John R. Milton Writers' Conference: Writing about the American West--deadline Aug 15

Please join us for the biennial John R. Milton Writers' Conference, held October 29-31, 2009, at The University of South Dakota in Vermillion, South Dakota.

We are seeking panel and round table proposals, scholarly papers, and creative writing related (either explicitly or implicitly) to the theme of Frontier Technology/Techno-Frontiers: Technology and the American West. Possible topics or approaches might include, but certainly aren’t limited to:

• Frontier Technology/Techno-Frontiers in Western American literature, history, and culture;

• Frontier Technology/Techno-Frontiers in American Indian literature, history, and culture;

• Frontier Technology/Techno-Frontiers in the American West in relationship to environmental issues and ecocriticism;

• The railroad and the American West;

• The American West as a site or fantasy space of anti-technology;

• Representations of Frontier Technology/Techno-frontiers in popular culture (including, but not limited to, HBO's Deadwood and Joss Whedon's Firefly, Westerns (both film and television), graphic novels, and science fiction); and

• The American West in cyber-space.

Please submit a 250-word abstract, along with a brief biographical note, postmarked by August 15, 2009. Panel and proposals should include individual paper abstracts and biographical notes for all of the participating panelists, in addition to a 250-word justification for the panel. Round table proposals should include a 250-word justifi cation for the round table session, along with biographic
al notes for the participating round table session members.

For creative submissions, please submit either 8-10 pages of poetry, or no more than 25 pages of creative prose writing, along with a short biographical note, postmarked by August 15, 2009. While creative work that either explicitly or implicitly addresses the conference theme, or is related in some way to landscape are particularly welcome, all types of creative work on any theme and in any style will be gladly considered for readings at the conference's creative writing panels.

All submissions should be sent to:

Lee Ann Roripaugh
Department of English
University of South Dakota
414 East Clark Street
Vermillion, SD 57069

Alternatively, you may submit your proposals/creative writing samples in MS Word or RTF format, via e-mail, to:
(replace (at) with @)