The Caucus Race
News, Announcements and Paper Calls

Texts Mark the Spot
Getting REAL - debating the what , why and how of realism in children's and YA texts

The 8th La Trobe University, Bendigo Children's Literature Conference
September 3rd & 4th, 2010
@ La Trobe University, Bendigo, Victoria, Australia

Theme:
Realism remains a contentious topic in children’s and young adult literature, with debate about what should be depicted, how, why, and possible effects on readers. This conference will consider these matters in the light of recent discussion in this genre. Workshop streams aimed at Early Readers/Preschool, Middle Years, Secondary/Tertiary, and Research will support the keynote addresses by Craig Smith and Elise Hurst.

Presenters include:
Craig Smith (illustrator - and featuring an online retrospective exhibition of his work), Glenda Millard (author), Elise Hurst (illustrator), Lorraine Marwood, (author and poet), Paul Morris (illustrator & designer), Anne Smith (literacy consultant), Vaughan Prain, Sarah Mayor Cox & David Beagley (lecturers and comentators) and more!

Information:
Registration information is available here. For further details, contact David Beagley.

Reading Jacqueline Wilson
A one-day conference on 20th October 2011 at the University of Central Lancashire to celebrate the work of Jacqueline Wilson.

The most borrowed author in Britain's libraries, and Children’s Laureate from 2005-07, over 30 million copies of Wilson's books have been sold in the UK alone and they have been translated into 34 different languages.

Areas for consideration
• Telling life stories
• Bildungsroman and identity
• Growing up with/through Jacqueline Wilson’s characters
• Jacqueline Wilson’s books as crossover fiction (selected and read by adults for pleasure)
• Jacqueline Wilson books as moral or didactic tales
• Using the books as teaching material
• Encouraging reading and literacy
• Using the stories therapeutically
• Jacqueline’s influence on the development of ‘issues’-based realism in children’s literature
• The representation of issues such as divorce, adoption, truancy, stealing, addiction etc.
• Representations within the books e.g. of gender, age, parents, teachers, social workers
• Creating television and/or stage adaptations
• Publishing history of Jacqueline Wilson’s books
• Influence of Jacqueline Wilson’s books on children’s writing and publishing
• Working partnership between Jacqueline Wilson and Nick Sharratt
• Relationships between text and illustration
• The pleasure of the texts
• Jacqueline Wilson Fans
• Creative writing based on or inspired by Jacqueline Wilson’s oeuvre

Proposals
We welcome proposals from a number of perspectives and disciplines, such as literature, creative writing, publishing, journalism, marketing, education, social work and so on.

Individual papers, posters and workshops as well as panel discussions around specific topics (panel leader needs to organize the panel and submit an abstract) may be submitted.

300 word abstracts should be sent to Helen Day - HFDay@uclan.ac.uk by November 30th 2010.
Decisions will be made by January 31st 2011. We will be pursuing options for publication.

Fear and Safety
in Children's Literature

20th BIENNIAL CONGRESS OF THE INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH SOCIETY FOR CHILDREN'S LITERATURE  

4-8 JULY 2011--
@ QUEENSLAND UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA
 
Children’s literature has always been responsive to the tenor of the times. Texts for children and young adults take up the social, political, and humanistic interests and ideologies of the past and present, as well as speculate about the future. Since the earliest fairy tales, children’s writers have given imaginative interpretation to the darker, riskier side of society, while also offering reassurance, hope, and celebration of the human spirit.
 
The Congress will address a range of critically important topics, texts, and theories related to the theme of Fear and Safety in Children’s Literature. Confirmed keynote speakers are: Professor Mavis Reimer, Canada Chair in the Culture of Childhood, University of Winnipeg; Professor David Buckingham,  Director of the Centre for the Study of Children, Youth and Media, London University (UK); and Professor Gillian Whitlock, University of Queensland (Australia).
 
Submissions for abstracts open: 19 July 2010.
Closing date: November 1, 2010.
Please visit the Congress website for details: http://irscl2011.com/

The Looking Glass

Themed issue Volume 14.3, September/October, 2010:
Non-fiction for child and young adult readers

Submission deadline: 30 September 2010
Publication date: January/February 2011

Critical, reflective, inquiring, and entertaining articles are welcomed for a special issue on nonfiction for children and young adult readers.
Suggested approaches include, but are not limited to:

• Nonfictive approaches for young children, including common topics: new babies, my body, new experiences
• Nonfiction for the elementary grades
• Nonfiction for teens: what topics do we see?  Upon what tactics do authors rely?
• Nonfiction picture books: biographies, histories, science
• The sciences
• The role of nonfiction for readers in the classroom and beyond
• Authors of nonfiction for children and young adults

All submissions to editor@the-looking-glass.net

The Looking Glass always welcomes submissions for the following sections and columns:

• Alice's Academy - scholarly articles to be peer reviewed
• Emerging Voices - articles from university students and other new analysts
• Jabberwocky - feature articles on all aspects of children's literature
• Picture Window - articles on illustration and presentation of books
• Curiouser and Curiouser - notes, observations and quirky items
• The Caucus Race - news, announcements and paper calls

We aim to publish 3 issues each year, at least one of which is specifically themed, while the others would be general in focus.