American Literature Association Meeting Cancelled

Updated Message (March 20, 2020)

ALA Conference and Coronavirus:

I deeply regret to inform you that we have had to cancel the ALA conference scheduled for May 21-24, 2020 at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego. The current situation in California and much of the rest of the country has made it impossible for us to hold this conference. The hotel is suspending normal operations and has agreed to allow us to cancel without penalty.

Please cancel your travel plans and your hotel reservations. If you have already paid the conference registration fee, you have three options:

You may request a full refund and we will process those refunds in early April.
You may request a credit that you can use to cover the full cost of registration for either the May 2021 conference in Boston or another ALA conference, including the upcoming symposia in Santa Fe in October 2020 and in Washington D.C. in February 2021. Although the conference fees for both the symposia and the large conference will have to go up to $175, you can use this credit instead of receiving a refund of $125.
You may choose to donate your refund to the new funds that the American Literature Association is setting up to support graduate student travel and the other activities of the organization.

If you have paid the registration fee, you can request any of these options by sending an email to Professor Olivia Carr Edenfield at carr@georgiasouthern.edu and informing her of your choice.

As you know, the American Literature Association will return to Boston for our May 2021 conference. In addition, we will be hosting a symposium on the Historical Imagination in American Literature in Santa Fe on October 29-31, 2020 and a symposium on the Forms of the American Novel in Washington, D.C. on February 25-27, 202. Information on all of these conference will be posted on the ALA website at www.americanliteratureassociation.org

Thank you for your ongoing support of the American Literature Association.

Alfred Bendixen

Executive Director

American Literature Association

Leslie Petty

2020 ALA Conference Director

American Literature Association