Dear colleagues,We are delighted to invite proposals for the Ninth International Conference on Literary Juvenilia, to be held at Valparaiso University from April 16–18, 2026. This year’s theme, Youth Writers and Their Worlds, calls on scholars to explore the various ways young people have imagined, questioned, and shaped their worlds through writing.We welcome papers that engage with youth-authored texts—published or private, written or visual—and encourage approaches that foreground the material, cultural, and imaginative contexts of juvenile literary and cultural production. Topics may include, but are not limited to:

• Circulation and framing of child-authored texts
• Forms and formats of youth expression (e.g., diaries, schoolwork, amateur publications)
• Child writers beyond biography
• Memoirs and retrospective accounts of early writing
• Constructions and contestations of childhood
• Visual, material, and hybrid forms of youth authorship

The conference will feature a keynote by Karen Sánchez-Eppler (Amherst College) and a special panel with Andrea Immel (Princeton University) and Laura Wasowicz (American Antiquarian Society) highlighting major archival initiatives in the field.We invite proposals for individual papers (15 minutes) and full panels. Please submit your abstract and CV by November 1, 2025 to: ISLJConference2026@valpo.edu. Panel proposals should include individual abstracts and bios, as well as a short panel overview.Presenters will also be invited to submit revised papers for consideration in a special issue of the Journal of Juvenilia Studies, guest edited by the conference co-chairs.For full details, please see the attached Call for Papers.
We hope you will consider joining us in Valparaiso for this exciting event!Warmly,
Emily Gowen (Harvard University)
Sara Danger (Valparaiso University)
Co-Chairs, ISLJ 2026
Contact: ISLJConference2026@valpo.edu