2025 Call for Papers

52st Annual Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture

February 17-18 (Virtual) – 20-22 (In-Person), 2025

Keynotes—BEN LERNER, RACHEL KUSHNER and MORE TO COME!

Societies in Residence at the LCLC include African American Literature and Culture Society, E. E. Cummings Society, Durrell Society, T. S. Eliot Society, International James Joyce Society, Iris Murdoch Society, Flannery O’Connor Society, Charles Olson Society, Harold Pinter Society & International Virginia Woolf Society.

INFORMATION FOR PRESENTERS (Individuals and Groups)

GENERAL OVERVIEW

For all of the following categories listed below, please follow these directions:

Go to our new Event Hosting Site (https://www.eventsquid.com/event/20913).
Click on the blue register button in the left-hand corner of our submission event.
Enter your name, email address, and create a personal password for your profile with LCLC.
Click the green continue and follow the prompts for your particular submission process.

For some Guides (with screen-shares!) for the process of submitting proposals, please see our How-To page: How-to Guides to using LCLC’s new Registration Platform

For any further questions about the application process, please e-mail brandon.harwood@louisville.edu

The LCLC invites individual and group submissions that fall into the following categories:

INDIVIDUAL SUBMISSIONS

A) Critical papers may be submitted on any topic that addresses cultural works created since 1900, typically focusing on literature, film, journalism, opera, music, pop culture, painting, architecture, law, philosophy, performance, digital media, and theatre.

B) Original creative work may be submitted, typically literary compositions (poetry, fiction, nonfiction, drama, and hybrid pieces such as short films or mixed-media pieces).

C) Critical-creative submissions that address issues of poetics, craft, or writing practices in addition to original creative content.

PANEL SUBMISSIONS

A) Critical panels

Assembled panels should be designed for a 90-minute time slot (usually three to five paper presentations). Please click the “Panel Submission” check box on our Event Form (link above) and follow the prompts. Note: you will need to submit each of your presenter’s names, Institutions, e-mail addresses, and the titles of their papers into our form (although these can be updated by you in the form afterward if any changes are made to your panel).

B) Creative panels are also invited and are submitted through the same process.

C) Similarly, Critical-Creative Panels are also invited, focusing productively on issues of poetics, craft, or writing practices. These pre-organized panels are meant to embody the spirit of critical and creative intersections integral to humanistic studies. Panel proposals should follow the format for critical panels (see above), though keywords are unnecessary. The panel title should clearly identify the issue of poetics, craft, or writing practices being addressed. The title of the panel should highlight the issue addressed.

SOCIETY (individual panels and sequences or “streams”)

Societies are encouraged to organize and submit one or multiple panels of their own creation. Each panel should be designed for a 90-minute time slot (usually four or five paper presentations). We will ensure that the panels exist in a “stream” over time in the conference—i.e. they will not be scheduled against one another. Please click the “Society Stream” check box on our Event Form (link above) and follow the prompts. Note: you will need to submit each of your presenter’s names, Institutions, e-mail addresses, and the titles of their papers into our form (although these can be updated by you in the form afterward if any changes are made to your panel).

WORKSHOP PROGRAM

Prospective conference participants are invited to propose an LCLC WORKSHOP of their design, which they will lead. LCLC WORKSHOPS typically features 120 minutes of informal conversation (to be moderated by the seminar leader (s)) on the announced topic. Past workshops have been on the long poem, law, and literature, as well as celebrations of artists and run-throughs of artistic pieces with feedback. Approved workshops will be posted in conjunction with the issuing of acceptances. Conference participants can then sign up for the approved seminars and coordinate before the conference. Prospective seminar leaders should follow the link to our event hosting site above, check the “Workshop Proposal” box, and follow the prompts.

Conference registrants are asked to limit their participation to appear no more than twice as presenters on the program. Registrants may also chair one or more panels.

Submissions will be considered if received by 11:59 P.M. EST on October 11, 2023.

SECTION CHAIRS

Submitters, as well as guests, are encouraged to chair a session. Please get in touch with us if interested.

INFORMATION FOR EXHIBITORS

The LCLC welcomes exhibitors seeking commercial space at the conference to display and sell services and goods (books, journals, artwork) of interest to LCLC conference attendees. Exhibitors are invited to choose between two levels of service. A) STAFFED OR B) UNSTAFFED (QR CODE SELF-SERVICE)

The staffed option(A) includes a table, two transferable passes, and two parking passes good for the three-day event, all for 200 dollars. The unstaffed option (B) includes sufficient table space to display goods and takeaways and is available at no additional charge so long as the exhibitor has at least one representative registered and in attendance at the conference.

If you are interested, contact the conference director, Matthew Biberman, directly at steven.biberman@louisville.edu

****Individual and panel Submissions in Spanish or Portuguese are invited. PLEASE REFER TO OUR WORLD LITERATURE CFP FOR FURTHER DETAILS.

For more information, contact conference director Matthew Biberman, steven.biberman@louisville.edu

Type of Ticket	Price before Early Bird Deadline (January 31, 2025)	Price after Deadline
Virtual Presenter	$200	$230
Presenter: Tenured, Tenure-Track	$165	$195
Presenter: Retired, Adjunct, or non-Tenure-Track	$125	$140
Presenter: Retired, Adjunct, or non-Tenure-Track	$125	$140
Chair (non-presenter)	$60	$70
Guest	$25 (daily)	$25 (daily)