Unlikely Stories Mark V and Unlikely Books are going to the 2022 Conference of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs in Philadelphia!
We'll kick off the conference with our PREFUNK PARTY, formed in collaboration with Rigorous: a journal by people of color, Lavender Ink/Diálogos, and Louisiana's River Writers. Come see us at
Strangelove's Beer Bar
216 S. 11th St.
Wendesday, March 23, 6-10:30pm
We'll hear poetry by Indran Amirthanayagam, Rob Arnold, DeWitt Brinson, Vincent A. Cellucci, Kenning JP García, Teow Lim Goh, Jesse Lee Kercheval (reading Luis Bravo), Bill Lavender, Cecilia Martinez-Gil, Laura Mattingly, Daphne Maysonet, Jonathan Penton, Jennifer Rathbun (reading Indran Amirthanayagam), Rone Shavers, Christopher Shipman, Mark Spitzer, Mbarek Sryfi (reading Aicha Bassry), Bronwen Tate, Peter Thompson (reading Tchicaya u Tam'si), Meg Tuite, Marc Vincenz, and Ronaldo Wilson!
On Friday, thanks to the good people at the Moonstone Arts Center, Unlikely authors will be reading with authors from Chax Press, Gold Line Press, Ricochet Editions, and Pink Trees Press! Come find us at
Fergie's Pub
1214 Sansom St.
Friday, March 25, 9pm-12am
and on Zoom (registration required)!
Stacey Balkun, Wendy Taylor Carlisle, Jiwon Choi, Caroline Hagood, and Michael Ruby will represent Unlikely! And Unlikely peep Bill Lavender will be there, reading for Chax Press!
And then at the conference itself, Unlikely editors and authors will be involved in numerous panels and readings!
On Thursday, March 24, at 9am, Unlikely peep Rosalyn Spencer will speak as part of "What It Means to Be Free" in room 118BC, Pennsylvania Convention Center, 100 Level.
On Thursday, March 24, at 3:20pm, our Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Penton will moderate the panel "Close to Zero: Publishing without a Budget," along with Unlikely peeps Rosalyn Spencer and Kenning JP García, room 122AB, Pennsylvania Convention Center, 100 Level.
On Friday, March 25, 10:35am, Jonathan Penton will join Unlikely Books authors Meg Tuite (author of White Van) and Larissa Shmailo (author of #specialcharacters) in "Writing Resilience: A Reading by Neurodiverse Writers," room 116, Pennsylvania Convention Center, 100 Level.
On Friday, March 25, 12:10pm, Unlikely peeps Cecilia Martinez-Gil and Thaddeus Rutkowski will present in "How to Win a Book or Chapbook Contest," room 119AB, Pennsylvania Convention Center, 100 Level. Rumor has it that Cecilia is working on a project with Unlikely Books!
On Saturday, March 26, 9am, Larissa Smailo will present in "What Kind of Times Are These?: Immigrant Poets & the New Politics of Resistance," room 111AB, Pennsylvania Convention Center, 100 Level.
On Saturday, March 26, 10:35am, Unlikely Books authors Wendy Taylor Carlisle (author of The Mercy of Traffic), Vincent A. Cellucci, and Christopher Shipman (authors of ~getting away with everything) will present "Order within Chaos: Finding New Forms from Free Verse" along with Unlikely peeps Teow Lim Goh and Jiwon Choi, in room 125, Pennsylvania Convention Center, 100 Level.
On Saturday, March 26, 12:10pm, Unlikely Books author Marc Vincenz (author of A Brief Conversation with Consciousness, Beautiful Rush, and Gods of a Ransacked Century) will join other well-known publishers at "The Lyric Field: The State of Indie Poetry Publishing Now & in the Future," room 115AB, Pennsylvania Convention Center, 100 Level.
On Saturday, March 26, 1:45pm, Vincent A. Cellucci will be back to read in "Sum = {Poetry + New Media + Politics + Performance}," room 109AB, Pennsylvania Convention Center, 100 Level.
And all day Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, you can find Unlikely Stories Mark V, Unlikely Books, and Rigorous: a journal by people of color in the AWP Bookfair, table 1331! Come by and say hello! And if you're an Unlikely author who will be at an #AWP22 event, tell us all about it, and we'll list it on this page!
