From The Editor

The PSA panel at the MLA drew a large crowd, so we’re assured that many more people are now aware of the joint International Poe & Hawthorne Conference to be held in Kyoto in June 2018; Sandra Hughes, chair of the conference, was at the panel to announce conference details and hand out flyers. The CFP appears on the back cover. PSA members should be aware that because of the generosity of Susan Jaffe Tane, travel grants once again will be available to help PSA members participate in this PSA-sponsored international conference. Details on how to apply for the Tane travel grant will become available as conference planning proceeds.

Another international Poe conference is in the works in Spain sponsored by the Edgar Allan Poe Spanish Association. Below is the description of the conference from the organizing committee via Santiago Rodriguez Guerrero-Strachan:

The Edgar Allan Poe Spanish Association will hold its First International Conference from January 31 to February 2, 2018, at the University of Valladolid. We invite paper proposals on the broad topic of Poe and populism. Poe lived and wrote a substantive body of his work during the presidency of Andrew Jackson who was labeled a populist. Today, with the rise of populism once more at the forefront of politics and the arts, debates regarding the meaning and action of populism have become common. Among the issues that have arisen in recent years are: considering sentimentalism as a central component of politics, thinking about the people as opposed to the cultural establishment, and questioning social institutions.

The so-called new age we are entering is an eventful and timely moment to reexamine Poe’s life and work and the society in which he lived in relation to populism both past and present: How was Poe influenced by the populist strand of Jacksonian democracy? How did the changes in the press influence Poe’s writings? Were the cultural changes of the period established for the long term or were they short-lived? How did populism influence the reception of Poe? Can Poe be a meaningful writer in and to our society? Are there signs that hint that his status as a canonical author may change?

Topics for the conference include (though they are not limited to): Poe and genres/aesthetics; Poe and the fantastic; Poe and sentimentalism; Poe and politics; Poe and the marketplace; Poe and the press; Poe and gender; Poe’s afterlives; transatlantic Poe.

Please send proposals (250–300 words) to eapsa2018@fyl.uva.es by June 4, 2017. If you have any queries, please contact us at that same address.

In this issue, we have added short biographies for our reviewers, and this practice will continue in future issues. In fall 2017, we will bring back a feature present in past issues, “Interviews with Poe Scholars.” This column will appear each fall for the upcoming years. In the past, we have had interviews with the following distinguished contributors to Poe studies listed below chronologically, beginning with the most recent interviewee:

• Ray Bradbury

• Susan Jaffe Tane

• Jefferson Moak

• Benjamin Franklin Fisher IV

• Stuart Levine

• David Ketterer

• Richard Wilbur

• Henri Justin

• Daniel Hoffman

• Roger Asselineau

• Burton R. Pollin

• Elvira Osipova

• John Reilly

• Ichigoro Uchida

• J. Lasley Dameron

• Eric W. Carlson

• Roger Forclaz