17th International Willa Cather Seminar

The Willa Cather Foundation invites proposals for the 17th International Willa Cather Seminar, to be held in June 2019. Seminar directors work alongside WCF staff and Board to create a one-­of-­a-­kind conference experience for Cather scholars and enthusiasts in locations central to Willa Cather’s life and writing. Past seminars have been held in Red Cloud, Lincoln, and Nebraska City, Nebraska; Santa Fe; Quebec City; Frederick County, Virginia; Bread Loaf Campus of Middlebury College, Vermont; Paris and Provence, France; Flagstaff, Arizona; Northampton, Massachusetts; and Chicago. Seminars traditionally last 5-6 days and blend concurrent sessions of academic papers, keynote lectures, tours of Cather-­related sites, performances, public events, and social activities.

We ask for succinct 2-­3 page proposals that include the names of directors, their academic status, brief summary of their Cather scholarly and other related experience, justification of site appropriateness for Cather studies, explanation of proposed theme, and specifics on institutional partnership and sponsorship potential. Preference will be given to proposals that demonstrate strong institutional partnership, sponsorship potential, and sufficient local infrastructure for an academic conference (transportation, dining, lodging, and entertainment options). The WCF staff and Education Committee collaborate with, advise, and support directors and partner institutions in order to ensure that seminar experiences are successful and satisfying for all.

For questions or to submit a proposal, please contact Andrew Jewell, Education Committee Chair (ajewell2@unl.edu), and Tracy Tucker, Education Director of the Willa Cather Foundation (ttucker@willacather.org). Deadline for proposals is February 1, 2016.

Tracy Sanford Tucker
Education Director & Certified Archivist
The Willa Cather Foundation
413 North Webster Street | Red Cloud, NE 68970
Phone: 402-746-2653 | Toll Free: 866-731-7304
www.WillaCather.org | www.VirtualCather.org

Announcement. Neil Campbell’s New Book Published!

Neil Campbell’s new book Affective Critical Regionality has just been published by Rowman & Littlefield International in the Place, Memory, Affect series. The book explores and expands critical regionalism with a particular emphasis on different forms of western writing or writings of the west, including DJ Waldie, Willy Vlautin, Karen Tei Yamashita, Charles Olson, Rebecca Solnit & Kathleen Stewart.

Kathleen Stewart calls it a ‘powerful intervention of a singular kind’ and Steve Tatum  ‘A scintillating, ultimately humane achievement’.

Available in paperback now!

Western Literature Association 2016 Conference

For the latest information on the 2016 Western Literature Association conference in Big Sky, Montana, including registration information, see the WLA organization website’s 2016 conference page.

Deadline Extended

Charles Redd Center/Western Literature K-12 Educator Prize

Extended Deadline: July 1

The Western Literature Association and the Charles Redd Center for Western Studies are sponsoring two K-12 Teaching Prizes that will provide teachers with the opportunity to attend and present at the Western Literature Association Annual Meeting in Big Sky, Montana, on September 21-24, 2016. The selected teachers will share their lesson plans at the conference on a K-12 Teaching Panel on Saturday, September 24.

The prize will include conference registration, award banquet ticket, and $750 toward conference related costs such as hotel, airfare, and a WLA membership.

Please see the link below for more information. Contact Randi Tanglen, rtanglen@austincollege.edu, with any questions.

http://www.westernlit.org/k-12-teaching-prize/

 

Randi Lynn Tanglen, Ph.D.

New Deadline

CFP: WLA Panel at SSAWW Conference

Society for the Study of American Women Writers & Université Bordeaux Montaigne

5th – 8th July 2017

Venue: Université Bordeaux Montaigne, France

The Western Literature Association invites submissions for its upcoming panel at the international meeting of the Society for the Study of American Women Writers, July 5-8, 2017 in Bordeaux, France.

You can learn more about the conference here: wordpress.com/2015/12/16/cfp-border-crossings-translation-migration-gender-in-the-americas-the-transatlantic-the-transpacific-deadline-august-31-2016/

In response to the conference theme of “Border Crossings:Translation, Migration, & Gender in the Americas, the Transatlantic, & the Transpacific,” we welcome papers that consider how women writers respond to the ideological and imaginative boundaries that have shaped western American literary and cultural production. Proposed papers might address but are not limited to the following topics:

• gender, genre, and the West
• negotiations of racial, ethnic, and religious difference in western women’s writing
• women writers and the geographic and chronological definitions of the West
• archival and recovery work in the field of western women’s writing
• women writers and the post-western West

ESPECIALLY WELCOMED ARE SUBMISSIONS WITH A PRINT CULTURE FOCUS

E-mail a 300-word abstract and brief CV to Cathryn Halverson (clh@hum.ku.dk) by May 15, 2016. While you do not need to be an SSAWW or WLA member to submit a proposal, you must be or become a member of both SSAWW and WLA in order to present as part of this panel.

WLA Lyons Award

To all WLA Members:

If you have published a book in 2015 that you would like to have considered for the WLA’s Thomas J. Lyon Book Award, be sure to let your press know that the deadline for nominations is slightly earlier (June 1) this year because of the earlier conference date.

If your press cannot commit to this deadline, you can self-nominate. Details for the award and nomination procedures can be found on our website:

http://www.westernlit.org/thomas-j-lyon-book-award-in-western-american-literary-and-cultural-studies/

The author does not have to be a WLA member. Readers can nominate books they deem worthy of this award. Details on above cited web page as well.

Thanks!

Conference abstracts due soon

New proposals are coming in every day now (thank you!), so this is just a short reminder that we’re counting down the final month until abstracts need to be submitted for WLA 2016.  Remember, the deadline is June 1.  You can access the CFP, other information about the conference, and the ConfTool address at http://www.westernlit.org/wla-conference-2016/