cfp.english.upenn.edu

Date: March 24-26, 2011
Conference Site: Sheraton Bayfront, Erie, PA

Extended Deadline: January 30, 2011

Erie, Pennsylvania, the state’s only port city, has historically served as a center for maritime and rail travel. Its waters were vital to winning wars and providing a point of arrival for immigrants. Erie’s remote location and close proximity to the Canadian border also offered a conduit for those escaping slavery. Narratives of travel have long served to document the course of peoples’ physical and imaginative movements. They have recorded minute details of lived experience as well as aspirations for the future and fears of the unknown, creating histories of time and place, directing individual lives, and shaping cultural realities.

In keeping with the theme of our locale, we invite proposals for original creative works and critical interpretations of any genre of travel narrative or stories of journeys or quests for self, real or imaginative. In addition to the special sessions on the topic of travel and navigation, we welcome all proposals related to the study and/or teaching of literature, film, composition, and linguistics, as well as creative works.

Proposals are due by January 30, 2011, and should include the following information:
Name
Institutional Affiliation (if applicable)
Mailing Address (including zip code)
Phone number
E-mail address
Title of proposed presentation
250-500 word abstract
A-V equipment needs, if any
Special needs, if any
Submit proposals by email to the PCEA Program Chair at pcea2011erie@gmail.com. Presenters must join PCEA in order to participate. To preserve time for discussion, PCEA limits individual presentations to 15 minutes.

The Student Contest

Graduate and undergraduate students who submit an abstract for conference presentation (or who will be part of a pre-arranged panel) are also invited to enter their conference submission in the student competition for the Best Paper Award, which is given by PCEA in three categories—critical, creative poetry, and creative prose—and carries a small monetary prize. Students who compete must be PCEA members. Award winners will also be considered for publication in PCEA’s journal, Pennsylvania English.

To compete, submit 3 copies of the complete work by regular mail, postmarked no later than January 30, 2011, to Dr. Teresa Caruso, Humanities & Social Sciences, Penn State Erie, Behrend College, 4701 College Drive, Erie, PA 16563. The title of the work should be present on the work itself and on the cover sheet, but the student’s name should be removed from the work. Submissions of critical work should be the equivalent of a conference paper, including notes and works cited. For creative work, submit 10-15 pages of double-spaced prose (fiction or creative non-fiction) or 4-6 poems. No mixed genre submissions, please. Faculty members of PCEA are asked to encourage students who have written strong critical or creative work to submit to the contest and/or the conference.

Key Note Speaker:
Professor, Essayist, and Creative Non-Fiction Writer
Dinty Moore

An Erie native, Dinty Moore currently teaches and serves as Graduate Director and Director of Creative Writing at Ohio University.

>> More information on the conference can be found at http://www.english.iup.edu/pcea