Calls for papers: a weekly roundup

The Coleridge Summer Conference, Cannington, Somerset 23-27 July 2012

Abstracts for the 2012 Coleridge Summer Conference are welcomed on Coleridge, the Coleridge Circle, and Romantic Writing and Culture more generally. Papers on the themes of Coleridge and Women, and Coleridge in 1812, are particularly welcome.

The Coleridge Summer Conference will have a new format for 2012—shorter and more keenly priced for these years of recession (four days and £400 including accommodation and meals). It aims, too, for a wide range of papers on the literature of Coleridge’s circle and the culture of the times, as well as on Coleridge himself. The conference will be held at the historic Clifford Hall, Cannington, among the beautiful Quantock Hills a few miles from Nether Stowey and Alfoxden. The Hall’s garden grounds will be available for all participants, and there will be walks on the Quantocks and to the sea.

The deadline for submission of abstracts, which should be no longer than 250 words, and should include the proposer’s name and contact details, is 30th December 2011. Abstracts should be sent to timfulford@tiscali.co.uk. Bursaries will be available for postgraduates and unwaged scholars. Please state on your abstract if you would like to be considered for a bursary.

More information about the conference can be found on the Friends of Coleridge website.


Special Issue of Women’s Writing on Nineteenth-Century Australian and New Zealand Girls’ Culture

Colonial girls’ culture is receiving growing critical attention, prompting us to rethink its significance for women’s writing. The journal Women’s Writing invites original papers for a special issue dedicated to the colonial girl and her literature in nineteenth-century Australia and New Zealand. This special issue aims to create a forum for a more encompassing approach to nineteenth-century Australian and New Zealand literature, inviting comparative work on British and colonial texts, while providing new detailed insight into Australian and New Zealand girls’ literature.

Please submit papers for consideration between 4000-7000 words to Tamara S. Wagner at tswagner@ntu.edu.sg, by 1 September 2012. More information, including submission guidelines, can be found here.

Victorian Poetry Special Issue: Victorian Periodical Poetry 

Victorian Poetry Special Issue: 

Victorian Periodical Poetry

Spring 2014

Edited by Alison Chapman and Caley Ehnes

University of Victoria, Canada

Until recently, poetry published in Victorian periodicals was simply ignored. Dismissed as “filler”, devalued as sentimental, and denigrated as popular verse, periodical poetry languished behind serial fiction and the more respectable poems published in single-authored collections and anthologies.

But the fortunes of periodical poetry have swiftly and dramatically changed. With the consolidation of the periodical as a central component of Victorian studies, renewed attention has been given to the place of the poem in the periodical. The Victorian Poetry Spring 2014 special issue will be timely in not just offering new primary and critical material on periodical poetry, but also on reflecting what periodical poetry tells us about Victorian poetry as a whole. Central questions will include: whether and to what extent Victorian periodical poetry challenges the conventional account of Victorian poetics, prosody and genre; the relation between periodical poetry and serial fiction; and what new or revised models of poetry readership are suggested by periodical poetry. Thus, the special issue will welcome articles uncovering and assessing the importance of neglected periodical poetry, but also asking probing questions about what challenges and revisions Victorian periodicals bring to the understanding of poetry.

 Submissions of essays of 20-25 manuscript pages are sought by 30 April 2013, for publication in Victorian Poetry (Spring 2014).  Early expressions of interest and proposals of topics are also welcome; please contact the editors: alisonc@uvic.ca and cehnes@uvic.ca. More information about the special issue and Victorian Poetry can be found here.