[Englecturers] English conference

[Steven Axelrod]

Conference that should be good:   

With all the courage of an unemerged butterfly
I unbolted the door and stepped outside

Only to have that daffodil baby
Kick me in the eye      		(Grace Nichols)

Women and poetry in the 21st Century:
Kicking Daffodils III

Two-day conference: 6th and 7th September 2006
University of the West of England, Bristol

Keynote Address: Medbh McGuckian
Participating speakers: Deryn Rees-Jones, Robyn Bolam, Kate Clanchy

C  A  L  L        F  O  R        P  A  P  E  R  S

The first 'Kicking Daffodils' conference and festival devoted to 'women and
poetry' was held at Oxford Brookes University in April 1994. The intervening
years have witnessed some dramatic developments, not least the much-debated
proliferation of women-only anthologies and the appearance of a widening
range of critical, theoretical and reference works. More than a decade
later, Daffodils III represents a fresh opportunity to explore the
burgeoning field of 'women's poetry'.  But the classification continues to
be problematic: how much validity does it have among readers, let alone
poets themselves?  Are there parallels to be drawn between the issues
involved in reading, say, a 16th century woman poet and a 20th century
practitioner? Or is it now too difficult to speak of 'women' as a category,
for fear of erasing crucial material, ethnic, or psychosexual differences?
How much difference did feminism make? Has the recovery of forgotten poets
from earlier centuries had any lasting impact on  period definitions  such
as 'Romanticism' or 'Modernism', for example? How does gender affect the
reading, writing and performance of poetry?

This two-day event aims to bring poets, critics and readers  together with
poetry publishers and editors. Topics for discussion might include the lyric
voice, radical / experimental poetics, collaboration,  performance,
influence,  myth, the long poem, class, race / ethnicity, sexuality,  the
Muse, the history of the book,  the politics and economics of poetry
publishing and anthologising.  Emphasis throughout will be on exchanging
ideas and there will be plenty of time for discussion and debate.  The
organisers are open-minded about the form  contributions might take.  We
invite proposals for conventional  papers of 20-25 minutes duration, or
offers from individuals or small groups for informal roundtable discussions
on germane themes. Graduate students will be particularly welcome.  

Abstracts of c.350 words should be submitted by March 1st 2006 to the
conference organisers: 
Dr. Alice Entwistle, School of English and Drama, University of the West of
England, St. Matthias Campus, Oldbury Court Road, Fishponds, Bristol BS16
2JP (womenandpoetry at uwe.ac.uk) or 
Dr. Jo Gill, School of English and Creative Studies, Bath Spa University,
Newton Park, Newton St. Loe, Bath, BA2 9BN (womenandpoetry at bathspa.ac.uk).

Conference steering group: Dr. Vicki Bertram (Manchester Metropolitan
University), Dr. Jane Dowson (De Montfort University),  Dr. Alex Goody
(Oxford Brookes University).

Steven Gould Axelrod
Professor of English
Director of Graduate Studies
Chair, Committee on Committees
University of California
Riverside, CA 92521
951 780 5653 (home phone)