Welcome to the David Foster Wallace Conference blog. We are the interns for the 2014-2015 academic term and in charge of creating the 2nd Annual DFW Conference for all you DFW fans (just like us). We want to interact with you more, and a blog is the best way to do that without being cut off at 140 characters or less.
So what does a day in the life of a DFW intern look like?
Two to three times a week we come into the Publications Unit of the English Department at Illinois State University and brainstorm. We want to make this conference memorable and bring as many people as we can this year. We make posters with our #weeklywallace quotes that we hang around campus as well as post on many different social media outlets (keep an eye out if you have not seen them already).
We created a budget in order to ensure that we are charging the most reasonable price for the conference that includes everything an attendee could desire. This year, we are hosting a two day conference (with a third day of workshops) for the same price of $85 for students and $100 or $125 for everyone else. But as well, this price is extended until May 1, 2015 and is the same price as last year for double the amount of time, panels, food, drinks, and company.
Other areas that we are considering (and trying to make it at no or minimal additional cost to you) for this year's conference are t-shirts (available for $15 when you register), raffles, free bookmarks, and a map of DFW's favorite places in Bloomington-Normal, IL to visit if you choose.
Do you have any other budget-friendly ideas that you would like to see at the conference this year?
Give us a shout out on here or any of the other social media outlets and we will do our best to ensure to find out if it is possible to grant it.
Every other week we meet with a DFW scholar and discuss pieces of work that she selects for us. Sometimes we talk for two hours without realizing how much time has passed and it is time to carry on with our day. But the rest of the day, we cannot get his intellectually deep thoughts off of our minds as we observe factors around us.
We want our work to be more interactive with you, so we are going to post on here what we are planning on reading.
Read along with us and tell us what you think.
Post your favorite lines of the stories and your response to it.
Give suggestions for future readings.
We look forward to talking with you guys soon!
Callista and Emily
DFW Interns
