The 123rd Annual PAMLA Conference
Hyatt Regency Seattle
808 Howell St.
Seattle, Washington, 98101
206-973-1234
The PAMLA 2026 Conference is being held at the lovely Hyatt Regency Seattle Hotel in Seattle, Washington, beginning on Thursday morning, November 12 and continuing through Sunday afternoon, November 15. More information coming soon regarding hotel accommodations (with PAMLA’s special group rate).
The 2026 PAMLA Conference is being held entirely in-person at the Hyatt Regency Seattle. There will be no virtual or hybrid sessions or papers: the entire conference is being held in-person. So, please join us for a warm, welcoming, fun, intellectual, cultural, and social experience in the heart of one of the loveliest and most vibrant of cities: Seattle. It is an intellectual vacation, a celebration of literature, culture, art, and the Humanities, a Chautauqua weekend for the soul!
We are thrilled to announce a few of our featured speakers for 2026:
- Plenary Speaker: Renowned scholar and past MLA president Michael Bérubé (Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Literature, Penn State), author of The Ex-Human: Science Fiction and the State of Our Species, It’s Not Free Speech (with Jennifer Ruth), and The Secret Life of Stories.
- Arts Keynote: Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Rae Armantrout, author of Versed, Safe Rooms, Conjure, and Go Figure.
- Arts Keynote: Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize-winning poet Marilyn Chin, author of Sage, A Portrait of the Self as Nation, and Revenge of the Mooncake Vixen.
- Theme Keynote: James Hynes, author of the novel Sparrow, to be interviewed by Sarah Levin-Richardson (Classics, University of Washington), an expert on the embodied experiences of slaves and sexuality in Roman Italy and the provinces.
- Theme Keynote: Jeffrey Gray, scholar, poet, and translator, and author of Mastery’s End: Travel and Postwar American Poetry.
- Arts Keynote: Sonora Jha, author of the novels Intemperance, Foreign, and The Laughter, and the memoir How to Raise a Feminist Son.
- We will have a terrific PAMLA Welcome Event on Wednesday evening, November 11: The Pop-Poetry Music Project! Please try to join us for this fun, special event—it was a huge success last year!
Paper Proposals – EXTENDED DEADLINE
With more than 100+ approved sessions on a wide array of literary and humanities topics open to paper proposals, our CFP list and paper proposal system is now open! You may now submit a paper proposal at pamla.ballastacademic.com, with the proposal extended deadline being June 30 or when filled.
To propose a paper, you’ll need to find a session at the CFP page to propose to, click on the session, then click on the green “Submit Abstract” button. There, you can enter your paper proposal. You’ll need to include a title for your paper, a brief abstract (approximately 50 words), a longer proposal (250 to 500 words), a brief bio for yourself, and a few other items.
As a reminder, the most compelling PAMLA abstract proposals typically present a clear and concise thesis, offer clear textual examples, situate the paper within a broader intellectual conversation, and demonstrate knowledge of scholarship on the topic and a visible methodological approach.
PAMLA Conference Expectations
We expect that anyone proposing a special session or a paper for the conference will be able to attend in person. Applying when you know you cannot join us in person disrupts conference planning, potentially taking away a spot from another possible panelist who can attend, as well as endangering the session and making conference planning more difficult. So, please do not propose a session or paper if you know you have little or no chance of attending the conference in person.
PAMLA allows no virtual or hybrid sessions or papers.
Join PAMLA in 2026
Membership for 2026 is now open. PAMLA members receive our terrific journal, Pacific Coast Philology, and also, if you have a few extra dollars, please make a donation to support PAMLA during these difficult times. Your membership ensures that PAMLA can continue supporting conferences, scholarships, publications, and the artistic collaborations that make our association thrive.
PAMLA 2026 Health Policy
PAMLA expects its members to take care with their and their colleagues’ health. Since we cannot predict when a pandemic might return, and since the conference takes place during flu season, we encourage participants to be fully vaccinated and to monitor their health so as not to spread any communicable diseases. Those who test positive for Covid must cancel their conference participation. If you have any questions, please contact PAMLA Executive Director Craig Svonkin: 626-354-7526 or director@pamla.org.