The ISSN Program Committee (Kurt Koenigsberger, Erin McGlothlin, Brian McHale) invites proposals for the Society’s guaranteed session at the 2016 MLA, scheduled for January 4-7 in Austin, Texas. A topic may be proposed by any current member(s) of ISSN, who would also chair or co-chair the chosen panel. Participation on the panel will be open to all members of MLA. Proposals for the ISSN session at MLA 2016 should include a session title and a brief rationale not to exceed one page. Please submit your proposal to Brian McHale (mchale.11@osu.edu) by November 1, 2014. The Program Committee will announce its selection by December 1, 2014.

Dear Colleagues:

This autumn the International Society for the Study of Narrative will elect two new Executive Council members to serve three-year terms as well as its next Second Vice-President, who serves for four years (proceeding to First Vice-President, President, and Past President). Ballots for these elections are drawn up by the nominating committee, which this year comprises Paul Dawson, Jim Phelan, Cathy Romagnolo, and myself as current First VP.

All ISSN members are invited to propose names for the nominating committee to consider. Note that eligible candidates will have attended recent ISSN conferences and will usually commit themselves to attending two meetings of the Executive Council during each year of their term, one at the ISSN Conference and one at the MLA Convention.

If you would like to propose a nominee for either Second VP or a Council position, please submit your recommendation to me by August 1, with a brief supporting rationale, at lanser@brandeis.edu.

On behalf of the Executive Council, my thanks for your support of ISSN. We hope to see you at the next International Conference on Narrative: Chicago, March 5-8, 2015.

Yours,
Sue Lanser
lanser@brandeis.edu

Any graduate students who presents a paper at the conference in Boston is invited to compete for the prize for the Best Graduate Student paper at the Narrative Conference. The winner will receive a copy of a Perkins Prize-winning book of his or her choice and will be encouraged to expand the winning paper for consideration by Narrative. In addition, the 2014 award winner will be eligible for $500 toward expenses to attend the 2015 conference. Submit papers electronically as attachments (Word PC-compatible files) to both of the judges, Kay Young <kayyoung@english.ucsb.edu> and Paul Wake <pfwake@gmail.com>. Papers should be sent to them by May 1, 2014. Papers must be unrevised conference presentations.

Established in 1994, the Perkins Prize honors Barbara Perkins and George Perkins, the founders of both The Journal of Narrative Technique and the Society itself.  The prize, awarded to the book making the most significant contribution to the study of narrative in a given year, consists of $1,000 plus a contribution of $500 toward expenses for the winning author to attend the Narrative Conference where the award will be presented.

The Perkins Prize is conceived as a book prize rather than an author prize. Thus all books on the topic of narrative, whether edited collections, collaboratively written books, or monographs, are eligible to compete.  If an edited collection or collaboratively written book is selected, the prize goes to the editor(s) or the collaborators.  The winner of the competition for books published in 2013 will be announced at the Vancouver MLA Convention in 2015, and the prize will be presented at the Narrative Conference in Chicago in March 2015.

To nominate books with a copyright date of 2013, please send an email with “Perkins Prize” in the subject line to the Chair of the judging committee: Emma Kafalenos <emkafale@wustl.edu>.  Publisher, third-party, and self-nominations are appropriate.  Please indicate in the email whether the publisher, the author, or the Chair of the judging committee is to be responsible for ensuring that books are sent to the judges.  Copies of books must be sent to each of the three judges.  The deadline for nominations and for receipt of books by the judges is June 1, 2014.

Books should be sent by authors or their publishers directly to each of the three members of the judging committee:

Brian McHale
Department of English
The Ohio State University
164 W. 17th Ave.
Columbus OH 43210

Marie-Laure Ryan
6207 Red Ridge Trail
Bellvue, CO 80512

Emma Kafalenos
4242 Laclede Ave, Unit #204
St. Louis, MO 63108

Emma Kafalenos, as current president, is hereby inviting the membership to submit nominations for the 2015 winner to her by 1 December 2013 (emkafale@artsci.wustl.edu). Emma, Richard Walsh (1st VP), and Sue Lanser (2nd VP) will draw on these nominations as they prepare a list of 5-6 nominees from which the Executive Council will choose the 3 finalists at the annual EC meeting at MLA in early January.

The ISSN Program Committee invites proposals for the Society’s guaranteed session at the 2015 MLA, scheduled for January 8-11 in Vancouver, B.C.   A topic may be proposed by any current member(s) of ISSN, who would also chair or co-chair the chosen panel.   Participation on the panel will be open to all members of MLA.  Proposals for the ISSN session at MLA 2015 should include a session title and a brief rationale not to exceed one page. Please submit your proposal to Sue Lanser (lanser@brandeis.edu) by November 1, 2013.  The Program Committee will announce its selection by December 1.

Thursday, 9 January

Session 103. Narrative Empathy for the Other

3:30–4:45 p.m.

Program arranged by the International Society for the Study of Narrative

Presiding: Patrick Horn, Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

1. “Narrative Empathy as Acknowledgment,” Ann Jurecic, Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick

2. “Narrative Strategies for Developing Cross-Racial and Cross-Cultural Empathy in the Short Fiction of Sandra Cisneros and Jhumpa Lahiri,” Marilyn Edelstein, Santa Clara Univ.

3. “Real ‘Others’: Pathways for Empathy in Autobiographical Narrative,” Leah M. Anderst, Queensborough Community Coll., City Univ. of New York

Saturday, 11 January

Session 594. What Makes a Modernist Plot? Modernism and Narrative Innovation

3:30–4:45 p.m.

Program arranged by the International Society for the Study of Narrative and the Modernist Studies Association

Presiding: Richard Walsh, Univ. of York

1. “Endless Plot: Modernism’s Sequel Problem,” Matthew Levay, Harvard Univ.

2. “The Art of Biography and the Form of Modernist Fiction,” Nathaniel Cadle, Florida International Univ.

3. “Virginia Woolf and Plots Driven by Feelings,” Marta Figlerowicz, Univ. of California, Berkeley

Call for papers:

3rd Conference of the European Narratology Network – Paris, March 29-30, 2013

Pre-Conference Doctoral Seminar – March 27-28, 2013

Deadline for proposals: October 15, 2012

For full information:

http://www.narratology.net/sites/www.narratology.net/files/webfm/Call%20for%20Papers_final.pdf

ENN website: http://www.narratology.net

June 11–June 22, 2012

Application deadline: March 1, 2012

The Project Narrative Summer Institute (PNSI) is a two-week program on the Columbus campus of the Ohio State University for faculty members and advanced graduate students who want to explore the usefulness of narrative theory to their research and teaching. Led by two Project Narrative core faculty members, the seminar meets in the mornings to discuss narrative and narrative-theoretical readings, and participants work in the afternoons on projects they bring to the Institute. A project may be an article, book chapter, presentation, or syllabus. PNSI members form a vibrant and collegial community for sharing ideas about scholarship, writing, and pedagogy.

The 2012 PNSI will be led by Project Narrative core faculty members Frederick Aldama and Sean O’Sullivan. In addition to theoretical readings, texts will be drawn from many narrative genres with an emphasis on comics, film, and television.

Tuition for PNSI is $1200. Participants also cover the cost of their own travel and housing. We encourage participants to seek institutional funding for this professional development opportunity. We can offer information for participants who want to share housing, house-sit, or stay in local bed-and-breakfasts.

Applicants should send a current c.v. and a one-page description of the project they plan to undertake at PNSI to Robyn Warhol via email (warhol.1@osu.edu) no later than March 1, 2012.

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