Editorial: Writing in Education 72

This issue of Writing in Education takes its cue from Washington, DC, where earlier this year the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) held is 50th Anniversary Conference, attended by some 12,000 writers. AWP conferences are planned years in advance. We might have expected there to be the first female US President installed in the White House. Instead there was Donald Trump, and at the close of the conference many of the delegates gathered for a “vigil and speak out” outside the presidential residence to register their belief in free speech. Organized by Split This Rock, a DC-based organization devoted to poetry and political engagement, together with 29 co-sponsoring publications and groups, the vigil featured readings from Gabrielle Bellot, Kazim Ali, Melissa Febos, Carolyn Forché and others.