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 @)

DePaul Conference Writing Contest--dealine June 22

DePaul Summer Writing Conference

July 17-19

Loop Campus

Submit up to three poems, one piece of creative nonfiction (10 pgs. or less), or one short story (10 pgs. or less) for the chance to win a scholarship to DePaul’s Summer Writing Conference and the opportunity to read at the Chicago Public Library’s Pritzker Auditorium



No entry fee; one winner chosen in each genre; full scholarship ($250 value)



Conference will include poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction craft classes, panels, and readings by professors from DePaul University, Columbia College, and Northwestern University. Go to www.cpe.depaul. edu/writingconfe rence to see the conference schedule



Please send submissions to Chris Green, (replace (at) with @) by June 22, 2009 (E-mailed notification of the winners to all who submitted during the last week of June)

Santa Barbara Writers Conference--win a scholarship! deadline June 1

The Santa Barbara Writers Conference announces its first annual Writing Contest in Fiction, Nonfiction and Poetry. Winners in each category will receive a scholarship for tuition to the June 2010 Santa Barbara Writers Conference and a grand prize winner will get a scholarship and the opportunity to have lunch with a top agent during the conference.



Fiction entries can be in any genre. Nonfiction can be essay, article or memoir. Fiction and nonfiction entries must be no more than 3,000 words. Poets may submit up to five poems, no more than 15 pages total. Each category will be judged by a team of SBWC workshop leaders and the winners will be chosen from among the finalists by a noted author. You can enter as many times as you like in all the categories. If these guidelines aren’t followed, your entry will be disqualified. The cost is $25 per entry, and the deadline is June 1. The winners will be announcedJuly 20 and celebrated at a special event later this summer.



Mail all entries to SBWC Writing Contest, P.O. Box 6627, Santa Barbara, CA 93160. Include a check made out to SBWC to cover all entry fees.

Visit our Web site for contest guidelines and more information: www.sbwriters. com

Abroad Writers' Conference Literary Contest--deadline Feb 15

Abroad Writers’ Conference (www.abroad- crwf.com) is announcing its annual 2009 literary contest.

Contest winners in the categories of fiction/non- fiction and poetry will have their work published inthe journal Driftwood.

Contest Deadline: February 15, 2009

Winners will be announced on: March 15, 2009

Poetry Judge: PATRICIA SMITH, National Book Award Finalist in Poetry.

Fiction/Non- Fiction Judge: JOAN SILBER, National Book Award Finalist in fiction and PEN/HEMINGWAY Award winner.

First-place will receive full tuition to our conference (value, $2,750 shared room); Second-place winners $250.00; and, third-place $50.00.

Poetry:

Poems in English up to 60 lines, not previously published, on any subject may be submitted. Each poem (judged separately) typed on an 8½ x 11-inch sheet. Fee: $25.00, for a group of 5 poems are allowed per submission. A list of winners will be posted on our Web site.

Short Story:

Stories must be: unpublished, in English, 5,000 words or less, double spaced, numbered and your name on the front page. Please secure stories. Fee: $25.00 per submission.

Mailing Instructions:

1. Please indicate on your envelope which contest you're entering: Poetry or Short-Story.

2. Enclose an index card with your name, address, phone number and email address.

3. Enclose a $25.00 check, money order, cash or Paypal. If you're interested in paying by Paypal, I'll need to send you a Paypal bill because I removed=2
0my button on my website because of security reasons.

Mail to:

Abroad Writer's Conference

P.O. Box 368 Westfield, MA 01085

Go to a conference on us!

Jennifer and I have some very, very exciting news! GLO is hosting two contests--one for the CCCC (Conference on College Composition and Communication) in San Francisco March 11-14, 2009; and AWP (The Association of Writers and Writing Programs) in Chicago February 11-14, 2009. If you win, you get to go to your choice of conference for almost FREE!! That means, we pay the registration, flight, hotel--you'll be responsible for food, etc, but dang, that's a great deal!

Here are the guidelines:
Write a 500 word "essay" about what you planning on doing with your degree--going on to teach, write, PhD, join the circus? If you want to include how the conference will benefit you and what you're ultimate plans are, go for it. Write with finesse, style, charisma...show our judges what you've been learning in those grad classes!

The entries will be blind--simply put a cover sheet with your name, contact info, and WHAT CONFERENCE YOU'RE APPLYING FOR on your submission. On the submission itself, do not put your name or contact info--if you do, we'll have to disqualify you and that would be :-(
Judges are: Professor Hildy Miller for the CCCC and Professors Michele Glazer and Debra Gwartney for the AWP conference.

Leave all entries in the EGO or WEGO mailbox in the English Dept office. We like to think of them as GLO's one, giant mailbox.

ALL CONTEST ENTRIES ARE DUE BY 5 PM NOVEMBER 21.

Winners will be announced December 8th, 2008! :-)

We encourage everyone to submit--this is a great opportunity that you won't want to pass up!

A Call for Papers: Authority and the Book in Medieval Culture--deadline Dec 1

A Call for Papers: Authority and the Book in Medieval Culture

April 4, 2009
Yale University

Abstracts from graduate students are now being accepted for the 26th Annual New England Medieval Studies Consortium Graduate Student Conference, the theme of which will be "Authority and the Book in Medieval Culture."

The organizers hope that this broad heading will elicit proposals for papers from all disciplines of Medieval Studies. Of especial interest are papers dealing with palaeography and manuscript studies; hagiography; literary studies; art history; history and historiography; gender studies; religious studies; musicology and medieval liturgical studies; as well as biblical exegesis and the relationship between Latin and various medieval vernaculars. Further, we look forward to receiving proposals that take more theoretical approaches to ideas of authority in the medieval period. We also hope to have one panel devoted to papers that explore different aspects of the history of modern Medieval Studies.

Papers are to be no more than twenty minutes in length and read in English. Abstracts of no more than 250 words should be sent by e-mail to Andrew.Kraebel@Yale.edu or SamanthaLily.Katz@Yale.edu; a hardcopy may be mailed to:


Andrew Kraebel
Department of English
Yale University
P.O. Box 208302
New Haven, CT 06520-8302


The deadline for submissions is December 1, 2008.

Graduate students whose abstracts are selected for the conference will have the opportunity to submit their paper in its entirety for consideration for the Alison Goddard Elliott Award. The conference will also feature an exhibition of manuscripts in the collection of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, and a plenary speaker, to be announced at a later date.



Please circulate this call for papers. A PDF version is available:

http://www.yale.edu/medieval/documents/CallforPapersv1.pdf




--
Laura S. Miles
Yale University, English PhD program
216 Bishop St. #109
New Haven, CT 06511
203.508.4686
MEDFEM-L is an unmoderated forum for the discussion of feminist approaches to medieval studies sponsored jointly by the Society for Medieval Feminist Studies (SMFS) and the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (ACMRS).

Visit SMFS at http://www.minotstateu.edu/mff/index.shtml

Visit ACMRS at www.asu.edu/clas/acmrs/ Phone: (480) 965-5900 Fax: (480) 965-1681

To post to the list, send messages to MEDFEM-L@ASU.EDU To manage your subscriber account, go to http://lists.asu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=medfem-l=1

Paper Presentation--Sept 11 NH 407

This Thursday (9/11) at 4:15pm in the English Department Conference
Room, Patrick Beisell, an English Undergraduate student at PSU, will
be presenting parts of his paper "The Man in the Moon: Lunar Influence
in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'" for discussion and comment. The paper
explores the much maligned and neglecting figure of the Moon in
"Midsummer Night's Dream;" the paper argues that Shakespeare's play
is, in many ways, organized and cohered by the influence, presence,
and disfiguring of the Moon.

This paper will be part of the University of Virginia's annual
Medieval/Renaissance Conference. Patrick would love to receive any
critical feedback before he presents the paper in full next week.

Expanding Literacy Studies Call for Submissions--Deadline 10/15/08

Expanding Literacy Studies
International, Interdisciplinary Conference for Graduate Students

April 3-5, 2009, The Ohio State University

Submission Deadline: October 15, 2008
Website: www.literacystudies.osu.edu/conference

CALL FOR PROPOSALS:

Expanding Literacy Studies is an International, Interdisciplinary
Conference for Graduate Students to be held April 3-5, 2009, at The
Ohio State University.

Literacy Studies is a recent construct. At the same time, it addresses
long-standing questions and concerns within and across disciplines.
But what is literacy? Who is studying it? And how is it being studied?

Literacy is traditionally defined as reading and writing. Contemporary
constructs, however, include everything from cyber and health literacy
to mathematical and visual literacy. The potential advance this
broadened view might represent is complicated by historical myths
about literacy, persistent fears about declines in literacy, and
failure to connect literacy research across disciplines.

Addressing the need for an expanded conversation about literacy that
exceeds disciplinary boundaries, this conference is a space for
graduate and professional students from all fields to ask questions,
consider directions, examine representations, make connections, and
share investigations of literacy, broadly defined. This conference
aims to expand the dialogue and explore the landscape and
intersections of literacy studies as a framework of critical
investigation. This approach is meant to do the double work of
expanding the field while critiquing the expansion. To that end, we
invite proposals from graduate and professional students in ALL
fields.

POSSIBLE TOPICS AND POINTS OF ENTRY:

* health literacy
* literacy and technology
* visual literacy
* representations of literacy
* definitions of literacy
* law and literacy
* art literacy
* uses and abuses of literacy
* motivations for literacy
* symbol systems
* the sociology of literacy
* the teaching of literacy
* reading and writing
* literacy and science
* performances of literacy
* literacy and popular culture
* the future of literacy
* histories of literacy
* intersections of literacy
* production and consumption of texts
* multiple literacies
* the literacy myth
* literacy and social change
* sites of literacy
* literacy in communities
* work literacy

WAYS TO PARTICIPATE:

* Facilitate a Roundtable Conversation
* Lead an Interactive Workshop
* Present a Creative Performance or Work of Art
* Participate on a Panel (present a paper or discuss a poster)
* Serve as a Discussant on a Panel of Presentations
* Share and Discuss Your Research in a Dissertation Workshop

WAYS TO COLLABORATE:

To facilitate cross-discipline and cross-institutional collaboration
on proposals, we will begin posting requests for collaborators on the
conference website immediately. Visit the site to connect with people
who have submitted requests and/or submit your own request for
collaborators. Please include a description of the topic and format
(presentation, performance, workshop, etc.) you are interested in
collaborating on, along with your contact information.

CONFERENCE SPECIAL FEATURES:

* Keynote Panel with Harvey J. Graff: "Responses to The Literacy Myth:
30 Years Later"

In honor of the 30th Anniversary of the publication of The Literacy
Myth: Literacy and Social Structure in the Nineteenth Century, author
Harvey J. Graff will respond to a panel of graduate students from
various disciplines speaking about "the literacy myth." Harvey J.
Graff is currently Ohio Eminent Scholar in Literacy Studies and
Professor of English and History at The Ohio State University.

* Interactive Workshop by Participatory Design pioneer Liz Sanders

Senior Lecturer in the Department of Design at Ohio State and
President of MakeTools (a design research firm), Liz Sanders is a
pioneer in the use of participatory research methods for the design of
products, systems, services, and spaces. Sanders speaks about and
teaches human-centered design to students, clients, and colleagues
around the world. She will lead conference participants in an
interactive workshop about the future of literacy, as a reflection of
and closure for the conference.

* Plenary Presentation by Shirley Brice Heath, author of Ways with Words

Heath is a sociolinguist and anthropologist whose primary interests
are oral and written language, youth development, racial relations,
organizational learning, and the relationships among aesthetics,
cognition, and human development. At the heart of Heath's research are
the organizational structures and cultural values and behaviors that
surround the learning and use of language. She is the author of the
prize-winning book Ways with Words: Language, Life, and Work in
Communities and Classrooms (1983) and co-editor of Identity and
Inner-city Youth: Beyond Ethnicity and Gender (1993), as well as
several other books and over 100 articles and book chapters. Heath is
Professor at Large for the Watson Institute for International Studies
at Brown University and Margery Bailey Professor Emerita at Stanford
University.

DEADLINE:

We will begin reviewing conference proposals September 1, 2008.
Proposals will not be accepted after October 15, 2008.

To learn more about the conference and to submit proposals, please go
to http://literacystudies.osu.edu/conference.

This conference is sponsored by LiteracyStudies@TheOhioStateUniversity
(http://literacystudies.osu.edu).

Mark your calendars, writers! Feb. 11-14, Chicago

The Association of Writers and Writing Programs is having their annual conference in Chicago for 2009! There are early bird specials...and student specials. Be sure to check it out!

February 11-14, 2009!