cfp.english.upenn.edu

CALL FOR PAPERS
–Writing By Degrees 2009–
September 24–26, 2009
Binghamton, New York
EXTENDED Submission Deadline: August 30, 2009

The twelfth annual Writing By Degrees, the national creative writing conference organized and run entirely by Binghamton University graduate students, seeks creative and academic submissions demonstrating or contemplating the craft of writing.

Guidelines: All applicants must be currently enrolled as graduate students in order to be eligible. Submissions may fall into one of the categories below.

Creative Submissions

Creative prose, fiction, or creative non-fiction should be of a length to be read within a 20-minute period (roughly 10–12 pages). Please submit the entire piece to be read. Poetry submissions should be 10 pages.

Note: Authors of creative submissions accepted by Writing By Degrees will be invited to submit the works to a special winter edition of the journal Harpur Palate, although acceptance for publication is not guaranteed.

Academic Submissions

Please submit a 2pp panel proposal or abstract on subjects including (but not limited to):
• the craft and/or practice of writing
• creative writing pedagogy
• creative writing versus composition
• the avant-garde in poetry or fiction

How to Submit:
Please submit abstracts and creative work via email: writingbydegrees2009@gmail.com
Hardcopy submissions may be sent to: Writing By Degrees, Department of English, Binghamton University, PO Box 6000, Binghamton, NY 13902-6000

Upon acceptance of your submission, there will be a $50.00 conference fee.

Questions? Email us or visit the conference website at WritingByDegrees.binghamton.edu

About the Conference:

Now in its twelfth year, WBD is a conference/writers' retreat created by and featuring solely graduate creative writing students nationwide. Since its inception, WBD has grown to be an annual three-day meeting place for some of the most exciting work by graduate creative writers. Panels on pedagogy, theory in the creative writing classroom, the process of editing and submitting work, and the creative writing job market have turned WBD into more than merely a showcase for national graduate literary talent.

WBD features keynote poets, fiction writers, essayists, and critics from all theoretic and aesthetic backgrounds. Past speakers have included Lee K. Abbott, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Steve Almond, Jo Ann Beard, Lydia Davis, B. H. Fairchild, Sascha Feinstein, Judith Harris, Timothy Liu, Sena Jeter Naslund, Vijay Seshadri, Neil Shepard, Michael Steinberg, Helena Maria Viramontes, Alex Lemon, and Jenny Boylan, plus Binghamton University's very own award-winning faculty, including poets Liz Rosenberg, Ruth Stone, and Maria Gillan, as well as novelists Jaimee Wriston Colbert and Jack Vernon. The conference is held in Binghamton, New York, in association with Binghamton University.

This year WBD will be held at the historic Bundy Mansion, a Queen-Anne Victorian mansion built in 1892. The mansion is located at 129 Main Street, Binghamton, NY 13905-2742. Binghamton is located in the Southern tier of New York State, three and one-half hours Northwest of New York City, and one hour South of Syracuse at the junction of Interstate 81 and 88. A regional airport and Greyhound station service the city.

WBD is free to the public and to all students (graduate and undergraduate) who are not presenting at the conference.