Volume 10, Number 2 (Spring 2024) of The John Updike Review was recently published, and Updike society members have been quick to comment on the stunning cover: a photograph of the Tucson casitas that John and Martha Updike owned and lived in each spring between 2004-2008. The photo was taken by the journal’s editor, James Schiff, when attendees at the 7th Biennial John Updike Society Conference in Tucson had the opportunity to tour the casitas.
Inside this most recent issue is a special section on Updike and the West, featuring an introduction by Schiff and an essay on “Discovering the Updike Casitas” by conference co-director Jan Emery, who, along with husband Jim, owns the casitas.
Also included in the special section is a reprint of Updike’s “A Desert Encounter,” in which he describes the loss of a beloved hat in the parking lot as a result of his attempt to prune the ocotillo off their back decks. That hat was on display at the casitas for the conference tour, but will be returned to The John Updike Childhood Home in Shillington, where it is usually displayed. Rounding out the special section are three papers expanded from presentations at the conference: Sue Norton’s “Pruning the Self: Authorial Presence in ‘A Desert Encounter,'”; Christopher Love’s “Contracted Space: John Updike and the American West”; and Matthew Shipe’s “Way Out West: Revisiting A Month of Sundays.”
The issue’s lead essay is a reminiscence on “Capote and Updike” by filmmaker Jan Schütte, with additional essays by Peter J. Bailey (“Bowing Out: Retirement Rue in Ford and Updike”), Louis Gordon (“Updike’s Rabbit and Roth”), Donald J. Greiner (“Updike’s Pilgrimage Toward Divorce”), and Presleigh-Anne Johnson (“Mainstream or Multicultural? Greek Food and American Identity in John Updike’s Rabbit Redux“).
The John Updike Review is published twice annually by the University of Cincinnati and The John Updike Society and is based at the University of Cincinnati, Department of English and Comparative Literature, with Nicola Mason serving as managing editor.
Members of the society living in the U.S. receive print copies as part of their membership, while members living elsewhere receive digital copies.
All submissions are welcome, and can be sent directly to James Schiff via email: james.schiff@uc.edu.
Dr. Carla Alexandra Ferreira, a Brazilian scholar whose YouTube channel is “Carla Ferreira: Literary Dialogues,” has featured brief discussions of two John Updike novels: 
This National Windows Day (that’s a thing?), renowned photographer Jill Krementz shared some of the photos she took of 
Sue Norton, Lecturer of English in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Technological University Dublin, Ireland, has accepted an invitation to join The John Updike Society Board of Directors. Her appointment is effective immediately.
“We float above events, seeing them from the perspective of different characters, sometimes switching viewpoint over the space of a paragraph,” Jones wrote. “Rabbit, Run expresses a desire to transcend ordinary life, while also suggesting—in the manner of Ecclesiastes—that the only meaningful escape available to us lies in ordinary things. In the end, Rabbit, Run does not promise any kind of silly nirvana, but it does suggest a more liberating and interesting way of looking at the non-nirvana in which we spend our days.”
On May 3, 2024, the “Novelist Spotlight: Interviews and insights with published fiction writers” blog looked in the rear-view mirror to discuss a writer who, according to host and novelist Mike Consol, wrote more beautifully in English than anyone else.
Dorothy was a dynamic individual who worked as an office manager and accountant until she was 85. She also devoted much of her time to charity work, including service as a past president of the Reading Soroptimist International professional business women’s organization and as a member of the Berks County Prison Society where, according to her 
Two stories that Love plans on teaching are “Museums and Women” and “Avec La Bebe-Sitter,” but he is asking members who have advice on additional stories or have useful knowledge about connections between Updike and France, French writers, French art, etc., to email him (cslove@ua.edu). Since many society members tend to like Hemingway as well, Love added that his new non-fiction book, Crimson Code: The Price of Success, will launch at an 
Well here’s a different kind of take on John Updike’s 2000 novel that’s unlike any other: 
“In this little novel here, it all makes perfect sense,” Jordan-as-Gertrude said.