2015 RJA Conference Program

The 21th Annual Robinson Jeffers Association Conference
February 20-22, 2015, Carmel Woman’s Club, Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA
“Humanizing Jeffers: Father, Son, Neighbor, Friend, Lover”
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PROGRAM*

Friday, February 20
3:00 – 4:30 PM: Emerging Scholars Workshop, Carmel Woman’s Club
(Members welcome to audit)

5:00 – 7:00 PM: Reception & Piano Recital, Tor House
To celebrate the restoration of Una Jeffers’ 1905 Steinway,
pianist MaryClare Martin will play selections of Una’s favorite pieces
in recitals at 5:30, 6:00 and 6:30 in the parlor.

Saturday, February 21

8:30 Coffee & Danish

9:30 President’s Welcome
Geneva Gano, Antioch College

9:45 Jeffers as Husband and Friend
Chair, James Karman

“Robinson Jeffers—His Inscriptions
Found In Books”
Kathleen Sonntag, Tor House Archivist
“Thoughts on the Friendship between
Robinson Jeffers and Charles Erskine Scott Wood”
Tim Barnes, Independent Scholar

“Liberal Arts and Campus Life”
Dale Ann Stieber, Occidental College

11:30 Tribute to Alex Vardamis

12:00 Lunch @ Woman’s Club
Sandwiches, salads, drinks ($15)

1:30 New Critical Work Roundtable
Chair/Moderator, Jim Baird

The Wild That Attracts Us—In the World and on the Page.
Forthcoming collection of critical essays.
ShauneAnne Tangney, Minot State University, with
contributors Christopher Damien, Rob Kafka and Robert Zaller

Collected Letters, Volume 3: A Status Report
James Karman, Emeritus Professor
California State University, Chico

3:00 Jeffers and Modernism
Chair, ShauneAnne Tangney

“Milosz, Jeffers, and the Crisis of Modernism”
Robert Zaller, Drexel University

“Inhuman Rights”
Brett Colasacco, University of Chicago

4:15 Refreshments

5:00 Performance
Lili Bita, poet and actress

Featuring (1) an extended monologue (Medea) based on Lili’s own translation of a portion of the Jeffers adaptation of Medea ; another monologue, also in Lili’s Greek, from The Tower beyond Tragedy (Clytemnestra); and (3) her poem “To Kyuja.”

Sunday, February 22

8:30 Coffee & Danish

8:30 RJA Business Meeting

9:45 Jeffers’ Interlocutors
Chair, Geneva Gano

“Flaubert, Jeffers, and Stereotypes”
Ugo Gervasoni, Liceo Scientifico Lorenzo Mascheroni, Bergamo, Italy
(Read in absentia by Rob Kafka)

“Jeffers between Aeschylus and Euripides”
Kevin Batton, University of California, Irvine

“A Stone House, Twins, and a Book of Verse:
the Model of Emerson in the Life of Jeffers”
John Cusatis, School of the Arts, Charleston, SC

11:00 Psychology & Biomythography
Chair, John Cusatis

“Intruding on Jeffers: Some Notes on Biographical Mythology”
Mick McAllister, Independent Scholar

“Humanizing the Broken-Winged Hawk in Jeffers’ Personality”
Steven B. Herrmann, Jungian Psychotherapist

“Resurrecting God from the Grave”
J.R. Phillips, Poet and Visual Artist

Click here for a PDF

*Program subject to change
Program as of February 10, 2015