At the annual membership meeting, this year held at the American Literature Association Conference in Chicago on Friday, May 28, society president Jim Plath announced that the board has decided to postpone The John Updike Society’s scheduled 2023 conference in the Republic of Georgia, due to uncertainty in that part of the world as a result of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Many of our members expressed deep disappointment that we won’t be going to Georgia in 2023, but with Putin being such an aggressor and such an unstable man, we thought the responsible thing to do was to postpone that conference at Akaki Tsereteli State University until 2025, when it will be the society’s 8th biennial conference,” Plath said. Which is to say, the society’s Georgia adventure will still happen, but at a time when people can feel comfortable again about flying to a country that borders Russia.
TUCSON, ARIZONA was announced as the site of the 7th Biennial John Updike Society Conference, where members will have “A Desert Encounter.” Updike wrote that New Yorker story about losing his prized hat (which is now on display at The John Updike Childhood Home museum) in the parking lot of his desert condo.
Members who attend the conference will not only get to see the parking lot and condo where John and Martha Updike lived for several months each year the last six or so years of his life; they’ll get to see the inside and experience the views that Updike did when he wrote on his patio every morning. And attendees will be able to enjoy a reception at the Skyline Country Club some 150 yards away, where Updike golfed (yes, another Rabbit Open best ball tournament is a possibility) and where John and Martha frequently ate.
There are other Updike sites in the area (like a historic inn where the Updikes always went for his birthday dinner), but an added bonus for scholars and teachers of contemporary American literature is that Tucson is also a big David Foster Wallace site (Wallace graduated from the University of Arizona MFA program in 1987), and we might visit some of those. Among other topics, a Call for Papers will invite comparative essays on Updike and Wallace.
The board thought that the first week in October would be the best time to visit the American Southwest, so “save the date.” More details will be forthcoming. At every conference, the society organizes day trips so attendees can experience the local culture and history, and of course those trips will continue.
One possible day trip would be to experience Tombstone, which, with Dodge City, are the most iconic towns of the Old American West. It’s an hour-and-a-half drive that would give attendees a chance to see more of Arizona. There’s also the nearby San Xavier Indian Reservation of the ToHono O’odham Nation, which has a casino we might wish to visit in addition to the more cultural aspects to be experienced.
Other possible attractions: Saguaro National Park (home to the nation’s largest cacti); The University of Arizona (located in Tucson), which TripAdvisor lists as a local site worth visiting; the Mount Lemmon Skycenter observatory (Elevation 9,157 feet; Arizona is famous for its “stellar” stargazing), which features two of the largest telescopes available for public viewing in the Southwest, plus a possible SkyRide up the mountain which offers stunning views of the mountains surrounding Tucson; and the Titan Missile Museum (aka Air Force Facility Missile Site 8, a former ICBM site—now a National Historic Site) located 25 miles south of Tucson. It’s a National Historic Landmark and the only Titan II complex to survive from the late Cold War period.
Then there’s the San Xavier del Bac Mission, the oldest intact European structure in Arizona and another National Historic Landmark, built from 1783-1797; St. Augustine Cathedral; the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum (highly recommended by English faculty at UA), which offers an impressive array of flora and fauna; the Tucson Botanical Gardens, with its flowers and butterflies; and a Sonoita Valley Wine Tour, since wine-tasting is popular in the area. On the low-key side there are historic districts to walk through in Tucson, and a Sunday morning Rillito Park Farmer’s Market.
But there are a lot of additional sites that have historical significance. The board looks forward to having another adventure with our members!
