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Author Archives: Stacie Hanes

Alice through the Ages: The 150th Anniversary of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Alice through the Ages: The 150th Anniversary of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

15th-17th September 2015.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2015. Lewis Carroll famously opens his Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland with his protagonist “burning with curiosity”, which leads Alice to follow the White Rabbit into an alternative reality. That same sense of curiosity has circulated about Wonderland since the book was first published. This conference aims to offer new understandings of the work by re-evaluating long held truisms, subjecting the text to new theoretical approaches and considering the history of adaptation and its uses in popular culture.

We invite innovative papers on Lewis Carroll from established scholars as well as new voices in the field, and those whose research focuses on cognate fields. We are especially interested in papers focused on the book’s initial production context, including Carroll’s biography and sources and influences; papers that interrogate and problematise some of the longstanding truisms associated with the text, such as its place at the start of the fantasy tradition for children and the relationship between author and illustrator; papers that examine how text and author have been read in terms of cultural studies, the history of science, the medical humanities, and the politics of literature; and papers considering adaptation and the powerful influence Wonderland has had on design and style.

Confirmed keynote speakers are Professor Dame Gillian Beer, Professor Jan Susina and Dr Kiera Vaclavik.

300 word proposals for 20-minute papers or 60-90 minute panel sessions should be submitted by 31st January 2015. We also invite poster presentations, exhibits, performances and any activities inspired by the Alice novels.

For more information, or to submit a proposal, please contact Professor Maria Nikolajeva mn351@cam.ac.uk or Dr Zoe Jaques, zj216@cam.ac.uk.

New Book: The Angel of Losses

The Angel of Losses

The Tiger’s Wife meets A History of Love in this inventive, lushly imagined debut novel that explores the intersections of family secrets, Jewish myths, the legacy of war and history, and the bonds between sisters. 

A Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection

One of the Washington Post’s Top Five Science Fiction/Fantasy Books of 2014

“This impressive debut from Feldman is a page-turner that celebrates sisterly love.” —Publishers Weekly

“This imaginative first novel leads you on a journey of fantastic tales, stormy family ties and a tragic discovery of redemption that will break your heart.”—The Washington Post

[A] breathtakingly accomplished debut … a story of magic and bold imagining… .Every once in a while a book comes along that reminds us that even though a horror was visited upon a particular people, in a particular place and at particular moment in history, the story told is really about all of us, everywhere and for all time. It takes an extraordinary writer like Stephanie Feldman to bring that story to life.” —NPR

“Stephanie Feldman’s first novel is a compelling mix of fable, history and mystery, but at the center, it is a very human story about how families accept one another’s choices while forgiving one another’s mistakes. The Angel of Losses is an ambitious work by a brilliant new author.”—Bookpage

“Stephanie Feldman writes with tremendous warmth, tenderness, and insight, and The Angel of Losses is a smart and beautiful novel that is all at once a literary thriller, a multigenerational family saga and a stunning exploration of Jewish mysticism. I loved this book.” –Molly Antopol, National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 Honoree and author of The UnAmericans: Stories

“Stephanie Feldman is one of the smartest and most original young writers at work today. . . .Watch out for her. She is here to stay.” —Sheri Holman, author of Witches on the Road Tonight and The Dress Lodger

“Lucid, tender, and masterfully portrayed, The Angel of Losses is an intergenerational story of perseverance and love in a changing world. Rich with Jewish lore and history, there is magic at play here in more than one sense. A must-read.” —G. Willow Wilson, author of Alif the Unseen

“[H]aunting. Even more gripping than the real and imagined folktales that Feldman weaves into the book, however, is her exploration of sisterly rifts and bonds and family secrets shrouded by time.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Family saga, mystery, and myth intersect in Feldman’s debut novel. . . .vivid, imaginative.” —Booklist

“In her spellbinding debut novel, Stephanie Feldman tells an epic tale of mystery, discovery, and familial love…moving, mature, and deeply original.” —Ploughshares

“[F]illed with magic, faith, love, rejection, loyalty, family, secrecy, loss, and adventure.”—Jewish Book World    

“Feldman’s prose is intelligent, engaging, and at times figurative. . . .[and] demonstrates a versatile virtuosity impressive for a debut work.”—New York Journal of Books

“Feldman’s debut novel is an unusual combination of literary thriller, family drama, and Jewish mysticism. . . .Fans of Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian or the works of Lev Grossman will find something here in a similar vein.” —Library Journal

“Beautifully constructed and just plain beautiful.” —BOOKRIOT

Named as one of the “Essential Books Coming in 2014” by io9

Call for Submissions: Words and Worlds

Words and worlds. Poetry  Dear all it’s time to think of offering a fantastic/scifi/horror poetry reading at the conference ! As usual,  we have two sessions, this time both at  1’1/2 hours so aim to be able to have a maximum of twelve to fifteen people reading. This always fills up fast so please let me know if you want  to read  at g.wisker@brighton.ac.uk.

Words and worlds. Fiction  This year sees the welcome return of the words and worlds fiction session. So if you have a piece of short fantastic/scifi/horror fiction/ a short  extract  you would like to read, please let me know. We have 1 1/2 hrs , so slots of up to 20 mins (but preferably a bit shorter) are possible. Again please let me know at g.wisker@brighton.ac.uk

Submission Deadline Extended to Monday, November 10

ICFA attendees:

If you missed the October 31 deadline for conference paper or panel submission, or were considering submitting a paper or panel but the deadline slid by–be of good cheer.

The deadline has been extended and the submission portal will remain open until Monday, November 10.

Please send us your papers and panels.

CFP: The Supernatural Revamped (collection of essays)

CFP: The Supernatural Revamped (collection of essays)

The Supernatural Revamped: From Timeworn Legends to 21st Century Chic
Editors: Barbara Brodman and James E. Doan, Nova Southeastern University
Project Overview
Editors Brodman and Doan are seeking original essays for their third of a series of books on legends and images of the supernatural in film, literature and lore from early to modern times and from peoples and cultures around the world. Their first two volumes, The Universal Vampire: Origins and Evolution of a Legend (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2013) and Images of the Modern Vampire: The Hip and the Atavistic (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2013), finalist for a prestigious Bram Stoker book award, dealt exclusively with the vampire legend. This volume is more inclusive, with emphasis placed on the evolution of a broad spectrum of timeworn images of the supernatural into their more modern—even chic—forms. 
Each chapter in the collection will focus on one of the following categories of supernaturals: 
1. Revenants (vampires, ghosts, zombies, etc.)
2. Demons and Angels
3. Shape Shifters
4. Earthbound Supernaturals (trolls, dwarves, yetis, chupacabras, etc.)
5. Fairy Folk (elves, fairies, leprechauns, etc.)
Abstract Due Dates
Preference will be given to abstracts received before February 1, 2015. Late submissions will be accepted until April 1, 2015. Abstracts should be no longer than 300 words. 
Final manuscripts of 3,000-4,000 words should be submitted in Chicago Style.
Contact us and send abstracts to: brodman@nova.edu or doan@nova.edu

CFP – Edited Collection on the Marvel Cinematic Universe – Phase 1

As one of the biggest and most successful film franchises of all time, Marvel’s approach to developing an interconnected film universe has seemingly revolutionized the way superhero films are being made. Creating a shared universe with elements that crossover and interconnect individual films (culminating in perhaps the ultimate “team-up” film, The Avengers), this approach to filmmaking changed the way characters and storylines are developed. Marvel’s foresight has resulted in a long-term plan for the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), which at this point consists of three distinct phases, each of which is to conclude with an Avengers film.

With that said, there has been relatively little exploration of how this approach to filmmaking  affects both the stories being told and the way they are being consumed by audiences. This collection seeks to investigate these issues, but in a way that mirrors the approach that Marvel has laid out for its properties. To that end, this edited collection is the first in a proposed trilogy of books, each volume of which will explore a distinct phase of the MCU and dissect how the characters evolve, how storylines grow, and how the success of the franchise continually expands the scope of the stories being told. Specifically, this proposed collection will look at Phase 1 of the MCU, which is comprised of the following films:

Iron Man (2008)

The Incredible Hulk (2008)

Iron Man 2 (2010)

Thor (2011)

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

The Avengers (2012)

 

Chapters within the book will be broken up into four sections:

1. Character analyses – with chapters dedicated to the four primary Avengers (among others)

2. The structure/methods for interconnecting the films (Fury, the tesseract, S.H.I.E.L.D., etc.)

3. Cultural and societal issues brought up through the films (power, greed, gender roles)

4. The exploration of the films from non-diegetic/industry perspectives

 

Please note: the chapters contained in the collection will focus exclusively on events in Phase 1 of the MCU, so discussion of development or events from subsequent films should be avoided.

Chapters should be 5,000-7,000 words (MLA format, no footnotes or endnotes please) that fit into one of the above sections. Article abstracts (500+ words) and a brief CV should be submitted by December 15, 2014 to Dr. Kristin Barton at kmbarton@daltonstate.edu. Submissions with detailed outlines or in draft form will be given stronger consideration. Completed essays must be submitted by May 15, 2015. Brief queries are welcome should there be questions about appropriate submission topics. Selected authors will be notified by the end of December 2014, and please note that invitation to submit a full essay does not guarantee inclusion in the volume. A contract for this book through a university press is pending a review of proposed chapters.

Dr. Kristin Barton
Email: kmbarton@daltonstate.edu

CfP: The Once and Future Antiquity–Classical Traditions in Science Fiction and Fantasy

The Once and Future Antiquity: Classical Traditions in Science Fiction and Fantasy
University of Puget Sound
March 27th-29th, 2015

What roles has classical antiquity played in visions of the future, the fantastic, the speculative, the might-have-been? How have works of science fiction, from Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein to Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, imagined ancient traditions in relation to the modern world, whether at present or in the days after tomorrow? What might it mean to consider antiquity – its art, history, literature, philosophy, and material culture – through the lens of fantasy, a genre traditionally associated with medievalism? This conference seeks to build on recent and increasing work (e.g., conferences in Rouen, France (2012) and Liverpool, U.K. (2013), as well as the recent collection of Bost-Fiévet & Provini (2014) and the forthcoming collection of Rogers & Stevens (2015)) in this exciting field within
classical reception studies.

Proposals are invited for conference presentations (20 minutes plus discussion) [or thematically-organized panels of three (3) such presentations each] that raise particular versions of these questions under the general heading of Classical Traditions in Science Fiction and Fantasy. Topics might include, e.g., the rewriting of an ancient story by a modern author working in science fiction or fantasy; examination of a moment or trend in ancient history from a perspective developed in response to the modern genres; strategies for teaching ancient classics via comparison with modern works; or comparison of
classical and science fictional / fantastical approaches to knowing the world.

These are only examples, and the organizers welcome proposals dealing with any intersection between antiquity and modern science fiction or fantasy, including speculative fiction. The organizers also welcome abstracts considering how the Digital Humanities can help advance scholarship in this field. In preparing their proposals, contributors are encouraged to keep in mind an audience including not only
professional scholars and students but also devoted readers of science fiction and fantasy. Proposals of no more than 300 words should be sent to classicalreceptions@gmail.com no later than December 15, 2014.

Authors will be notified of their proposals’ status by the end of December.

The conference is planned for the weekend of March 27th-29th, 2015, at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA, USA. (Tacoma is the hometown of Dune’s Frank Herbert and located close to Seattle, home of the EMP, a museum devoted to SF, fantasy, and music). Participants will receive details about registration and lodging in December.

Questions may be directed to the organizers, Prof. Brett M. Rogers (University of Puget Sound) and Prof. Benjamin Eldon Stevens (Bryn Mawr College) at their individual email addresses (bmrogers@pugetsound.edu, bestevens@brynmawr.edu) or at the conference
email address given above.

CfP: 2015 UF Conference on Comics and Graphic Novels “Comics Read but Seldom Seen”

On April 10th-12th, 2015, UF will be hosting its 12th annual Conference on Comics and Graphic Novels, “Comics Read but Seldom Seen: Diversity and Representation in Comics and Related Media.”

Call For Papers

The Graduate Comics Organization at the University of Florida invites applicants to submit proposals to the 12th UF Conference on Comics and Graphic Novels, “Comics Read but Seldom Seen: Diversity and Representation in Comics and Related Media.” The conference will be held from Friday, April 10th, 2015 to Sunday, April 12th, 2015. Proposals are due January 1st, 2015.

The analysis of diversity and representation in comic books is an integral and growing part of Comics Studies. For example, in only the past few years, Adilifu Nama published Super Black: American Pop Culture and Black Superheroes (2011), which provides a historical overview of black comic-book superheroes and racial dynamics in superhero comics; Sheena C. Howard and Ronald L. Jackson II edited Black Comics: Politics of Race and Representation (2013), an essay collection which explores representations of race in both comic books and comic strips; and Joseph J. Darowski came out with X-Men and the Mutant Metaphor: Race and Gender in the Comic Books, which examines and tracks race and gender identity in the Uncanny X-Men roster of heroes and villains (2014).

Mainstream comics have been increasingly open to experimenting with diversity in sexuality, race, gender, and disability. Marvel has a new Muslim woman superhero; “traditionally” straight superheroes have been coming out in new universes/continuities; and disability often crosses over into hyperability (as in the cases of Daredevil and Echo, Professor X, Cyborg, and Batgirl/Oracle). However, many of these experiments in diversity have been limited or problematic, and have at times generated controversy (for example, Batwoman’s infamously canceled wedding). Alternative and independent comics, from the underground comix scene on, have long been a space for writers and artists to depict diverse characters who do not fit into the narrow mold of the straight, white, cissexual, neurotypical, and able-bodied male hero.

The goal of “Comics Read but Seldom Seen” is to celebrate and interrogate the representation of marginalized groups in comics and related media. “Related media” can include film and TV comic-book adaptations (as well as their promotional tie-ins), illustrated blogs, video games, news stories with accompanying photographs, street art, museum exhibits, advertisements, and all other cultural objects which juxtapose image and text to create new meaning. We are looking not only for critiques of those instances where imagetexts fall short in their representations of the marginalized, but also for thoughtful examinations of how and when comics and related media “get it right.”

Possible topics may include but are not limited to:

  • Race, Space and Place in the Comics (The work of the Hernandez Brothers; Jessica Abel’s La Perdida; the work of Marjane Satrapi; Joann Sfar’s The Rabbi’s Cat)
  • Representing Disability and Disorder (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder in Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home; autism in Keiko Tobe’s With the Light; epilepsy in David B.’s Epileptic)
  • Milestone Media and its history with DC
  • Queering the Supercommunity (LGBTQ representations in mainstream comics; “traditionally” straight superheroes coming out in new universes/continuities; conversations and backlash surrounding queer representation in mainstream comics; Northstar’s highly-publicized wedding; Batwoman’s canceled wedding)
  • Rethinking Race in ‘Mainstream’ Comics (Robert Morales and Kyle Baker’s The Truth: Red, White & Black)
  • Where Disability Meets Hyperability (Daredevil and Echo; Professor X; Cyborg; Batgirl/Oracle)
  • Manga and LGBTQ issues (Trans in Moto Hagio’s Wandering Son; representations of homosexuality in shounen-ai, shoujo-ai, yaoi, yuri, bara and BL)
  • Physical Disability in Manga (Inoue Takahiko’s REAL)
  • Diversity and Representation in Imagetextual News Media (the visual rhetoric of diversity in photojournalism)
  • Diversity and Representation in Video Games (female leads in games [Portal, Beyond Good and Evil]; gaming characters of color [The Walking Dead]; the visual rhetoric of the Lara Croft reboot; the expansion of “queer” options dictated by player choice in Bioware RPGs)
  • Diversity and Representation in Cartoons and Anime (non-white leads in cartoons [anything from kids’ superhero fare like Generator Rex to satire like The Boondocks]; gender and sexuality in anime [Revolutionary Girl Utena, anime adaptations of LGBTQ manga]; “girl power” or female-led cartoons [Powerpuff Girls, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, The Legend of Korra])

In addition to traditional, 15-20 minute presentations, “Comics Read but Seldom Seen” will also consider discussion panels from multiple presenters coordinating around a central topic or theme.

Proposals should be between 200 and 300 words, and are due January 1, 2015. All proposals should be submitted to Najwa Al-Tabaa atnaltabaa@ufl.edu.

Hotels and Travel

Air Travel

We recommend flying into Gainesville Regional Airport (GNV), but bus service may be available to and from Orlando International (MCO). Please confirm availability before booking flights to or from MCO.

Ground Transportation

Gainesville is served by the Regional Transit System, which provides bus service to and from the Gainesville Regional Airport Monday through Friday, and throughout the city daily. Routes, schedules, and fares are available atwww.go-rts.com.

Several taxi cab services are also available:
Gainesville Cab Co.: (352) 371-1515
Cab 24HR: (352) 374-8484
Gatorland Taxi: (352) 359-7142

Accommodations

The GCO has reserved a limited number of rooms at the Reitz Union Hotelon the UF campus. Contact the organizers for the conference’s group code.

Reitz Union Hotel: (352) 392-2151
Standard Rooms priced $89 (group rate) and $99 per night; Deluxe Rooms priced at $99 (group rate) and $109 per night

Holday Inn: (352) 376-1661

Days Inn Gainesville University: (352) 376-2222

 

Organizers

  • Najwa Al-tabaa, GCO President
    contact: naltabaa@ufl.edu
  • Najwa Al-tabaa
  • Spencer Chalifour
  • Melissa Loucks
  • Anuja Madan
  • Katie Shaeffer
  • Kayley Thomas

CfP: The 36th ICFA: The Scientific Imagination

Thirty-Sixth International Conference
on the Fantastic in the Arts

The Scientific Imagination

March 18-22, 2015
Marriott Orlando Airport Hotel

The Scientific Imagination will be the theme for ICFA 36. Join us as we explore the possibilities and intersections of science and imagination—from Faust and Frankenstein, through the Golden Age and the New Wave, to steampunk and mash-ups—in all their guises, including fiction, film, television, music, theater, comics, visual art, and social media. Papers might explore topics such as rationalism vs. belief, science for good and ill, alternate and speculative technologies and biologies, futurism, imaginary sciences, time travel, and the tensions inherent in discovery, among other topics. We welcome papers on the work of our guests: Guest of Honor James Morrow (winner of the Sturgeon Award, the World Fantasy Award, and two Nebula Awards), Guest of Honor Joan Slonczewski (winner of two Campbell Awards), and Guest Scholar Colin Milburn (author of Nanovision: Engineering the Future). We also welcome proposals for individual papers and for academic sessions and panels on any aspect of the fantastic in any media. The deadline for proposals is October 31, 2014. We encourage work from institutionally affiliated scholars, independent scholars, international scholars who work in languages other than English, and graduate students.

Guest of Honor
James Morrow

James Morrow is a science fiction writer and author of the Godhead Trilogy, which includes the novels Towing Jehovah, Blameless in Abaddon, and The Eternal Footman. He has won the Theodore Sturgeon award for Shambling Towards Hiroshima, the World Fantasy Award for Only Begotten Daughter, and Nebula Awards for “City of Truth” and “Bible Stories for Adults, No. 17: The Deluge.” A self-described “scientific humanist,” he is widely recognized as one of our premiere satirists of religion, philosophy, and human belief systems. He is also a playwright. His most recent novels are The Philosopher’s Apprentice and Shambling Towards Hiroshima.

Guest of Honor
Joan Slonczewski

Joan Slonczewski is a Professor of Microbiology at Kenyon College and an award-winning science fiction writer. She holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University and teaches courses including Microbiology, Virology, and Biology in Science Fiction at Kenyon, in addition to mentoring students conducting research in Kenyon’s Bacterial pH Laboratory. She has won grants for her research from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and other major donors. She has twice received the John W. Campbell Award for best science fiction novel, for The Highest Frontier and A Door Into Ocean.

Guest Scholar
Colin Milburn

Colin Milburn holds the Gary Snyder Chair in Science and the Humanities at UC Davis, where he is an Associate Professor of English and Director of the UC Davis Humanities Innovation Lab. His research focuses on the intersections of science, literature, and media technologies, and he is affiliated with programs in Cinema and Technocultural Studies, Performance Studies, Cultural Studies, and Critical Theory, as well as the W. M. Keck Center for Active Visualization in the Earth and the Center for Science & Innovation Studies. His books include Nanovision: Engineering the Future and Mondo Nano: Fun and Games in the World of Digital Matter, forthcoming in 2014.

Our submissions portal, will open Sep. 15 to receive proposals!

 http://www.fantastic-arts.org/annual-conference/submissions/

Download the Call for Papers Here!

CfP: Victorian Texts in Contemporary Fandoms

VSAWC 2015 Proposed Panel: “Modified in the guts of the living”: Victorian Texts in Contemporary Fandoms

In a practice Henry Jenkins famously refers to as “textual poaching,” fans appropriate characters and narratives from canonical texts in order to adapt and rewrite them in novel ways, and for a variety of reasons: artistic, political, communal, financial, emotional, sexual, and other. Contemporary fandoms are vast in scope, multi-platformed, multimedia subcultures which operate via an economy of participation that has typically held itself apart from academic study, while simultaneously being scorned as an ‘illegitimate’ subject of study by the academy. Recently, though, scholars from anthropologists to sociologists and literary theorists have begun to turn their attention to fandom and fanfiction as rich sites of cultural meaning. This attention is often a source of discomfort to the  fans themselves, even as a new hybrid, “acafan” attempts to bridge the divide.

Hybridity is the essence of these transformative works. Lev Grossman states, “Fanfiction has become wildly more biodiverse than the canonical works that it springs from. It encompasses male pregnancy, centaurification, body swapping, apocalypses, reincarnation, and every sexual fetish, kink, combination, position, and inversion you can imagine and a lot more that you could but would probably prefer not to. It breaks down walls between genders and genres and races and canons and bodies and species and past and future and conscious and unconscious and fiction and reality” (Forward, Fic).

This diversity includes Victorian texts; in multiple fandoms, fanfiction authors have used Victorian source material as a starting point for writing about characters from literature, television, film and celebrity culture, creating what are called, in fan parlance, “crossovers”. These crossovers address lacunae in both canons, overwriting a broader variety of experience onto each source text.

This panel seeks to explore that variety: the biodiversity of Victorian texts within contemporary fandoms. How are the body of the text and the bodies in the texts altered by fan authors? What does this reveal about the canonical texts, the bodies that inhabit them, the bodies that wrote them, and the bodies that produce and consume them now? How, as W.H. Auden might have put it, are Victorian texts “modified in the guts of the living”?

We are looking for contributors a planned panel at the Victorian Studies Association of Western Canada 2015 conference in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, on April 10-11 (original cfp here: http://web.uvic.ca/vsawc/vsawc-conferences/2015-conference/). Please submit a 250-word abstract to Elise Mitchell (elise_mitchell@uqac.ca) and/or Elyssa Warkentin (Elyssa.Warkentin@umanitoba.ca) by September 25, 2014.