> By workspace are you referring to the different "desktops" you can reach through the numbered boxes on the upper left (in the default config)?

Yes, it looks like awesome's "desktops" are equivalent to xmonad's "workspaces".

From awesome's home page:

> Real multihead support (XRandR, Xinerama or Zaphod mode) with per screen desktops (tags);

It looks like support is there. I might give it a shot again, but tessellated's comment about the difficulty of configuration isn't encouraging, particularly when I already have a working xmonad configuration with most of what I want.