NeMLA NeWS Summer 2013 Northeast Modern Language Association Board of Directors 2013-2014 President’s Letter: President Greetings! It is Ellen Dolgin, Dominican College with pleasure that First Vice President we can recall our Daniela B. Antonucci, Princeton University time together in Second Vice President Boston this past March and can Ben Railton, Fitchburg State University look ahead to Harrisburg for American/British Literatures Director the conference Jennifer Harris, Mount Allison University already knee- American/British Literatures Director deep in planning. Our host, Suha Kudsieh, College of Staten Island-CUNY Susquehanna University—already known as the sponsor Comparative Languages and Literatures Director of our journal, Modern Language Studies—has shown Gillian Pierce, Boston University vision as well as enthusiasm for working with me and the French Languages and Literatures Director other Board members. To Laurence Roth, editor of MLS, Anna Rocca, Salem State University SU faculty member, and NeMLA Board member, thanks for bringing us all together! In our coordinated planning German Languages and Literatures Director efforts, NeMLA 2014 will be a convention to celebrate Astrid Weigert, Georgetown University its locale, with thematic sessions proposed on the river, Spanish Languages and Literatures Director ecocriticism, and the literature of the region. We are Maria Matz, University of Massachusetts-Lowell also very excited to announce that Harrisburg’s Gamut Italian Language and Literatures Director Theatre will be coming on Saturday afternoon to give us an insider’s view at preparing Shakespeare’s Macbeth for Giovanni Spani, College of Holy Cross performance, with special emphasis on building character Cultural Studies and Film Director through soliloquies. The session will include performance, Margarita Vargas, University at Buffalo discussion, and interaction with the audience. Graduate Caucus Representative Our jointly-determined special conference emphases, creative writing and drama, will truly be represented by Barry Spence, University of Massachusetts Amherst our special speakers, and by sessions devoted to their Women’s Caucus Representative work. Thanks to SU for securing our Thursday evening Rita Bode, Trent University Welcome Reading by George Saunders, a Professor of Member-At-Large: Diversity Creative Writing at Syracuse University whose latest Donavan L. Ramon, Rutgers University story collection, The Tenth of December, is a “must-read” according to the New York Times and many other critics (see pg. 3 for feature article). We are delighted to announce Editor of Modern Language Studies our keynote address on Friday evening by David Staller, Laurence Roth, Susquehanna University Producer and Director of Project Shaw in Manhattan. Staller’s monthly series of readings of the plays of Bernard Webmaster Shaw in the historic Players Club emphasizes Shaw’s ability to make even the most consequential topics truly Michael Cadwallader comic, and still timely (see pg. 3 for feature article). When you turn to the CFP section of this newsletter, you will Executive Director see more sessions on drama, as well as our designation Elizabeth Abele, State University of New York of anniversaries: Civil War, World War I, Brown v. Board Associate Executive Director of Education, Topeka Kansas. Please notice the many Carine Mardorossian, University at Buffalo cross-listings for our sessions, as we on the Board strive to connect the membership in scholarly as well as social [email protected] ways. (continued on next page) www.nemla.org NeMLA Newsletter ∙ Summer 2013 ∙ 2 (from previous page) Carine Mardorossian, for their leadership and follow- We had an astonishing 1,900 people in Boston, yet it still felt through to ensure this new potential for all of us. Thanks like a “NeMLA” conference: people building relationships also to the Executive Board members who contributed through panels, workshops, roundtables, seminars, to researching and defining what we needed in a home and special events in a personal, convivial atmosphere. institution. Approximately 400 sessions gave us innovative topics and scholarship, with Q&A lingering in the rooms and hallways Some wonderful people completed their service to the and spilling into more extensive conversations over food and NeMLA Board at the Sunday brunch in Boston: Bill drinks. We had for the first time a poster session from our Waddell, Past President and orchestrator of social and summer fellowship recipients before the keynote, continued collegial life at NeMLA; Lisa Perdigao, Special Events; for the third year our pre-conference workshops, and had Cristina Santos, Spanish and Portuguese Director; and exhilarating evenings with our two brilliant and engaging Moussa Sow, French and Francophone Director. Thank you writers who shared works in progress: Thursday’s Welcome for your passions and companionship. Reading by Askold Melnyczuk, and a reading by our keynote speaker, Dionne Brand on Friday. These two writers bared Welcome to our new Board members: Ben Railton, Second their souls and reached out to our audiences, who responded Vice-President, who has already begun to plan his 2016 with hushed appreciation and provocative comments in convention; Maria Matz, Spanish and Portuguese; and return. Thanks to these wonderful speaker choices and to Anna Rocca, French and Francophone, who are bringing our host, Tufts University, for its abundant support! Our new possibilities for enriching the sessions and interactions area directors planned memorable special event speakers and in their areas. conversations for Saturday evening and gave the conference attendees a chance to re-engage with those who share their And now, on to the CFP…and mark your calendars for the scholarly passions. Thanks to NeMLA Board members—the submission deadline of September 30th. Do pass the sessions Executive and the Area Directors—for constant, creative on to friends and colleagues who have yet to experience leadership and teamwork. NeMLA. NeMLA’s Executive Director extraordinaire, Elizabeth On behalf of our Executive Director and the whole Board, Abele, continued to dazzle us with her ability to traverse best wishes for the summer and our anticipation for the convention and connect with so many of us with smiles reuniting in Harrisburg in 2014. Many local events will and energy: our deep appreciation for her unflagging await you…even Hershey Park! commitment to NeMLA’s excellence on all levels. Elizabeth worked with a team of creative and committed individuals Ellen Dolgin to plan and implement the flow of lively activity. Our thanks NeMLA President, 2013-2014 to Lisa Perdigao, Special Programs Coordinator; Brandi So, Convention Associate; and Kristin LeVeness, Chair Coordinator. Kudos go to the Graduate Fellows who worked in all areas of the convention, from awards to marketing, and INSIDE THIS ISSUE the Tufts University local liaisons who worked through the Opening and Keynote Speakers .............. 3 year with so many of us. Harrisburg Information ........................... 4 2013 also gave NeMLA a new home institution, with Board recommendation and member ratification at the Sunday Caucus and Fellowship Awards .............. 5 brunch: University at Buffalo, SUNY. We are grateful to Dean NeMLA Annual Book Awards ................ 6 Bruce Pitman and his colleagues and anticipate a fruitful, energizing relationship. Enormous thanks in particular go to Call for Papers .................................. 7 - 39 Past President, Bill Waddell, and Past President At Large, NeMLA Newsletter ∙ Summer 2013 ∙ 3 45th Annual NeMLA Convention Opening Speaker: George Saunders Keynote Speaker: David Staller The 45th annual meeting of NeMLA will open with a David Staller is a prominent actor, director, and reading by George Saunders, bestselling author of short producer. He has appeared in three Broadway plays, stories, essays, novellas, and children’s books. He is the 50 off-Broadway plays, and numerous regional the- recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, a Guggenheim atre productions. Mr. Staller is the founder and ar- Fellowship, an Academy Award, and the PEN/Malamud tistic director of Gingold Theatrical Group in New Award. His works, which have appeared in GQ, The York City. His address to the 45th convention will Guardian, Harper’s, be on George Bernard Shaw’s social activism and and McSweeney’s, have comic dramas. won multiple National Magazine Awards. In Mr. Staller received a Drama League distinguished 2002 he was selected by performer citation for his performance in Gaslight The New Yorker as one at the Irish Repertory Theatre Company, and he of the best writers age performed his one-man show, Noel & Cole, at Carn- 40 and under. egie Hall in 1993 before touring it through Europe. He has produced and directed numerous plays and A technical writer concerts around the world, including the French and a geophysical National event at the Deauville Film Festival, hon- engineer, Mr. Saunders oring the 50th anniversary of the D-Day Allied In- is professor of creative vasion in 1994. writing at Syracuse University. He has Mr. Staller is also founder of Project Shaw, the first read and taught in group to present performances of all of Shaw’s 65 Amsterdam, Belize, plays, and to sold-out audiences. Not only does Mr. England, Italy, Portugal, Staller cast and direct all Project Shaw readings at and Russia. His first ©Caitlin Saunders the historic Players Club, but he adapts each script, story collection, using all