At the May 2014 meeting, the Board of Directors of the Michigan Hemingway Society elected local businessman Chris Struble president of the Society to replace retiring president Mike Federspiel. Chris is a local Petoskey businessman, the co-owner of Arlington Jewelers and owner of Petoskey Yesterday, which provides historic tours of the area.
Diane Fox was elected treasurer at the meeting to replace the retiring Marion Sanford. Jack Jobst was elected newsletter editor and Cecil Ponder was elected as membership chairman, both to replace Nancy Nicholson who will retire in May 2015.
The Michigan Hemingway Society will hold its annual October weekend conference this year at the Odawa Hotel on October 17-19. The theme for this year’s conference is “Hemingway and Supporting Cast.” Members of the Society will present the friendships between Hemingway and several of his friends (Irene Gordon, Marge Bump, Lewis Clarahan to name a few). The focus will be on how the friendships came to be and how they ended, well or badly. In related presentations, Dr Bill Nicholson will speak on Hemingway’s narcissism, and Fred Svoboda will discuss reflections of Ernest Hemingway in his stories. John Cohassey, whose latest book is Hemingway and Pound, A Most Unlikely Relationship, will be our featured author speaking at the conference. The officers who chose to retire will also be honored at the conference for their exemplary service. If you enjoyed the presentation of “Hemingway’s Women” by MHS members at the 2012 Hemingway Society conference in Petoskey-Bay View, you won’t want to miss “Hemingway and Supporting Cast.”
The Michigan Hemingway Society was formed over 20 years ago to promote the study of Hemingway’s relationship to Michigan in his life and his works. Hemingway spent his boyhood summers in the Petoskey area and was inspired to use Northern Michigan people, settings and incidents as a basis for much of his early writing, especially in the Nick Adams Stories. MHS holds a conference each year in October and was the host organization for the international Hemingway Society’s 15th Biennial Conference in 2012, which put the area on the prestigious list of “Hemingway was here” sites.
For more information about the Michigan Hemingway Society contact Chris Struble at info@michiganhemingwaysociety.org