Vladimir Nabokov

Past conferences

Please add the names, dates, and places of conferences you have been responsible for, have attended, or have information about, including about organizers, participants/presenters, with abstracts if possible, highlights, outcomes (such as books or special issues), and links. 

Vladimir Nabokov : writing nature / écrire la nature -- Владимир Набоков: описывая природу

Lausanne, Montreux, Montricher -- 27-30 juin 2023

Hidden Nabokov, June 15-19, Wellesley College, 2022

Nabokov & Translation 2 (Chapel Hill), Oct 27-28, 2018

International Vladimir Nabokov Conference, Biarritz, 28 April 28-1 May 2017

Organizer: Marie Bouchet, Université de Toulouse
Highlights: Trip to Uncle Ruka's home, Perpigna.

Vladimir Nabokov and the Fictions of Memory, Warsaw, 22-23 September 2016

Organizer: Mikołaj Wiśniewski, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Irena Księżopolska, Vistula University
Keynotes: Stephen Blackwell, Leona Toker

Special lecture: Tatiana Ponomareva

Vladimir Nabokov et la France, Paris, 30 May-1 June, 2013

Outcomes: Yannicke Chupin, Agnès Edel-Roy, Monica Manolescu, Lara Delage-Toriel, eds., Vladimir Nabokov et la France. Strasbourg: Presses Universitaire de Strasbourg, 2017.

Nabokov Upside Down, Auckland, January 2012

Organizer: Brian Boyd, University of Auckland
Keynote: Robert Alter
Outcomes: Brian Boyd and Marijeta Bozovic, eds. Nabokov Upside Down. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 2017.

Nabokov and Morality Symposium, Glasgow, 2011

Organiser: Michael Rodgers, University of Strathclyde

Keynote: Michael Wood

Outcomes: Michael Rodgers and Susan Elizabeth Sweeney, eds., Nabokov and the Question of Morality: Aesthetics, Metaphysics, and the Ethics of Fiction. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.

International Nabokov Conference, Kyoto, 2010

Organizers: Tadashi Wakashima, Shoko Miura, Akiko Nakata, The Nabokov Society of Japan
Keynotes: Maurice Couturier, Michael Wood.
Highlights: tour through Ginkaku-ji in the afternoon and Gion sakura (cherry) blossoms at night; conference banquet, at Hakusha-Sonso, the Inn of White Sand.
Outcomes: Mitsuyoshi Numano, Tadashi Wakashima, eds. Revising Nabokov Revising: Proceedings of the International Nabokov Conference in Kyoto. Kyoto: The Nabokov Society of Japan, 2010.

Annotating vs. Interpreting Nabokov: Nice, June 21-23, 2006

Organizer: Maurice Couturier
Keynotes: Brian Boyd, David Lodge
Outcome: special issue of Cycnos, Vol 24, N° 1, 2007

Nabokov at the Crossroads, Cambridge University, 6-10 July 1999

Organizer: Jane Grayson, SEES, University of London
Participants: George Steiner, Lord Weidenfeld
Highlights: Banquet in Trinity College Hall, where VN dined as student; tour of Nabokov's Trinity.
Outcomes: Jane Grayson, Arnold McMillin and Priscilla Meyer, Nabokov's World, vol. 1, The Shape of Nabokov's World, vol. 2, Reading Nabokov. London: Palgrave, 2002.

Pushkin Bicentenary-Nabokov Centenary Conference, St. Petersburg, 15-18 April 1999

Outcomes: Vadim Stark, ed. A.S.Pushkin i V.V.Nabokov: Sbornik dokladov mezhdunarodnoi konferentsii 15-18 aprelya 1999g. St. Petersburg: Dorn / Institut Russkoi Literatury (Pushkinskiy Dom), Russkaya Akademiya Nauk and Nabokovskiy Fond, 1999.

Nabokov Centenary Celebration, Town Hall, New York, April 1999

Organizer: PEN American Center
Participants included: Martin Amis, Alfred Appel, Jr., Brian Boyd, Richard Ford, Joyce Carol Oates, David Remnick.

Cornell Nabokov Centenary Festival, September 10-12, 1998

Organizer: Gavriel Shapiro
Highlights: Screening of Adrian Lyne Lolita with Stephen Schiff and Dmitri Nabokov Q&A; performance of Terry Quinn's two-hander play, Dear Bunny, Dear Volodya: The Friendship and the Feud, by Dmitri Nabokov and ??; 
Outcome: Gavriel Shapiro, ed. Nabokov at Cornell. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2003.

At the Crossroads of Modernism and Postmodernism: Nice, June 1994

Organizer: Maurice Couturier
Outcome: Cycnos Vol. 12, N° 2, 1995.

Autobiography, Biography and Fiction: Nice, June 24-26, 1992

Organizer: Maurice Couturier
Outcome: Cycnos Vol. 10, N° 1, 1993.

Yale Nabokov Conference: Yale University, February 13-15, 1987

Organizers: Vladimir Alexandrov and Michael Holquist

Cornell Nabokov Festival, Cornell University, April 1983

Organizers: George Gibian, Stephen Jan Parker
Notable Participants: Jorge Luis Borges, Dmitri Nabokov. 
Highlights: Dmitri Nabokov concert; reminiscences of VN by Cornell colleagues.
Outcomes: George Gibian and Stephen Jan Parker, The Achievements of Vladimir Nabokov: Essays, Studies, Reminiscences, and Stories. Ithaca, NY: Center for International Studies, Cornell University, 1984.