Louisa May Alcott Society

The Louisa May Alcott Society’s Beverly Lyon Clark Article Prize recognizes scholarly excellence in Alcott studies, and it honors the memory of Professor Beverly Lyon Clark, whose scholarship has had an enormous impact on Alcott Studies. A committee composed of three members of the Louisa May Alcott Society appointed by the Society President chooses the winning article each year. The winner will be presented with a certificate and a small cash award at the Annual American Literature Association Conference. Article prize winners are encouraged to attend the conference to receive the award, as they are able.  The award committee this year was unanimous in making its selection. This year’s winner of the Beverly Lyon Clark article prize goes to Azelina Flint for “A Marble Woman: Is the Omen Good or Ill? Louisa May Alcott’s Exposé of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Repressed Individualism in Her Domestic Horror Fiction,” which appeared in Horror Studies 14.3 (2023): 9-27.  In this brilliant essay, Fl

It is with great pleasure that the Louisa May Alcott Society announces the winners of the 2024 Sarah Elbert Travel Grants: Max Chapnick (Postdoctoral Teaching Associate in English at Boston University) to attend the Thoreau Society Gathering in July 2024 in Concord to present “Heiresses in Louisa May Alcott and Henry James”  Roberta Pardi-Oláh (graduate student at University of Szeged) for travel to the ALA Conference in Chicago in May 2024 to present “Bronson Alcott’s Pedagogy and Its Representation in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Men ” Noelle Rudolf (graduate student at University of Louisiana at Lafayette) for travel to the Southwestern Popular/American Culture Association in Albuquerque in February 2024 to present “Womanhood as Wifehood: The Perpetuation and Dissension of Louisa May Alcott”  These grants, supported financially by the Society and its members and donors, are meant to encourage Alcott scholarship and to honor the career and memory of Sarah Elbert, a literary historian w

Please join the Alcott Society at the annual ALA Conference on  Friday, May 24th, 2024 , at the Palmer House Hotel in Chicago. We are hosting three scholarly panels and a business meeting that day.  Democracy and Gender in Alcott and Whitman  (8:30 a.m., Salon 7) Chair: Stephanie M. Blalock, University of Iowa 1.     “Androgynous Patriotism: Reconstituting Democracy through Trans Caregiver Narratives,” Eagan S. Dean, Rutgers University - New Brunswick 2.     “Alcott and Whitman: Gender, Democracy, and … Circus,” David Carlyon, Independent Scholar 3.     “From Orchard House to Central Park: Louisa May Alcott and Walt Whitman on Nature, Democracy, and Gender,” Marco Sioli, University of Milan Respondent: Gregory Eiselein, Kansas State University “I Had a Stage-Struck Fit”: Alcott, the Stage, and Performance  (10:00 a.m., Salon 7) Chair: Debra Ryals, Pensacola State College 1.     “Her Truth is Marching on: Resistance and Rebellion in Kate Hamill’s Adaptation of Little Women,” Sarah Wadsw