Today I am flying to Chicago for AWP (for those who don’t know: the Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference), so my mind is mostly occupied with packing- and coffee-related activities.

It will be good to be in Chicago again. It will be good to walk in the sea of milling people at the conference – people and books. It will be good to hear Margaret Atwood speak, even if it causes me to visualize dystopia.

It will be peculiar for the city to be so warm (for clarification: warmer than usual) so early. Where are the snowdens of yesteryear?