Louisa May Alcott Society

CFP: American Literature Association 36th Annual Conference May 21-24, 2025, The Westin Copley Place 10 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02116 The Louisa May Alcott Society invites proposals for two panels at the upcoming ALA conference in Boston. A Rose among the Thistles: A Sesquicentennial Consideration of Louisa May Alcott's Eight Cousins           Published in 1875, Louisa May Alcott’s Eight Cousins traced the shenanigans of eight cousins, two orphans, a seasoned sea captain or two, meddling aunties, domestic lessons, gender equality, pierced ears, and a little professional animosity (see “optical illusions”). There were fireworks. There were warehouses filled with treasures from the East. There were camping trips and skating lessons and charades. There were commentaries on health, fashion, and temperance. There were kittens. Possible approaches to this novel might consider its serialization history, its response to Alcott’s reviewers and critics, its illustrations, its Oriental

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