San Jose State University invites proposals for papers and panels on reading, teaching, and translating John Steinbeck for the Steinbeck conference to be held March 22-24, 2023 at San Jose State. Said Daniel Rivers, assistant professor of American studies and literature and newly appointed director of the university’s Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies: “We invite proposals from varied disciplines and critical frameworks, including but not limited to literary/cultural studies, comparative literature, media studies, secondary and post-secondary education, psychology, political science, sociology, ecology, and marine biology. Potential topics include comparative studies of Steinbeck and post-Steinbeck writers, issues in translating Steinbeck’s works into other languages, stage/film/video adaptations, and approaches to teaching Steinbeck in contemporary classrooms.”

Email a 300-word or less abstract of the paper you propose to present, along with your biography of 200 words or less, to Steinbeck@sjsu.edu with the subject line “Steinbeck Conference 2023 Submission, [your last name].” If you are interested in suggesting a pre-constituted panel, workshop, or roundtable session for the conference, note the title, the format, and the names of your co-presenters in your online submission to the same address. If you are interested in soliciting participants for your proposed panel, workshop, or roundtable session, email your topic and request with the subject line “Panel CFP Steinbeck Conference 2023.” Your topic and invitation will be shared with the center’s mailing list. The deadline for all submissions is November 15, 2022.

Above: John Steinbeck caricature by David Levine.

Sunday, February 27, 2022, marks the 120^th anniversary of John Steinbeck’s birth in Salinas, California. To celebrate this occasion, the Monterey Public Library and the Martha Heasley Cox Centerfor Steinbeck Studies at San Jose State University are collaborating on a birthday conversation that brings together a group of established and emerging Steinbeckians. Join us on Tuesday, February 22 at 4:30 p.m. Pacific Time for a celebration featuring Susan Shillinglaw (author of Carol and John Steinbeck and A Journey into Steinbeck’s California); Robert DeMott (author of Steinbeck’s Typewriter: Essays on His Art); Keenan Norris (director of San Jose State University’s Steinbeck Fellows Program); and Daniel Rivers (director of the Martha Heasley Cox Center). Along with discussing favorite moments and persistent questions from Steinbeck’s work, the panelists will reflect on the author’s creative legacy and enduring relevance for the 21st century. This event takes place on Zoom, and registration closes an hour prior to the program. The Zoom access information will be sent to registered participants shortly before the program begins. Use of a video camera and level of participation are at your discretion. You can also use Zoom’s phone feature to call and listen in to the conversation.

John Steinbeck was no accidental tourist when it came to the Republic of Mexico. Although he later expressed a preference for the mother culture of Spain, he traveled to Mexico early and often for personal and professional purposes: for escape and recovery, for literary and film material, and (some speculate) for at least one abortion for at least one of his three wives. Current criticism faults him for the absence of Mexicans, blacks, and other non-white characters in his 1939 protest novel The Grapes of Wrath, but four works from the following decade—The Forgotten Village and Sea of Cortez (1941), The Pearl (1947), and Viva Zapata (1952)—reflect Steinbeck’s fascination with the history and people of a country that was less than a day’s drive but utterly different from his hometown of Salinas, California. On October 2-3, 2021, the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas will celebrate Steinbeck’s Mexican connection with a schedule of in-person and online activities packaged and presented as Steinbeck and Mexico and priced at $20 a day ($17 for seniors). In addition to bingo, mural painting, and movies, the 40th annual Steinbeck festival includes online presentations by Richard Astro and Donald Kohrs on the writing of Sea of Cortez and by Vincent Parker on teaching Steinbeck in the 21st century. (The annual Steinbeck festival in Salinas used to take place in the spring to overlap with the triennial Steinbeck conference at San Jose State University, where discussion has begun about convening another conference in 2022.)

Making a virtue of necessity, officials at the National Steinbeck Center have announced that the August 1-2, 2020 Steinbeck Festival will move online, motivated by COVID-19 and the need to think globally while acting locally to support the arts in John Steinbeck’s home town of Salinas, California. An annual event for more than a quarter of a century, the festival has experimented with dates, formats, and marketing strategies in the past, all in an effort to engage two contrasting constituencies—the multicultural community of Cannery Row and California’s Central Coast; fans of Steinbeck’s fiction from other states and countries—in honoring the famous local author who attracted the latter during his life by celebrating the former in his work. “Looking back, I don’t know why we haven’t done this before,” notes Michele Speich, the center’s director, of plans for this year’s “virtual platform” event. “We have a global audience, and we’re thrilled now to be able to share the Festival on a worldwide level and bring [it] straight to everyone’s home.” For speaker and schedule information, visit the Virtual Steinbeck Country United Global Festival sign-up page.

The history, lives, and contribution of female canning workers during Cannery Row’s 20^th century sardine boom will be celebrated in a special exhibit at the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, California, starting November 15-16, 2019. Created in honor of the 75^th anniversary of John Steinbeck’s 1945 novel Cannery Row, the exhibit features a donated collection from the Monterey History & Maritime Museum that includes cans and labels from the assembly line, union booklets, and cannery workers’ uniforms, along with an opening event screening of the 1973 cinematic poem Street of the Sardine, by the French physician-filmmaker Eva Lothar. “Cannery Girls” runs through the second week of January 2020.

Photo from Cannery Row workers exhibit courtesy National Steinbeck Center.