Women’s Writing: Call for Papers
Special Issue: Children’s Literature
Editors: Ann Alston (University of the West of England) and Catherine Butler (Cardiff University)

This special issue of Women’s Writing seeks to publish a selection of articles concerning children’s literature by women in the long nineteenth century (1780-1920). Topics may include but are not limited to:

• Gender
• Experiencing childhood
• Adolescence
• Adventure
• Family
• The school story
• Religious fiction
• Poetry
• Fiction for young children
• Historical fiction
• Conduct books and cautionary and moral tales
• Non-fiction
• Fantasy
• Gothic
• Ghost stories and the supernatural
• Supernatural

Please submit an abstract of 300 words (max) to ann.alston@uwe.ac.uk and ButlerC6@cardiff.ac.uk by 30 October 2015.

Final papers would be expected to be between 4000-7000 words.

Call for papers
L.M. Montgomery and Gender

From Anne’s initial iconic and heartrending cry in Anne of Green Gables—“You don’t want me because I’m not a boy”—to the pressure on young men to join the war effort in Rilla of Ingleside, and from the houseful of supportive co-eds in Anne of the Island to the tyrannical grandmother in Jane of Lantern Hill, Lucy Maud Montgomery’s work highlights gender roles: how formative and deterministic they seem, and yet mutable they may be. Much Montgomery criticism of the past several decades has regarded her work from a feminist and gender studies perspective. Given that Canada is fast approaching the centenary of women’s suffrage in the province of Manitoba (1916) and nationally (1918), the twelfth biennial conference hosted by the L.M. Montgomery Institute at the University of Prince Edward Island, which will take place 23-26 June 2016, invites proposals for papers that re-consider the role of gender in L.M. Montgomery’s work, broadly defined: her fiction, poetry, life writing, letters, photographs, and scrapbooks, as well as the myriad adaptations and spinoffs in film, television, theatre, tourism, and social media. To what degree do Montgomery’s works, or works inspired by her, challenge or re-entrench normative gender roles? Do her works envision new possibilities for girls and women, boys and men? Or, is our contemporary fascination with her world, in part, nostalgia for what people imagine to be the more clearly-defined gender roles of a bygone era?

Engaging the rich scholarship of the past, possible topics might examine the intersection of gender with:

• Sexual identity, queerness, bachelor- and spinsterhood, and/or heterosexual romance;
• Friendship of all kinds; relationships with personal and professional acquaintances;
• Geographic, cultural, linguistic, racial, or ethnic identities, such as Scottishness;
• Voting and politics; careers and/or education for women (or men); domesticity;
• Levels of ability and mobility;
• Childhood, particularly orphanhood;
• Mental and/or physical illness, addiction, and/or failing health

Please submit a proposal of 250-300 words, a CV that includes education, position, publications, and presentations, and a list of A/V requirements by 31 August 2015 by using our online form at the L.M. Montgomery Institute website at http://www.lmmontgomery.ca/. Abstracts should not only clearly articulate a strong argument but they should also situate that argument in the context of previous Montgomery scholarship. All proposals are blind reviewed. Any questions or requests for further information can be directed to the conference co-chairs: Dr. Andrea McKenzie (acmcken@gmail.com) and/or Dr. Laura Robinson (Laura.Robinson@rmc.ca).

Kent State University School of Library and Information Science, Reinberger Children’s Library Center and the Marantz Picturebook Collection for the Study of Picturebook Art present the Inaugural Marantz Picturebook Research Symposium
July 24-26, 2016
Kent State University, Kent, Ohio
Keynote: Will Hillenbrand, Children’s Book Author and Illustrator
(Additional keynote speakers to be announced)

CALL FOR PROPOSALS
“The Picturebook as an Art Object”: Honoring the life and work of Dr. Kenneth L. Marantz

According to Dr. Kenneth L. Marantz, professor of art education at the Ohio State University from 1971 to 1991, picturebooks (spelled as one word by Dr. Marantz) are “such rich repositories of visual art, so readily available compared with the resources housed in galleries and museums, that I believe we must take the fullest advantage of them.”

For many young children, picturebooks represent their first exposure to culture — to art, and to literature — in one perfect package. For older children, picturebooks are a useful tool for addressing controversial or difficult subject matter. For all, the aesthetic relationship with picturebooks can create life-long connections.

Dr. Kenneth L. Marantz and his wife, Sylvia Marantz, have graciously funded a biannual scholarly picturebook research symposium to be organized and hosted by the Kent State University’s School of Library and Information Science. In this Inaugural Marantz Picturebook Research Symposium, to be held July 24-26, 2016, we honor Ken Marantz’s lifelong dedication to the art of the picturebook.

This call for proposals seeks original, interdisciplinary research in areas related to picturebooks, especially centered on Dr. Marantz’s concept of the picturebook as an art object.

Confirmed Keynote
Children’s book author and illustrator Will Hillenbrand will deliver a keynote address. Hillenbrand, who studied under Ken Marantz, received the 2012 Parents’ Choice Silver Honor award for his illustrations in Bear in Love. Other accolades include a Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators; Notable Book Award from the American Library Association for the first picture book he illustrated, Traveling to Tondo; and Children’s Choice Awards from the International Reading Association for Sam Sunday and the Mystery at the Ocean Beach Hotel and The House That Drac Built. (Additional keynote speakers will be confirmed shortly.)

Presentation Formats
The Committee especially encourages presentations and research in the following formats:

1. Twenty-minute presentations followed by 10 minutes of discussion
2. Panel submissions comprised of three 20-minute presentations followed by 20 minutes of discussion (or four 15-minute presentations followed by 15 minutes of discussion)
3. Posters

Submissions
Submissions must be submitted on the appropriate form (http://bit.ly/MarantzSymposiumSubmission). Submissions must include the following in order to be considered:

• Title and three to five keywords
• Description of type of proposal you are submitting (poster/paper/panel)
• Names and contact information of all contributors
• An abstract of no more than 350 words of your proposed poster or presentation.
• In the case of a panel submission, one abstract should be submitted to summarize the panel presentations.
• Information about any special equipment requirements (beyond a laptop and projector, which will be provided)

Prospective participants should submit abstracts that report on recent research and scholarship. Contributions to this call for papers may not have been previously published, and all research methodologies from all disciplines are welcomed. Students are encouraged to participate. Once selected, presenters are responsible for their own expenses related to the conference, including but not limited to registration fees, lodging, transportation and meals.

Link to proposal form: http://bit.ly/MarantzSymposiumSubmission.

Possible Topics
Some possible topics, as related to the conference theme, include (but are not limited to):

• Picturebooks and aesthetics
• “Reading” picturebooks: The influence of art and text on early literacy
• Picturebooks, aesthetics, and the imagination
• Playing with picturebooks
• Cultural constructions of picturebooks
• Picturebooks and digital formats
• Reaching diverse readers via picturebooks
• Historical perspectives on picturebooks

Deadlines
Nov. 1, 2015: Deadline to submit abstracts
Dec. 1, 2015: Notification of acceptance

Proceedings
There will not be proceedings for this conference; however, selected papers may be included in a special issue of a journal or an edited collection. Details will be provided as they become available.

Questions
If you have questions that are not addressed here, please contact Dr. Marianne Martens (mmarten3@kent.edu) or Michelle Baldini (mbaldini@kent.edu).

Call for Papers
Embodied Readings: Child Readers and Children in Literature
Roxanne Harde and Lydia Kokkola (Eds.)

Submissions are invited for chapters on the theme of the embodied child in relation to children’s literature and other media. The collection will reflect the growing interest in the embodied nature of child both as the reader or consumer of various media and as represented within those media.

Contributions are welcomed from a range of fields, such as literature, postcolonial studies, literacy education, historical and cultural studies, film and media studies, and education.

Possible areas of investigation:

• The Sexualised child (as reader or within the text)
• The Racialized child (as reader or within the text)
• The Reading Child (including publishing practices and the kinaesthetic aspects of digital reading)
• Visual Images of Children (in advertising, in war reporting, in painting etc.)
• The Able Bodied or Differently Abled Bodied Child
• Children’s Spatial Practices
• Gendered Bodies
• The Invisible/Unseen Child
• The Abject Body

An abstract of the proposal, maximum 200 words, with a brief CV of the author(s), maximum 40 words, should be submitted to Roxanne Harde (rharde@ualberta.ca) and Lydia Kokkola (lydia.kokkola@ltu.se) by 9 November 2015.

We will aim to reply to authors by 30 November 2015.

Abstracts accepted by the contributors will be used to produce a publishing proposal. Full manuscripts should be prepared by 14 February 2016 with the aim of completing revisions etc. for July 2016 and publication Dec 2016/Jan 2017.