CFP: “Bookstore Communities”

Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA) annual convention

Newport, RI

March 6-9, 2027

In keeping with the NeMLA 2027 theme of “Empowering Communities,” the purpose of this panel is to explore the role of bookstores in imagined, fictional spaces. What does a bookstore signify? What’s the symbolic difference between a bookstore and a library? How do fictional bookstores create and foster community? What magic, literal or figurative, is inherent in a shop that sells physical, printed texts? What do these commercial spaces represent as far as identity, belonging, or culture?

This panel welcomes proposals that examine the bookstore in any genre of literature. Proposals are encouraged to draw on interdisciplinary frameworks within the humanities, and might choose to investigate bookstores as sites of transformation, cultural preservation, and community resistance or resilience.

Session modality: Hybrid (in-person but accepting remote presentations)

All abstracts must be submitted through the NeMLA abstract portal. Please submit abstracts of 250-300 words through NeMLA’s abstract submission system via the following link by September 30, 2026:https://cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/22691