The Poet's Corner in Wartime (deadline extended)

deadline for submissions: 
January 22, 2017
full name / name of organization: 
American Literature Association
contact email: 

The Poet’s Corner in Wartime

Call for Papers:

American Literature Association

May 25-28, 2017

Westin Copley Place, Boston, MA

Deadline: January 22, 2017

This panel seeks proposals that examine the role of poets and the uses of poetry during wartime.  Proposals should emphasize poetry as a context-dependent practice and trace the production, circulation, and/or reception of poem(s) during wartime.  How do poems signify during war and in what ways do their meanings change across the different spaces of war: the battlefront, the camp, the domestic parlor, the pages of newspapers, the street corner, and more?  How do different people use poetry during wartime and how do these uses inflect the meaning of poetry or war?  In short, to borrow Michael Cohen’s formulation, what are the “social lives of poems” during wartime?

Proposals are encouraged from any American war and preference will be given to poets and poetry not already represented by the societies making up the ALA.  Please email abstracts of 300-words or less to James Berkey at jhb5255@psu.edu by Monday, January 16, 2017.  Please include a brief bio and any A/V requirements.  If accepted, your abstract will be submitted to the American Literature Association for consideration.