Why You Can’t Miss the 2026 Sigma Tau Delta Convention in New Orleans

The 2026 Sigma Tau Delta Convention in New Orleans will offer a wonderful combination of academic programming in cultural context that makes it particularly valuable for students and scholars of literature and language.

The city of New Orleans has produced and inspired many important American writers including Tennessee Williams, Anne Rice, Kate Chopin, Poppy Z. Brite, and Jesmyn Ward. Convention attendees will have the opportunity to explore the neighborhoods and cultural landscapes that shaped these authors’ work. The French Quarter alone contains many layers of history that inform much of the literature associated with the city: visit Williams’ and Faulkner’s homes and find out how William Porter became O. Henry.

New Orleans also provides many opportunities to engage with complex social and historical issues that appear frequently throughout American literature. The city’s history encompasses colonialism, slavery, immigration, and ongoing questions of race and class. These themes are central to much contemporary literary scholarship and experiencing them in their geographic context can deepen academic understanding.

Convention programming, too, will allow attendees to engage with other points of view through paper presentations, workshops, and readings that bring together scholars, writers, and students from diverse backgrounds. These sessions provide opportunities to present your research, discover new perspectives on favorite and new texts, and network with others who have similar passions. The interdisciplinary nature of literary study in New Orleans—where music and visual arts intersect with literary work—can offer fresh approaches to familiar texts and themes.

For those considering attending and/or presenting, New Orleans offers practical advantages as well. The city is accessible by air and ground transportation, and the French Quarter is walkable from the convention hotel.

The 2026 Convention truly represents an opportunity to combine rigorous academic work and cultural immersion in a city that has played, and will continue to play, a significant role in American literature.

Registration information and detailed programming will be available through the Sigma Tau Delta website as the date approaches.