cfp.english.upenn.edu

Picture this: postcards and letters beyond text
A conference at the University of Sussex, UK
March 24, 2011 – March 26, 2011

Our website, with our call for papers and submissions process, is now launched at http://www.postcards-letters.org.uk
We welcome creative and critical papers that range widely across the theme. All papers will be considered for publication - details to follow.

Confirmed speakers: Ann Dumas (Curator of The Real Van Gogh, Royal Academy); Professor Nicholas Royle (University of Sussex); Professor Marcus Wood (University of Sussex).

‘Picture this: postcards and letters beyond text’ invites researchers, creative writers, visual artists, publishers, curators and all who are interested in the letter form to come together to consider letters and postcards from a range of critical perspectives, and through creative practice. We invite broad explorations of postcards and letters – as mediated exchanges, dramatized inscriptions, and treasured material objects – as well as close attention to epistolaries that break into drawings, paintings, photographs or other media.

A small number of limited contributions are available towards international students' travel on a competitive basis.

The conference will host panel presentations, talking circles, keynotes and other platforms to investigate: letters and postcards as embodied, inhabited objects, including in museums and archives; postal delivery systems and diaspora; reciprocal relations between verbal and visual arts; and mutating epistolaries in fiction, from the eighteenth century to contemporary novels, through recent theorizations and other practice.

In addition, our innovative mixed-media Postcards competition will be launched soon. Run in collaboration with the publishers Myriad Editions, the competition invites experimental interaction between the verbal and the visual and with the postcard form (paper and discussion forum submissions will not exclude participants from also entering the competition). We will also host a Research Skills seminar at Brighton Museum based on their archived objects, Creative Practice Workshops that broaden our explorations, an epistolary film screening and a Careers Round Table. All aspects, including the post-event reviewing process, are designed to make this conference particularly welcoming for early-career postgraduate researchers.

Organizers:
Katie Reid, University of Sussex
Bethan Stevens, Nottingham Trent University

Committee:
Nicola Ashmore, University of Brighton
Robin Bagon, University of Sussex
Naomi Booth, University of Sussex
Martin Eve, University of Sussex