Letter from the Editor

Dear readers,

I want to both welcome you to these pages of the Review and share news of an event that I hope will be exciting to you. I am very happy to announce that the next William Carlos Williams Society Biennial roundtable conference will take place on 19–21 June 2019 at the Center for American Studies, Via Michelangelo Caetani 32, Rome, Italy, an event kindly hosted by Professor Cristina Giorcelli.

I hope this opening of Rome to Williams scholars will prove as productive to future scholarship as the experience of Europe was provocative to Williams himself. To reflect this context the conference theme is broad and open but embraces the contradictions implicit in the importance of Europe to Williams as a champion of American letters. “Williams and Europe” is thus the theme and submissions for those wishing to present their work are encouraged to submit proposals that range near to and beyond some of the following suggestions: Williams and Futurism; Williams and the Classics; Williams and religion; Williams abroad; Williams and translation; Williams and Rome.

Since the conference’s inception (also in a European setting) at the Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, in 2005, it has retained its small-scale but intensive focus through the adoption of a roundtable format which allows the work of up to 12 scholars to be presented in one hour slots, the bulk of that time being given to fielding questions from the audience and fellow presenters. To facilitate this audience participation those registered to attend will receive copies of the work to be presented in advance of the meeting. Thus there are two deadlines for the conference, the first to receive proposals of 200 words and a brief CV from those wishing to present (to be received by 2 December 2018, and sent to this address: WCWSocRome2019@gmail.com) and then for those accepted, a deadline of 3 June 2019 to receive a written piece of around 15 pages for circulation. The format has consistently been deemed of benefit to past presenters, especially junior scholars, as it offers an intense alternative to the helter skelter of short panel-based presentations.

Between 2009 and 2017 the conference was held close to Williams’s home and heart in New Jersey, at William Paterson University, and I want to put on record my enduring thanks to Professor Stephen Hahn and his family and colleagues for making those meetings such welcoming and rich experiences.

I certainly hope that you will encourage your peers to submit their work on Williams to the 2019 conference, and I look forward to seeing many of those who do in Rome next summer.