Early American Literature

Congratulations to Lloyd Alimboyao Sy, whose essay “Stopping by Woods in Mashpee Territory: Belonging in William Apess’s Indian Nullification” won the 2023 Richard Beale Davis prize. Link: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/12/article/909703

Congratulations to Andrea Knutson, who received the honorable mention distinction for her essay “‘The True Temper of It’: Combustibility and Emblematic Representation in Richard Ligon’s True and Exact History of the Island of Barbados.” Link: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/12/article/881042

University of North Carolina Press

New episode of Early American Literature podcast! In this episode, Digital Media Editor Autumn Hall talks with Professor Thomas Baker about correcting the misattribution of the novels Monima (1802) and Margaretta (1807).

Listen now on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/early-american-literature/founded-on-facts-correcting-misattribution-of-the-novels-monima-1802-and-margaretta-1807

EAL is now seeking conference reviewers! We welcome reviewers at all ranks who study early American literature. Send your interest and a brief bio to [email protected].

Early American Literature is seeking reviewers for the listed digital resources. We welcome reviewers at all ranks, especially graduate students. If you're interested, email [email protected] with the resource you'd like to review and a brief (50 words) description of your scholarly interests.

Early American Literature Issue 59.2 is now available digitally and in print. Keep swiping to learn more!

Liz Bohls Joseph Pentangelo Kevin Pyon

What does 1776 mean to early American literary studies today? As we approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Early American Literature invites you to explore this question with innovative submissions to Volume 61. Abstracts or proposals are due by September 30, 2024, and they can be submitted to [email protected].

EAL is now seeking conference reviews. If you are interested in participating, please email [email protected] with the name of the conference you’d like to review and a brief description (50 words) of your scholarly interests.

Celebrate Pride Month with Early American Literature! Our previous issues feature relevant readings such as Ben Bascom’s “Feeling Solitary in the Seductive Republic: Narrative Deviance in Elizabeth ‘Harriot’ Wilson and William ‘Amos’ Wilson” in 59.1 and Jennifer Putzi’s “Charity Bryant and the Q***r Affordances of the Early American Acrostic” in 58.2. Happy Pride!

April is National Poetry Month. Celebrate by reading Early American Literature! Some of Early American Literature’s relevant publications include the Phillis Wheatley Peters special issue in EAL 57.3, Invention: "‘What Woman That Was’: Poems about Mary Dyer” by Anne Myles in EAL 56.3, “Waiting to Be Found: The Citizen Poets of Philadelphia and New York” by Paul Lewis in EAL 52.3, and “‘On the Death of Love Rotch,’ a New Poem Attributed to Phillis Wheatley (Peters): And a Speculative Attribution” by Wendy Raphael Roberts in EAL 58.1.

March is Women’s History Month. Celebrate by reading Early American Literature! Our latest issue, 59.1, features a forum focused on Toni Morrison. Stay tuned for the accompanying podcast, where the four women scholars who authored this forum speak about her work. To read more of Early American Literature’s publications focusing specifically on women, please see the Phillis Wheatley Peters special issue in EAL 57.3, articles about Anne Bradstreet in both EAL 48.1 and 52.2, and/or the broader discussion of Early American Women and Feminist Criticism in EAL 44.2.

Early American Literature Issue 59.1 is now available digitally and in print. Keep swiping to learn more!

Early American Literature Book Prize

The editors of Early American Literature are pleased to announce the annual Early American Literature Book Prize, which will be given in 2024 for an author’s first academic monograph about American literature in the colonial period through the early republic (roughly 1830). The prize is offered in collaboration with the University of North Carolina Press, the Society of Early Americanists, and the MLA’s Forum on Early American Literature.

Monographs published in 2022 or 2023 are eligible for the 2024 prize, which carries a cash award of $2000.

The deadline for nominations is March 31, 2024. Please send the name of the book, author, year published, and the book’s press website URL to: [email protected].

Hard copies of books that make the short list will be requested from the publisher. The book prize selection committee consists of the journal’s editors, as well as one representative from the SEA executive committee and one representative from the executive committee for the MLA’s Forum on Early American literature.

Inquiries may be directed to Professors Katy Chiles at [email protected] and Cassander Smith at [email protected].

Early American Literature is published by the University of North Carolina Press.

Celebrate Black History Month by reading our Phillis Wheatley Peters special issue. You can find it in Early American Literature 57.3. Be sure to check out EAL regularly for the latest scholarship on early Black literary studies!

Congratulations to Autumn Hall, EAL Digital Media Editor, on being appointed to the National Humanities Leadership Council. https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/national-humanities-leadership-council/

Kirsten Silva Gruesz, Professor of English at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Kelly Wisecup, Professor of English at Northwestern University, have been selected to receive the 2023 Early American Literature Book Prize. Congratulations!

The EAL Book Prize is awarded in even calendar years to a first monograph published in the prior two years, and in odd years to a second or subsequent book published in the prior two years. Next year's 2024 prize will be awarded in the first monograph category, and books published in 2022 and 2023 are eligible. The prize carries a $2000 award stipend. The deadline for submission is March 1, 2024. Please consult the journal's website at https://earlyamericanliterature.org or email [email protected] for additional information.

Celebrate Native American Heritage Month by checking out the award-winning forum on “Materials and Methods in Native American and Indigenous Studies,” jointly published with the William and Mary Quarterly, organized by Alyssa Mt. Pleasant, Caroline Wigginton, and Kelly Wisecup. You can find it in Early American Literature 53.2. Be sure to check out EAL regularly for the latest scholarship on early Native American and Indigenous literary studies!

Issue 58.3 is now available digitally and in print. Keep swiping to learn more. Naza Amaeze Okoli Maria Barrera-Agarwal Kirsten Silva Gruesz

We are now accepting submissions for our upcoming special issue, Early American Literature: New Directions in Quaker Literary History, which will have as guest editors Jay David Miller and Kaitlin Tonti. Please make your submission to [email protected] and [email protected] by May 15, 2024, for consideration.

Congratulations to Rebecca Rosen, whose essay “‘The Voice of
the Innocent Blood Cries Aloud from the Ground to Heaven’: Speaking and Discovering Infanticide in the Early American Northeast” won the 2022 Richard Beale Davis prize.

Congratulations to Camille Owens, who received the honorable mention distinction for her essay “‘I, Young in Life’: Phillis Wheatley and the Invention of American Childhood.”

Both essays can be found in volume 57 of Early American Literature. Continue scrolling to read the statement issued by the prize committee.

Issue 58.2 is now available digitally and in print. View our Table of Contents to learn more!

In “What Every College Student Should Know about Phillis Wheatley,” our Digital Media Editor sits down with Cassander Smith, Tara Bynum, and Brigitte Fielder, the three guest editors behind our special issue “Dear Sister: Phillis Wheatley's Futures." If you’ve been looking for a great introduction to Wheatley for yourself or your classroom, join us as we discuss Wheatley’s life, work, and legacy.

Check out the link here:
https://on.soundcloud.com/BRPFeXKDHsZ4VsrL6

Check out our new call for conference reviews!

We seek reviewers for the following 2023 conferences. Scroll to find out what to review with more info on what a conference review is + who can review.

Say hello to our new editorial board member, Caroline Wigginton! Dr. Wigginton is Associate Professor of English and Director of Undergraduate Studies at the University of Mississippi. She is currently working on Indigenuity: Native Craftwork and the Material of Early American Books, her forthcoming second monograph that focuses on the influences of Native craftwork on American literature.

We are pleased to announce we are still accepting nominations for the 2023 Book Prize. Find the info, here!