Call for Papers    

Lillian Smith

Deadline: April 15, 2005

Proposed panel -- O'Connor and Other Georgia Writers: A Scholarly Conference
Georgia College & State University, Milledgeville, GA

Conference Dates: March 30- April 1, 2006

Georgia writer and civil rights activist Lillian Smith edited a regional magazine, South Today, for 10 years, the first magazine to oppose racial segregation; published numerous essays and seven books in her lifetime, including a controversial best-selling novel, Strange Fruit (1944); the controversial and autobiographical Killers of the Dream (1949); and a polemical response to Brown vs. the Board of Education, Now is the Time (1955). Scholarly interest in Smith has increased during the past two
decades. Will Brantley has stated that he regards her as a crucial figure in the renaissance of southern letters that took place in the mid-twentieth century.  

Papers on any aspect of Smith's work are invited, particularly those that examine Smith's place among heretofore more exalted writers in the mid-twentieth century South. Also, how has Smith influenced other writers, editors and/or activists?  

Proposals of up to 500 words for papers limited to 20 minutes should be submitted to Claire Pamplin at claire.pamplin@comcast.net by the April 15, 2005.