CFP: Intersections: American Women Writers and Mark Twain

The Elmira Center for Mark Twain Studies will soon send out CFPs for its upcoming Quadrennial conference, scheduled for July 30-August 1, 2026 in Elmira, NY.  The Center is actively expanding its interests, and is eager to feature panels coming from related fields. As a member of the planning committee, and also an SSAWW member, I am hoping to organize a panel focusing on women writers.

The conference’s current working title is “Irrelevance, Rebellion, and Resistance.”  If you are working on a woman writer within Twain’s orbit (Anna Dickinson, for instance, or Cather, Jewett, Fields, all of whom he knew); 19th/early 20th-century writers beyond his orbit but who stood up to power (Ida B. Wells-Barnett, for instance: both she and Twain wrote about lynching); women humorists (Marietta Holley, for instance); or 20th and 21st-century women writers who in some way engaged Twain’s writings and/or ideas—please consider submitting a proposal.  

*Grad Students Please Note: The Conference will be followed by a week-long, article-writing workshop for graduate students, led by Cornell Prof. Shirley Samuels and Notre Dame Prof. Sandra Gustafson. Students selected for the workshop will be fully funded, both for the conference and the workshop.  The catch is that proposals for the workshop must give substantial attention to Twain. If you have something appropriate, I urge you to consider applying–it’s a great opportunity to work with two terrific scholar/teachers. Interested students proposing papers for the SSAWW panel should submit first to me, but should also let me know your interest in the workshop. I will then forward it to the workshop selection committee.

For the rest of us: conference fees will run approximately $375 for the entire three days: this includes breakfasts, lunches, receptions, and at least one dinner.  A large, fully air-conditioned dorm offers rooms for $75/night. It’s a small, fun, conference drawing from both the U.S. and abroad.  I look forward to your proposals!

Proposal deadline: February 1, 2026

Proposals and queries to: Susan K. Harris, skh5@ku.edu

Link to Elmira Center website:  https://marktwainstudies.com/  (Note: the general cfp will be posted shortly, as well as information about the Graduate Student Workshop.)

And here’s the Twain quote that will preface the cfp:

“The first gospel of all monarchies should be Rebellion; the second should be Rebellion; and the third and all gospels and the only gospel in any monarchy should be Rebellion against the Church and State.” (Mark Twain’s Notebook, 1891)