With a membership numbering several hundred scholars, students, and readers from around the world, SLA sponsors an annual conference in a different North American location each summer.
SLA was organized in 1983 at San Diego State University, by Lyle Olsen, a physical education professor and former minor league baseball player and college baseball coach; Alfred F. Boe, an English and comparative literature professor; and a number of their colleagues.
The SLA’s first annual conference met at the University of California, San Diego, in La Jolla, July 26–28, 1984.
Robert Hamblin of Southeast Missouri State University became poetry editor with the second issue of the journal in Spring 1984 and continued in that capacity until 2005.
The SLA website was established by Tim Morris, professor of English at the University of Texas at Arlington.