Home Sweet HOMES: The Literature and Art of the Great Lakes States

Even in today’s digital world, an individual’s region is a part of an intersectional identity. Speech, diet, pastimes, demeanor, sense of humor: region affects the individual in significant ways. The Midwest, for example, is a regional designation that does a great deal of heavy lifting, encompassing people and places as far east as Ohio, as far south as Missouri, and as far north as Minnesota. Although often conflated as merely “flyover states,” those who are from the Midwest understand that there are multiple regions and cultures found within it, each with a vital and unique character above and beyond stereotypes of rural yokels and rustbelt leftovers.

This collection seeks to explore representations of the Midwest in the Great Lakes region in literature and art. The Great Lakes Midwest includes Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Essays may use any critical approach, but regional literature studies, place studies, and popular culture analysis are of special interest, as are essays focused on individual authors and/or texts.

Editor: Rhonda Brock-Servais, Professor English, Longwood University

Guidelines/Information/Dates:

• 250 to 300 word abstracts due 31 August (brockservaisrl@longwood.edu) along with 150-word biography
• Finished essays will be 6000 to 8000 words
• Working with Lexington Publishers