We're back from AWP!

Whew, it was busy and a lot of fun. AWP 2009 was one of our most successful conferences ever. Thanks to everyone who stopped by the 9L table and/or attended our events. We were thrilled to see you all, both new and familiar faces.

Congratulations to our three silent auction winners! Each of them won a messenger bag handmade by the outstanding designers of the current issue.

If you didn’t get a chance to see them, here they are.





Again, thank you for all your kind words and support. See you next year in Denver.

AWP Chicago

Ninth Letter will be at AWP Chicago! You can find us at booth #219 in the Southeast Hall. We'll have AWP specials on the current issue, back issues, and an awesome gift with subscription purchases. And, we're really excited about this, stop by for our silent auction of wickedly cool, limited edition Ninth Letter merchandise.

There are great events all week, sponsored by Ninth Letter, the Carr Reading Series and The University of Illinois Creative Writing Program. Featured events include a tribute to William Gass (Friday, February 13), a reading by internationally acclaimed poet Tomaz Salamun (Saturday, February 14), and readings by University of Illinois creative writing faculty (Thursday, February 12, and Saturday, February 14). Visit awpwriter.org for a complete schedule and more information.

See you in Chicago!

Andrew Porter Reading in Urbana

Andrew Porter, author of The Theory of Light and Matter, which won the 2007 Flannery O'Connor Award in Short Fiction, will be coming to read at the Author's Corner of the Illini Union Bookstore on Monday, February 9 at 4:30 p.m. After reading, he will autograph copies of his book, which will be available for purchase at the event. The event is free and open to the public.

Andrew Porter grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the youngest of three children. He earned a B.A. in English from Vassar College and an M.F.A. in Fiction Writing from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. He is the recipient of numerous fellowships and awards, including the 2004 W.K. Rose Fellowship in the Creative Arts from Vassar College, a Tennessee Williams Scholarship from the Sewanee' Writers' Conference, an Artist Foundation of San Antonio Award and the Glenna Luschei Award, among others. Porter's fiction has appeared in One Story, Epoch, The Ontario Review, Prairie Schooner, The Antioch Review, StoryQuarterly, The Threepenny Review, Others Voices, Story and The Pushcart Prize Anthology. He also has had his work read on NPR's "Selected Shorts." Currently, Porter lives in San Antonio, where he is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Trinity University.

KAM: WOW Design Series

A new exhibit featuring the work of designer Marloes ten Bhömer opens today at the Krannert Museum of Art.

The exhibition is part of the WOW design series, which KAM started because:

We live in an environment that is hyperconscious of design...While this atmosphere is certainly exciting, the crowded marketplace makes the work of truly inspired and innovative designers even more difficult to recognize. As consumers and viewers, we are too rarely WOWed. This series of exhibitions seeks out that WOW factor. Each featured designer creates remarkable products through a transparent design process inspired by everyday visual icons, and pushes the quintessential into uncharted territory.

Ten Bhömer's experiments with the design and production of women's shoes, according to the KAM website, "offers new aesthetic and structural possibilities while critiquing the conventional status of women's shoes as cultural objects."

This is an exciting opportunity to see Ten Bhömer's design process from start to finish.

The exhibit runs Jan. 30 - May 31, 2009. For more information visit KAM's website.