childrens literature

2020 marks the tenth anniversary of Michelle Alexander’s groundbreaking work, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, which brought unprecedented attention to the ongoing discrimination present in the United States’ criminal justice system and its many devastating effects. Numerous studies have also documented the ways in which children and young adults are impacted by the criminal justice system, whether they are in it themselves, have a family member in it, or are living with the expectation of entering it in the future.

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

General Information

"Movement through Arthurian Legend" 

Medievalism Transformed 2020 explores all historical and literary ideas relating to the theme of movement in the medieval world. How are texts re-invented across time? What role do texts play as cultural objects in their historical moment and beyond? How does a text engage with moving times, cultures, and space?

We invite papers relating to movement through Arthurian legend crossing all periods, borders, and historical and literary disciplines including but not limited to:

Comics and Graphic Narratives for Young Audiences

This panel explores intersections between children’s literature and comics (including manga and graphic novels). All periods and nations welcome.

Call for Papers for a proposed special session at the Modern Language Association (MLA) Annual Convention on January 7-10, 2021 in Toronto, ON. This collaborative panel is jointly sponsored by the Comics and Graphic Narratives Forum and the Children’s and Young Adult Literature Forum.

Call for Papers on the Fantastic (Fantasy & Science Fiction / Monsters & the Monstrous)

The Northeast Alliance for Scholarship on the Fantastic and the allied Fantastic Areas (Fantasy & Science Fiction and Monsters & the Monstrous) invite paper proposals for the 2020 conference of the Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association (NEPCA) to convene at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester, New Hampshire, from Friday, 23 October, to Saturday, October 24.

The deadline for proposals is June 1, 2020.

Theorizing the Child for the Twenty-First Century

Call for Papers for MLA 2021

Please join us in Charlotte, NC October 23-24 2020 for the 49th annual Victorians Institute Conference. This conference seeks essays that explore how Victorians saw their world, how they depicted what they saw, and the ways that modern scholars, in turn, see the Victorians. Papers or panels on poetry, prose, nonfiction, biography, digital humanities, or visual art are welcome, as are presentations on the pedagogy and ethics of teaching Victorian literature in 2020.

For a full CFP, see http://victoriansinstitute.org/cfp-for-vi-2020-in-charlotte-nc/

The Rebecca Harding Davis Society welcomes proposals for two sessions at the next meeting of the American Literature Association. The conference will be held May 21-24, 2020 in San Diego, CA.

New Directions in Davis Scholarship (2 panels)

We are interested in proposals that engage in any aspect of Davis’s work. We particularly encourage proposals that address some of Davis’s lesser known works, and we also welcome new readings of the canonical “Life in the Iron-Mills.”

Please send a 200-250 word abstract to Aaron Rovan (ajrovan@mix.wvu.edu) by Sunday, January 26, 2020.