Category: Event

Panel at #AWP26 in Baltimore

Lana Spendl

I was delighted to learn today that I and a few fellow writers have had a panel accepted for the AWP Conference in early March in Baltimore. Titled “Memory as Borderland in Immigrant Narratives: The Refuge & Burden of Remembering,” this conversation will explore how memory shapes identity across geographies in both fiction and creative nonfiction.

I’ll be moderating a group of writers whose work spans Nepal, the Philippines, China, and Russia. Together, we’ll examine memory as both refuge and burden and explore how memory intersects with migration, queerness, and reimagined ways of being.

Workshop at American School of São Paulo

Lana Spendl

Last week, I held a workshop at the American School of São Paulo, with the 10th and 11th graders who are interested in creative writing. I spoke about my writing path and my childhood in Bosnia and Spain and read them a flash essay about my parents’ weekend house just outside of Sarajevo when I was little.

The students were from Brazil, China, S. Korea, and the States, and during the session, they wrote about their own childhood neighborhoods and the people who inhabited them. One wrote about a man who’d come down the street, piled up with boxes, to bring his family their weekly fruit delivery. A couple of others said the exercise brought up memories they didn’t know they had.

It was an energizing, deeply engaged session, and I was left wishing we could have had more time together. I also heard from one of their teachers that a couple of students asked whether “Miss Lana could come back.” ❤️

Poem in Crab Creek Review & Virtual Reading

Lana Spendl

The lovely Crab Creek Review published my poem “Why Do Woodpeckers Peck” in their newest issue, and I’m delighted to announce that I’ll be reading this piece and a couple of others with several writers from the issue on June 1 at 9 p.m. EDT. The event is virtual and open to all. Join us if you can!

Reading at Slought

Lana Spendl

It was an honor last week to read my work at Slought in Philadelphia, with the Cheburashka Collective, in solidarity with Ukraine. Such well-being came from being around so many wonderful writers from Eastern Europe. I’m grateful that we had a pre-reading reception where we could connect and share stories. Thank you to the UPenn Comparative Literature, Jewish Studies, and Russian and East European Studies programs for making the evening possible!

Panel at AWP Conference

Lana Spendl

Writers attending the 2022 AWP Conference in Philadelphia in March: I will be presenting on a panel called “What Kind of Times Are These? Immigrant Poets and the New Politics of Resistance” with poets Olga Livshin, Anna Halberstadt, Mariya Deykute, and Larissa Shmailo. If you attend the conference, I hope to see you there!