The Association of Writers and Writing Programs held its annual conference last weekend in Atlanta, and a great many bloggers were out in full force to cover the proceedings. Jeff Vandermeer was seemingly everywhere; Tayari Jones reports her Saturday night reading went “very well”, as did the party she threw; Carolyn Kellogg provides the wrapup of the conference’s star readings from John Barth and Michael Martone; Laurel Synder discovers that the word “shame” incites all manner of reactions; and Gwenda Bond had the last word on fashion:

There are some seriously questionable and seriously bad fashion choices going on in America’s creative writing programs and English departments. I don’t want to hear another word about how people at science fiction conventions dress. Ever. Again. It’d be one thing if people just looked like they were auditioning for the part of Ignatius J. Reilly or Katie Holmes in Wonder Boys, but the fondness of the vest I’ve seen on display is truly frightening.

Yeowch, I suspect, is an understatement…