Tracy Wuster
ABE’s post from earlier this week highlighted the institution of the “editor’s chair,” which I have taken a seat in several times before to inform you, my dear readers, of the goings on for Humor in America and in humor studies more generally. Often, these postings have been inspired by the truest of all journalistic motives–a missed deadline.
So it goes.
I have also often written posts about milestones with the site. This morning, we passed 130,000 views. Our overall readership has been a steady 150 views or so for several months, following a summer and fall of larger readership. I have a theory that our current readership reflects a more accurate count of our reach, following the inflated numbers that followed Ricky Gervais tweeting our post and the traffic from an aggregator that referred hundreds a day during the fall and then fell out of love with us. I thank you for reading us.
On to the news:
* Steve Brykman and Phil Scepanski commented on this news story on humor in times of tragedy, specifically in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing.
* There is a new issue of Studies in American Humor that members of the American Humor Studies Association recently received in the mail. The issue is a special issue on Kurt Vonnegut edited by Peter Kunze and Robert Tally. You can get the journal by joining the AHSA, as well as on some versions of EBSCO.
*Speaking of Studies in American Humor, I am the book review editor of the journal. I am currently looking for reviewers for 4-5 books. See here. The reviews would be for the Spring issue and due in the fall. If you know of a book that we might want to review, please let me know ([email protected]).
Up for review
*Also arriving in the mail is the newest issue of To Wit, the newsletter of the AHSA. The issue features a version of one of Jeffrey Melton’s pieces from Humor in America. Also in the newsletter is the listing of AHSA, Mark Twain Circle, and Kurt Vonnegut Society panels at ALA in Boston (May 23-26). Hope to see you there.
Up for review, too.
* The summer also features the 7th International Conference on the State of Mark Twain Studies (what I call “Mark Twain Summer Camp“) in Elmira, New York. Four of the editors of this site will be there.
Me, too!
*The 2013 ISHS Conference will be held from July 2 to July 6, 2013 on the campus of the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, USA
Yes, up for review!
*We have a twitter account where we post articles on humor, links, etc. Al Franken, Baratunde Thurston, David Brent, and Walt Whitman are followers… maybe you should, too.
*Please let me know if you have any news, CFPs, etc. on humor studies. Thanks.
