Western Literature Association

58th Western Literature Association Conference

Date: October 2–5, 2024

Tucson, Arizona

THEME: Speculative Territorializations of New Western Literatures

Note: The Conftool portal for submission of abstracts is open: https://www.conftool.pro/wla-conference-2024.
Abstracts will be accepted until June 5.

Hope in a Hogan © Ryan Singer, 2022

As President of the Western Literature Association for 2024, I am thrilled to announce that the WLA Conference for next year will take place from October 2–5 in Tucson, Arizona. Situated on ancestral Tohono O’odham lands known as Cuk-Ṣon and nicknamed “the Old Pueblo” by subsequent settlers, we were able to secure the Hilton El Conquistador Resort as our conference venue. Located in the Sonoran Desert in the foothills of the spectacular Santa Catalina Mountains, this site amplifies any perceptions inspired by these layered geographic and spatial significations. Such associations speak to the meaning and status of the American West and its dynamic (re)inscription through the storytelling processes of writing, art, filmmaking, performativity, and song. As a means of synthesizing such qualities and ideas, this conference will be focused on the theme of Speculative Territorializations of New Western Literatures. The theme is offered to stimulate thought-provoking discussions and the exploration of new insights arising from the physical and mythic landscapes of the American West, including Pacific Island borderlands, reaching beyond Jean-François Lyotard’s conception of the West Coast as “Pacific wall.”

Organized around this inclusive and expansive subject, the 2024 conference aims to inspire fresh intellectual and artistic engagement with a range of relevant texts, while extending ongoing experimentations in western literature and transcending the boundaries of literary genres and temporal contexts. This theme also seeks to provide a fertile ground for playful intellectual inquiry, reflecting the vibrant enthusiasm for diverse and forward-thinking speculative futures and artistic forms, which are central to current discussions about the West and the direction of western literature, art, film, and popular culture.

~Billy J. Stratton, 2024 President • http://www.westernlit.org/wla-conference-2024

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Call for Abstracts:

The Western Literature Association is inviting participation in our 2024 annual conference. While this year’s theme is focused on the speculative West and the re-inscription of territory, we also welcome proposals for individual papers, organized panels, workshops, posters, performances and other forms of academic engagement on all themes relative to the literary culture of the American West. The chosen site of Tucson, Arizona, is situated on the ancestral lands of the Tohono O’odham Nation, who referred to the area as Cuk Ṣon in their language. Stressing the layering of territoriality that comes about through history and story,the history of Tucson also bears the strong imprint of Spanish and Mexican cultural influences deriving from its establishment as the Presidio San Agustin del Tucsón during the colonial period, while also being the current-day home to the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, amongst twenty other federally recognized tribes that call Arizona home. These contexts are also marked with the legacy of significant territorial conflict, of course, with the legacy of American colonialism especially prevalent as the contexts of the Mexican-American War, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the Gadsden Purchase all starkly indicate. Given such complex and deeply embedded circuits of diverse cultural presence, life and cultural experience, we are also seeking presentations that speak to the complexities that have shaped the history, culture and literary traditions of this unique space, place and landscape. In addition to these broadly geographic and socio-historical themes, we encourage proposals exploring the following topics, themes and issues:

  • Native and Indigenous literatures, including works emerging from the twenty-two federally recognized tribes located in Arizona
  • the work of this year’s Distinguished Achievement Award recipient, Frances Washburn, along with keynote speakers Gerald Vizenor, Stephen Graham Jones, Tom Holm and Ryan Singer, as well as that of long-time Tucson residents Leslie Marmon Silko and Ofelia Zepeda
  • Memorials/commemorations on the life and work of Annette Kolodny, Cormac McCarthy and N. Scott Momaday
  • Arizona writers, storytellers and texts by such figures as Edward Abbey, Sherwin Bitsui, Natalie Diaz (ASU), Rosemarie Dombrowski, William Eastlake, Jim Harrison, Joseph Wood Krutch, Felipe S. Molina, Alberto Ríos, Laura Tohe and others
  • Literary contributions (broadly defined) of Latinx, African American, Asian American and other POC writers from the region and the West more broadly
  • Ecocriticism, nature writing and environmental ethics, including topics related to national parks, public lands, reservations and natural resources of the West such as water, fossil fuels and minerals
  • Musical and other forms of aural storytelling from, of and about Arizona and the American West
  • Visual arts, including painting, photography and digital art—i.e., Ansel Adams, Miguel Camarena, Maynard Dixon, Thomas Moran, James Turrell, Edward Weston
  • Critical engagements with the conceptions of the borderlands and la frontera

Please upload abstracts of 200-250 words, along with any other relevant information or supplementary materials, to the Conftool portal: https://www.conftool.pro/wla-conference-2024.
Deadline for submissions is June 5, 2024.

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Conference Venue: The Hilton Resort of El Conquistador, Tucson, Arizona

Room rates:  $199 for a single or double, $224 for a triple, $249 for a quad, and $199 for a suite. 

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If you have any conference-related questions, please contact Dr. Billy J. Stratton, WLA President, at [email protected].

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More info to come. Stay tuned.