Find Your People at AWP Baltimore: March 4–7, 2026
For all those going to the AWP conference in Baltimore this year, here are some ways you can find your people, connect with other members of the RAWI community, and escape the noise in welcoming spaces. (Plus: Keep an eye out for RAWI President Hayan Charara and Secretary Eman Quotah—and say hi, if you see them!)
RAWI Co-hosted Offsite: Hard Times Require Furious Dancing
A high-energy evening designed to bring together creatives from across the country to celebrate literature, movement, and connection. Music curated by Baltimore’s own DJ Chris Brooks, featuring a live band, light bites, a cash bar, a photo booth, and plenty of room to dance, meet new people, and reconnect with old friends.
6:30–9:30 pm, Friday, March 6, at 4MLK Biopark. Cosponsored by Baltimore’s CityLit Project, RAWI, Kundiman, Cave Canem, Pen Parentis, and others. FREE.
Panels and Events on SWANA topics or featuring SWANA Writers
Wednesday, March 4
5pm
The Importance of Being Earnest: Writers on Cringe
6 pm
Writers for Sudan: A Mizna AWP Offsite Event
6:30 pm
Thursday, March 5
9 am
Collaborative Translation: Creativity & Praxis, Sponsored by ALTA
10:30 am
Author Signing With Leila Chatti
10:35 am
Mizna Presents: HUNA—Writing Resistance in the Now
12:10 pm
Finding New, True Literary Sounds
Building the House: The Importance of a Community for Muslim Writers
1:45 pm
Writers of Bilad Al-Sham: A Reading for Palestine & Syria
3:20 pm
Say My Name, Say My Name: Reclaiming Identity in the Face of Violence
6 pm
Reading and Happy Hour From SMU English’s Project Poëtica & Deep Vellum Publishing
7 pm
Mess and Friction Reading Series
Friday, March 6
9 am
10:35 am
Conjuring Home: Women of Color on Exile, Borders & Belonging
12 pm
Author Signing With Majda Gama at Booth 1131
12:10 pm
Writing Beyond the Mother Tongue
1:30 pm
Author Signing With Leila Chatti
1:45 pm
Editors of Color: The Political & Personal, Sponsored by CLMP
2 pm
Author Signing With Leila Chatti
3:20 pm
Strange Estrangement: SWANA Writers on Family, Home & Belonging
6:30–9:30 pm
Hard Times Require Furious Dancing, hosted by CityLit Project and cosponsored by RAWI and others.
7 pm
L’Esprit Literary Review x ARTWIFE Magazine: A Reading at Viva Books
Saturday, March 7
9 am
Worlds Within Worlds: Fiction, Language & Intertextuality, Sponsored by Center for Fiction
One Hundred Faces of the Beloved: Form & Features of the Ghazal
10:35 am
Translating Gaza, Problematizing Translation: On Urgency, Critique & Publishing, Sponsored by Mizna
Poetry at the Intersection of Science, Ethics & Care
12:10 pm
SWANA Writers Caucus Meetup: The official caucus will meet virtually the week after AWP, but writers can informally gather in Room 302, Level 300.
Reading & Writing in Times of Political Upheaval
Visible & Invisible Baltimores
1:45 pm
Where the Story Happened: Embodied Reading & Literary Pilgrimage
2 pm
