childrens literature

The arcade.

Maybe it makes you think of neon flashing lights and cacophonies of strange sounds, or maybe your mind immediately jumps to visions of Pac-Man and Space Invaders. Maybe the word conjures nostalgia for childhood friendships and fun, as seen in Stranger Things. Perhaps your imagination wanders to the pachinko parlors of Tokyo. Or maybe you go to the traditional origins of the word, seeing the covered walkways of seventeenth-century French architecture or the contemporary covered markets of Santiago. Maybe the arcade, for you, remains linked to the theories of Walter Benjamin, prompting reflection on consumption and capitalism.

♦ Deadline extended ♦

The volume proposes to promote original, critical research works that study, interpret and question the critical issues relating to childhood and children. In order to refurbish the interdisciplinary prospect of the field, works offering newer insights and concentrating on its representation in other literatures or other forms of arts like painting, films etc. will also be encouraged.

CFP: YA Studies Around the World

Online Conference

2 - 6 November 2020

What does YA Studies look like in 2020? The YA Studies Association’s first biennial conference will explore recent critical developments in YA Studies from around the world. This online conference aims to bring together diverse, international voices across a range of disciplines, offering a variety of synchronous and asynchronous opportunities for presenting and engaging throughout the first week of November.

Dream-Chasers: Children and Success in Asia 

Hi everyone, I'm currently editing an Encyclopedia of Latino Literature for Students for ABC-Clio with my colleague, Lacie Buckwalter, and I'm looking for some last minute contributors to write the encyclopedia entries for some authors (I am missing only the following entries) that some scholars here might be interested in writing. Please message me at sotovdp@ucr.edu if you are interested and I'll send you more information about the project. Most of the entries are around 1,000-1,500 words, due July 5, 2020The authors/entries are:

CFP: Special Issue of Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures

Laughter

Abstracts due July 1, 2020. Final papers due October 1, 2020

 Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures invites abstracts in English or French on all matters pertaining to laughter in relation to young people’s texts and cultures for a special issue that will be published in Summer 2021.

University of Hertfordshire, 8‒10 April 2021

Essays or K-12 lesson/unit plans analyzing how literature frames a specific environmental concern are invited from educators around the world. Contributions will be organized in an instructional follow-up resource to Confronting Climate Crises through Education: Reading Our Way Forward (2018). Intended to support educators’ implementation of literature-based interdisciplinary climate instruction, the project is titled Literature for Change: How Educators Can Prepare the Next Generation for a Climate-Challenged World. The collection will be published by Lexington Books, a division of Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 

Call for Papers for Special Issue of Mythlore, Fall 2020:

Honoring Ursula K. Le Guin: Citizen of Mondrath

Guest Edited by Melanie A. Rawls

Proposal deadline March 25, Draft deadline June 25, Final paper deadline August 25

PROPOSAL DEADLINE EXTENDED to MAY 25

Mythlore, a journal dedicated to the genres of myth and fantasy (particularly the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis), invites article submissions for a special issue focused on Ursula K. Le Guin, grandmaster of mythopoeic fantasy.

Call for Papers. The Midwest Popular Culture Association/Midwest American Culture Association seeks proposals for papers and panels both on Western animation and on anime for its 2020 Conference, to be held Friday-Sunday, 2-4 October 2020 at the Westin Minneapolis in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  As animation and anime cover all kinds of storytelling, topics may include but are not limited to the following suggestions:

SUBMISSION DEADLINE EXTENSION: APRIL 30 

Call for Papers: “Animals in Literature and Film” (Permanent Panel) 

Midwest Modern Languages Association 

November 5–8, 2020 in Milwaukee, WI 

“Ecological Communities: Animal Neighbors in Literature and Film” 

This year’s “Animals in Literature and Film” panel at the Midwest Modern Language Association’s annual meeting (November 5–8, 2020 in Milwaukee, WI) invites papers engaging the conference’s theme of “Cultures of Collectivity,” specifically how works of literature or film cultivate or impair ecological communities, broadly defined. 

The confluence of sports culture and sociopolitical issues has a long history. Memorable examples of athletes of yesteryear embracing activism include Tommie Smith and John Carlos raising their fists against institutional racism, Muhammad Ali opposing the Vietnam War, and Billie Jean King fighting for gender equity. Contemporary examples include Colin Kaepernick protesting police violence against people of color and the U.S. women’s national soccer team charging U.S. Soccer with gender discrimination. Each example underscores the reality that athletes are so much more than the games they play. Many authors have honored this tradition through the fictional athletes they portray in contemporary sports-related young adult literature (YAL).

We are pleased to announce that we will be hosting a symposium at the York Centre for Writing, York St John University. PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS CONFERENCE HAS BEEN POSTPONED AND THE CFP EXTENDED. WE WILL PROVIDE YOU WITH A NEW CONFERENCE DATE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

The daytime Horrifying Symposium event is free to attend (lunch is provided). There will be a ticketed event in the evening with very special guests, Scarred for Life.

Our symposium is intended to span academic and popular responses and we would welcome contributions from academics, practitioners, broadcasters, writers and fans. Proposals can be for critical papers and other mixed-mode presentations and submissions that blur the boundaries.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS FALL LITERARY FESTIVAL 2020

Lit Youngstown seeks proposals for In Many Tongues: Constituents of the Barbaric Yawp, 4th annual Fall Literary Festival, September 24-26 in Northeast Ohio. Proposal submission form here.

I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.
–Walt Whitman

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