Call for Papers:
Narrating the Caribbean Nation
Narrating the Caribbean Nation:
A Celebration of Literature and Orature
Convened by Peepal Tree Press
at Leeds Metropolitan University
13th – 15th April 2012
Peepal Tree Press is pleased to announce that a two-day conference, Narrating the Caribbean Nation: A Celebration of Literature and Orature, will be held on 13-15th April 2012 at Leeds Metropolitan University, UK. The conference will celebrate the Silver Anniversary of Peepal Tree Press and highlight the contribution of its own authors and other Caribbean and Black British writers to contemporary world literature.
We are also delighted that Kwame Dawes has confirmed his participation as a keynote speaker. Widely recognised as one of the Caribbean’s leading writers, Kwame is also Chancellor’s Professor of English at the University of Nebraska, and Associate Poetry Editor at Peepal Tree Press.
The conference aims to bring together writers, academics, students, teachers and people with an interest in Caribbean literature to discuss the rich body of both Caribbean and Black British writing and to explore the relationship between the two. Our investigation into the ‘narration of nation’ centres around a definition of the Caribbean nation as one rooted in a rich, unique and plural community which transcends physical borders and extends across the Caribbean and the Caribbean Diaspora.
We will examine culture, politics, identities, childhood, performance and many other topics in the context of the Caribbean and its diasporas and discuss how the past 25 years of Caribbean writing connects to, and builds on, classic texts of Caribbean literature. Moreover, the conference will offer opportunities to hear the ideas of new and established writers and to watch them perform.
The conference will juxtapose academic papers with less formal presentations from activists and practitioners in the field in order to raise the profile of writers of Caribbean heritage. Over the course of the conference, Leeds-based Peepal Tree Press, which has been the home of the best in Caribbean, Black British and South Asian literature for 25 years, will showcase new and classic works in print and in performance by its authors from around the world.
Possible paper topics may include but are not limited to:
Caribbean identities
Diasporic Caribbean identities
Resistance, politics, racism
Publishing writing from the Caribbean and its diaspora
Gender and sexuality
Indo-Caribbean literature
Classic Caribbean texts
Discovering new Caribbean writers
Oral narratives and storytelling
Auto/biography, memoir, life writing
Caribbean texts in translation
Caribbean women writers
Caribbean poetry
Teaching Caribbean writing
Caribbean short story
Intersections between Caribbean literature, orature, and visual arts
Writing for children
Sport and pastimes in the Caribbean and its diaspora
Please send abstracts of 200 words and brief biodata (via Word attachment) to Claire Chambers, Emily Marshall, and Emma Smith on narratingnation@gmail.com with ‘Abstract’ in the subject line by 23 December 2011.
We also welcome poster presentations (for examples, see http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/presentations_poster.html)
Further details about the conference are available on
http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/event/2458986896Or contact Kadija George: narratingnation@gmail.com
Selected papers will be published in a journal special issue and/or an edited collection.