Updike Society announces Salem, MA conference and call for papers

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The John Updike Society is pleased to announce their 9th Biennial Conference in Salem, Mass., April 13-15 2027, along with a call for papers. Previous conferences were held in Shillington-Reading, Pa.; Boston, Mass.; Columbia, S.C.; Belgrade, Serbia; Tucson, Ariz.; and jointly with the Roth Society in New York City.

The Society, a 501c3 nonprofit organized for educational purposes, is comprised of 263 members from 13 countries and 37 states—professors, teachers, ministers, librarians, Updike friends and family, Updike fans, and lovers of literature. All are welcome to attend the conference, though attendees must join the society for at least one year at the time of their proposal acceptance or conference registration.

Acceptances will be rolling, and proposals can come from current non-members as well as members. Preferences will be given to papers that address one of the solicited topics listed in the CFP. See the attached 9th Biennial John Updike Society Conference document for details.

Podcast dives deep into Updike’s ‘Rich in Russia’

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Book Odyssey, a he-said/she-said podcast with 649 subscribers, posted a discussion of John Updike’s short story “Rich in Russia” on July 26, 2026. At the time of this writing the episode had zero likes or dislikes, but, their inexplicable mispronunciation of Updike’s Jewish alter ego as “Besh” aside, it deserves more followers. These literary explorers are entertaining and thought-provoking to listen to as they discuss Updike’s story in great detail and contexts that listeners can perhaps identify with: fish-out-of-water travel experiences, imposter syndrome, social obligations, etc. Or, as they put it, “This deep dive explores John Updike’s brilliant literary satire, where travel becomes a mirror reflecting the contradictions of politics, culture, and the creative mind.”

The podcast’s stated “Key Takeaways”:
—Follow Henry Bech’s unusual journey through Cold War Russia and Romania
—Explore the struggles of a writer searching for meaning and inspiration
—Examine the difficulties of cultural exchange across political boundaries
—Discover Updike’s clever use of metafiction and fictional autobiography
—Analyze themes of identity, creativity, isolation, and artistic ambition

“Rich in Russia” was first published in the January 31,1970 issue of The New Yorker and included as a chapter in Bech: A Book, published later that same year.

 

 

Here’s the link

One panelist shares remarks from 2025 Roth-Updike Roundtable

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In October 2025 the John Updike and Philip Roth societies jointly sponsored a conference in New York City. The opening session, “Roth-Updike Intersections: A Roundtable Discussion,” featured Sylvie Mathé, D. Quentin Miller, James Schiff, and Matthew Shipe. Mathé’s remarks are available online now from HAL open science.

Here is the link to a downloadable PDF

Updike novel makes Top 10 list of ’80s Pulitzer winners

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Writing for Women, Emily Hutchinson posted an August 9, 2026 aggregate story on “Pulitzer Prize Winning Novels From The 80’s, Ranked by Reviews” on Goodreads.

The list is in some ways surprising, with the biggest tip of the hat going to retired Texas Rangers Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call, who captivated readers of Larry McMurtry’s Western novel Lonesome Dove. Coming in second was another historical novel, Alice Walker’s The Color Purple. Curiously, Norman Mailer’s The Executioner’s Song captured third place ahead of Toni Morrison’s Beloved, followed by Updike’s Rabbit Is Rich in fifth place.

Hutchinson noted, “At the time of writing, the book has an average score of 3.93 from over 18,100 ratings. More than one five-star review claimed Rabbit Is Rich had improved on Rabbit Redux, while other’s were quick to heap praise on Updike’s writing style. ‘What makes this book so good is the balance between comedy and sadness. Rabbit is older and more comfortable, but not wiser in any simple way,’ one wrote. Another noted the book contains outdated themes and language, plus graphic themes, but shared, ‘For those of you who can understand that that’s all part of the character and part of the times, you will accept this for the masterpiece it is.'”

Read More: https://www.women.com/2230362/pulitzer-prize-winning-novels-from-80s-ranked-by-reviews/

Award-winning filmmaker and graphic novelist to speak at Updike conference

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Credit: Joe Schickman (ComicsOnline)

The 9th Biennial John Updike Society Conference in Salem, Mass., April 13-15, will feature Ben Wickey, a Massachussetts-born artist, writer, and animator who graduated from the California Institute of the Arts and also happens to be an Updike fan. He is one of the contributing illustrators of Alan Moore and Steve Moore’s The Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic, the illustrator of Ki Longfellow’s The Illustrated Vivian Stanshall, and the director of several stop-motion animated short films. Appropriately, for the Salem conference, his films include the award-winning The House of the Seven Gables. Another Salem connection: after a decade of development, in 2025 Wickey marked his solo graphic novel debut with More Weight: A Salem Story about the witch trials. The title itself reminds one of Updike’s droll naming of yet another large collection of his nonfiction: More Matter.

Jenny Jackson to speak at the John Updike Society Conference

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Salem, Massachusetts will be the site of The 9th Biennial John Updike Society Conference in April 13-15, 2027, and author-editor Jenny Jackson has agreed to be a keynote speaker.

Jackson is the New York Times bestselling author of The Shampoo Effect and Pineapple Street, a New York Times Notable Book. As Vice President and Executive Editor at Alfred A. Knopf (Updike’s publisher), she publishes a range of literary and commercial fiction, from Caro Claire Burke’s #1 New York Times bestseller Yesteryear to Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, to Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven, to Kevin Kwan’s Crazy Rich Asians trilogy. She counts Dolly Alderton, J. Courtney Sullivan, Chris Bohjalian, Ayobami Adebayo, Peter Heller, Katherine Heiny, Jennifer Close, Caroline O’Donoghue, Erin Morgenstern, and Lauren Fox among her writers. She is a graduate of Williams College and attended the Columbia Publishing Course. She grew up in Ipswich, Massachusetts, and lives in Brooklyn Heights with her family.

Especially relevant for Updike enthusiasts is that Jackson grew up in Ipswich while John Updike was living there and a local celebrity. She said her second novel was inspired by Updike’s scandalous novel Couples. “The natural beauty of Ipswich is so dramatic that it does feel like a place where you want to tell big stories,” she told the Local News.

The John Updike Society is an organization composed of professors, teachers, Updike family and friends, and readers who just love Updike and his works. To attend the conference you have to be a member, but it’s easy and inexpensive to join, and you can join at the same time as you register for the conference. A registration post is coming soon.

See Jackson’s Today interview 

See Jackson’s “Overheard Staff Picks” Couples recommendation

Read Jackson’s take on “gossip”

Listen to Jackson’s Open Book with Jenna podcast:  “From John Updike to Tom Brady: Unexpected Inspirations”

Indian scholar shares Updike photos

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Charter John Updike Society member Pradipta Sengupta passed along three photos from Prof. Sukhbir Singh, one of the senior professors of American literature in India who retired from Osmania University some ten years ago.

“He had taken interviews with Updike and Saul Bellow, and those interviews were published in the SPAN [a U.S. Embassy New Delhi publication]. So far as I can recall, the Updike interview was published around September/October 1997. Prof. Singh has sent me these three photos of John Updike taken in the Beverly Farms house during this interview (possibly taken in 1995). Updike had taken him on a tour of his house and its surroundings, bordering on the Massachusetts Bay. Singh has requested me to send these photos to share in the Updike newsletter (blog).” Thank you Prof. Singh for sharing these photos, which illustrate how accommodating Updike was with scholars—especially those outside the U.S.

 

1st Summer Creative Writing Seminar for Teens at Updike House is a success

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Under the direction of Dr. Maria Lester and with the support of a National Endowment for the Humanities grant, the inaugural Summer Creative Writing Workshop concluded—after perhaps giving a boost to a new generation of writers who got to spend a week thinking and writing inside the house where a young John Updike said his own “creative eggs were hatched.” Here are some scenes from the week. We’ll all look forward to seeing what these young talents will publish in the future.

Three monitors added to enhance Updike childhood home visits

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Thanks to a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the John Updike Childhood Home now has three new media screens that loop in Updike interviews, so people can hear the author’s voice as they enjoy ten rooms of unique exhibits that tell the story not only of one of America’s most important writers of his generation, but of the 1930s and ’40s Shillington he loved.

Here’s the link to the vertical video.