general announcements

The 5th Annual Tolkien Conference at the University of Vermont will be
held April 2008 from Friday the 11th to Sunday the 13th. This year’s
theme is Celtic and Norse influence on the work of J. R. R. Tolkien.

The conference organizers seek 20-minute papers on any topic related to
Tolkien or his work, but topics relating to the theme of the conference
will be given priority consideration.

It's not to late to be part of the 39th Convention in Buffalo, April 10-
13, 2008!

With the later date for the 2008 NeMLA Convention in Buffalo, chairs were
given the option to extend their abstract deadlines from the standard
Sept. 15 to as late as Oct. 12.

There are 36 sessions still open, covering most areas:
http://www.nemla.org/convention/extended.html

Full descriptions of these sessions are available at:
http://www.nemla.org/convention/cfp07.html

Join us in Buffalo!

Susquehanna University invites undergraduate scholars and writers to
participate in “Imagination-Self-Other,” its fourth annual Undergraduate
Literature and Creative Writing Conference.

“Imagination-Self-Other” welcomes creative and/or critical engagement with
issues that include but are not limited to the following:

* Imagining difference
* Imagination and liberation
* Imagining race, class, gender, sexuality
* Borderlands of self and other
* The failure of imagination
* Imagination and intersectionality
* Literary representations of self/other
* Genres of the self: Lyric, memoir, biography
* Identity, nation, globalization
* Imagination and subjectivity

CFP: Call for Papers SW/TX PCA/ACA
Deadline for submission: November 15, 2007
Online: http://www.h-net.org/~swpca/index.html

Keynote Speaker: Joy Harjo

The 29th Annual Meeting of the
Southwest/Texas Popular and American Culture Associations
February 13â€"16, 2008
Hyatt Regency Albuquerque
Albuquerque, New Mexico

The SW/TX PCA/ ACA invites papers for one of its 65+ Area offerings in
Literature, Film, Television, Science Fiction and Fantasy, Ethnic and
Gender Studies, Ecocriticism, Southwest Culture, Western Studies, Creative
Writing, Pedagogy, and many more!

CFP: Call for Papers SW/TX PCA/ACA
Deadline for submission: November 15, 2007
Online: http://www.h-net.org/~swpca/index.html

Keynote Speaker: Joy Harjo

The 29th Annual Meeting of the
Southwest/Texas Popular and American Culture Associations
February 13â€"16, 2008
Hyatt Regency Albuquerque
Albuquerque, New Mexico

The SW/TX PCA/ ACA invites papers for one of its 65+ Area offerings in
Literature, Film, Television, Science Fiction and Fantasy, Ethnic and
Gender Studies, Ecocriticism, Southwest Culture, Western Studies, Creative
Writing, Pedagogy, and many more!

In Elaine Scarry’s book Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the
World, she claims that pain is language destroying, essentially
establishing a barrier between the self and reality that eliminates
meaningful communication with the outside world. Therefore, not only is
it impossible to adequately describe pain, but the possibility of empathy
is all but destroyed. This panel seeks critical and creative
presentations that explore and engage the question: How can a subject
effectively communicate the experience of pain? How can a community
understand or empathize with that subject? Topics may include specific
writers â€" such as Sylvia Plath or Philip K. Dick â€" or a more general
theoretical study.

Call for Papers

“Hello, I Say, It’s Me”: (Re)Constructions of Subjectivity in Contemporary
Literature and Culture (April 04-05, 2008; Heinrich-Heine-Universität
Düsseldorf)

CALL FOR PAPERS
Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies

Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies is inviting submissions for its
forthcoming issues. We encourage contributions from both Taiwan and
international communities addressing our special topics; articles on
other aspects of literature and culture are also welcome. If your
manuscript is intended as a special topic submission, please so indicate.
All correspondence should be addressed to Editor, Concentric: Literary
and Cultural Studies, Department of English, National Taiwan Normal
University, 162 Hoping East Road, Section 1, Taipei 106, Taiwan. [e-mail:
concentric.lit @deps.ntnu.edu.tw]

Forthcoming Special Topics

Participants are being sought for paper sessions on Buying and Selling
Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror for the 29th Annual International
Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts.

The focus of ICFA 29 is on the sublime in the fantastic, and while papers
relating to this theme are welcome, proposals on any topics related to
this call will be considered. The conference will be held in Orlando,
Florida, from March 19 - 23, 2008 at the Marriott Orlando Marriott
Hotel. For more information and updates about the conference, please
visit www.iafa.org.

Possible topics include (but are not limited to) the following topics:

Participants are being sought for paper sessions on Sociology and
Folklore in the Fantastic for the 29th Annual International Conference on
the Fantastic in the Arts.

The focus of ICFA 29 is on the sublime in the fantastic, and while papers
relating to this theme are welcome, proposals on any topics related to
this call will be considered. The conference will be held in Orlando,
Florida, from March 19 - 23, 2008 at the Marriott Orlando Marriott
Hotel. For more information and updates about the conference, please
visit www.iafa.org.

Possible topics include (but are not limited to) the following topics:

Ethics and / of Formalism â€" Society for the Study of Narrative Literature, Austin, May 1-4, 2008

Contemporary theory has often associated ethics with particularizing impulses in narrative and in
criticism. In the interest of ethics that strive to reach beyond the particular, we request submissions
for one or more panels that ask about narrative form as a site of ethical relation and generalization,
and about the ethical purchase of formalist approaches to narrative.

Specs is a journal of contemporary culture and arts at Rollins College.

Specs aims to create sympathetic interfaces between artistic and critical
practices. The journal invokes the spirit of John Dewey, for whom thinking
begins in flux, in the "peculiar combination of the understood and
nonunderstood."

The editors invite submissions of critical and/or creative work for both
the print and web issue, including critical articles, fiction, non-fiction
(of up to 6000 works), poetry (3-5 poems) and artwork.

CALL FOR PANELS AND PAPERS
31st Annual New Jersey College English Association Conference
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ 07079

Keynote Speaker: Edward Halsey Foster

The New Jersey College English Association is soliciting panels and
papers considering a broad range of literary and composition topics for
its annual conference. The NJCEA brings together those interested in
language, literature, pedagogy, and other aspects of the teaching and
study of literature and writing.

CALL FOR PANELS AND PAPERS
31st Annual New Jersey College English Association Conference
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ 07079

Keynote Speaker: Edward Halsey Foster

The New Jersey College English Association is soliciting panels and
papers considering a broad range of literary and composition topics for
its annual conference. The NJCEA brings together those interested in
language, literature, pedagogy, and other aspects of the teaching and
study of literature and writing.