What Is AWP's 60th Anniversary Celebration About?

Updated

AWP's 60th anniversary celebration marks the organization's founding in 1967 as the Associated Writing Programs and runs as a yearlong observance through September 25, 2027. The homepage promotes it alongside a silent auction that closed October 30, a "60 Years of AWP" history article, and anniversary branding across the site. If you want to follow the celebration, the anniversary content and the organization's history piece are the places to start; the auction itself is time-limited and no longer open.

What the anniversary commemorates

According to awpwriter.org, what is now the Association of Writers & Writing Programs began in 1967 as the Associated Writing Programs. The site describes the organization today as having over ten thousand members and annual conference attendees. The 60th anniversary therefore marks six decades since that founding, with the countdown running to the 60th anniversary date of September 25, 2027.

The homepage frames this as a "yearlong celebration," so expect anniversary-related posts and features to appear across the site between now and that date rather than in a single event.

What is happening on the site

The homepage's "Featured this Month" area and news feed carry the anniversary alongside other organizational news. The items most directly tied to the celebration:

  • 60 Years of AWP Silent Auction — announced as live through October 30, with a "Place your bids!" callout at the top of the page. The accompanying post explains the organization's origins.
  • "AWP turns 60!" — the anniversary announcement inviting members to join the yearlong celebration until September 25, 2027.
  • History article — the auction post doubles as a short history of AWP's founding, useful if you want the origin story rather than event details.

Other featured items on the same page — National Book Month, National Translation Month, Hispanic Heritage Month, the Writer's Chronicle issue, and conference fellowship announcements — are separate programs, not anniversary events, even though they appear together.

How to use the site to follow it

  1. Open awpwriter.org and look at the "Featured this Month" section and the news feed below it for anniversary posts.
  2. Read the "60 Years of AWP Silent Auction" post for the founding history and the anniversary framing.
  3. Check back periodically, since the celebration is described as running until September 25, 2027 rather than as a single dated event.

Expected result: you get the anniversary context and the history in one pass. A common snag is treating the auction as ongoing — the page lists it as running through October 30, so bidding is only possible within that window.

What to keep in mind

The site does not state membership requirements for reading anniversary content, and no pricing or login restrictions are described for the pages themselves. The auction is the one clearly time-bound element. For anything beyond what the homepage and posts state — such as specific anniversary events later in the celebration — the site is the authoritative source as new posts appear.