The Circle at ALA

James S. Leonard
The Citadel

If you noticed how well everything went at the American Literature Association conference this year, you no doubt understood that that was because the conference was being co-directed by two officers of the Mark Twain Circle: Vice President (and past Executive Coordinator) Laura Skandera-Trombley (Coe College) and Executive Committee member (and past President and past Executive Coordinator) Michael Kiskis (Elmira College). In addition to their role as conference dignitaries and indispensable functionaries for the conference as a whole, Professors Skandera-Trombley and Kiskis participated in a session titled “Mark Twain’s Daughters.” There were also outstanding sessions on “Mark Twain and Race,” “Mark Twain and Others,” and “Twain on Fire.” There was also a Sunday morning business meeting in which John Bird (Winthrop University) was named to a three-year term succeeding Joseph Alvarez (Central Piedmont Community College) as Executive Coordinator of the Mark Twain Circle. Professor Alvarez, in turn, celebrated the completion of his highly successful three-year term by moving to the Executive Committee succeeding David E. E. Sloane (University of New Haven), who completed seven years of outstanding service to the Circle (as Vice President, President, and Executive Committee member). Other current members of the Executive Committee are Victor Doyno (SUNY, Buffalo) and Michael Kiskis. Shelley Fisher Fishkin (University of Texas, Austin) continues as President, and Laura Skandera-Trombley continues as Vice President.