January 28, 2022

Dear SSAWW members,

Warm good wishes for a healthy, safe and enjoyable 2022.

I’m writing to thank you for these past three years as SSAWW President (2018-2021) and for all the support and energy you have given to SSAWW.

This has been a challenging and exciting time for SSAWW. The 2018-2021 officers have been indispensable in maintaining the Society’s vitality in the face of the always-threatening
and often-changing pandemic. Vice President of Organizational Matters Maria Carla Sanchez, Vice President of Membership and Finance Christine Grogan, Vice President of Development Ellen Gruber Garvey and Vice President of Publications Jordan Von Cannon have done more work than they could have imagined when they took office, especially as we planned and planned again for our 2021 Baltimore conference. In the planning they were joined by five wonderful, hardworking, and inventive SSAWW Advisory Board members, Patrick Allen, Kimberley Blockett, Jean Lee Cole (who brought deep Baltimore knowledge), DoVeanna Fulton, Susan K. Harris, and our extraordinary Conference Associate Sara Kosiba.

It was a pleasure to work with the Planning committee and to gain new skills using Whova, as we realized we needed some kinds of hybrid and virtual options. Each turn in the pandemic meant fiddling with details about the conference and sometimes renegotiating our contract with the hotel. How would food be served, since sit-down dining was out of the question? (grab-and- go boxes). In working out the many details it turned out to be an unexpected pleasure to work with the helpful Richard Bryant, the Royal Sonesta Harbor Court in Baltimore’s sales manager. So, against what sometimes seemed like insuperable odds, the triennial conference took place as planned, in November, 2021 in that small window when the Delta variant was waning and Omicron was not yet on the horizon. Many attendees have told us that this was their first conference since Covid hit and that they were overjoyed to be exchanging ideas in person once again.

The conference theme, “American Women Writers: Ecologies, Survival, Change,” chosen in 2019, was so on target for our current situation that we must have had a crystal ball at our Planning Committee meeting. The theme inspired an outpouring of panels and papers that spoke to and linked the deep past of the authors we write about and our present. We anticipate that this work will continue.

We’ve also been active on other fronts. Recognizing that the study of American women writers is inseparable from “America” itself, like a number of other professional societies, in June, 2020we wrote an open letter condemning the police murder of George Floyd and many other people of color, and the structural racism and racial violence that foster such murders. We expect to work with other organizations as we continue to fight against all forms of racism, sexism, and trans- and homophobia. Institutions have placed increased demands on faculty under Covid, but we still need the sustenance of connecting with other scholars of American Women Writers. We’ve sponsored or co-sponsored online events like the “Reclaim Her Name” discussion in 2020, a symposium on 19th century women writers’ transnational networking, a discussion of the film of Nella Larsen’s novel Passing, and workshops preparing new conference attendees. .. Others are in the works, including a writing group, and a series engaging members who have new books out in conversation with other new authors in front of an audience.

People have often told me that SSAWW is their professional home. I certainly feel that way. For me, and, I suspect, for many of you, SSAWW is a community. Although we’re physically located in many different places, we thrive as a community because we share interests, we embrace the values articulated in our mission statement, and we strive to respond to one another’s suggestions and critiques and to the changing conditions in the world of which we are part. In this third decade of the twenty-first century, my dedication to maintaining—indeed, strengthening—SSAWW as a community will be unflagging. I am sure you share that dedication, so please renew your participation in our communing by remaining or becoming energetically involved in SSAWW activities. Our outstanding new leadership is eager to hear from you about what you’d like to see happen in the years ahead, and to your involvement.

In closing, I want to salute that leadership: President Maria Carla Sanchez, Vice President of Organizational Matters Patrick Allen, Vice President of Development Ellen Gruber Garvey, Vice President of Publications Jordan Von Cannon, and the soon-to-be-named Vice President of Membership and Finance.

My thanks for your confidence in me and for an invigorating and rewarding term as SSAWW president. I look forward to seeing you in person at the 2024 SSAWW conference and in many virtual spaces.

With warm regards,
Sandy Zagarell
SSAWW President, 2018-2021