American Literature Association

2026 ALA Conference

The Jonathan Bayliss Society is a member of the American Literature Association and participates in one or more panels during the annual ALA conference, which takes place during the Memorial Day weekend. The May 2026 conference will be held in Chicago. 

The Jonathan Bayliss Society invites proposals for two roundtables at the ALA in May 2026.

Roundtable 1: The Novel of Ideas in American Fiction

Although Philip Rahv claimed in 1940 that “Everything is contained in the American novel except ideas,” it’s possible he was mistaken, especially if we think of writers such as Robert Pirsig, Walker Percy, Toni Morrison, Ursula LeGuin, Samuel Delany, Ayn Rand, David Foster Wallace, James Baldwin, Kate Chopin, Herman Melville, Jonathan Bayliss, and others. We are interested in papers devoted to particular novels or authors as well as more wide-ranging or theoretical approaches to the topic. Please submit abstracts of no more than 250 words along with your academic affiliation (if any) and a brief biographical note to Gary Grieve-Carlson (grieveca@lvc.edu) by January 23, 2026.

Roundtable 2: Politics in American Fiction

We are interested in novels such as Henry Adams’ Democracy, Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men, Sinclair Lewis’s It Can’t Happen Here, Jonathan Bayliss’s Gloucesterman tetralogy, or Ward Just’s Echo House, but we are also interested in more wide-ranging approaches to the topic. Please submit abstracts of no more than 250 words along with your academic affiliation (if any) and a brief biographical note to Gary Grieve-Carlson (grieveca@lvc.edu) by January 23, 2026.

Conference and hotel details are available at https://americanliteratureassociation.org/ala-conferences/ala-annual-conference/.

In 2025 at the Boston conference, the JBS roundtable was "American Experimental Fiction," chaired by JBS Board member John T. Day. Board member Gary Grieve-Carlson's talk was on "Systems in the Novels of Jonathan Bayliss";  the panel included talks on other authors by Karen Frances McCarthy, Nick Salvo, and Izaak Hecht. A joint JBS-Charles Olson Society panel, "Charles Olson, Vincent Ferrini, and Jonathan Bayliss in Gloucester: Poetry, Prose, and Place," was chaired by the Olson Society's Josh Hoeynck. Grieve-Carlson's paper was “The Idea of Tragedy in Jonathan Bayliss’ Prologos”; other panelists were Jim Cocola, Ben Lee, and Katherin Yu.

Bayliss Society Notebook

JBS members receive the Bayliss Society Notebook once or twice a year. The Notebook usually includes short scholarly articles as well as organizational updates. Submissions are welcome and may be emailed to info@jonathanbayliss.org.