missed opportunities at awp

On Friday, I had a great two-hour chat on the phone with Katelyn Keating, the editor-in-chief at CRAFT, but we could have talked in person at AWP. 

And now, in one of those last-minute reshuffles of panels, the editor-in-chief at F(R)ICTION asked if I could fill in on their creative nonfiction panel at AWP: "The Evolution of Truth: How Nonfiction Has Changed Over Time." Patricia Horvath canceled for health reasons. Phillip Lopate (!!!) and Lee Guttkind (!!!) are on the panel. Wow! That would have been the opportunity of a lifetime. But I'm not going.

With the coronavirus it seems just as well. Steve and I booked a getaway to a lake in the mountains outside Seattle for spring break—plane, rental car, airbnb—and now we're wondering whether we should reconsider. Right now Seattle seems to be the hot spot in the U.S. for the virus, with six deaths.