DFW20: An All-Digital Online Conference

Let's be honest: I didn't plan to run a conference this year.  Before coronavirus — before cities burned, before I was home watching my son while trying to convert my teaching to an online format — I was content to watch as others took up this torch.  Despite the reservations or disagreements I've had, there was a conference scheduled in Austin — there was a time and a place for people to gather and continue the conversations.  But the world has changed radically in the past three months, and we need this conference now more than ever.

Read more about the meaning of DFW20.

DFW19: Wallace, Wittgenstein, and Religion

Nan Denette and Michele Ragno
Moderator: Vernon Cisney
Saturday, June 29, 2019, 9:00 AM — 9:50 AM

DFW19: Rights and Logic in Wallace's Short Fiction

Matthew Alexander, Ben Zimmerman
Moderator: Daniel Leonard
Friday, June 28, 2019, 4:00 PM — 4:50 PM

DFW19: Society, Ethics, Representation in Wallace's Writing

Genevieve Bettendorf and Tom Winchester

Moderated by Matthew Alexander
Friday, June 28, 2019, 3:00 PM — 3:50 PM

DFW19: Queering David Foster Wallace Studies: A Diversity Roundtable

Andrea Laurencell Sheridan, Tom Winchester, Grace Chipperfield
Moderated by Ryan Edel
Friday, June 28, 2019, 1:00 PM — 1:50 PM

DFW19: Ethics, Freedom, and Infinite Jest

Vernon Cisney, Ryan Kerr, and Andrew Langford
Moderator: Andrew Varnon
June 28, 2019, 9:00 AM — 10:15 AM

Allard den Dulk - DFW19 Keynote

Sick and Wicked: A Comparative Reading of Wallace’s “The Depressed Person”, “B.I. #20”, and Dostoevsky’s “Notes from Underground”

Livestream Schedule for DFW19

Here's the Complete Livestream Schedule for DFW19!  We'll be livestreaming our Panels to our Facebook page, and then later we'll upload HD-quality video for our archives.  (Sadly, the camcorder doesn't like the internet.)

Want more details about the panels?  Click here to read the full schedule!   There you'll find abstracts and presenter bios for every panel.

Livestream Instructions for Moderators

Moderators!  If you're in a livestream panel, you'll be directing the camera to record our presenters.  It's a very simple setup - we have a camcorder and an iPhone together on a tripod.  Here's the quick video guide to running the video!

Ordinary Unhappiness by Jon Baskin - Stanford University Press

Save 20% with discount code BASKIN20 at www.sup.org

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Save 20% with discount code BASKIN20 at www.sup.org

This paid promotion supports conference expenses for #DFW19

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DFW19 Registration Details

Ready to Register?

If you're ready to Register for the 2019 DFW Studies Conference, then you can go directly to our Registration Page.  Otherwise, please click Read More to see more detailed information about our fee rates for this year.

Call for Proposals Open for DFW19!

The Call for Proposals for DFW19 is now Open!  This year, we have major five categories - in all categories, we particularly encourage studies of the influences that drove Wallace's writing, including (but not limited to) postmodernism, philosophy, psychology, economics, future media forms, and others.  We also welcome roundtable discussions that will encourage more open-ended audience participation in the discussion.

• DFW Studies: presentations specifically addressing the work of David Foster Wallace
• Literary Studies: presentations examining works of contemporary writing from the 1950's onward.
• Arts and Culture: presentations that consider the directions of contemporary society, particularly in relation to arts, literature, and media.
• Pedagogy: presentations and discussions on introducing Wallace, fostering writing skills, or teaching other aspects of literature to today's students.
• Creative Writing: readings of original works in a variety of genres.

For more information, please visit either our Submissions Page or the DFW19 Call for Proposals.

In case of questions, please Contact Us!

Reflecting on Wallace and September 11th

I was twenty-one years old when the Towers fell. I was an English major, but I had not yet heard of David Foster Wallace. I made it through four years of college without reading Wallace, Barthes, Borges, Powers, Egan, Franzen, Smith – and a long list of others. But then, I’ve never been a literature scholar – I’m a creative writer. I never spent enough time learning the canon – I instead picked up Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, J.K. Rowling. I read the books that grabbed hold of my face. Had I read “E Unibus Pluram” – I was in eighth grade when Wallace wrote it – I might have recognized myself, I might have understood that my choices of reading mimicked American choices in television. Instead, I thought myself elevated because I read The Economist, and because I earned a B in my journalism class.

Wanted: DFW Proceedings Reviewers

We're currently starting the DFW17 and DFW18 Proceedings!  All papers submitted for consideration will be evaluated through a peer-review process to ensure that they reflect the quality of the conference.  If you'd like to be a reviewer, please Read More.  Or open our Online Application in a new window.

2003 Interview with German TV

Here's the full-length interview from 2003, when Wallace sat down to discuss his views on fiction.



Thanks to Andrea Laurencell Sheridan for the link!

DFW Conference Online Presentation Gallery

To provide a lasting record of the conference presentations, we're putting together an online gallery of past presentations.

Submit to Presentation Gallery

DFW18 Proceedings

Did you present at the 2018 David Foster Wallace Conference?  We're pleased to (finally!) invite submissions for the DFW17 Proceedings.  Any presentation given at DFW18 is eligible for consideration.  We'll use blind review to review the submissions - before uploading a copy of your presentation, please remove all identifying information.  Ensure that the title provided in the file matches the title you include on your submission form.

Please use our Submission Form to have your presentation considered.  Deadline is September 30, 2018.

Back to Submissions Page

DFW17 Proceedings

Did you present at the 2017 David Foster Wallace Conference?  We're pleased to (finally!) invite submissions for the DFW17 Proceedings.  Any presentation given at DFW17 is eligible for consideration.  We'll use blind review to review the submissions - before uploading a copy of your presentation, please remove all identifying information.  Ensure that the title provided in the file matches the title you include on your submission form.

Please use our Submission Form to have your presentation considered.  Deadline is September 30, 2018.

Back to Submissions

The Problem with Irony - Television and David Foster Wallace

An overview of Wallace's critiques of excessive irony and postmodernism, and then a discussion of how we see the movement away from pure irony to new sincerity in contemporary television.

This Is Water - Full version-David Foster Wallace Commencement Speech