[DEADLINE EXTENDED] Calls for Papers and Creative Presentations

Vermillion Writing and Literature Conference at University of South Dakota

Beginnings: New Approaches in Creative Writing,
Literary Studies, and Pedagogy

September 28-30, 2023

University of South Dakota (Vermillion, SD)

Please join us 28-30 September 2023 for the 1st biennial Vermillion Writing and Literature Conference at University of South Dakota (Vermillion, SD). The 2023 conference theme, “Beginnings: New Approaches in Creative Writing, Literary Studies, and Pedagogy,” looks with hope to possibilities for new voices, ideas, forms, and projects in the literary arts. VWALC’s panel sessions and public readings will address these and other overlapping concerns.

We are excited to confirm Erika T. Wurth, Benjamin Percy, Lisa Fay Coutley, and others to be announced as featured authors; in addition, the conference will feature readings by USD’s Department of English faculty.

We invite proposals for critical and creative panels, roundtables, and individual submissions engaging with the exploration of our conference theme. Possible areas of focus and approaches include, but are not limited to:

• indigenous and Native American literature, history, and culture;

• hybrid texts, blurred genres, fact vs. fiction, and/or experimentation; 

• innovation in creative writing pedagogy that addresses diversity, emerging forms, shifting landscapes in education, or disability inclusion;

• discourses of marginalization, including race, ethnicity, multiculturalism, or ability; 

• women, gender, and/or sexuality;  

• representations of disability or mental illness in literature and/or popular culture; 

• postcolonial literature and/or theory; 

• western American literature, history, and culture; 

• cultural and media studies, including but not limited to popular culture, or speculative fiction; 

• the relationship between specific landscapes and forms of identity; 

• writing’s ability to question/challenge categories of gender, race, or ability;

• relationships between representation and textual experimentation.

Deadline for submissions: 1 MAY 2023

Please send to VermillionConference@usd.edu.

Submission Guidelines:

For critical work, please submit a 250-word abstract, along with a brief biographical note, by 1 MAY 2023. Panel and roundtable proposals should include biographical notes for all presenters and a 250-word description for the session. Panel proposals should also include individual presenters’ abstracts. We welcome panel proposals that incorporate both critical and creative presentations.

For creative submissions, please provide either 8-10 pages of poetry or no more than 10-12 pages of creative prose writing, along with a short biographical note, by 1 MAY 2023. While creative work that explicitly or implicitly engages with the conference theme is especially welcome, we will gladly considerall types of creative work on any theme and in any style for readings at the conference’s creative writing panels.

For more information, write to VermillionConference@usd.edu.