Edith Wharton Society Panels at ALA 2015

Edith Wharton Society (EWS) Panels for ALA Boston 2015

1. Cultural Exchange in Edith Wharton’s Life and Work

Organized by the Edith Wharton Society

Chair: Hildegard Hoeller, City University of New York–The Graduate Center and CSI

1.     “Return Trip of Culture: Morocco/France/Morocco,” Ferdâ Asya, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania

2.     “Edith Wharton, The Valley of Decision, and the Transatlantic Romantic Revival,” Nathaniel Cadle, Florida International University

3.     “‘The gift you can’t escape from’: debt and the (im)possibility of redemption in Edith Wharton’s The Touchstone,”  Anna Girling, Univeristy of Edingburgh

2. Edith Wharton and the First World War

Organized by the Edith Wharton Society

Chair:  Paul Ohler, Kwantlen Polytechnic University

1.     “Edith Wharton’s Ecologies of War,” Mary Carney, University of North Georgia

2.     “Avoiding the Wooden Crosses: Fighting France and Edith Wharton’s Uncomfortable Propaganda,” Alice Kelly, Yale University

3.     “‘Eyes that have seen what one dare not picture:’ How Wharton and Hemingway tell a true war story in ‘Coming Home’ and ‘Soldier’s Home,’” Maureen E. Montgomery, Salve Regina University

SAMLA 2015– Call for Papers

Writing (of) Women’s Bodies: Wharton and Early Twentieth-Century Feminism

In keeping with the SAMLA theme, “In Concert: Literature and other Arts,” this panel seeks papers which consider Edith Wharton’s work in the context of the growing voice of feminism of her time. In this panel, we are interested in papers which explore the connections between Wharton’s treatment of female bodies and the context of early twentieth century feminism. We encourage a broad interpretation of this theme, including (but not limited to) the role of sexuality in her work, to her work as a war correspondent, to even the material realities of her characters’ lives. By June 15, 2015, please submit a 250-300 word abstract, brief bio, and A/V requirements to Monica Miller, monica.miller@lmc.gatech.edu.

CFP: Edith Wharton and Hemingway (Essay collection; 4.15.15)

Contributors are sought for a proposed collection of essays on Edith Wharton and Ernest Hemingway, tentatively titled _Architects of American Modernism:  Wharton and Hemingway_.   Louisiana State University Press has expressed interest in this project and asked to review a full proposal.

Edith Wharton and Ernest Hemingway have a great deal in common:  They were both American modernist writers who lived as expatriates in Paris.  They were both active in World War I well before the U.S. declared war.  Both wrote in a range of genres, including novels, short fiction, drama, travel writing, and magazine journalism, and they shared a publisher, Scribner’s.  Both wrote novels that became bestsellers, and both won the Pulitzer Prize.  Hemingway owned six of Wharton’s books and mentioned her in a letter, while Wharton belittled his books in her private writing and in a letter once openly mocked the Americans who frequented the cafes of Montparnasse.

CFP: Edith Wharton Society Awards 2015-2016

Edith Wharton Society Awards 2015-2016

1. Edith Wharton Prize for a Beginning Scholar

Formerly known as the “Edith Wharton Essay Prize,” this award, instituted in the fall of 2005, recognizes the best unpublished essay on Edith Wharton by a beginning scholar: advanced graduate students, independent scholars, and faculty members who have not held a tenure-track or full-time appointment for more than four years.  The winning and second-place essays will be submitted for review and possible publication to the Editorial Board of The Edith Wharton Review, a peer-reviewed journal indexed in the MLA Bibliography and soon to be published by Penn State University Press. The author of the prize-winning essay will receive an award of $250. All entries will be considered for publication in The Edith Wharton Review as well as for the Prize for a Beginning Scholar. Submissions should be 20-30 pages and should follow the 7th edition MLA style, using endnotes, not footnotes. Applicants should not identify themselves on the manuscript but should provide a separate cover page that includes their names, academic status, e-mail address, postal addresses, and the notation “The Edith Wharton Prize for a Beginning Scholar.”

 

To submit an essay for the prize, send it as an anonymized MS Word attachment, plus a cover letter with contact information and “Edith Wharton Prize for Beginning Scholar” clearly indicated in the e-mail subject line, to the following address by June 15, 2015:
Emily Orlando
President, Edith Wharton Society
Department of English
Fairfield University
eorlando@fairfield.edu

 

2. Undergraduate Research Prize

In 2014, the Edith Wharton Society launched a prize for undergraduate research on Edith Wharton. We seek critical essays by undergraduates focusing on works by Wharton in all genres. Students at all levels are eligible to submit. Papers should be 15 pages maximum. The winning essay will be published on the Wharton Society website and the author will receive an award of $100. Electronic submissions are requested. To submit an essay for the prize, send it as an anonymized MS Word attachment, plus a cover letter with contact information and “Edith Wharton Undergraduate Research Prize” clearly indicated in the e-mail subject line, to the following address by June 15, 2015:

Emily Orlando
President, Edith Wharton Society
Department of English
Fairfield University
eorlando@fairfield.edu

3. The Mount Research Award

This award is offered in alternate years. In 2015, the Edith Wharton Society will offer a Mount Research Award in the amount of $500 to enable a scholar to conduct research on Edith Wharton’s library at the Mount in Lenox, MA. Prospective fellows for the 2015-2016 award are asked to submit a research proposal (maximum length 5 single-spaced pages) and a CV by April 20, 2015 to:
Emily Orlando
President, Edith Wharton Society
Department of English
Fairfield University
eorlando@fairfield.edu

The research proposal should detail the overall research project, its particular contribution to Wharton scholarship, the preparation the candidate brings to the project, and the specific relevance that materials in Wharton’s library at the Mount have for its completion. The funds must be used for transportation, lodging, and other expenses related to a stay at the Mount. Notification of the award will take place by May 1 and the award can be used from June 1, 2015 until June 1, 2016. A final report will be due July 1, 2016. The winner will be asked at that point to submit a short report essay to the Edith Wharton Review, which will briefly inform the readers of the EWR of the research done but will not be in the way of the winner publishing a scholarly article elsewhere as well.

4. Edith Wharton Collection (Beinecke) Research Award
   The Edith Wharton Society annually offers an Edith Wharton Collection Research Award of $500 to enable a scholar to conduct research on the Edith Wharton Collection of materials at the Beinecke Library at Yale University. This prize is made available thanks to the generosity of Conrad and Marsha Harper. Because the Beinecke Library is currently closed for renovation, the Edith Wharton Collection Research Award is suspended for 2015-2016.

 

From the FAQ: Did Edith Wharton once say, “If only we’d stop trying to be happy, we could have a pretty good time?”

Did Edith Wharton once say, “If only we’d stop trying to be happy, we could have a pretty good time?”

Not quite, but she did express this sentiment in “The Last Asset” (1904): The old gentleman made a contemptuous motion. “Possibilities of what? Of being multifariously miserable? There are lots of ways of being miserable, but there’s only one way of being comfortable, and that is to stop running round after happiness. If you make up your mind not to be happy there’s no reason why you shouldn’t have a fairly good time.”

Updated EWS Membership Directory

The updated EWS Membership Directory is now available at https://edithwhartonsociety.wordpress.com/membership/directory/.  Thanks to Membership Chair Myrto Drizou for making it available.

Special thanks are due to the EWS Lifetime members who have rejoined the Society.

If you are a member of the Edith Wharton Society but your membership has lapsed, you can renew by check or PayPal on the Membership Page: https://edithwhartonsociety.wordpress.com/membership/

Revised CFP: Edith Wharton and the Fin de Siècle (MLA in Austin, TX, 2016; Deadline 3.15.15)

Call for Papers: Edith Wharton and the Fin de Siècle (MLA in Austin, TX, 2016; Deadline 3.15.15)

The Edith Wharton Society invites papers addressing Wharton’s relationship to the fin de siècle.  Presentations might address Wharton’s engagements with decadence, aestheticism, realism and/or naturalism, the bachelor dandy, the femme fatale, the New Woman, degeneration, vampirism, hysteria, art nouveau, other fin-de-siècle writers, and so on.  Please send 250-word abstracts and brief bio to Emily Orlando at eorlando@fairfield.edu<mailto:eorlando@fairfield.edu> by 15 March 2015.  All panelists will be expected to join the Edith Wharton Society by the date of the conference.