The John Updike Society will sponsor two panels and hold a business meeting at the 21st American Literature Association Conference, May 27-30, 2010, which will be held at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco in Embarcadero Center.

Here are the sessions the Society is sponsoring, and the members who are participating:

John Updike and American Pop Culture

Chair: Sally L. LeVan, Gannon University

“‘The Bright Island of Make Believe’: Updike on the Movies,” Peter Bailey, St. Lawrence University

“Returning to the Catacombs: Revisiting John Updike’s ‘Adulterous Society,'” Matthew Shipe, Washington University

“The Music of Your Life: Updike’s Visiono of Travel, Tourism, and Foreign Contact as Manifestations of American Pop Culture’s Ubiquity,” Edward Allen, The University of South Dakota

Updike Abroad

Chair: James Schiff, University of Cincinnati

“Updike’s Many Worlds, Local and Global, in Towards the End of Time,” Judie Newman, University of Nottingham

“The Cynic Tyrannies of Honest Kings: John Updike and the Use of Melville’s Verse in The Coup,” Kevin Frazier, independent scholar, Finland

“Updike’s Ambivalent Reception in France,” Sylvie Mathé, Université de Provence

All sessions will be on Thursday, May 27, with John Updike and American Pop Culture scheduled for 10:30-11:50 a.m., Updike Abroad for 1:30-2:50 p.m., and the business meeting of The John Updike Society from 3-4:20 p.m.

We hope to see many of our members there, especially those on the West Coast. But if you can only afford to travel to one conference this year, the First Biennial Updike Society Conference in Reading, Pa., is the one to go to this coming October! Those of you who can attend ALA should click on the link on the left menu for information about registration and hotels.