Norman Mailer Society/Conference/2016 Long Branch, NJ
The 14th Norman Mailer Society Conference
Monmouth University, West Long Branch, NJ
September 29, 30 and October 1, 2016
WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. – (Sept. 16, 2016) – The Norman Mailer Society, in partnership with Monmouth University’s Wayne D. McMurray School of Humanities and Social Sciences, will hold its 14th annual conference on campus from Sept. 29 to Oct. 1. Barbara Mailer Wasserman, Long Branch native and sister of the late Norman Mailer, will provide the keynote address, “Mailer Roots in Long Branch.” Also included in the conference will be a reading by Monmouth Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing Alex Gilvarry from his upcoming novel, Eastman Was Here and a performance of the one-woman play, A Ticket to the Circus, by Bonnie Culver, based on the memoir of Mailer’s wife, Norris Church Mailer, performed by K.C. Leiber.
The program also includes a panel discussion, “Long Branch History,” moderated by Susan Goulding, chair of the English department, and co-chair of the conference. Joining her are Stan Blair, interim dean of the University’s Honors School, Randell Gabrielan, vice-chair of the Monmouth County Historical Commission and Melissa Ziobro, specialist professor of public history at Monmouth.
Other notable panels include “Putative Comments on the 2016 Election by the Late Norman Mailer,” chaired by former Mailer Society president, author Mark Olshaker. The panelists are Neil Abercrombie, former governor of Hawaii, Mailer’s son, Michael, a filmmaker and Mailer’s nephew, writer Peter Alson. Another is “Children of Famous Writers,” featuring Mailer’s daughter Susan, Kaylie Jones, daughter of novelist James Jones and Greg Bellow, son of novelist Saul Bellow. This panel will be moderated by Mailer Society president and conference co-chair, J. Michael Lennon.
Program
 | Room 107, Room 108, Club Lounge and Club Dining Room are located in the Samuel Hays Magill Commons;
Anacon B is located in the Rebecca Stafford Student Center; Wilson Auditorium is located in the Woodrow Wilson Hall |
Thursday, September 29
8:45-9:30: Business Meeting (Room 107)
9:45-10:45
- Panel: “Lipton’s”: Mailer’s Marijuana Journal: Justin Bozung, Nicole DePolo, Susan Mailer, Jason Mosser, Moderator: Michael Lennon (Room 107)
- Papers: “Mailer and Ty Cobb: Unnoticed Parallels”: William Thelin; “Reading Mailer Reading Miller,” James Decker; Moderator: Marc Triplett (Room 108)
11:00-12:00: Panel: Mailer and Picasso: Justin Bozung, Christopher Busa, Maggie McKinley, Moderator: Jackson Bryer (Room 107)
12:00-1:15: Lunch on Your Own (Box Lunches available/ pre-order only). Box Lunch diners may use the Club Dining Room.
1:30-2:30: Papers: “Could an Author, Even Mailer, Be Mailer Today?”: Tim Lemire; “Mailer vs. Celebrity Culture”: Sal Fallica, Moderator: Denise Pappas (Room 107)
2:45-3:45: Panel: Long Branch History: Stan Blair, Randell Gabrielan, Melissa Ziobro, Moderator: Susan Goulding (Wilson Auditorium)
4:00-5:00
- Papers: “Hippy and Hipster: Theology and ‘The White Negro,’” Bowen Alpern; “Mailer, the Beats, and Drugs: Raj Chandarlapty, Moderator: Philip Sipiora (Room 107)
- Panel: Remembering Muhammad Ali: Ron Fried, Bill Lowenburg, Michael Mailer, Moderator: John Buffalo Mailer (Room 108)
5:30-7:45: Dinner on Your Own
8:00-9:30: A Ticket to the Circus: A One-Woman Play by Bonnie Culver, performed by K. C. Leiber (Wilson Auditorium)
Friday, September 30
9:00-10:00: The Digital Mailer: Gerald Lucas (Room 107)
10:15-11:15: Panel: Putative Comments on the 2016 Election by the Late Norman Mailer: Gov. Neil Abercrombie, Peter Alson, Michael Mailer, Moderator: Mark Olshaker (Wilson Auditorium)
11:30-12:30
- Panel: Mailer and Bellow: Ezra Cappell (tentative), Alex Gilvarry, Maggie McKinley; Moderator: Ron Fried (Room 107)
- Papers: “The American Existentialism of Norman Mailer”: Okla Elliott; “Mailer’s Reading of Capital as Fiction”: Erik Nakjavani; Moderator: Bonnie Culver (Room 108)
12:30-1:30: Lunch on Your Own. Boxed Lunch diners may use the Club Dining Room. Board Members will have a brief meeting during lunch in the Club Lounge
1:45-2:45: Panel: Children of Major Writers: Greg Bellow, Kaylie Jones, Susan Mailer, Moderator: Michael Lennon (Wilson Auditorium)
3:00-4:30
- Panel: Mailer’s Short Fiction: Bonnie Culver, Joseph Lennon, Philip Sipiora, Moderator: Vic Peppard (Room 107)
- Panel: Mailer and Plastics: The Seer and the Scientist (based on the film, The Invisible Ocean): Robert Begiebing, Chris Busa (Room 108)
5:30-8:00: Dinner at Monmouth University (Anacon B)
8:15-9:15: Reading: Alex Gilvarry reading his forthcoming novel, Eastman Was Here, introduced by John Buffalo Mailer (Wilson Auditorium)
Saturday, October 1
9:00-10:00
- Papers: “The Naked and the Dead: Lost Illusions and Pessimism”: Alexander Hicks; “Mailer and Babel on Being Jewish,” Victor Peppard, Moderator: Mashey Bernstein (Room 107)
- Papers: “Mailer in the Classroom”: Matthew Hinton; “Violence, Style, and Pedagogy: Teaching Mailer in American Literature Courses”: Walter Lewallen; “Mailer as Playwright”: Timothy Nolan; Moderator: Nicole DePolo (Room 108)
10:15-11:15: Readings from Mailer’s First (unpublished) Novel, “No Percentage”: Wilkes Readers Theatre: Bonnie Culver, Matthew Hinton, Caleb Sizemore, Hillary Transue, Ken Vose (Wilson Auditorium)
11:30-12:30
- Panel: The Castle in the Forest: Another Look: Robert Begiebing, Jacob Hebda, Joanna Poncavage, Moderator: John Winters (Room 107)
- Panel: Mailer and Photography: Dan Kramer, Larry Schiller, Moderator: Nina Wiener (Room 108)
12:45-3:00: Keynote Luncheon Address: “Mailer Roots in Long Branch”: Barbara Mailer Wasserman (Anacon B)
3:30-4:00: Visit to Mailer and Schneider family graves in Long Branch Cemetery. Mashey Bernstein Presiding
Book Your Rooms
I have just this afternoon received notice from Monmouth University that Friday through Sunday is now its Family Weekend. This change was made due to Monmouth’s home football schedule. Saturday is a particularly busy day on campus with a home football game and family programming around campus. The 2016 NMS Conference runs from Thursday through Saturday.
We can’t anticipate how this change in Monmouth’s schedule will impact the booking of room in area hotels. The Society has arranged for 40 rooms to be blocked for conference attendees. We can only add an additional block of rooms after 90% of the original block has been booked. As of this writing, another 43 room nights need to be booked before we can add any more rooms to our current block.
If you intend to attend the conference, please book your room now.
The conference hotel (5 minutes from the university) is the Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites, 294 Highway 36 East, West Long Branch, NJ 07764.
You may reserve a Standard Room by calling (732) 542-1234. Use the group booking code NMS when you reserve your room. The cost per night is $79 plus applicable taxes. A free Express Start Breakfast Bar is included. Reservation Cut-Off date is August 28, 2016. NMS Block Rooms remaining after this date will be released for general use.
~David Light
Call for Papers
We are pleased to announce that the 2016 Norman Mailer Society Conference will be held in Norman Mailer’s hometown of Long Branch, New Jersey at Monmouth University in cooperation with the University’s English Department and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. Monmouth English Department Chair Susan Goulding (goulding [at] monmouth [dot] edu) and Society President J. Michael Lennon (jmlennon1 [at] charter [dot] net) are the program co-chairs. Please email both with ideas for panels, papers or special events.
We are pleased to announce that Barbara Mailer Wasserman, a Long Branch native, will be the keynote luncheon speaker on October 1.
To accommodate all presenters, paper presentations should be no longer than ten minutes. Full papers can be made available to those interested, of course, and submitted for possible publication in the Mailer Review or Project Mailer. Two or three papers (four, maximum) will be presented in one-hour time slots, with the remaining time going to participant discussion and audience questions. Panels will also run for one hour, as will most video screenings the same. Please indicate media needs in your proposal. All proposals should be sent to Professor Goulding and Professor Lennon by June 1. Please contact them with questions and ideas.