ethnicity and national identity

Though usually relegated to second status critically, the short story is having a moment. When Canadian writer Alice Munro won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2013, it was specifically for her contribution to the short story genre. As a writer who does not write novels, she acknowledged the importance of the award: “It’s a wonderful thing for the short story.” Indeed.

UPDATE: We have a contract with Lexington Books!

But we are posting our updated CFP because we would still like one or two more excellent essays on specific authors.  

We are seeking submissions of abstracts for our NeMLA panel. The NeMLA Convention will take place from March 23-26, 2023, in Niagara Falls, NY, USA. The 2023 conference theme is RESILIENCE. 

The International Committee of the Children’s Literature Association has chosen to alternate its annual panels between specific geographic focal points and themes that encourage transnational discussions. In conjunction with the 2022 ChLA conference, we hosted a themed virtual panel on “Dreams in Children’s and Young Adult Literature.” For the 2023 ChLA annual conference to be held in Bellevue, Washington from June 15 to 17, we seek paper proposals with a focus on “Islands.” We are interested in studies of islands, archipelagos, and waterways – literal and metaphoric – in children’s and young adult literature.

Is the UK a country of immigration? British immigration historian Panikos Panayi says yes. Although its history and founding are not comparable to that of the United States, which is synonymous with the history of immigration, the history of Britain is also not unrelated to immigration. On the contrary, for the past 200 years, immigration has been a major driving force in history, leading to significant changes in British society. In the context of the dissolution of the British Empire and the decline of the British economy after World War II, Englishness has emerged as a public concern by British people who ask themselves, “What is British?” or “What is English?”.

 James Baldwin’s presence in American culture and political history follows a trajectory that is perhaps unique in American letters, being the signature literary voice for two very different cultural moments: the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 60s and then—after a period of relative quiet—being taken up again six decades later as a prophetic precursor and guiding spirit for the larger Black Lives Matter movement.  Baldwin’s continuing relevance for our discourse and disputation about race, nationhood, masculinity and sexuality is now all but taken for granted.  His voice helps us navigate the thicket of cultural politics as we seek a world that is more just and more free than the one in which we live. 

Diverse African literary works portray the experiences of African characters in the United States and other Western nations. Such works include Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah, Imbolo Mbue's Behold the Dreamers, and NoViolet Bulawayo's We Need New Names. What do such portrayals tell us about imagined ideas of Western opportunity and promise? What do these types of narratives reveal about shared and divergent outlooks and lifestyles in African and Western communities? What different kinds of political and gender-based experiences are dramatized in these works, and what are the similarities and differences between the views of such experiences by African and Western characters?

The theatre is a space of creative potential, particularly for expressing and for shaping and articulating identity. Little attention has been paid to youth theatre as a place of creation for youths (individuals aged between 12 and 25) in regional, minority, and minoritsed languages. 

North South University

Dhaka, Bangladesh

International Conference in English Studies

Ruptures and Resilience: English Studies in the Now

November 4-5, 2022 

Organized by the Department of English and Modern Languages

~“You may make a rupture, draw a line of flight, yet there is still a danger that you will reencounter organizations that restratify everything, formations that restore power to a signifier, attributions that reconstitute a subject . . .” (Deleuze & Guattari, 9)

Special Issue of Texas Studies in Literature and Language (TSLL): Kazuo Ishiguro

Deadline for submissions: September 1, 2022
Full name / name of organization: Texas Studies in Literature and Language
Prospective publication: September 2023
Contact email: TSLL@austin.utexas.edu
TSLL Website: https://utpress.utexas.edu/journals/texas-studies-in-literature-and-lang...

The 4th Global Conference on Women’s Studies, November 24_26, 2022 in London, UK, encourages all to present their recent research work. This conference is considered a prestigious event organized with the motivation to provide an excellent international platform for academics, researchers, managers, industrial participants, and students to share their research findings with global experts. All full paper submissions will be peer-reviewed and evaluated based on originality, technical and/or research depth, accuracy, and relevance with the theme of the conference.

NeMLA's 54th Annual Convention 

Niagara Falls, NY March 23-26, 2023

Creative Writing Panel - "Voices in Diaspora"

The term diaspora refers to the dispersion of a people from their native land; and often, there is a subjective emotional attachment whereas such feelings are determined by cultural identity. We see this illustrated in works by writers such as Elizabeth Nunez, V.S. Naipaul, Yaa Gyasi, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and Jhumpa Lahiri as they examine themes such as nostalgia, alienation, displacement, and resilience in the face of adversity. This creative panel will consist of emerging writers who use their works of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry to illustrate the various experiences connected to living in diaspora.

Women Writing Syria: Resilience, Solidarity, Movement

Call for Submissions

How do Syrian women writers, poets and artists imagine Syria, both before and after the revolution and war? Can we imagine Syria without war? Can Syria – as a site that is at once shared, divided and contested – inspire us to bring it into being through creative writing and arts? Could we make this imagined Syria a concrete reality? How can Syrian women’s narratives and voices be heard?

We invite contributions from Syrian women writers of fiction and non-fiction, poets, playwrights and cross-genre writers writing in English, Arabic and Turkish for the forthcoming anthology Women Writing Syria. Visuals by artists are also welcome.

LIT Special Issue CFP: Intersectional Feminism and Barriers to Representation at the Turn of the Century

Deadline extended for submissions: August 31, 2022

Full name / name of organization: LIT: Literature Interpretation Theory

Contact email: litjourn@yahoo.com