childrens literature

Hiding Behind Trees: Anthropomorphism in Children’s Literature and Culture

Guaranteed Session at MLA 2026 (Toronto, Jan. 8-11), sponsored by the Children's Literature Association

This panel seeks papers that consider the role of anthropomorphism in children’s literature and culture.

Humans have long believed we are distinct from other animals in our rationality, self-consciousness, and use of language. Why, then, do writers, artists, and even scientists so often use anthropomorphism to interpret the behaviors of animals, plants, and even nonliving things such as trains, teapots, and toys? What are the repercussions of this tendency to understand the world in terms of human social and cultural identities?

This American Studies Association 2025 panel seeks papers that consider the role of children and childhood in histories of medicine. From experiments across medical, scientific, and social scientific disciplines to issues of consent and privacy to interventions that delimit trajectories of child development, histories of medicine have helped shape childhoods–its bounds, temporalities, and norms–and children have helped to shape medicine–its protocols, rationales, and knowledges. 

Nancy Drew and Sookie Stackhouse. The Executioner and Sweet Valley High. Warhammer or Star Wars tie-in novels. Franchise series like these occupy a unique position, inspiring voracious (often young) readers while often complicating traditional scholarly approaches to literature.

We seek 15-minute papers for a prospective panel on franchise fiction, mass market books, and pulp at the American Literature Association conference in Boston, May 21-24, 2025.

The professional journey of children’s and young adult literature scholars, librarians, and educators often involves significant transitions. These transitions present unique opportunities and challenges, often requiring redefinition of identity, reevaluation of goals, and the navigation of new professional landscapes. For this year’s “Building a Career Panel,” the Membership Committee invites proposals for an interactive workshop panel that explores the diverse experiences of career transitions within the field of children’s and young adult literature.

Call for Papers: ChLA Accessibility Committee Guaranteed Session 2025

No ‘Shortcuts’: Creating Spaces for Disability Communities

DEADLINE EXTENDED - Friday 29th November 2024

In this special issue we will look at environmental aspects of Fantasy. Since its very earliest manifestations, in taproot texts such as the Epic of Gilgamesh, Beowulf, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Fantasy has been entangled with the natural and supernatural world.

‘The force that through the green fuse drives the flower.’
Dylan Thomas

Call for Papers for an Edited Collection on Elizabeth (“Lizzie”) Champney

This new issue takes as its starting point Joy Harjo (Creek Muscogee)’s observation that “‘reinventing’ in the colonizer’s tongue and turning those images around to mirror an image of the colonized to the colonizers as a process of decolonization indicates that something is happening, something is emerging and coming into focus that will politicize as well as transform literary expression” (Harjo et al. 1998, 22). Postcolonial and Indigenous authors often appropriate the Western Literary canon, both in terms of form, language, and cultural elements in order to foreground their epistemologies and histories.

For a generation, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter franchise was emblematic of heroism, fighting against adversity, and inclusion of outsiders. This is why Rowling’s arguable alignment of herself, in 2020 and since, with transphobic and trans-exclusionary rhetoric felt like such a betrayal to many of her readers, prompting a revaluation of her work and what it means to them now. With the co-edited collection Potions, Powers, and Prejudice: Reassessing Harry Potter, we intend for contributors to explore the matter of what we collectively do with Harry Potter in the wake of its creator’s very public turn. Some readers have favored a careful delineation between author and work; others have regretfully concluded that no such delineation is possible.

Family Fictions
Generations and Genealogies in European Culture

15- 17. 05. 2025, KU Leuven

Keynotes:
Prof. Stefan Willer (Humboldt University)
Prof. David Amigoni (Keele University)
Dr. Jennie Bristow (Canterbury Christ Church University)

ACLA: GROWING UP IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH: CHILDREN AGENCY AND WORLD-MAKING IN CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE

Call for Papers: INSAP XIII: Celestial Connections Across Time and Space(Queen’s University Belfast, 8-13 June 2025)

We are delighted to announce a call for papers for the INSAP XIII conference Celestial Connections Across Time and Space. This conference aims to bring together scholars, artists, and scientists from various disciplines to explore the multifaceted relationships between the skies - be it the stars, planets, or other celestial phenomena - and their influence across cultures, histories, and fields of study. INSAP’s purpose from its inception has been to foster a dialogue that bridges the gap between the sciences and the arts, encouraging a holistic understanding of the universe.

Literary Druid is a journal that fosters research and creative writing in English. It welcomes all nationals to contribute for learning and research purposes. The perspective of Literary Druid is to create a niche platform for academicians and patrons to share their intellect to enrich the English language and Literature. I welcome all to learn and share.

Call for Papers

Children’s/Young Adult Culture

Southwest Popular / American Culture Association (SWPACA)

46th Annual Conference, February 19-22, 2025

Marriott Albuquerque

Albuquerque, New Mexico

https://www.southwestpca.org

Proposal submission deadline: October 31, 2024