Deadline for submissions: March 1, 2017
Full name / name of organization: The British Library
Contact email: Americas@bl.uk
CFP: Russia in American Literature

13 July 2017

The British Library, London

2017 will mark the anniversary of the Russian Revolution, one of the defining events of the past century. The conference ‘Russia in American Literature’ aims to explore the literary relationship between Russia and the United States during the long twentieth century. From the influence of Soviet literary criticism on the American writers associated with the Left during the 1930s, to the spy fictions of the Cold War, we aim to examine how the politics and culture of Russia and the Soviet Union have been represented and reimagined in American literary texts.

The conference is a companion event to the British Library’s summer 2017 exhibition ‘Russian Revolution: Hope, Tragedy, Myths’. We welcome paper proposals that explore representations of Russia and Russian culture in American literature. Subjects could include (but are not limited to):

Parallels between the Russian and American traditions

The influence/impact of Russian literature on American writers

Dostoevsky and American literature

American writers in the Soviet Union

Representations of Russia in émigré literature

US debates around literary models and ideas such as Socialist Realism, Revolutionary Romanticism and proletarian literature

American travel narratives of Russia

Writers and McCarthyism

Cold War literature, including popular fiction, science fiction and spy novels

Keynote speaker: Dr Sue Currell (University of Sussex)

Proposals must be a maximum of 250 words and include a title as well as a short biography (in a single word document). Please send your proposal to Americas@bl.uk with the subject line ‘Russia in American Literature’ by 1 March. Please contact the conference organiser, Mercedes.Aguirre@bl.uk, with any questions.

Deadline for submissions: June 1, 2017
Full name / name of organization: South Atlantic Modern Language Association
Contact email: bcrawford@crimson.ua.edu
Following the South Atlantic Modern Language Association’s 89th Conference’s theme of “High Art/ Low Art: Borders and Boundaries in Popular Culture,” abstracts are invited for the Pre-1900 American Literature Panel, titled

“Scribbling Americans: Appropriation and Subversion in Literary Arts High and Low”

In Novels, Readers, and Reviewers Nina Byam looked to nineteenth-century periodicals to confirm the so-called triumph of the novel in America between 1840 and 1860. Byam contends that the enthusiasm and preponderance of periodical reviews of novels of the era confirm the preeminence of the genre. This argument has largely gone unchallenged. In Preaching and the Rise of the American Novel (2013), however, Dawn Coleman challenges Byam’s conclusion by extending Byam’s investigative scope beyond periodicals to include antebellum conduct manuals. Conduct manuals, Coleman asserts, informed the tastes of the American readership as much as periodicals of the period, but conduct books were far less enthusiastic in their assessments of novels. Hence, the genre’s rise was far more halting and problematic than Byam’s argument allows.

To overcome the hesitancy of many American readers to indulge in novel reading, antebellum novelists, Coleman contends, used the authority of preachers and sermonic rhetoric in their novels, offering novels seemingly less scandalous overall because morally beneficial in portions.

This panel invites abstracts for papers that explore the ingenuity of American authors in overcoming those barriers or boundaries (moral, social, aesthetic) raised in opposition to their art. Papers may explore the ways authors (not just novelists) appropriate more acceptable cultural discourses to make disparaged literary forms or themes more palatable. Topics might include, but are by no means limited to, the use or adaptation of political pamphlets, epistolary form, guide/travel books, sermons or religious tracts, conduct literature, etc., in fictional works.

Authors of accepted abstracts will be invited to present their papers at the South Atlantic Modern Language Association’s 89th Annual Conference on November 3–5, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia.

By June 1, please email a 250 word abstract along with a current CV, and audio/visual requirements, to Joshua Boyd at JTBoyd@trevecca.edu and Benjamin Crawford at bcrawford@crimson.ua.edu.

SAMLA 89 conference information can be found at https://samla.memberclicks.net/.

Deadline for submissions: April 3, 2017
Full name / name of organization: Editors: Kerry Fine, Arizona State University Michael K. Johnson, University of Maine–Farmington Rebecca M. Lush, California State University San Marcos Sara. L. Spurgeon, Texas Tech University.
Contact email: weirdwesterncollection@gmail.com
CFP: Race and Gender in the Weird Western (critical collection) Editors:Kerry Fine, Arizona State UniversityMichael K. Johnson, University of Maine–FarmingtonRebecca M. Lush, California State University San MarcosSara. L. Spurgeon, Texas Tech University

This proposed anthology explores the genre category of the Weird Western–a hybrid genre form that mixes western themes, iconography, settings, or conventions with elements drawn from horror, fantasy, supernatural, or science fiction genres. The particular focus of the anthology will be a critical analysis of race and gender in the Weird Western. We are interested in submissions that explore either how the Weird Western challenges the representation of race and gender in the conventional Western or how the Weird Western can serve as a way to reinforce existing gender and racial paradigms in the Western. We are especially interested in contributions that consider the inclusion and representation of African American and Native American characters in the Weird Western. We are seeking contributions that consider the following possible topics (but the volume’s scope is not necessarily limited to only these):

Indigenous Futurism and the Western
Afrofuturism and the Western
The Queer West in the Weird Western
Race and the Weird Western
Gender and the Weird Western
Sexuality and the Weird Western
Weird Westerns by Native American authors
Latinx/Chicanx Futurism and the West
The Dark Tower (books and/or film)
etc
Please send proposals to weirdwesterncollection@gmail.com by April 3, 2017. Proposals should be between 500-700 words. Those with accepted proposals will be expected to submit a full draft (6,000-8,000 words) in August 2017.

Deadline for submissions: January 25, 2017
Full name / name of organization: Society for Contemporary Literature
Contact email: andrea.laurencell@sunyorange.edu

The Society for Contemporary Literature, a group dedicated to the study of literature of the last 25 years, invites 300-word abstracts for presentations at the 27th Annual Conference of the American Literature Assoc. This panel seeks to explore the trends in literature of the past 25 years, especially the future of genre fiction. Starting points for discussion may include, but are not limited to

Genres of popular fiction
Canons/canonization
Genre/generic conventions
Genre-shifting
Blurring/disappearing genre lines
Multi-genre literature

Please send 300-word abstracts and one-paragraph bio statements to Ándrea Laurencell Sheridan (andrea.laurencell@sunyorange.edu) by January 25, 2017; submissions should be sent via email with the subject line “SCL ALA 2017 general abstract.” Note that scholars are limited to one 20-minute presentation (approx. 9 pages double-spaced) at this conference. Please indicate if you’ll need AV equipment. Notifications will be sent before the end of January.

Find out more about the conference at:

http://americanliteratureassociation.org/ala-conferences/ala-annual-conference/

Deadline for submissions: January 27, 2017
Full name / name of organization: Society for American Jewish Literature
Contact email: better@ivc.edu
American Jewish Literature: New Approaches and New Voices

The Society for American Jewish Literature will sponsor one session at the American Literature Association’s 28th Annual Conference, which will take place in Boston, MA from May 25-28, 2017.

We welcome submissions on any topic related to American Jewish literature, including papers on diverse genres and comparative approaches.

Please send your 250-word proposal (or direct any inquiries) to William Etter at better@ivc.edu. The deadline for proposals is January 27, 2017. Papers must be limited to 15-20 minutes in length.

For information about the ALA conference, see http://americanliteratureassociation.org.

Deadline for submissions: June 16, 2017
Full name / name of organization: Historic Dyess Colony:Johnny Cash Boyhood Home, an Arkansas State University Heritage Site
Contact email: Ghansen@astate.edu
Arkansas State University opens a call for presentations for a public symposium in conjunction with the inaugural Johnny Cash Heritage Festival to be held in Dyess, Arkansas, Oct. 19-21, 2017. The symposium, “Johnny Cash: Arts and Artistry from the New Deal into the 21st Century,” is co-sponsored by the Historic Dyess Colony: Johnny Cash Boyhood Home and the A-State Heritage Studies Ph.D. Program.

Symposium organizers particularly seek proposals that address how the New Deal era resettlement colony influenced the life and music of Johnny Cash. Many of his songs are stories of actual experiences in Dyess, while others reflect values shaped in Dyess, including love of family, a strong work ethic, and concern for the downtrodden and marginalized groups and individuals in society. Though the focus is on his early life, all Johnny Cash-related topics will be considered.

Additionally, we welcome presentations that provide insight in the New Deal heritage that shaped the life of Johnny Cash and those around him. Cash’s childhood spent in one of the New Deal’s greatest social and economic experiments placed him squarely in the center of New Deal cultural programs focused on common men and women. Cash not only experienced daily life in a federal colony, but other New Deal cultural programs were all around him: the mural painted in the nearby Osceola post office, the WPA film “Life On the Colony” presented at the Dyess Community Building, the WPA posters on bulletin boards in the Dyess Administration Building, the music coming over the battery-operated radio in the Cash home, the government photographers who roamed the colony capturing the faces of rural America, and numerous other such efforts to put Americans to work.

Organizers primarily are interested in presentations that break away from the standard format of reading research papers. Research and artistic presentations that incorporate music, images, film, computer graphics, and other interactive elements will be given first preference. The scholarly content also should be presented in ways that appeal to more generalized audiences and non-specialists in particular disciplines.

The symposium is a rare opportunity for participants to embrace the environment in which Cash grew up – with sessions taking place at the Visitors Center in his hometown of Dyess. For further information, contact the symposium chair or visit http://johnnycashheritagefestival.com. Deadline for entries is June 16, 2017. Each entry should consist of:

Presenter’s name and affiliation and a 150-word abstract of the presentation as well as a current Vita (2 pages max). Please include your address, phone number, e-mail address, and the technical needs for your presentation.

Johnny Cash Heritage Symposium Committee c/o Dr. Gregory Hansen, Chair Arkansas State University
Dept. of English and Philosophy
P.O. Box 1890
State University, AR 72467 ghansen@astate.edu

Deadline for submissions: December 1, 2017
Full name / name of organization: Transatlantic Franzen; Special Issue of ‘Symbiosis: A Journal of Transatlantic Literary and Cultural Relations’
Contact email: sophie.vlacos@glasgow.ac.uk

Special Issue of Symbiosis: A Journal of Transatlantic Literary and Cultural Relations

Transatlantic Franzen

The journal Symbiosis (http://www.symbiosistransatlantic.com/) invites articles of 5,000 to 7,000 words for a special issue on Transatlantic Jonathan Franzen, to appear in October 2018. While the following list is not prescriptive, articles may, for example, offer comparative analyses of Franzen’s representations of US and European culture; look at Franzen’s incorporation of or allusion to British or other European authors; assess the critical reception of Franzen’s work in Europe (perhaps, comparing this to US responses); or consider whether British or other European authors have published material that engages with or responds to Franzen’s fiction. More ‘general’ comparative pieces, reading Franzen alongside or against contemporary British / European fiction are also welcome. While we welcome essays that discuss European literature not written in English, contributors should provide translations of any passages that they cite. Regardless of the focus, articles should generally seek to articulate the ramifications of transatlanticism for future studies of Franzen’s fiction.

Submissions (abstracts in the first instance) should be double spaced throughout and prepared (initially) to any recognised humanities style sheet.

Complete papers to be received by December 1st 2017.

In the first instance, please address abstracts, queries or expressions of interest to the editors of this special issue:

Dr. Sophie Vlacos, University of Glasgow (sophie.vlacos@glasgow.ac.uk)

Dr. Chris Gair, University of Glasgow (chris.gair@glasgow.ac.uk)