Very Special PAMLA Conference Events 2026
We are thrilled to welcome you to PAMLA 2026 this November 12-15 at the Hyatt Regency Seattle, in Seattle, WA! Beyond our rich lineup of panel sessions, this year’s conference is packed with inspiring keynotes, vibrant creative showcases, interactive workshops, and relaxing community spaces designed to connect, provoke, and inspire.
Below is your preview of the special events happening throughout the conference. Mark your schedules: you won’t want to miss these! And please do check to see if some of these events are on our PAMLA Registration portal, and sign up if you would like (so we can coordinate our numbers!).
How to Register & Sign Up for Special Events
While many special events are open to all registered attendees, certain events, excursions, and add-ons require advance signup or reservations.
To sign up for these events online:
- Log into your account at pamla.ballastacademic.com
- Click on the Registration / Membership tab in the top navigation menu.
- Scroll down through the registration options to locate and select the special events, luncheons, or excursions you wish to attend
- Complete your checkout to confirm your reservations.
Wednesday, November 11
PAMLA Welcome Event: The Pop-Poetry Music Project
Wednesday, Nov. 11 | 5:30–7:15 PM | Columbia C/D (3rd floor)
Erica Cefalo (UC Davis) & Billy Larkin (Artist)
Cefalo and Larkin perform songs adapted from poetry and talk through how they work together. Then they guide attendees in writing lyrics live and set audience creations to music on the spot. Light refreshments served.
Thursday, November 12
Track 2: “Dos and Don’ts” of Scholarly Publishing
Thursday, Nov. 12 | 9:55–11:25 AM | Elwha B (5th floor)
Richard Hishmeh & Martin Japtok (Palomar College)
The co-editors of Pacific Coast Philology share candid advice on submissions, revisions, editor expectations, and peer review.
PAMLA Thursday Keynote: Meeting John Doe in Nanjing
Thursday, Nov. 12 | 11:35 AM–12:35 PM | Elwha B (5th floor)
Jeffrey Gray (Seton Hall University) | Chair: Richard Hishmeh
Poet and critic Jeffrey Gray screened Capra’s Meet John Doe and Kazan’s A Face in the Crowd for graduate students in China. Drawing on that experience, he traces anti-intellectual populism from the Cultural Revolution to contemporary American politics.
PAMLA Thursday Keynote: Multicultural Rebellion, Intercultural Bliss
Marilyn Chin (San Diego State University) | Chair: Craig Svonkin
Award-winning poet Marilyn Chin gives an “annotated performance with chit-chat.” She reads classic and recent work, talks about her bicultural hybrid poetics, and takes audience questions.
Past-Presidential Address: Peter Schulman
Thursday, Nov. 12 | 4:45–5:45 PM | Columbia A (3rd floor)
Peter Schulman (Old Dominion University) | Chair: Juan Delgado (CSU San Bernardino)
We’re delighted to welcome Past President Peter Schulman back! His address is “Palimpsests of Melancholy: Paris, New York, Norfolk, and the Resistance to Speed.” He reads the hidden histories beneath modern cities as a quiet resistance to the speed and amnesia of contemporary life.
Track 5: Ask a Professor
Thursday, Nov. 12 | 6:00–7:30 PM | Room 512 (Non-AV)
Chair: Craig Svonkin (PAMLA/MSU Denver)
Panelists: Judith Paltin (UBC), Carlton Floyd (USD), Charles Hatfield (CSUN), Lorenzo Giachetti (UCSB), and Craig Svonkin
This is an open, honest roundtable. Panelists will discuss building sustainable careers, navigating changing disciplines, and keeping your kindness intact in the academic “shark pit.” Bring your questions!
Friday, November 13
PAMLA Friday Spotlight: PAMLA Poetry Salon
Friday, Nov. 13 | 11:25 AM–12:35 PM | Elwha B (5th floor)
Chair: Aldon Lynn Nielsen (Pennsylvania State University)
Poets: Kevin Hearle, Michael Davidson, Paul Nelson, James McCorkle, and Kit Robinson
Live readings and conversation on poetic craft and form.
PAMLA Friday Spotlight: Privilege, Precarity, Power with Sonora Jha
Friday, Nov. 13 | 11:25 AM–12:35 PM | Columbia A (3rd floor)
Sonora Jha (Seattle University) | Discussant & Chair: Nalini Iyer (Seattle University)
Sonora Jha is a novelist and former Times of India journalist. She reads from her novel Foreign (HarperVia 2026), then talks with Nalini Iyer, Chief Editor of South Asian Review, about her work, institutional power, and political resistance. Q&A to follow.
PAMLA Friday Keynote: Safe Rooms with Rae Armantrout
Friday, Nov. 13 | 2:55–3:55 PM | Columbia A (3rd floor)
Chairs: Jeanne Heuving (UW Bothell) & Steven Gould Axelrod (UC Riverside)
Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Rae Armantrout reads from her new collection Safe Rooms (Wesleyan, 2026). Afterward she talks with poet and scholar Jeanne Heuving and takes audience questions.
PAMLA Friday Keynote: Voices from the Shadows
Friday, Nov. 13 | 2:55–3:55 PM | Elwha B (5th floor)
James Hynes (Independent Scholar) & Sarah Levin-Richardson (UW Seattle)
Novelist James Hynes (Sparrow) and classicist Sarah Levin-Richardson discuss how fiction and “critical fabulation” can give voice to enslaved people in ancient Rome.
Track 9: PAMLA Undergraduate Forum I (II & III – Saturday/Sunday)
Friday, Nov. 13 | 4:20–5:50 PM | Room 502
Chair: Russell McDermott (University of Wisconsin–Whitewater)
Come support the next generation of scholars! Undergraduates present research on pop culture, digital labor, postcolonial theory, film, and more.
PAMLA 2026 Presidential Address: John Schwetman
Friday, Nov. 13 | 6:00–7:00 PM | Columbia A (3rd floor)
John Schwetman (University of Minnesota Duluth) | Chair: Peter Schulman
The address is “‘Everything I’ve Done in My Life, I’ve Done for My Children’: Succession and Class Satire in Gilded Age 2.0.” PAMLA President Schwetman reads HBO’s Succession alongside Wharton and Shakespeare. He uses them to examine media consolidation, inequality, and democracy in a high-tech “Gilded Age 2.0.”
Saturday, November 14
PAMLA Plenary Address: Michael Bérubé
Saturday, Nov. 14 | 11:30 AM–12:40 PM | Columbia A (3rd floor)
Michael Bérubé (Pennsylvania State University) | Chair: John Schwetman
Past MLA President Michael Bérubé speaks on “A Post-Cultural Gilded Age.” He asks what happens when today’s tech and financial elites no longer care about cultural legitimacy. The talk speaks directly to our 2026 theme, “Our Ruling Classes: Culture, Power, Conflict.”
A PAMLA Celebration: Book Fair & Author Reception
Time: Saturday, 12:40 PM – 1:40 PM | Location: Columbia C/D
Celebrate the achievements of fellow members! Browse, buy, and get copies signed at our dedicated showcase of member publications.
Saturday Creative Showcases
Saturday, Nov. 14 | 5:05–6:20 PM
It Rains Comix in Seattle
Saturday, Nov. 14 | 5:05–6:20 PM | Columbia A (3rd floor)
Charles Hatfield & Jose Alaniz with local artists, publishers, and organizers
Seattle is a hub for independent and alternative comics. Its scene runs from minicomix and zines to Fantagraphics, which turns 50 this year, and the annual Short Run Comix Festival. Join a conversation about the city’s inclusive, boundary-pushing comics community!
Some Seattle Poets
Saturday, Nov. 14 | 5:05–6:20 PM | Room 402
Organized by Rae Armantrout
Readers: Amaranth Borsuk, Richard Chiem, Jeanne Heuving, Sarah Mangold, Robert Mittenthal, Prageeta Sharma, and Cedar Sigo
Seven Pacific Northwest poets read work that ranges from digital and visual poetics to hybrid prose, Indigenous poetics, and language poetry. Together they show how place, community, and formal experimentation meet in Seattle’s poetry scene today. Free and open to all conference attendees!
Visualizing Dissent: WTO/99, Documentary Filmmaking, and the Battle of Seattle
Saturday, Nov. 14 | 5:05–6:20 PM | Elwha B (5th floor)
Ian Bell (Director) with Julia Reade, Satoko Kakihara (PAMLA Vice President), and John Schwetman (PAMLA President)
In November 1999, more than 40,000 activists converged on Seattle to protest the World Trade Organization. Ian Bell’s award-winning documentary WTO/99 tells the story of those four days entirely through archival footage, with no narration. Bell will screen excerpts and then join the panel to discuss corporate power, policing, Seattle’s radical history, and how raw footage becomes political narrative. Audience Q&A to follow.
Community & Interactive Spaces
PAMLA Book Exhibit
Location: Columbia Prefunction Space (3rd floor, Hyatt Regency)
Featured Exhibitors: PM Press, Broadview Press, Scholar’s Choice, and De Gruyter Brill Publishing
Stop by throughout the conference to browse academic monographs, new releases, and educational resources from premier academic and independent publishers! If you would like to propose selling your book, please reach out to Craig Svonkin (director@pamla.org).
- Thursday, Nov 12: 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM
- Friday, Nov 13: 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM
- Saturday, Nov 14: 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM
- Sunday, Nov 15: 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM
PAMLA Game Room & Calm Space
- Game Room (Room 302): Looking to unwind? Drop by to play board games, hang out with friends, or meet new colleagues!
- Hours: Thursday 8:00 AM – 7:00 PM | Friday 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM
- Calm Space (Room 513 Deschutes): Need a quiet breather? Head here to reflect and recharge away from the busyness of sessions.
- Hours: Thursday 8:00 AM – 7:00 PM | Friday 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM
PAMLA Farewell Reception
Time: Sunday, Nov 15, 12:30 PM – 1:30 PM |
Please join us for the PAMLA Farewell Reception immediately following the General Membership Meeting! Gather with colleagues and friends for light appetizers, non-alcoholic drinks, music, and great conversation.
More Special Events, Workshops, & Subject Area Caucuses!
This is just a highlight reel! In addition to our keynotes and featured spotlights, PAMLA 2026 features a full lineup of creative sessions, hands-on workshops, and Subject Area Caucuses designed to bring scholars and artists together around shared sub-fields and research interests.
- Check the Full Schedule: You can browse the complete list of sessions, panels, and caucus meetings by visiting pamla.ballastacademic.com and clicking on the Schedule tab in the top menu.
- Stay Tuned: We’ll be sharing more posts, spotlights, and updates in the coming weeks detailing these additional creative events and caucus gatherings, so keep an eye on your inbox and our social channels!