Louisa May Alcott Society

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 Fou...

It is with great pleasure that we announce the winners of the 2022 Sarah Elbert Travel Grants: Jaclyn Carver (PhD Student, University of Iowa), to present at the Literary Nonfiction of Louisa May Alcott & Mark Twain Panel at the American Literature Conference in Chicago in May Raffaella Cavalieri (Independent Scholar, Fiorentino, Italy), to present at the Where in the World is Louisa May Alcott Panel at the Thoreau Gathering in Concord in July Max Laitman Chapnick (PhD Student, Boston University), to present at the Honoring Beverly Lyon Clark Panel at the American Literature Conference in Chicago in May  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 whose important research charted exciting new paths for Alcott scholarship. With enthusiasm, the Society congratulates the winners of our inaugural cohort of grant recipients, and we ...

The Alcott Society is offering up to three travel grants of $400 each to support students and non-tenure-track members of the Society to attend present on Alcott at an academic conference in the 2022 calendar year.  These grants, supported financially by the Alcott 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 whose important research charted exciting new paths for Alcott scholarship. Applying is easy. Please just send the abstract for your paper, information about its acceptance and conference venue, and a one-page vita to Gregory Eiselein at eiselei@ksu.edu . We encourage students and NTT members of the Society to see these travel grants as a possible source for financial support for sharing their Alcott research with a larger audience.