Through their intricately textured scenes and characters, the ten plays of August Wilson’s American Century Cycle chart the epic historical contours and idiomatic genius of Black American life across the entire twentieth century. Despite his plans for continued literary production after the Cycle’s completion, Wilson died shortly after the final play (Radio Golf)’s world premiere in 2005. 

Two decades hence, and now in the second quarter of the twenty-first century, Wilson’s presence and prescience in American culture are not only enduring but expanding:

• On screen. Denzel Washington and collaborators have introduced Wilson’s work to wide new audiences by adapting Wilson’s plays into film, most recently The Piano Lesson.

• In the archive. The August Wilson Archive at the University of Pittsburgh, the restored August Wilson House in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, and the August Wilson African American Cultural Center anchor research, memory, and community engagement.

• On stage. Wilson’s plays remain fixtures of the repertory, from national theatres to city-wide projects like the Baltimore August Wilson Celebration (2024–2027), reaffirming their vitality in new contexts.

• In writing. New volumes of scholarship such as August Wilson in Context (Cambridge UP, 2025) and Patti Hartigan’s biography August Wilson: A Life (2023) are deepening and widening the field of Wilson studies.

• In the classroom. In high schools, universities, and community programs, Wilson’s plays offer students and teachers opportunities to grapple with questions of identity, history, responsibility, and more. At the August Wilson Society’s 2025 Biennial Colloquium, William & Mary Prof. Omiyemi (Artisia) Green’s keynote, Teaching August Wilson’s American Century Cycle for the Public Good, foregrounded the spiritual power of Wilson’s plays and described the fruits of teaching them in a local freedom school setting, an exciting new frontier of Wilson pedagogy

The August Wilson Society invites papers dealing with these and any other new developments in the production, study, and (re)interpretation of Wilson’s work and world today. Fifteen-minute papers are invited.

Please send one-page proposals (~300 words), including paper title, author name, and academic affiliation to the address below.  All emails will be acknowledged within 48 hours. Please send again if you do not receive a confirmation.

J. Ken Stuckey
Bentley University
kstuckey@bentley.edu

Conference Fee: The conference fee is $175 with a reduced rate of $125 for Graduate Students, Independent Scholars, and Retired Faculty.  Registration Information for the conference will be available on the ALA website in January. 

Confrence Date: May 20-23, 2026
Palmer House
17 East Monroe Street
Chicago, IL 60603

Questions?  Contact Dr. Stuckey at the email address listed above.