Stanley and Joan Elkin Celebration

Join WashU Libraries and the English Department in celebrating the literary legacy of Stanley Elkin and the artistic achievements of Joan Elkin. Featured speakers will be WashU alumni and writers Jan Garden Castro, Adam Ross and Benjamin Taylor. In addition, visual/performance artist Tim Youd will be retyping Stanley Elkin’s novel, The Dick Gibson Show, live on KWUR 90.3 FM during the week.

Free and open to all, registration requested. Zoom link will be sent to registrants who select virtual participation in the event registration form below.

Schedule of Events

3–4:35 pm: Panel Discussion in Olin Library, Room 142

4:45–6 pm: Reception in Olin Library, Gingko Reading Room

Panelists

Jan Garden Castro will speak on seven artworks by Joan Elkin. Castro, as co-founder of River Styx and a WU alum, showcased (or featured) the work of Stanley, Joan, and WU faculty a half century ago.Castro’s writings on Georgia O’Keeffe, Sonia Delaunay, Margaret Atwood, Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, William H. Gass, Salman Rushdie, and many more explore Early Modern to 21st Century arts.

Adam Ross, author of Playworld (Penguin Random House, 2025), among other books of fiction, and editor of The Sewanee Review, will talk about his apprenticeship under Stanley Elkin while a graduate student at Washington University.

Benjamin Taylor, an award-winning novelist, biographer and memoirist, will talk about his close friendship with Stanley and Joan Elkin during his time as a graduate student and instructor at Washington University.  

As part of the Elkin celebration and of his “100 Novels” project, artist Tim Youd will be re-typing Stanley Elkin’s epic 1971 novel, The Dick Gibson Show, in the overnight hours live on KWUR 90.3 FM, from April 13 to April 24. In addition to the retyping, Tim will conduct live interviews with curators, artists and writers, and play excerpts of archival recordings of Stanley Elkin.