Blurbs, References, Editing, Organizing & More with Faith Adiele, Rosamond S. King, JP Howard, Swati Khurana, and Serena W. Lin

  • Beyond Nostalgia: Writing & Rewriting Diaspora with Marianne Chan, Jane Alberdeston, Grisel Yolanda Acosta, Luisa Igloria, and Yalie Saweda Kamara

  • How to Serve Queer & Trans Writing: Learning from Ten Years of Foglifter with Maria Picone, Rob Macaisa Colgate, Michal 'MJ' Jones, Chad Koch, and Dior J. Stephens

  • Tales of the Town: Writers Speak to Oakland’s Resilient Urban Culture with Nayomi Munaweera, Thaddeus Howze, Nazelah Jamison, Norma Smith, and Aimee Suzara

  • Peeling the Layers of Race & Identity Through Narrative Craft with Grisel Yolanda Acosta, Diana Diaz, Edward Gunawan, and Vincent Toro

  • Beyond Beaches & Colonialism: Writers from the Caribbean Diaspora with Gabriela Garcia, Lilliam Rivera, Tanya Rey, and Yalitza Ferreras

  • When a Book Takes Forever to Write: How to Survive the Process with Shakstri Akella, Margaret Lee, Sabina Murray, Gina Apostol, and Jeff Parker

  • Conflict: Hell Is Story Friendly; Put Your Protagonist Among the Damned with Kristina Gorcheva-Newberry, Caroline Kim, Matthew Lansburgh, Maurice Carlos Ruffin, and Laura Spence-Ash

  • Book Tours: Wisdom & Warning from Those Who’ve Gone Before with Minna Dubin, Brad Balukjian, Susan Kiyo Ito, Ruth Whippman, and Tomas Moniz

  • Cane & Malunggay: Manoa Journal Explores South Asian Coolie & Philippine History with Subramanian Shankar, Vinod Busjeet, Rachelle Cruz, Rajiv Mohabir, and Gina Apostol

  • Experiments in Time with Venita Blackburn, Rita Bullwinkel, Hillary Brenhouse, Shze-Hui Tjoa, and Elissa Washuta

  • Words That Sing with Samiya Bashir, Melissa Studdard, Arisa White, Taylor Brorby, and Todd Boss

  • Confronting the Divine: Writing Through & About Religious Trauma with Andrew J Romriell, Nicole Hardy, Melissa Faliveno, Nick White, and Denne Michele Norris

  • Crossing Genres, Crossing Worlds: Women of Color in Speculative Literature with Quincy Scott Jones, Tananarive Due, Muriel Leung, Vanessa Angélica Villarreal, and Margaret Rhee

  • The Publishing Process & Systemic Interventions for Equity & Justice with Minal Hajratwala, Nuola Akinde, Nayelli Gonzalez, Maya Marshall, and Hiram Sims

HOW to do AWP:

Come visit us at our booth in the bookfair and hang out.  

Take a look at the schedule and circle the panels you want to attend. Take your tablet/phone with Notes app or a notebook and pen to take notes. 

If there’s a panel topic you find necessary but isn’t represented, consider writing a panel proposal for next year’s AWP—and then invite your VONA cohort onto your panel. If you find yourself with a question that none of the panels address, that’s another reason to propose a panel; even if you’re not an expert, you can be the moderator who asks the questions of your panelists.

You’re going to take a bunch of selfies. Charge your phone up; maybe bring a portable charger with you, too. Tag your photos with #AWP25VONA on social media and connect with your fambam. 

Get a metro map if you want to attend off-site readings. Or download the Lyft app so that you can get to and from off-site readings.

AWP can be overwhelming. There are so many people. All those people are talking and shrieking and laughing; there are 9,000 writers making noise. It is Extrovert Paradise. 

But even for extroverts, it can be a lot. Buddy up with a friend and walk the bookfair together. 

And for introverts: Chill when you need it. Take those breaks. Pop up to your hotel room or to one of AWP’s provided quiet spaces or low-light spaces for downtime. 

(If you’re sober, know that AWP can be a real challenge. AWP holds a daily 12-step recovery meeting every morning. This is where having a sober buddy can be helpful, too). 

Each year at AWP, writers tend to converge on the main conference hotel bar (this year, the Marriott’s bar). This is where the bulk of socializing and friend reunions happen. More than once, AWP writers have drunk the hotel bar dry (i.e., no more liquor). And of course, socializing happens everywhere! They happen at the mixers that publishers and literary agencies throw at various venues. They happen at off-site readings. They happen at the book fair. They happen in the hallways.

And they happen at VONA’s bookfair booth. 

See you there,

VONA

Vona Director
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