38th Annual NeMLA Convention, 1-4 Mar. 2007, Baltimore, MD
Panel: Picture Books and Children's Comics: Semiotics of Text and Image
Chair: Vanessa Raney, Michigan State University

If we follow the argument that comics are for children, then what
distinguishes them from picture books? In the last decade, a newer focus on
the semiotics of picture books has begun to inform scholarship on comics.

Yet, for comics specifically written for children, do these reflect similar
patterns as found in picture books? If not, where do children's comics
diverge to be grouped along with comics intended for adults?

Leiden October Conference 2006: The Literary Utopias of Cultural =
Communities, 1790-1945

English Department University of Leiden The Netherlands=20

25 - 27 October 2006

Writing literature is often deemed a solitary enterprise. Literary =
history, however, has proven that, next to famous literary recluses such =
as Thomas Pynchon, there have always existed communities of writers, =
often joined by artists working in different media. From the =
Shelley-Circle to the Bloomsbury group, many of these cultural =
communities engaged with utopian schemes and philosophies in their work. =

38th Annual NeMLA Convention, 1-4 Mar. 2007, Baltimore, MD
Panel: Picture Books and Children's Comics: Semiotics of Text and Image
Chair: Vanessa Raney, Michigan State University

If we follow the argument that comics are for children, then what
distinguishes them from picture books? In the last decade, a newer focus on
the semiotics of picture books has begun to inform scholarship on comics.

Yet, for comics specifically written for children, do these reflect similar
patterns as found in picture books? If not, where do children's comics
diverge to be grouped along with comics intended for adults?

Manuscripts from 5,000 to 10,000 words are invited for a special issue of
College Literature that reflect on August Wilson's legacy and contribution
to American culture. The editors, Cynthia Caywood and Carlton Floyd of the
University of San Diego, welcome contributions from all disciplines that
engage the full complexity of his work. Deadline: January 15, 2007.

THE WRITING OF T.H. WHITE, HENRY GREEN, AND DAVID GARNETT. Essays are
sought for three separate collections of essays on the writing of T.H.
White, Henry Green, and David Garnett. They are to be published as
fourth, fifth, and sixth volumes of a series of studies of underrated
British and Irish novelists, edited by Gill Davies, David Malcolm and
John Simons. A volume on Ronald Firbank's fiction was published by The
Edwin Mellen Press in 2004 (ISBN: 0-7734-6555-3); one on Sylvia Townsend
Warner's writing was published by Mellen in 2006 (ISBN: 07734-5873-5);
one on the work of Rebecca West is due for publication by Mellen in
2007. Mellen has agreed to publish another three volumes in the series.

15th Annual British Women Writers Conference
April 12-15, 2007
The University of Kentucky
www.uky.edu/AS/English/bwwc

Call for Papers

CFP: Urban Culture (6/25/06; MAP/ACA, 10/27-10/29/06)

History In Canadian and Quebec Literatures
(NEMLA; March 1-4, 2007)

Does recent fiction written in English Canada and Quebec treat history in similar ways? Or, have cultural and historical differences shaping English-Canadians and Quebecers inclined writers from one milieu to treat history differently from writers in the other?

CFP: Reading the "Exotic": South Asia and Its Others

Atreyee Phukan and V.G. Julie Rajan, eds.

CFP: Reading the "Exotic": South Asia and Its Others

Atreyee Phukan and V.G. Julie Rajan, eds.

Call for Papers

38th Convention, Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)
March 1-4, 2007
Baltimore, Maryland

Just posted, 205 panel topics for NeMLA's Spring Conference, in the
following areas:

American / Canadian / Caribbean / Comparative Literature / Creative
Writing / English/British / Film / French / Gay/Lesbian / German
/ Italian / Pedagogy / Popular Culture / Professional Development
/ Spanish/Portugese / Theory / Women's Studies

REVISITING ELIZABETH GASKELL AND HER WORKS

2-day conference on Elizabeth Gaskell

22-23 September 2006, University of Salford, UK

In recent years Elizabeth Gaskell has attracted renewed scholarly attention,
and contextualisations of her minor works and letters were offered in
addition to the numerous studies of well-known texts such as Mary Barton.
The conference offers to supplement this research by a comprehensive
consideration of Gaskell's major and lesser-known works. A publisher has
expressed interest in publishing revised versions of the conference papers.

Please submit short abstracts (300 words) for 30-minute papers to the
organizers at Gaskellconference_at_hotmail.co.uk

Call for papers

A SEAC Conference=20
20 and 21 October 2006
Universit=C3=A9 Montpellier III, France

Literature, Theory and Criticism: the Critical Writings of 20th and 21st Ce=
ntury Writers

VERB, an interdisciplinary online journal with a newsprint supplement,
is seeking submissions for its Fall 2006 issue. The topic for this
issue is "contagion," broadly defined, which includes (but is not
limited to):

* Disease, sickness, and death, (or theorizing the same).
* The spread of ideas, practices, or perceptions, (or theorizing the same).
* Politics, parasites, or the rapidly-breeding nuisance insects of New
England.
* The communication of ideas, artistic or otherwise.
* Blogs (because no online journal can refuse to discuss blogs).
* Any other item with even a tenuous denotative or connotative
similarity to any definition of "contagion," current or otherwise.