The Washington Irving Society invites proposals for a panel connecting Washington Irving and his contemporaries to the theater. As a native New Yorker, Irving was a lifelong theater goer and even aspired to become a playwright while living abroad. His relationship with playwright John Howard Payne and Frankenstein author Mary Shelley, in fact, developed during this time in England when he attempted to write for the theater. As we continue to celebrate the 200th anniversary of The Sketch Book (1819-1820), stage performances of stories from the collection, such as “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” are welcomed, but we open the panel to stage productions of Irving and his other writing, too.

Please submit a 250 to 300-word abstract and a brief bio to Tracy_Hoffman@baylor.edu by Wednesday, January 15, 2020.

For further information about the American Literature Association’s 2020 conference, to be held at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego, May 21-24, please consult the ALA website: https://americanliteratureassociation.org/ala-conferences/ala-annual-conference/. For more information about the Washington Irving Society, please see www.washingtonirvingsociety.org.