44th Annual Convention, Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)
March 21-24, 2013
Boston, Massachusetts
Contrary Instincts for Black Women Poets:
Creative and Critical Processes (Roundtable)
This roundtable will bring together participants who will discuss the challenges of contemporary writing (both creative and critical) and discuss the ways in which black women poets explore “sacrosanct’” subjects in their work. In a response to Helen Vendler’s review of her edited volume, The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Poetry (2011), Rita Dove writes: “Vendler lets her guard down when she laments, rather condescendingly, that I am a poet, not an essayist, ‘writing in a genre not [my] own’—as if that alone disqualifies me from being capable of lucid prose….” This brief but provocative exchange between critic/theorist and poet/editor illustrates that, even today, poets—and particularly black women poets—still grapple with what the literary world perceives to be the mutual exclusivity of creativity and criticism: the assumption that poets have little or no knowledge of how to identify, evaluate, and theorize good poetry. Additionally, black women writers are still working to break the silences surrounding the “sacrosanct” in their works; subjects that include: physical/emotional weakness, mental illness, corporeality, and sexuality. This roundtable seeks to address these practical and aesthetic instances of “contrary instincts” for black women writers (a term borrowed from Alice Walker). Participants will discuss their critical approach(es) to literature, address the challenges in balancing creative and critical processes, describe the theoretical underpinnings of their creative work, and read some of their own poems.
Send 300-word proposals and a writing sample (2-3 poems) to Tiffany Austin, tiffany.austin@fmuniv.edu or Destiny Birdsong, destiny.o.birdsong@vanderbilt.edu
Deadline: September 30, 2012
Please include with your abstract:
Name and Affiliation
Email address
Postal address
Telephone number
A/V requirements (if any; $10 handling fee with registration)
The 2013 NeMLA convention continues the Association's tradition of sharing innovative scholarship in an engaging and generative location. The 44th annual event will be held in historic Boston, Massachusetts, a city known for its national and maritime history, academic facilities and collections, vibrant art, theatre, and food scenes, and blend of architecture. The Convention, located centrally near Boston Commons and the Theatre District at the Hyatt Regency, will include keynote and guest speakers, literary readings, film screenings, tours and workshops.
Interested participants may submit abstracts to more than one NeMLA session; however, panelists can only present one paper (panel or seminar). Convention participants may present a paper at a panel and also present at a creative session or participate in a roundtable. http://nemla.org/convention/2013/cfp_creativewriting.html#cfp13512
Please note there is a conference registration fee due by November 30, 2012.