Join the Alcott Society at ALA (Fri, May 27)

Please join the Alcott Society at the annual ALA Conference this Friday, May 27th, 2022, at the Palmer House Hotel in Chicago. We are hosting two scholarly panels that day. 

The Literary Nonfiction of Louisa May Alcott and Mark Twain (8:30-9:50am in Salon 5)

Chair: Roberta Seelinger Trites, Illinois State University

  • “‘Making Dirt Pies, and Chip Forts’: Nurse Periwinkle at the Capitol Mall,” Jaclyn Carver, University of Iowa
  • “Literary Non-Fiction and Celebrity in the Civil War Era,” Gregory Eiselein, Kansas State University
  • “Alcott & Twain Circus Stories: Nonfiction <-> Fiction,” David Carlyon, Independent Scholar

Kiddie Lit, Sassy Sissies, Tattling Tomboys, and More: Honoring Beverly Lyon Clark (11:30am-12:50pm in Salon 5)

Chair: Mary Lamb Shelden, Countryside Church Unitarian Universalist

  • “‘Poor Lads’ and ‘Brave Little Girls’: Reading the Peripheral Child in Alcott’s Works for Children,” Krissie West, Centre for International Research in Childhood
  • “New Alcott Pieces Found!” Max Laitman Chapnick, Boston University
  • “Beverly Lyon Clark’s Legacy and the Transforming Call of the Archive,” Marlowe Daly-Galeano, Lewis-Clark State College
Between the two panels, we will be hosting the Society's Annual Business Meeting (10:00-11:20 am CT in Salon 4). Society members who are unable to attend in person may join the Business Meeting via Zoom at this link. We will not have the technology available for a full hyflex experience during the meeting, but we are planning to provide Zoom attendees with an agenda, a chance to vote, and a way to offer comments and suggestions.

Finally, we are planning on a dinner out on Friday night at 6:30 p.m. at The Gage. If you're in Chicago that evening and want to join us for the dinner, please contact our Society President, Greg Eiselein.


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