Mark Twain Circle sessions at the 2007 MLA Convention in Chicago The Mark Twain Circle sponsored two sessions at the Modern Language Association National Convention. Both of these meetings were graced with strong presentations and a lively audience. "Mark Twain and the Blues" was a panel discussion including Robert O'Meally (Columbia University), Jonathan Arac (University of Pittsburgh), and David Lionel Smith (Williams College). The interaction was informal but sophisticated, centering on the possibility of deep cultural connections between the temperament, cadences, and ethos of the American blues tradition, and Mark Twain's voices and creative processes as a writer. Though the session was at 7:15 on a Saturday night, in direct competition with the holiday allurements of Chicago, we had a full room, and a lot of good questions and observations from the attendees. The second session, "Mark Twain and the City" was scheduled by MLA into the final time-slot of the Convention, in the middle of Sunday afternoon -- about four hours after the check-out time for the hotels. We were also positioned in one of the worst and least-accessible meeting rooms imaginable -- two stories below ground level in the Hyatt annex, behind two metal-clad and swipe-carded doors, adjacent to a vast and menacing underground garage. Though the time and the place raised our anxieties about how the meeting would go, things went very well indeed: detailed and vigorous papers by Harold Bush (St. Louis University), Ann Ryan (LeMoyne College), and Joe Csicsila (Eastern Michigan University). We had sixteen in attendance -- a good turnout for any MLA special session -- including some advanced graduate students with special interests relating to Mark Twain, and the interactions made the planning and worrying entirely worthwhile. We will hope to see you at the American Literature Association sessions in May, and at the 2008 MLA Convention next December -- both of these are set for San Francisco. -- Bruce Michelson, University of Illinois Vice President, MT Circle