ALA (American Literature Assn) Conference . 27th Annual Conference. SF The Hyatt May 26-29 2016 Director, Alfred Bendixen, Princeton University

I attended the following sessions:

Session 1-J.  From New Jersey to San Francisco: William Carlos WIlliams, August Kleinzahler and Thom Gunn.  Organized by the William Carlos WIlliams Society.

Session 2 C  Raymond Carver Studies II: International Carver in Literature and FIlm.  Organized by the International Raymond Carver Society.  This brought me up to date on Tess Gallagher and the estate and its activities in films and books. 'Reading Raymond Carver in China, by Tian Lin, Xiangtan University, PRC, was particularily revealing, as RC is still not known in China; when I taught his short story, "Cathedral", I realized it was a strategic error, and omitted it from requirements for the students...they had no knowledge of the religious symbolism and hence it meant little to them.  Tian Lin says there is a popular readership and Carver is read among the writers of China, but he is not known in the universities or schools.  In contrast, in India, "The Influencce of Raymond Carver's Stories in the Tamil Literary World' by Jagannathan  Govindan  "Cathedral" would have been understood as it translates into the temple and religious culture.  

Session 3-B  Robert Lowell:  Translator and Environmentalist  Organized by the Robert Lowell Society.  Chair:  Frank J. Kearful, Universitat Bonn, Germany. Marjorie Perloff gave a lesson in translation:  "Translating Sound:  Robert Lowell on Baudelaire".   Willard Spiegelman, "Teaching Lowell in the 21st Century" which was about making him relevant.  "Canaries in the Coal Mind: Ecoconsciousness in Lowell, Bishop, Jarrell, and Sexton, Adam Beardsworth, Memorial University of New Foundland, Grenfell Campus, Canada.  Also, "An Ecocritical Approach to Lowell: Thomas Austenfeld, Universite de Fribourg, Switzerland.

I took a break and had lunch on the wharf -- we shared an octopus pizza -- Kate Robinson, who has been translating Welsh poetry and has finished a book of poetry and graduated MFA from Johns Hopkins...and is thinking about a Phd at Cambridge in England. She also loved HAWK McDonald's wonderful reverie on the death of her father and on what a hawk taught her and how a hawk taught her to live again. Her book is entitled TALIESEN...

We return and both attend the session 5-J.  "Beyond Projective Verse:  Olson's Developing Poetics from Black Mountain to the Late 1960's.  Organized by the Charles Olson Society.  The following talks were presented:  Jeff Davis "Olson's Later Poetics: Morphology and Voice in Olson's Later Maximus Poems".   Nathanael Pree, University of Sydney, "Vertical Kinship, Archaic Affinities and the Poetics of Proprioception".  Kirsty Singer, UC Irvine, "History, Unrelieved:  Mass Images and the Gravitational Field of Man's Interiors in Olson's "Billy the Kid" essay.

On Thursday, there were two sessions on Elizabeth Bishop.  "Visits to St Elizabeth's and the Music of the Mad: Heather Treseler Worcester University; "Came and Found it all, not unfamiliar".  Carmen Miranda and Bishops Banana-ized Brazil."  Jessical Goudeau, Southwestern University..."The Making of the Ballad of the Burgalar of Babylon by Elizabeth Bishop with WOodcuts by Ann Grifalconi, FSG.  1968.  Thomas Travisano, Hartwick College.

Session 10-A  Jack London and Literary Traditions.  I heard:  "Ghosting Susquehanna:  Jack Kerouac's Homage to Jack London."  Michael J. Martin Stephen F. Austin State University.

The Editor's Roundtable:  11-J.   Editing for an Author Society, Meredith Goldsmith, Edith Wharton Review.  She wants new approaches and comparative readings.  "Close Reading a single text" Lynda Zwinger, Arizona Quarterly.  She says "you must know everything about your topic"; "The Special Issue", John Duvall, Modern Fiction Studies.  Describes current issues: disabilities, etc.
"Features" Dana Nelson.  Wants offbeat and less formal articles as well as academic articles.
Book Reviewing" Gordon Hutner, American Literary History.  He invites people to send him reviews!

12-E  Dickinson's Spaces.  Oragnized by the Emily Dickinson International Society.  Chair Michelle Kohler, Tulane University.  The presentations included the following:  The Daguerreotype and Dickinson" Sandy Runzo, Denison University.   Space - Time Entanglements in Emily Dickinson's Writings, Esteve Marie, Universite de Cergy-Pontoise, "Dickinson and Shifters:  Typic "Heres".  Dan FIneman Occidental College. "     Renee Bergland, "Putting the Alive in:  Dickinson's Materialism".

14 - D.  Dickinson and Others.  Organized by the Emily Dickinson International Society.  Chiar Wendy Martin, Claremont.   "An Amethyst Emptiness:  Emily Dickinson's Influence on Ted Hughes Elegies", Katherine Robinson.   "Death -so- the Hypen of the Sea - Emily Dickinson's and Marianne Moore's Oceanic Graves", Jennifer Leader.  "Dickinson's little Citizens".  Beth Staley, W Virginia University; "The True Blank of the I: Dickinson's Poetry of Proxy." Kylan Rice.

 17-B  Welty and Muti Media Organized by the Eudora Welty Society.  Chair Harriet Pollack, Bucknell University.   "Eudora Welty as photography critic of Kertesz, Cartier-Bresson, Riefenstahl, and Eggleston"  ; "Eudora Welty in the Era of Social Media:  Must the Novelist Tweet? "   Jacob Agner, Univ of Mississippi.  "1930's and 40's Radio and Recordings in Welty's Letters and Fiction,"Julia Eichelberger, College of Charleston.

19-F.  "The Book as Vibrational Object":  Anne Waldman's Multi Dimensional Poetry Work.  Both on and off the page.   Organizer: Laura Hinton, CUNY.   Chair: Kevin Killian California College of the Arts (SF)   Abbe Waldman's lovis as Contemporary Feminist Anti War Epic.   Part 1.  Women, Myth and Androgynous Being." Estibaliz Encarnacion-Pinedo, University of Murcia (Spain)  Part 2.  Iovis, Ethics and the Master Problematic of War, Dean Kritikos, College of New Rochelle NY
2.  Made Up on Empty Spaces:  The Verbal- Visual Poetry Hybrids of Anne Waldman, "Laura Hinton.  CUNY  ; "Late Work or Womens Work?" Anne Waldman as Poetics Institution Builder.  Maria Damon, Pratt Institute.   Respondent:  Anne Waldman, Naropa University

20-H.  Friendship and/in The American Renaissance.   Chairs Rochelle Johnson and Kristen Case.
"The Critical Optimism of Thoreau's Friendship", Mark Gallagher, UC, LA.   "Tradig Influence for Friendship:  Anachronistic and Non-Reciprocal Friendship in Emerson."   Amelia Marini, CUNY.
"Trivial Matters: The Transcendental Ideal of Friendship and Womens Practice of it." Eileen Abrahams, Schenectady County Community College  '  "No Music on Our Lips: The Irrelevance of Academic Prose to Friendship in Emerson and Thoreau.   David Heckerl. Saint Mary's, Canada.
"Thoreau's FOrms of Friendship: Lizzy LeRud, Univ of Oregon.

Then, my presentation in this panel, though it was cut short: 

Visual Culture  Chair Loretta G. Woodward, Marygrove College
"Whittier's Moving Canvas:  Whiteness and Federal Geography in 1856" Michael Stancliff Arizona State University; "Picturing Chinese America:  Reading Sui Sin Far in the Context of Turn of the 20th Century Visual Culture".  Linda Joyce Brown, Ashland University.  "Blindness and Inset:  Helen Keller's Handwriting". Alex Benson, Bard College; "Intertextuality as Creative Force: Painters and a Playwright.  Charles Demuth, Marsden Hartley and Eugene  O'Neill.  1916: A Man and the Sea. " Janet Roberts 

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