Tapping the Rockies

It sounds like the sports anchors' meet-and-greet was pretty cool. Sorry I missed it, though I do have a valid excuse. Last week, I attended the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference in Denver, and attended a number of panels that discussed the current state of fiction and non-fiction writing. It was a pretty amazing experience. I heard Michael Chabon, Etgar Keret, Sherman Alexie, and George Saunders, a pretty solid four of the current greats in literary fiction, read from their works and comment on their perceptions of literature's future. On Saturday, I also had about a five minute one-on-one conversation with Saunders. The experience was memorable.

Anyway, to get to some sports related stuff, the first panel I attended was actually on writing about sports in fiction. Unfortunately, sports-writing tends to be shunned by academics. While there was a ton of interesting material, the most memorable stat came at the onset of the panel, when the moderator began talking about suicide rates, in regards to the Red Sox and Yankees. Apparently, in Boston in October, the number of suicides skyrockets when the Red Sox fail to claim their World Series rings. However, when they won it all in '04 and '08, the suicide rate in New York had jumped. That right there is at least two short stories, and probably a novel. As a Cub fan, I can sympathize (if I were to empathize, I wouldn't be among the living). It's amazing what sports can do to us. I still slip into a mild depression every time the Cubs lose, and to a lesser degree, every time the Bears and Bulls falter, but suicide has never really crept into my psyche. But I've also never taken off my shirt, painted an orange "C" on my chest, and asked Mr. Frostbite to dine on my pasty skin at a Bears game in January either. Maybe I'm not as hardcore as I thought.

Anyway, AWP 2010 was a great experience. I made some connections, ran into some old friends, laughed at some horrible jokes in the name of schmoozing, and paid $10 for the best burger I'd ever eaten, the gyro burger: a 1/2 pound cheeseburger topped with gyro meat, tzatzkiki sauce, lettuce and tomato. Delicious. Sam's No. 3 is the name of the place. Check it out if your near the Rockies. I also found out that one of my former professor's colleagues just received an advance of $250,000 for her new novel. Amazing.