The Howells Society will hold elections at ALA 2007.

Open positions and current nominees:

Vice President/Program Chair . Rob Davidson, Lance Rubin

Rob Davidson is the author of The Master and the Dean: The Literary Criticism of Henry James and William Dean Howells (U of Missouri, 2005). He is also the author of a book of short stories, Field Observations (U of Missouri, 2001). Davidson's scholarship and creative work have appeared in Twentieth Century Literature, American Literary Realism, ZYZZYVA, Hayden's Ferry Review, Another Chicago Magazine, and elsewhere. Davidson's current research interests include his ongoing work on James and Howells, as well as a research project centering around the history and development of two particular literary forms: the novella and the short novel. His current creative interests include a second volume of short stories. Davidson is Assistant Professor of English at California State University, Chico, where he teaches creative writing and American literature.

Lance Rubin is Chair of the Humanities Program at Arapahoe Community College in Littleton, Colorado. His Ph.D. is from the University of Denver and he was the recipient of the William Dean Howells Memorial Fellowship at Harvard’s Houghton Library in 1998. He has presented multiple papers on Howells at the ALA (2006 and 2003) and the Rocky Mountain MLA (2004 and 1999), and wrote the entry for Annie Kilburn for Facts on File Companion to the American Novel. He is currently revising his dissertation “Remembering is Hell”: William Dean Howells, Realism, and the American Memory Crisis for publication. In addition,he has an essay forthcoming on Chuck Palahniuk for Literature After 9/11 (Routledge) and another on Philip K. Dick for American Popular Culture After 9/11 (currently looking for publisher).

Secretary: Donna Campbell

Donna Campbell is associate professor of English at Washington State University. She is the author of Resisting Regionalism: Gender and Naturalism in American Fiction, 1885-1915and has been secretary of the Howells Society since 1997. Recent publications on Howells include "Howells' Untrustworthy Realist: Mary Wilkins Freeman" in the American Literary Realism special issue on Howells (Winter 2006). She built and maintains the Howells Society web site and administers the howells-l discussion list.

Treasurer : Elsa Nettels

Elsa Nettels is professor emeritus of English at William and Mary College. She is the author of books and articles on Howells, including "Howells's 'a Circle in the Water' and Fitzgerald's 'Babylon Revisited'" (Studies in Short Fiction 19.3 (1982): 261-), "William Dean Howells and the American Language" (NEQ 53.3 (1980): 308-28), and .
Language and Gender in American Fiction: Howells, James, Wharton and Cather ( UP of Virginia, 1997). She has been treasurer for the past several years.

Editor of The Howellsian: Alex Feerst

Alex Feerst holds a BA from Columbia University and PhD in English from Duke University. At Duke and at Macalester College, he has taught courses on topics including 19th- and 20th-century American literature, literary theory, and the novel. He is currently a JD candidate at Columbia Law School. He has edited the online bibliography of Howells criticism for the past few years.

At the conference a business meeting will be scheduled, and the agenda will include the election or reelection of officers for the next two-year term, 2007-2009.

All members of the Society are invited to submit nominations in advance for the positions of Vice-President/Program Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, and Editor of The Howellsian ; all nominations should be sent to Donna Campbell, Secretary (<campbelld@wsu.edu>) by May 15, 2007 . They should include a brief bio-sketch or vita of the potential nominee as well as the assurance that he or she is willing to serve if elected; self-nominations are acceptable. Biographical sketches for current nominees are available at the Howells Society site.

Claudia Stokes, our current Vice-President/Program Chair, will automatically become President, and Susan Goodman, our current President, will automatically become Past President. Also, all members are welcome to attend the meeting and vote for the new officers. Please watch the conference program for the date, time, and place of the Society's business meeting.