general announcements

At the time of his death in November 2016, Leonard Cohen had published two novels, eight poetry collections, and several volumes of selected works. In his better-known role as a singer, he had produced fourteen studio albums (which he once claimed to be hardly different from his books of poems), including You Want It Darker, released in October 2016 just before his death. Beloved by fans around the world for his “golden voice” and its signature mixture of the holy and the profane, Cohen was mourned at the moment of a perceived shift in global politics. Cohen died on the eve of the 2016 presidential elections and did not see Donald Trump’s victory.

The Midwest Modern Language Association will hold its annual conference in gorgeous Kansas City, Missouri, 15-18 November 2018. The conference's theme is "Consuming Cultures."

This year’s permenent MMLA session on creative prose considers how ideas, objects, experiences and cultures are consumed in the act of writing creatively. Specifically, how do creative writers use the ideas around them to produce their creative work? What type of research do they pursue and how do its results filter through the finished product? This session is interested in the ways in which creative writers use the material they find in order to make something new – a product that is in turn itself intended to be consumed.

The Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association invites articles for submission to its Fall, 2018 issue on the theme of “Art and Activism.”

After Fantastika: An Interdisciplinary Conference

6 - 7 July 2018

Lancaster University, UK

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Dr Caroline Edwards (Birkbeck, UK)

Dr Andrew Tate (Lancaster, UK)

ABSTRACT DEADLINE: 15 April 2018

‘Fantastika’ is an umbrella term which embraces the genres of Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror but can also include Alternate History, Gothic, Steampunk or any other radically imaginative narrative space.

In his seminal work The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. Du Bois wrote that the single most pressing issue facing the United States was the color line. More than 100 years later, the issue of race remains a pressing one for the U.S. and research suggests that the racial divide permeates our culture. Furthermore, numerous studies have found that today’s college students are not sufficiently prepared to interact and communicate effectively in a culturally-diverse and globalized workplace and do not possess many of the 21st century competencies necessary for success and engagement in such diverse environments. But in comparison, we wonder how prepared are faculty, administrators, and staff to cultivate a space where these skills can develop?