Postwar Area Literature Group CFPs - American Literature Association 2026 Conference (Chicago) (American Literature Association 37th Annual Meeting)
Chicago, Illinois
Organization: Postwar Area Literature Group
Event: American Literature Association 37th Annual Meeting
American Literature Association
37th Annual Conference
May 20-23, 2026
Chicago, IL
The Postwar Area Literature Group invites submissions on the following postwar and contemporary topics for the 2026 American Literature Association Conference, which will be held in Chicago from May 20-23, 2026 (information about the annual conference can be found at the ALA conference page website). The Postwar Literature Group has four guaranteed panels this year, three in postwar studies and one in contemporary studies. Please review our calls for papers below, and email foertsch@unt.edu or nicoledib@suu.edu with any questions.
Postwar Celebrity, Fame, and Infamy
Discussions of famous or infamous persons, celebrity, glamor, and/or fandom in fiction, drama, nonfiction, or poetry, 1945-1980. Hollywood, scandal, crimes of the century, paparazzi and publicity, the nonfiction genres of fan magazines, gossip/society columns, and the tabloid press may also be subjects of analysis. Abstract and CV to Jacqueline Foertsch at foertsch@unt.edu by 15 January 2026.
Postwar Consumption and Consumerism
Discussions of material acquisition, ostentation, credit, debt, settings and surfaces (empty spaces/loaded spaces), and economic readings of fiction, drama, nonfiction or poetry, 1945-1980. Analyses of fiction, poetry, or drama related to dining/cooking/eating, gendered representations of cooking/eating, holiday meals or ethnic cuisine, alcohol(ism) or related habits of excess, supermarkets/shopping, overweight and body size, eating disorders are also possible topics. Abstract and CV to Jacqueline Foertsch, foertsch@unt.edu by 15 January 2026.
Contemporary Consumption and Consumerism
Discussions of material acquisition, ostentation, credit, debt, settings and surfaces (empty spaces/loaded spaces), and economic readings of fiction, drama, nonfiction or poetry, 1980-present. Analyses of fiction, poetry, or drama related to dining/cooking/eating, gendered representations of cooking/eating, holiday meals or ethnic cuisine, alcohol(ism) or related habits of excess, supermarkets/shopping, overweight and body size, eating disorders are also possible topics. Abstract and CV to Jesse Zuba, jzuba@desu.edu by 15 January 2026.
Daughter of Bronzeville: Gwendolyn Brooks
Discussions of the works of Gwendolyn Brooks, especially with a focus on her Chicago poems and letters as well as Maud Martha. Brooks’ poetry about the city, girlhood in Chicago, postwar style and form in her poetry, Blackness and Black Nationalism in her poetry and teaching, and her literary geography of Chicago, Bronzeville, and the South Side may also be subjects of analysis. Abstract and CV to Whit Frazier Peterson at whitney.peterson@ilw.uni-stuttgart.de and Nicole Dib at nicoledib@suu.edu by 15 January 2026.
Nicole Dib