Proposed Panel for

American Literature Association
35th Annual Conference
May 23-26, 2024
Chicago, IL

Of the 425 sites in the National Park Service, only a few focus specifically on American authors--Edgar Allen Poe National Historic Site, Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site, Longfellow House Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site--and twenty-two other sites are marked by the NPS as being related to the theme of "Literature & Poetry." This underrepresentation of American literary history within the NPS system fails to acknowledge the presence and importance of American writing to the places being preserved for its natural or historical significance. Moreover, interpretation practices at NPS sites tend to overlook or avoid literature beyond the occasional quotation on wayside signs or museum walls. 

As the National Park Service seeks to refresh and expand its narratives to tell more inclusive stories, this proposed panel invites papers that illuminate the connections between National Park sites and American literature. Papers might take a number of approaches in considering the following questions:

• What literary texts, forms, or genres enrich our understanding of specific NPS sites?
• How do collections or networks of NPS sites reflect American literary history?
• How can practices of close reading and interpretation can be translated to the practice of public interpretation first theorized by Freeman Tilden?
• How does the national project of preservation coincide or collide with American literary history?
• How can attention to literature expand the diversity of representation in NPS narratives?
• What natural or historical National Park sites should be (re)framed as literary sites?

Please submit 300-word abstracts and a brief bio to sbuchmeier@usaconservation.org by January 22, 2024.