Call for Papers: Elizabeth von Arnim and Pomerania EXTENDED DEADLINE

Institute of Literature and New Media at the University of Szczecin, Poland invites you to take part in the international academic conference on the 160th anniversary of the birth and 85th anniversary of the death of the author Elizabeth von Arnim and Pomerania

6-7 June 2026

Confirmed plenary speakers:
Dr Jennifer Shepherd, The Open University Belfast, Northern Ireland
prof. Noreen O’Connor, King’s College, Pennsylvania, USA

The writing of Elizabeth von Arnim (1866-1941, born Mary Annette Beauchamp) was as much a
literary outcome of the author’s creative potential as it was a reflection of her individual life story,
which in many ways can be seen as a sensitive reflection of the times and places in which she
lived.

Although Elizabeth von Arnim’s oeuvre is rich and multifaceted, we would like
to focus mainly on the first period of her writing. After arriving in Great Britain from Australia, she
married the Prussian Count Henning August von Arnim-Schlagenthin at the age of 24; soon
afterwards, she left the German Reich’s capital Berlin and moved to her husband’s estate in the
small Pomeranian town of Nassenheide near Stettin (now: Rzędziny near Szczecin). In 1910 the
estate had to be sold, and the marriage broke up. Elizabeth later remarried, lived in many countries
on several continents and died in the USA.

Almost always drawing literary inspiration from the places she lived in and the people she met,
including during her stay in Pomerania between 1896 and 1909, Elizabeth wrote works directly set
in realities familiar to her. These became the inspiration for her first bestselling novel, Elizabeth and
Her German Garden (1898), but also for other works, such as The Solitary Summer (1899) and The
Adventures of Elizabeth in Rugen (1904).

We would like to invite you to take part in this conference, which we sincerely hope will bring
together different perspectives on Elizabeth von Arnim’s literary works, with a particular focus on
regionalist themes, literary geography, geopoetics and approaches that highlight spatial aspects. We
invite abstract submissions for conference presentations and panels. We propose, as a certain
conceptual framework, the following topics for papers:
• the work of Elizabeth von Arnim, thematically linked to Pomerania, in a Pomeranian
context;
• the literary works of other authors thematically linked to Pomerania around 1900, in the
context of Elizabeth von Arnim’s work and the themes she addresses;
• writers writing in Pomerania (around 1900) in the context of Elizabeth von Arnim’s work,
• geopoetics; places, spaces and journeys in von Arnim’s work;
• cultural aspects of women’s literary output in the Pomeranian province around 1900,
• landed estates of the von Arnim family in Pomerania,
• Polish translations of the works of Elizabeth von Arnim,
• reception of the works of Elizabeth von Arnim in Poland,
• reception of the works of Elizabeth von Arnim in Pomerania.

Presentations in English or Polish are welcome. We plan a post-conference publication in a form of
an edited monograph in a renowned publishing house, to be issued in 2027.

Please send your 250-words abstract and 150-words bio note to: vonarnim@usz.edu.pl by 15th
February 2026.

For more information, see: https://vonarnim2026.wordpress.com/

Organising committee
dr hab. Bartosz Wójcik, prof. US (conference chair)
dr hab. Piotr Krupiński, prof. US
dr Barbara Braid
dr Mariusz Strzeżek
mgr Magdalena Skrzyńska
mgr Ewa Kaptur
mgr Anna Ronewicz