Wednesday, April 06, 2005

Two (Very Different) Acceptances

Two bits of good news in my email box yesterday: first, the big academic coup -- an acceptance for a paper at MLA. The Modern Language Association holds the premier conference in literature and language studies (that's why all the job interviews are done there). An acceptance there is a ticket to the big leagues! Better yet, my paper on gendering the conversion narrative in medieval Iceland was selected for the one and only panel on Old Norse Literature at MLA. Tough competition, so I am thrilled to have been selected.

The other acceptance, while less prestigious, could be even more fun: The Witching Hour is a multifaceted conference that sprang up around the Harry Potter books. I'll be talking about real medieval magic but aiming it toward a more general audience, trying to convince them that medieval studies is as fun as the HP books. We'll see if I can pull that off! Better yet, it also features people like Charles de Lint and MaryAnn Harris, who are so wonderful and were so much fun at Mythic Journeys last June. Other guests so far include editor Ellen Datlow, writers Holly Black and Nancy Farmer. Best of all -- it will be held in Salem, MA in October. Ahhhhh. I can't wait!

4 comments:

C. Margery Kempe said...

Tanks! I'm already thinking about the fun I will have in Salem. And DC -- I'm sure we can get some folks together there.

BTW, no, I do not think about academic conferences solely in terms of how many friends I can gather at them -- but it helps! Why not combine professional and unprofessional development?

K

Crispinus said...

Excellent news, Kate!

C. Margery Kempe said...

Hey -- is that Dan Foley? How's your publishing career going? Lemme know --

C. Margery Kempe said...

Hey -- now I see it's Dan Curley. Salve, magister! Wait, it should be something Greek -- Eukha'ristos eimi'. (I got that from the site on Useful Ancient Greek Phrases.