The wind and rain were a welcome relief from the humidity of home. That was the first thought for many of us as we deplaned in Dublin in early July for the 13th International F. Scott Fitzgerald Conference, gamely titled “Gaelicly Yours, Scott Fitzgerald” by our incredibly able conference director, Professor Dustin Anderson of Georgia Southern University. Whether crossing the Atlantic Ocean, hopping the English Channel, or simply passing over the Irish Sea, escaping the damp weight of summer felt as if a burden were being lifted. Barely a year and a half had passed since our last conference in Montgomery, Alabama, in November 2013, but in so many ways so much had changed; the gulf between then and now felt vast enough that we worried that our fear that we had come unmoored and rudderless was too visible on our face.
Less than two weeks before the conference...
