AWP 2020 in San Antonio, TX
We’re writing this from San Antonio, the location of this year’s AWP Conference. This is an event we’ve been looking forward to for a long time because of its wonderful assortment of 550 panels, but one that was, and possibly still is, in jeopardy.
Yesterday, Monday, 3/2/2020, four of us were on the plane to Texas when we checked Twitter and saw that Ron Nirenberg, the mayor of San Antonio, issued a “state of disaster and a public health emergency.” It turned out that due to a mistake, a patient with coronavirus was released into the community early, despite a positive result of one test. This person went to a hotel near the airport, as well as a shopping mall, and the possibility of community transition was high. The person had been put back in quarantine by the time the mayor made his announcement.
We saw that Twitter was newly abuzz with the idea of a possible cancelation of the conference. That made for a nerve-wracking plane ride. We checked into our hotel and anxiously waited for the organizers to let us know what to do. If the conference was canceled, we were going to stay the night (since we’d already paid for the hotel rooms) and take the next flight back to LA. If the conference was going to be on, we were planning to stay.
We were told by reception that over 200 people had already checked into our hotel for the conference (which officially starts on Wednesday), so we expected that the “show would go on.”
It took a while, but eventually, AWP decided to hold the conference and issued this statement:
To us, it seems like the right decision, but it may not be for everyone. There is no way to guarantee anyone’s safety from the coronavirus, the flu, or any other communicable disease. The only thing we can do is assess our own risk and make the best decision for ourselves.
We are disappointed that the conference no longer feels as safe for immunocompromised writers and anyone who fears being at higher risk of a possible coronavirus infection for any other reason. We completely understand how hard the decision to sit out this year’s conference is, especially because of the great personal and financial sacrifices many make to be part of the conference each year. It is truly sad to see so many making last-minute cancellations, knowing how much work people have put into their panels, booths, offsite events, etc.
A lot of people have canceled their panels, and AWP agreed to refund attendance fees to everyone, or credit these fees to next year’s conference in Kansas. This doesn’t include the hundreds or, in most cases, thousands of dollars people spent on plane tickets and hotel reservations and shipping boxes of books in, but it’s the best they could do to help people cope with this event outside of their control. We commend AWP’s leadership for making the best of this extremely difficult and unprecedented situation.
We look forward to seeing some of you in a few days, or if not, next year in Kansas. And we’re also looking forward to the #AWPvirtualbookfair, which is a great way to participate in the action if you’re not in San Antonio.
