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Conference Schedule 2020

Conference Schedule 2020

Saturday, February 22, 2020, 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

So, You Wrote Your First Book. Now What? with Ivelisse Rodriguez, Vanessa Hua, Andrea Avery, Cathy Linh Che, Justin Petropoulos

Date(s): Saturday, February 22, 2020, 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Location: Carson Ballroom, Old Main (view map)
Type(s): Panel
Genre and Form(s): Business of Writing, Publishing
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Meet our Faculty

About the Session

You’ve written your first manuscript. Read it. Read it a hundred more times. Probably reread it until your eyes ache and the words blur on the page. You know every page by heart. Now what? Join authors Ivelisse Rodriguez, Vanessa Hua, and Andrea Avery as they talk about what to do with your first book, what to expect in looking for a publisher, and how to get started on your second manuscript.

Meet the Presenter(s)

Photograph of Ivelisse Rodriguez


Ivelisse Rodriguez

Ivelisse Rodriguez’s debut short story collection is Love War Stories (Feminist Press, 2018), a 2019 PEN/Faulkner finalist and a 2018 Foreword Reviews INDIES finalist. She is the founder and editor of an interview series focused on contemporary Puerto Rican writers. She earned an MFA in creative writing from Emerson College and a Ph.D. in English-Creative Writing from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She currently lives in NC with her beloved Lhasa Apso, Chocolatte Rodriguez. To learn more about Rodriguez, visit: www.ivelisserodriguez.com.


Learn more about Ivelisse Rodriguez

Photograph of Vanessa Hua


Vanessa Hua

Vanessa Hua is a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle and the author of a novel, A River of Stars, a national bestseller and best books pick by NPR and the Washington Post, and a short story collection, Deceit and Other Possibilities. For two decades, she has been writing about Asia and the diaspora. She has received a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, a Steinbeck Fellowship in Creative Writing, as well as honors from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Asian American Journalists’ Association. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, and elsewhere. A Bay Area native, she works and teaches at the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto.


Learn more about Vanessa Hua

Picture of Andrea Avery


Andrea Avery

Andrea Avery is the author of Sonata: A Memoir of Pain and the Piano, which describes her experiences growing up as an aspiring pianist even after a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis at age 12. Her writing has been published in Ploughshares, Real Simple, The Oxford American, and The Politics of Women’s Bodies: Sexuality, Appearance, and Behavior. She was the winner of Real Simple’s 2010 essay contest and a finalist in Glamour magazine’s essay contest. She holds a BA in music, an MFA in Creative Writing, and a doctorate in education from Arizona State University. She teaches English at Phoenix Country Day School and is an active volunteer with the Arthritis Foundation.


Learn more about Andrea Avery

Photograph of Cathy Lin Che credit Jess X. Snow


Cathy Linh Che

Cathy Linh Che is the author of Split (Alice James Books), winner of the Kundiman Poetry Prize, the Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America, and the Best Poetry Book Award from the Association of Asian American Studies. She has received awards from Poets & Writers, The Fine Arts Work Center at Provincetown, and Artist Trust, among other places. She has taught at the New York University, Fordham University, and Sierra Nevada College, and she serves as executive director at Kundiman.


Learn more about Cathy Linh Che


Justin Petropoulos

Justin Petropoulos is the author of two collections of poetry, Eminent Domain (Marsh Hawk Press 2011), selected by Anne Waldman for the 2010 Marsh Hawk Press Poetry Prize and <legend> </legend> (Jaded Ibis Press 2013), a collaborative work with multimedia artist, Carla Gannis. His poems have appeared in American Letters & Commentary, Columbia Poetry Review, Mandorla, among others, and have been included in the anthologies Devouring the Green: Fear of a Human Planet (Jaded Ibis Press 2015) and The &NOW Awards 3 (Lake Forest College Press 2015). He is currently the program manager for Arizona State University’s Creative Writing Program.


Learn more about Justin Petropoulos