{"id":7003,"date":"2026-06-02T08:05:50","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T13:05:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/?p=7003"},"modified":"2026-06-02T13:37:39","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T18:37:39","slug":"updike-society-members-convene-in-chicago-for-ala-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/2026\/06\/02\/updike-society-members-convene-in-chicago-for-ala-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Updike Society members convene in Chicago for ALA 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The annual American Literature Association conferences provide an important opportunity for societies devoted to the work of individual American authors to gather, exchange research findings, and discuss issues related to the operation and development of their organizations. This was certainly the case at the conference held in Chicago, May 20-23, 2026.<\/p>\n

The John Updike Society organized two sessions. The first session, Looking Back on Updike\u2019s Late Fiction<\/em>, was held on May 21 and focused on Updike\u2019s novels and short fiction written after 1990. Biljana Doj\u010dinovi\u0107, Takashi Nakatani, James Schiff, and Peter Bailey presented papers on In the Beauty of the Lilies<\/em>, Gertrude and Claudius<\/em>, Terrorist<\/em>, and \u201cBlue Light,\u201d a story from the posthumously published collection My Father\u2019s Tears<\/em>, respectively. The session was moderated by Marshall Boswell.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The second session, The Epistles of John: Updike\u2019s Life in Letters<\/em>, took place on May 22 and centered on Selected Le<\/em>tters of John Updike<\/em>, edited by James Schiff and published in October 2025. The discussion explored newly discovered material contained in the letters, as well as the challenges and rewards of collecting, selecting, and editing such a large body of correspondence. Participants included Peter Bailey, Marshall Boswell, James Schiff, and Matthew Shipe. The session was moderated by Biljana Doj\u010dinovi\u0107, substituting for Sylvie Math\u00e9, who was unable to attend the conference.<\/p>\n

At the business meeting of The John Updike Society, members discussed the division of responsibilities within the Society, possible themes for future issues of The John Updike Review<\/em>, and matters related to membership dues and obligations. Planning for the next John Updike Society Conference, scheduled to take place in Salem in April 2027, was also an important topic of discussion.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In addition, James Schiff participated in A Roundtable on Mentoring and the Future of Author Societies<\/em>, organized by\u00a0The Philip Roth Society. All members of The John Updike Society attending the conference took part in this session, alongside representatives of the Hemingway Society, the Mark Twain Circle, and other author societies.<\/p>\n

Participants noted that many literary societies face similar challenges, particularly with regard to membership numbers and member engagement, as well as the dissemination and recognition of scholarly work. Several proposals for addressing these issues were discussed, including the organization of multiple online meetings throughout the year based on pre-circulated materials, which would encourage greater participation and ongoing scholarly exchange.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The annual American Literature Association conferences provide an important opportunity for societies devoted to the work of individual American authors to gather, exchange research findings, and discuss issues related to the operation and development of their organizations. This was certainly … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":818,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ala","category-society-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/818"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7003"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7012,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7003\/revisions\/7012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}