Registration

Registration is now open. Please download the Registration Form (PDF | Word) and return it by email to asal2009@anu.edu.au or by post to:

Kate Horgan
School of Humanities
AD Hope Bldg #14
Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200

Payment may be made by sending a cheque or money order (made payable to ASAL) to the above address, or by credit card payment through paypal:

 
Early bird*: $300 waged $200 unwaged / student $390 non-ASAL members
Late: $360 waged $240 unwaged / student $450 non-ASAL members
Daily: $150 waged $100 unwaged / student $150 non-ASAL members
ASAL membership**: $90 individuals    
Conference dinner***: $60 waged $40 unwaged / student  
Postgraduate workshop: $20    
NLA Symposium: $50    
* Earlybird payments must be received by 31 May 2009.
**
Presenters of conference papers must be current ASAL members.
***The Conference Dinner price covers food only; there will be a cash bar available on the night.
The Conference Dinner menu has vegetarian and gluten-free options: see Registration Form for bookings.Registration includes lunches, morning & afternoon teas and opening and closing cocktail functions.

Please see the Special Events page for details of the Postgraduate Workshop and the NLA Symposium. To assist you with your planning, an Indicative Program can be viewed here.

Please direct all enquiries to Kate Horgan.

Keynote Speakers: Leigh Dale, Ken Gelder, Philip Mead

Guest Writers Include: Marion Halligan, Christopher Koch, Shane Maloney, Kim Scott

Call For Papers (Closed)

Australian literature is not just a collection of texts: it is a diverse set of formal and informal cultures—from school curricula to bestseller lists, from university courses to writers’ festivals—that all have their own ways of talking about texts and their own forms of cultural expertise. This conference seeks to explore the diversity of readers and modes of reading that make up Australian literary culture. How do ‘everyday’ readers form judgements about what they read and what they like? What are the relationships between everyday readers and ‘specialist’ readers in industries such as publishing and marketing, print and electronic media, and in institutions such as schools and universities, libraries and archives? How much influence do critics, reviewers and cultural commentators have on readers’ tastes and habits—and vice versa? Who ultimately decides what books get published, what books win prizes, what books are taught in schools, and what books make up the Australian literary canon? Literary cultures are characterised by tensions between tradition and innovation, reading privately and reading professionally, reading for knowledge and reading for pleasure.

We invite proposals for 20-minute papers and for 90-minute panel discussions (3 or 4 speakers) that address any aspect of literary cultures, such as the following:

  • Everyday readers and the history of the popular / literary cultural divide
  • The role of reviewers and critics in influencing tastes and making careers
  • The roles of publishers, marketers, booksellers and bestseller lists
  • Literary festivals and writers as performers and promoters of their own work
  • The role and influence of literary prizes
  • Reading communities such as book clubs, blogs, community education
  • Histories and analyses of Australian literary criticism
  • School and university curricula and the Australian literary canon
  • Revisions and re-evaluations of canonical and non-canonical Australian writers and texts
  • Adaptations of Australian literary texts for film and other media
  • The transnational boundaries of Australian literature
  • Australian children’s and young adult literature: publishing and readerships
  • Libraries, archives and cultural heritage
  • Creative writing programs
  • Little magazines, grassroots publishing, zines
  • Reading facebook and other social networking programs
  • The new empiricism, distant reading, resourceful reading
  • The ongoing impact of the ‘culture wars’

Please send 200-word abstracts of papers or panel proposals, with a brief biographical note, to Russell.Smith@anu.edu.au by Friday 27 February 2009.

We welcome proposals from postgraduate students. Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) has generously provided ten postgraduate scholarships, covering costs of travel and accommodation, available to postgraduate students whose own institutions are unable to support their attendance. Click here for further information. To enquire about postgraduate scholarships, please contact Julieanne.Lamond@anu.edu.au by Friday 27 February 2009.

ASAL 2009 organising committee: Julieanne Lamond, Lucy Neave, Monique Rooney and Russell Smith (School of Humanities, Australian National University)

ASAL 2009 is generously supported by:

CAL Cultural Fund Australian National University (ANU) logoACT government