Finding literary conferences to attend

[nathan88]

I'm a first year graduate student and I am kind of at a loss for how to go about finding conferences to submit abstracts to. Granted, all I have really done is type a few things in to google but I figured there would be a definitive list compiled somewhere and I have found no such thing.

I have found a few for film but nothing for literature. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[sebastiansteddy]

http://cfp.english.upenn.edu/

Penn hosts a site where many conferences post their CFPs.

[pinkrobot]

Seconding the vote for the Penn list. Since you're in a program, maybe you could ask your adviser/professor/DGS for specific recommendations?

Also, I should confess that mostly I am posting because I'm currently working on my first paper as a PhD student and, relatedly, I thought your thread title read, "Finding literary confidence." ("Oh! Hey! There's a way to get that?")

[sebastiansteddy]

Seconding the vote for the Penn list. Since you're in a program, maybe you could ask your adviser/professor/DGS for specific recommendations?

Also, I should confess that mostly I am posting because I'm currently working on my first paper as a PhD student and, relatedly, I thought your thread title read, "Finding literary confidence." ("Oh! Hey! There's a way to get that?")

Yes, definitely talk to professors in your field too. My current MA program sends CFPs via a listserv to the whole department once a week. That is how I have found all of the conferences I have attended.

[ProfLorax]

When looking at the awesome UPenn list serve, check for graduate student conferences nearby your school. I am really happy that my first conference was a conference specifically for grad students; I was able to practice writing an abstract and presenting a paper in a very supportive atmosphere of peers. Then, when I presented at larger conferences, like PAMLA and MLA, I felt much more comfortable with the whole process.

[rising_star]

You might also want to see about joining academic listservs on topics related to your research or subfield. Many people circulate cfps this way.