Kelly Barth's Blog - Posts Tagged "awp-2013"

A highlight of my recent trip to Boston and AWP was hearing Jeanette Winterson speak and read from her recent memoir WHY BE HAPPY IF YOU CAN BE NORMAL. (I learned IMAGINARY JESUS is a finalist for the Publishing Triangle's Judy Grahn Award for non-fiction. My fellow contenders are Jeanette Winterson and Alison Bechdel. Oh well.) Winterson is an amazingly strong woman and moving writer. A favorite quotation from her talk "When my bone breaks, I visit a doctor. When my heart breaks, I visit a poet." She also told us to reject the notion that reading is purely a "leisure" activity reserved for when we have nothing else to do. For many of us, reading is what we live for. We can do it in the middle of the day if we like. (Another highlight--a candy bar with Imaginary Jesus and me both on the wrapper.)