Poe Studies Association Updates
- Poe Studies Association Updates
I am pleased to announce three new honorary members of the Poe Studies Association: Jana Argersinger, John Gruesser, and Henri Justin. Argersinger recently retired as publications editor Washington State University and served as an editor of Poe Studies: History, Theory, Interpretation. Gruesser is a past president of the PSA, senior research scholar at Sam Houston State University, and author of Edgar Allan Poe and His Nineteenth-Century American Counterparts. Justin is a professeur honoraire des universités and the author of Avec Poe, jusqu'au bout de la prose. These are just a few of their achievements, and we honor them for their sustained and significant contributions to Poe studies. Citations will appear in the Fall issue.
On behalf of the executive committee, I would like to thank Philip Phillips for chairing the nominating committee for our most recent election. At the end of May, we will welcome our new executive committee members when the PSA holds its annual business meeting during the American Literature Association conference. All members are invited; I will send an email with the meeting details as soon as I know them. I also want to thank Richard Kopley and Paul Lewis, our Fifth International Edgar Allan Poe Conference organizers, for creating an informative and appealing CFP, which appears on the back cover of this issue. The conference will be held in Boston at the historic Omni Parker House Hotel, April 8–10, 2021. I hope to see you there!
We were happy to hear that on January 19, 2020, the Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum at 203 Amity Street in Baltimore became Maryland's first national literary landmark. The site has been accepted into the United for Libraries national registry of Literary Landmarks. A fine gift for Poe's 211th birthday! See http://www.poeinbaltimore.org/poe-house/ for details.
From Emron Esplin, PSA Vice President
On January 9, 2020, members of the Poe Studies Association gathered in Seattle at the MLA Convention to participate in a panel titled "Poe, Islands, Archipelagoes." Engaging recent work in the newly established field of archipelagic American studies, the four presenters offered archipelagic readings of several of Poe's sea narratives as well as "The Fall of the House of Usher," "The Gold-Bug," and his unfinished novel—The Journal of Julius Rodman. [End Page 163]
For the upcoming MLA Convention in Toronto in 2021, the PSA will sponsor the panel "Revisiting Poe's Poetry." Poe longed to be known as a poet. His poetry and his prose have both influenced literary traditions and popular culture on a global scale, but in the twenty-first century, far more critical conversations take place around Poe's prose than his poetry. Why and how do we read Poe's poems in the twenty-first century? How do they talk to us now in ways that are similar to and different from their influence on past literary traditions? This panel hopes to offer new interpretations of Poe's poetry—considering works about his repeatedly anthologized, his well-known, and his lesser-known poems. The panel also hopes to historically contextualize Poe's poems, offer comparative readings, and/or examine their translations.
From Cristina Perez and Adam Lewis, PSA Members-at-Large
Two panels were to be held at the 2020 American Literature Association Conference in San Diego: "Poe in the Wireless Classroom" and "Poe's Environmental Humanities." Since the ALA was canceled due to the corona-virus pandemic, these two panels will be presented at the 2021 ALA in Boston.
From Carole Shaffer-Koros, PSA Treasurer
As of January 6, 2020, we have 187 members. The checking account is $32,895.87. Restricted funds include: Dameron Award: $890.00; Gargano Award: $3,660.10; Quinn Award: $,2,925.93. We have two CDs: one for $2,327.00 and one for $6,170.87. Deducting the restricted awards funds and adding the CDs, we have $34,117.11 in unrestricted funds. You are invited to make tax-deductible contributions to the awards funds or to the upcoming Boston PSA conference. Just let me know at ckoros.kean@gmail.com. Don't forget...
