Author Archives: johnupdikesociety

Updike Society receives American Family Insurance award

Posted on November 4, 2019 by johnupdikesociety

Because of their work preserving The John Updike Childhood Home and turning it into a museum, The John Updike Society was chosen as one of 100 nonprofit organizations to receive a $2500 donation from American Family Insurance and the American … Continue reading →

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An insider’s thoughts on Updike and Roth

Posted on October 31, 2019 by johnupdikesociety

As Charles McGrath explains in an essay on “Roth/Updike” that was published in the Autumn 2019 edition of The Hudson Review, he had the privilege of knowing John Updike well enough to play golf with him and Philip Roth enough … Continue reading →

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Writer-actress picks Rabbit for her desert island companion

Posted on October 25, 2019 by johnupdikesociety

TV watchers know British actress Katy Brand for such series as Katy Brand’s Big Ass Show, Nanny McPhee Returns, Psychobitches, and a very funny performance as Queen Elizabeth I on the U.K. version of Drunk History. Readers know her for … Continue reading →

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Is John Updike a ‘Malfunctioning Sex Robot’?

Posted on October 14, 2019 by johnupdikesociety

That’s the charge Patricia Lockwood levels after she’s charged with reading and reviewing Novels, 1959-65: The Poorhouse Fair; Rabbit, Run; The Centaur; Of the Farm, by John Updike for the London Review of Books. And she skewers Updike with the … Continue reading →

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Interview with Michael Updike spotlights Plowville gravestone

Posted on October 14, 2019 by johnupdikesociety

If you haven’t been to Plow Church cemetery to see John Updike’s gravestone carved by son Michael, there’s a large photo of it accompanying a Northshore Magazine story about how Updike’s sculptor son changed his artistic course after that gravestone. … Continue reading →

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Updike Society well represented at New Orleans short story conference

Posted on October 14, 2019 by johnupdikesociety

In September, 2019, four members of The John Updike Society presented papers at a New Orleans symposium sponsored by the Society for the Study of the American Short Story and the American Literature Association. Robert Luscher, Professor Emeritus of English … Continue reading →

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Rabbit finds his way into a Sam Riviere poem

Posted on September 28, 2019 by johnupdikesociety

In the U.K., Penguin’s Modern Poets Five: Occasional Wild Parties—featuring poems by Sam Riviere, Frederick Seidel, and Kathryn Maris—includes the poem “Year of the Rabbit,” by Riviere. The poem is also available to view online through Poemhunter.com, and so we … Continue reading →

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Lorrie Moore to deliver keynote at 2020 John Updike Conference

Posted on August 19, 2019 by johnupdikesociety

Writer Lorrie Moore will travel to Shillington-Reading to deliver the keynote talk at the 6th Biennial John Updike Society Conference at Alvernia University. The conference will take place the first week in October 2020, which coincides with the October 3 … Continue reading →

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Baby Boomer Report Card references Updike

Posted on August 12, 2019 by johnupdikesociety

In his op-ed piece published in the Friday, August 9, 2019 New York Times (A23), David Brooks grades the Baby Boomer generation on Politics (C-), Social Movements (A), Pop Culture (A), High Culture (C-), Technology and Innovation (A-), Lifestyle (A), … Continue reading →

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Golfer’s Journal features a personal consideration of Updike and golf

Posted on August 12, 2019 by johnupdikesociety

A subscription is required, but if you’re high on golf and John Updike, as Matt Chominski is, you can plunk down the cash and read Chominski’s personal essay “Peculiar Bliss: Navigating family, marriage and golf with John Updike” that appears … Continue reading →

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