childrens literature

The West Chester University Poetry Center 

Call for Papers 

Craft(ing) the Classroom, A Poetry and Pedagogy Conference 

February 18-20, 2021 

Submission Deadline: December 1, 2020 

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.

Nordic Medievalisms: Vikings and Their World in Popular Culture (Papers Session)

Submissions by 30 June 2020

The Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture seeks submissions to round out a sponsored papers session to be included in the Medieval & Renaissance Area for the 2020 meeting of the Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association to be held at the Princeton Marriott at Forrestal, Princeton, New Jersey, from 5-7 November 2020. (Please note that the event is now likely to be held virtually.)

NeMLA Panel (March 11-14, 2021 Philadelphia, PA)

Please submit all proposals (200-500 words) through the NeMLA user portal here: https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/18578

Growing up in Latin America is an experience that has been marked by constant negotiations with precarity, (post)coloniality and multiple forms of violence. Numerous literary and audiovisual productions have drawn attention to this issue, which has also elicited significant academic interest. In this edited volume, we invite critical examinations of 20th and 21stcenturies coming-of-age narratives and Bildungsroman dealing with bi-cultural or multi-cultural identities, picaresque and heterodox processes of learning, non hetero-normative sexualities, as well as other alternative processes of development and growth.

Vernon Press invites chapter proposals on the theme: Sexual Identities and Assault in Children’s and Adolescent Literature and Culture for an edited collection Voices From the Wreckage: YA Voices in the #MeToo Movement edited by Kimberly Greenfield Karshner (Lorain County Community College).

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

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