Department of English

"During the Spring 2019 semester, myself and three other students were granted the opportunity by the Creative Writing department and the Mandel Center for the Humanities to travel to AWP, the Association of Writers & Writing Programs’ annual conference in Portland, Oregon. 

Part of our duties as attendees were to work poetry professor Liz Bradfield’s small press, Broadsided Press, table at the giant book fair. The book fair itself is incredible, a place to find out about cool small presses, meet admired writers, and pick up lots of free writerly swag. When we weren’t working or wandering around the book fair, we were able to attend any of the sessions and readings we were interested in. The topics at these panels ranged from honoring poets like Carl Phillips for their work (who just so happened to sit beside myself and another student at his own session), to writing about personal trauma, to laugh-out-loud (and tearful) readings with poets like Solmaz Sharif, and Dorothea Lasky. These sessions were often brutal, heartfelt, and community-building, truly challenging attendees to take something back to put to work on their own writers’ journey. I learned so much from these sessions to make me a more self-aware and potent writer. There is not a doubt in my mind that attending the sessions and meeting the poets I did at AWP caused a turning point for the better in grounding my own writers voice. Having the opportunity to attend AWP was not only a highlight of my time at Brandeis and in the Creative Writing department, but an amazing chance to feel like I, as a collegiate writer, was valid, and that I was doing something important for myself and to the need for humanities in the world."