Papermoon Diner: Bold Flavors, Vibrant Vibes, Unique Charm

I’m going to let the pictures do the talking about AWP day 1! If you’re at awpwriter I’ll be at Booth 305 from noon to 5 today and tomorrow with opensecretsmag and am making tote bags free plus have free bookmarks and stickers and essay zines and shirts and notebooks for sale and love geeking out and talking essays, politics, reading, and fashion (those were the discussions I had yesterday).

Quick recap before I get ready: Was chatting with amandajmccracken and I said, “Is that Laura?” Because for a second I couldn’t remember if the Laura in question was “Zam” or “Zams” but I recognized her look and barrette in her hair. Amanda goes, “Inknow Laura” and runs over and we all said hello. Laura is a memoir author and is traveling around the country to tea houses in each of our 50 states I believe!

I struggled between staying at my booth and wanting to explore. I beelined to the midatlanticarts booth to meet jackie.d.writes and get memoir in essays No Offense (come hear Jackie on the LGBTQIA panel at Open Secrets Live May 2 in NYC!) and later met said hi to janefriedman, who’s as kind in person as she is online, and bought a book at the unsolicitedp table because I picked it up and the author was right there.

I’m used to pretty planned out days either my toddler so the idea of just heading off to do whatever I want was entrancing. I walked toward what I thought was my hotel but turned out to be the opposite direction so I hopped in an Uber to Pez dispenser filled papermoondiner solely because evorbachcollins told me to since I’m starting findersandkeeperspod.

If you love quirky art, Papermoon’s outside is stunning. Swipe for a photo and video. But they were closed, which hasn’t even occurred to me. That would up being perfect because greedyreads Remington was visible from their doorway and I walked in and instantly felt at home. A cool poetry reading was happening from a project I think called 30 in 30 and there was a spread of delicious food (jerk chicken skewers, roasted veggies, tomato bruschetta!).

I found bethannfennelly’s micro memoirs book Heating & Cooling I’ve been wanting to read (check out that cover!)…see comments for John Waters tidbit!