An Open Letter to the AWP Writers Conference

Dear Cynthia Sherman, Executive Director of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP); Colleen Cable, Director of Conferences; and the Board of Directors of AWP:

Thank you for all the work you do to support writers, writing programs, and the infrastructure that nurtures our creativity and amplifies our work. We know you are committed to making the AWP conference a safe and welcoming space during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and we are writing to request that face masks be required for all in attendance at this year’s conference.

As you know, thousands of people from across the country and around the world will be attending AWP this year, at a time when the CDC recommends masking for public travel and COVID disproportionately impacts those already the most vulnerable. The World Health Organization recently issued a global recommendation to mask indoors, a recommendation followed with strict safety protocols by the World Economic Forum, including an onsite PCR test required for entry, HEPA air filters in every room, carbon dioxide monitoring, and ultraviolet disinfection. While AWP may not have the resources to employ these additional safety measures now, requiring masks for everyone in attendance is the best and most accessible way to protect all attendees, staff, and our most vulnerable community members, including those who are immunocompromised or otherwise high-risk, at the conference and beyond. 

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter. We understand you will be assessing your masking policy in February, and we hope you respond swiftly by requiring masks for all in attendance at the AWP conference this year, as part of your stated commitments to accessibility, racial equity and social justice, and building supportive communities guided by compassion. We look forward to your response, and to a safe and fruitful conference with universal masking for all in attendance.

Sincerely, 

[In alphabetical order, affiliations for identification purposes only.]

Erin Belieu, author of Come-Hither Honeycomb; Professor of English at University of Houston

Dan Berger, author of Stayed on Freedom: The Long History of Black Power through One Family’s Journey; Professor of Comparative Ethnic Studies at University of Washington Bothell

Alexander Chee, author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel; Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Dartmouth College

Ching-In Chen, author of recombinant, Assistant Professor University of Washington Bothell

Valentine Conaty, Commonplace Podcast 

Amber Dawn, author of Sodom Road Exit; Regular Faculty, Creative Writing, Douglas College

Myriam Gurba, author of Mean 

Alyssa Harad, author of Coming to My Senses

Porochista Khakpour, author of Brown Album: Essays on Exile and Identity

Christine Larusso, Commonplace Podcast

Sassafras Lowrey, author of Lost Boi

Kelly Link, author of White Cat, Black Dog; Co-Founder of Small Beer Press

Corinne Manning, author of We Had No Rules

Lara Mimosa Montes

Joseph Osmundson, PhD, author of Virology: Essays for the Living, the Dead, and the Small Things in Between; Clinical Assistant Professor of Biology, NYU

Shailja Patel, author of Migritude

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, PhD, author of The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred; Assistant Professor of Physics, Core Faculty, Women’s and Gender Studies, University of New Hampshire 

Khadijah Olamina Queen, author of Anodyne; Creative Writing Faculty, Regis University

Hugh Ryan, author of The Women’s House of Detention: A Queer History of a Forgotten Prison

Sarah Schulman, writer

Maggie Smith, author of You Could Make This Place Beautiful 

Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore, author of The Freezer Door

Natalia Sylvester, author of Breathe and Count Back from Ten

Steven W. Thrasher, PhD, author of The Viral Underclass; Daniel H. Renberg Chair, Northwestern University, Medill School of Journalism; Faculty, Institute of Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing 

Jeff VanderMeer, author of Hummingbird Salamander

Alejandro Varela, MPH, author of The Town of Babylon 

Ursula Villarreal-Moura, author

Elissa Washuta, author of White Magic

Rachel Zucker, author of The Poetics of Wrongness; founder and host of Commonplace Podcast