CFP:The Language of Black Women Writers: Power, Identity, and Relationships

deadline for submissions: 
June 1, 2019
full name / name of organization: 
South Atlantic Modern Languages Association

In her 1977 essay “Toward a Black Feminist Criticism,” Barbara Smith says, “The use of Black women’s language and cultural experience in books by Black women about Black women results in a miraculously rich coalescing of form and content and also takes their writing far beyond the confines of white/male literary structures.” Smith uses “black women’s language” to make the case that a black feminist framework would have much in common with a rapidly expanding black women’s literary tradition. An unending source for “cultural manifestations” of black womanhood, literature from black women has a critical value outside of white/male literary structures. To celebrate black women’s language, old and new, this panel seeks papers that examine literary, creative, or theoretical works from Black Women Writers. All papers should address the conference theme: Languages: Power, Identity, and Relationships. Please send a 250-300 word abstract and brief bio, by June 1, 2019, to Dr. Shahara’Tova Dente, Mississippi Valley State University dente.shaharatova@mvsu.edu.