Yeah, AWP was chill. Why do you ask?
09.03.2026 16:29
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Yeah, AWP was chill. Why do you ask?
Stick figure giving thumbs up with a slight smile. Above the are semi transparent emojis and memes showing figures in various states of emotional ecstasy and duress. One cartoon has the caption, “Settle down, Robert Frost.”
me: writers you admire are just people. you can talk to them. it’s really OK.
also me:
CNN’s Frederik Pleitgen says black, oil-contaminated rain is falling over Tehran after strikes on oil facilities by U.S./Israeli airstrikes.
It was going on one, two in the morning, and we were shooting what I felt was an important scene for me, when he makes an attempt to be quote-unquote straight, in a suit, and at the end of it he gets emotional and locks himself in the other room. And I felt like, I’m not getting what I want—I’m not happy with it. Mike was happy with it. He called me the next day and said, “I know you weren’t happy with the scene last night. Believe me, we wouldn’t have gone home if I had felt we weren’t getting it.” And then he sort of became my psychiatrist and said, “You find it difficult to be happy, don’t you? You find it difficult to enjoy things.” And I said, “Well, sometimes. Last night was about feeling too tired and not feeling I was reaching what I needed to reach for the scene.” He talked to me then about when he was making, I don’t know whether it was Virginia Woolf or The Graduate. He said, “I didn’t enjoy it for a second. I was worried about so many things.” And then he said, “You know, this is never going to happen again quite this way. You should try to allow yourself to enjoy this more. Take a minute a day, and then add a minute the next day, and another minute. Pretty soon, you’ll have hours of happiness.”
The Birdcage opened thirty years ago today, so in its honor, I want to share one of my favorite stories about Mike Nichols that didn't make it into my biography. This is from an interview I did with Nathan Lane.
Rows of people seated facing a stage with a reader at a microphone on it. A colorful mural is at the side.
More seated people facing the stage, with some stands behind them
Oh what a night! Thank you to everyone who came out to our offsite. Special thanks to all of the talented readers and brave open mic folks. #AWP26
Sign on a brick building, advertising a business called “Diva Law”
Once again, Baltimore rules. 💅
Orange and blue background. 7 portraits of readers at the bottom. Text reads: AWP 2026 off-site reading and open mic. Friday, March 6. 6:00-8:00 PM. M.A.P Technologies. 322 W. Baltimore. Featuring Maria Nazos, Summer J. Hart, Carmen Fought, Melissa Cahnmann, Tina Jenkins Bell, Chelsea Laine Wells. Presented by Rhino Poetry, North American Review, Hypertext
Hey, AWPeople! Tonight is our shared reading and open mic with these wonderful writers and partner publications.
We know your dance cards are pretty full, so save a waltz for us! 🦏 #AWP #AWP26
[TW: graphic fracture, sound of breaking bone]
Sen Tim Sheehy (R-Montana) badly breaking the arm of a Marine veteran protesting the war Iran.
Unfortunately, I went to multiple shops that had way cool clothes, but not in fat people sizes; as a result, I will go back to being the same kind of evil I was at 13. Apologies.
Print cover of the Chicago Reader's Best of Chicago issue.
Best of Chicago is out now! Check out this year's ballot winners voted on by nearly 40,000 Chicagoans in over 200 categories. 🏆 chicagoreader.com/best
Been in Baltimore 36 hours, and have seen some of the most kickass walking sticks and canes of my life. Hell yeah.
Submissions for issue 22 (autumn/winter 2026) are now open until 31 March! We’re looking forward to reading your short fiction, poetry, flash & essays ✨
bansheepress.org/submit
Pink background with black text that reads, “Now Accepting SWGC Grantee Applications! Deadline: April 2, 2026. Learn more and apply: bit.ly/swgc2026. Deslizar para Español.” In the bottom right is the SWGC TWF logo.
On International Sex Worker Rights Day, we honor sex worker leadership everywhere. The Sex Worker Giving Circle at Third Wave Fund has opened our 2026 grant cycle!
Apply by April 2 for 2-year grants of $35K/year. Learn more & apply: bit.ly/swgc2026 #InternationalSexWorkerRightsDay #SWGivingCircle
In a country where nearly 40 percent of fourth graders struggle to read at even a basic level, Steubenville, Ohio, has succeeded in teaching virtually all of its students to read well.
The young writers of Baltimore have wonderful recommendations for those of us visiting their home for #AWP26! Thank you all! 😍
Today's Feature:
"red-chested & unequivocally american" by Sabrina Siew from Black Warrior Review, #52.1
Read here:
poems.com/poem/red-che...
Just do yourself a favor and press play.
Bright pink background with torn paper. Text reads: A match made in literary heaven. Guild Literary + Rhino Poetry + Hypertext. Back together again & it feels so good.
Friends, the @awpwriter.org conference is nearly upon us! Next Wednesday to be exact. 💗
Make sure to stop by Booth 1284 to spend some time with the RHINO crew, and our friends at Guild Literary Complex and @hypertextmagazine.bsky.social #AWP26
the party that wants to require ID to vote abruptly invalidating a thousand people’s IDs overnight seems like a pretty giant flashing red light
Every stage of this process - his arrest, spending a year in jail, being dumped on the streets to die - would be deeply shameful in a society that actually valued human life.
White and green graphic with a cartoon rhino. Text reads: Congratulations to RHINO Poetry’s 2026 Ralph Hamilton Editors’ Prize and Translation Prize winners!
Congratulations to the Ralph Hamilton Editors' Prize and Translation Prize winners! 🎉
🎉 Rani Ruado
🎉 Mickie Kennedy
🎉 Margaret Wack
🎉 Clara Burghelea, translating Ioana Vintilă
All of these poems are in the 50th Anniversary issue of RHINO, and they're available to read early on our website!
“It’s just a horrible, horrible, horrible place,” he said of his detention camp. “I’m not in fear of the other inmates. I’m afraid of the staff. They’re capable of anything.”
In solidarity with all those standing up for our communities against the brutality of immigrant detention and ICE occupation, we're offering free ebooks of three crucial books about migrant justice and border abolition.
this is why the whole “oh, suffering creates great art” thing is bullshit
you know what’s conducive to art? a roof over your head and food on the table
you know what isn’t? stressing out over where the fuck the rent money is going to come from
This Ramadan, this Lent, this last stretch of cold before spring, we can reach out to each other.
Graphic in yellow, purple, and green congratulating the prize winners named in the post.
Please join us in congratulating our Founders' Prize winners, selected by Guest Judge Matthew Olzmann!
🎉 “There Are Lights to Turn On After Dusk” by Lindsey Wayland
🎉 "What grieving is or returning home after the flood" by Sara Cooper
🎉 "You Try To Fix It" by Liz Ahl @surlyacres.bsky.social
A group of people (Rhino Poetry editorial team members) airing around a table, eating and working.
A person in a grey sweater holds up an art print that reads “Art is the big yes.”
A group of people (Rhino Poetry editorial team members) airing around a table, eating and working.
Various Rhino Poetry printed materials on a pink tablecloth.
The crash met last weekend to plan for 2026 being RHINO’s 50th ANNIVERSARY! 👏🥳🦏
We have a lot of exciting ideas and big plans. We can’t do it without you, so get your party clothes ready!
Punxsutawney Phil predicted humanity would annihilate itself through tribalism and environmental indifference
quilt by Melissa Laranjeira, made in response to killings by ICE (@thexennialquilter). the quilt is white, with elegant large letters in black reading: WE KNOW WHAT WE SAW
good morning. (quilt by Melissa Laranjeira, via www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...)
Bruce Springsteen has just released the anti-ICE protest song "Streets of Minneapolis."
Take a look at our history of local protest music: blockclubchi.co/4rkd2s8
