23rd Annual Norman Mailer Society Conference
Mailer at the Bicentennial
November 4–7, 2026, Sirata Beach Resort, St. Pete Beach, FL
Updated October 26, 2026. Subject to change.
All sessions are in King Palm, 2nd floor, unless otherwise noted.
Wednesday, November 4
5:45–7:15 p.m. Welcome Reception and Cash Bar
The Grotto
7:30 p.m. Dinner on your own
Thursday, November 5
8:00–9:15 a.m. Continental Breakfast
Queen Palm, 2nd floor
9:15–10:15 a.m. Business Meeting
10:30–11:30 a.m. Vote the Rascals In: The 1969 Mayoral Campaign
- Justin Bozung, “Mailer/Breslin: Looking Back at the Campaign”
- Mary Lynn Navarro, “Norman as the Politician / The Politician as Norman”
Moderator: Matthew S. Hinton
11:45 a.m.–12:45 p.m. Mixing Memory and Desire and Mailer
- Raymond M. Vince, “Reflections on Time Present: Attacks on Memory, Complexity, and Empathy”
- Nicole DePolo, “Ancient Evenings”
Moderator: Maggie McKinley
12:45–2:15 p.m. Lunch on your own
2:30–3:30 p.m. Mailer at the Bicentennial
- Robert J. Begiebing, “The Prophet Speaks”
- J. Michael Lennon, “Hercules at the Crossroads: Mailer in 1976”
Moderator: Mashey Bernstein
3:45–4:45 p.m. Sportsmanship and Brinkmanship
- Peter Balbert, “From the Big Toe of God to the Wings of Ego: Norman Mailer, Muhammad Ali, and the Challenge of ‘King of the Hill’”
- Jared Young, “Writing Giants and Riding Giants: Norman Mailer’s Unlikely Influence on Modern American Surf Culture”
Moderator: Justin Bozung
5:00–5:30 p.m. Philip Bufithis, “A Visit with Dr. Raymond Loomis”
Interlocutor: J. Michael Lennon
5:45 p.m. Drinks and dinner on your own
Friday, November 6
8:00–9:15 a.m. Continental Breakfast
Queen Palm, 2nd floor
9:15–10:15 a.m. Of the Making of Books
- Gerald R. Lucas, “Some Honorable Entries: Mailer’s 1976 Self-Editing and the Bibliography as Argument”
- Matthew S. Hinton, “The Mailer Logs”
- Eric D. Martin, “Another Fire on the Moon”
Moderator: Raymond M. Vince
10:30–11:30 a.m. On The Castle in the Forest
- James A. Taylor, “Unleashing the Supernatural: Mailer and Hitler”
- Jason Mosser, “Mailer’s Hitler and the Bad Seed”
Moderator: Bonnie Culver
11:45 a.m.–12:45 p.m. Literature and Its Discontents
- David Mikics, “Could Mailer Be (Henry) Jamesian?”
- Maggie McKinley, “The Devil and Norman Mailer: ‘The Trial of the Warlock’”
- Austin Dabney, “A Heated Rivalry: Norman Mailer and James Baldwin”
Moderator: Philip Bufithis
1:00–2:30 p.m. Lunch on your own
Executive Board meeting, Queen Palm, 2nd floor
2:45–3:45 p.m. The Mind of a Rebel
- Emily Benedek, “The Letters of Jack Henry Abbott: History as Destiny”
- Marc Triplett, “Oswald’s Tale: Character in the Study of Assassination”
Moderator: Robert Dean Lurie
4:00–5:00 p.m. On The Big Empty
- David Lurie and Robert Dean Lurie, “The Big Empty, Twenty Years On”
5:15–7:15 p.m. Drinks and dinner on your own
7:30–8:30 p.m. NMS Readers’ Theatre: “The Time of Another Time: An Encore of Mailer Cuttings Two Decades Later”
Bonnie Culver, Matthew S. Hinton, J. Michael Lennon, and Enid Stubin
Saturday, November 7
9:45–10:45 a.m. Remembering Barbara Mailer Wasserman
Bonnie Culver, J. Michael Lennon, and Enid Stubin
11:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m. Lunch
Queen Palm, 2nd floor
Presentation of the Robert F. Lucid Award to David Denby, by Matthew S. Hinton