Graduate Student Workshop: Update

The Mark Twain Circle of America is calling for proposals for From Seminar Paper to Publishable Article: A Workshop for Graduate Students and Recent PhDs. Please note: both the proposal due date and the eligibility criteria have changed since our last posting.

The Mark Twain Circle of America, in conjunction with the Center for Mark Twain Studies at Elmira College, is happy to announce their first Graduate Student/Early Career Workshop. This in-person workshop will provide an intensive writing experience for students and recent PhDs hoping to transform a seminar paper, conference paper, or dissertation chapter into an article ready to submit for publication. Although all approaches are welcome—and interdisciplinary approaches are encouraged--the paper must give substantial attention to Twain. Recent PhDs should have received their degrees no earlier than January 1, 2018.

Ph.D. candidates and recent PhDs are invited to apply for the 4-5 day workshop, which is scheduled to take place immediately following the August 4-7, 2022, Ninth International Conference on the State of Mark Twain Studies. Participants will work with a mentor and with each other, with ample time for writing and with access to the Twain archives at Elmira College and at Quarry Farm. Successful applicants will be housed, free, in Elmira College dormitories and provided with breakfasts and lunches for the duration of the workshop, which will take place both on campus and at the Farm. They will also be provided with a $200 stipend and, depending on need, up to $300 more towards travel expenses.*

Applications are due by Tuesday, March 1, 2022. Ph.D. candidates should provide a cover letter giving their name and institution, their program and their current progress within it (i.e., second year Ph.D., ABD, etc.), and their dissertation project where determined. Applicants who have received their Ph.D.s within the last 3 years should provide the name of their institution, their program, and the date of their graduation. Please also provide a 500-word abstract of the paper to be transformed in the workshop.

Applications should be submitted simultaneously to John Bird (birdj@winthrop.edu) and to Judith Yaross Lee (leej@ohio.edu). Applicants will be informed of their acceptance by late March.

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* Special Offer: Applicants are strongly encouraged to submit proposals to and/or attend the Ninth International Conference on the State of Mark Twain Studies as well as the workshop. The conference theme is “Growth: The Most Rigorous Law of Our Being,” and is intended to stimulate conversation about 21st-century issues as well as 19th. The workshop, then, will be preceded by four days of lively discussion about Twain, his times, and the links between his times and ours. Students selected for the workshop who also choose to attend the conference will have their conference fees, lodging, and food waived—a $600 package.

Why Elmira? Elmira was the home of Twain’s wife, Olivia Langdon Clemens, and the Clemens family spent more than 30 long summers there. Quarry Farm, where the workshop will take place, belonged to Twain’s sister-in-law, and was the original site of the octagonal study that now graces the College campus. In it, Twain wrote many of his most famous works, including Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. Now a scholarly retreat, Quarry Farm has a fine collection of primary and secondary Twain materials. Moreover the library at Elmira College, which will be open during both the conference and the workshop, boasts a special Mark Twain archive that contains books, manuscripts, and other documents related to Twain’s own life and writings and to the lives of his family and friends.