11th International Conference
on the Short Story in English
"The Border as Fiction"
Toronto, Canada
June 16-19, 2010
"........crossing the border is like ripping the continent, tearing its invisible casing.`I look upon borders as zones of grace, fifty miles wide on either side, where dualities of spirit are commonplace."
--Clark Blaise
The Society for the Study of the Short Story has elected Toronto for the venue of its 11th International Conference on the Short Story in English to be held in June, 2010.
About the Society
The Society for the Study of the Short Story was chartered in 1994, following a first gathering of people interested in the writing and study of short stories which took place at the Sorbonne in 1989. Later conferences were held in 1996 (Cedar Falls and Iowa City, Iowa) and in 1998 (New Orleans, Louisiana). In 2000, the conference returned to Iowa City, and was jointly sponsored by the renowned Iowa Writers' Workshop. The 2002 conference was held in New Orleans, and the 2004 conference took place in Alcalá de Henares (Spain), returning to Europe for the first time since 1989. The 2006 conference was held in Lisbon, Portugal, and the 2008 conference was held in Cork, Ireland.
Current board members are Clark Blaise (President), Bharati Mukherjee, Maurice A. Lee, Allan Weiss, Claire Larriere, Velma Pollard, Juani Guerra, and Teresa Alves.
If you would like to become a member of the Society for the Study of the Short Story, please visit: http://www.shortstorysociety.com
About the Conference
Every other year the International Conference on the Short Story in English brings together writers and scholars with an interest in the short story, creating an unusual forum for a fruitful debate between the practitioners of the art and critical readers, coming from a diversity of fields and sharing a variety of interests.
Writers and readers, bound by their common love for the short story, convene from all over the world. They are interested in exploring the ways and byways of an art that interconnects with other forms of literature as well as with other fields of art (namely photography, painting, cinema, music, and others). They also approach and discuss the variety of ways in which the short story is (and has been) embodied in history and geography, exploring the multiple interweaving links of production and consumption of literary works with the social, political, economic, and other issues relevant to a given time and place.
Attendees have come from Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America, and the Caribbean. Countries represented include Argentina, Austria, Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Canada, the Canary Islands, England, Ethiopia, France, Guyana, India, Jamaica, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sri Lanka, Trinidad, and the United States.
About the Venue and Local Organization
coming soon!
About the Topic
coming soon!
About the Program
This conference will bring together renowned writers of fiction in English * Irish, British, American, Canadian, Australian, Caribbean, South-African, Indian, Sri Lankan, Indonesian, etc. * with writers who have had (or will have for this event) their work translated into English and who will join in reading sessions, roundtable discussions and panels, and translation workshops.
The 11th International Conference on the Short Story in English will also host a number of sessions, both in the more traditional format (with presentation of papers) and in other formats involving performance, dance, art, films, etc., having in mind that the form of the short story is not necessarily confined to the limits of the written page but may open up to manifold fields of expression.
Guest Writers who have already committed to attend in 2010 include:
1. Margaret Atwood
2. Sandra Cisneros
3. Robert Olen Butler
4. Clark Blaise
5. Bharati Mukherjee
6. Jayne Anne Phillips
7. William Wall
8 Alistar MacLeod
9. Colm Toibin
10 Vijay Lakshmi
11. Minoli Salgado
12. Nuala Ni Chonchuir
13. Francine Prose
14. James Alan McPherson
15. John Metcalf
16. Velma Pollard
17. Cyril Dabydeen
18. Olive Senior
19. Ali Smith
20. Alison Macleod
21. Z.Z. Packer
22. Katie Singer
23. Billie Travalini
24. Moira Crone
25. Bret Johns
26. Janette Turner Hospital
27. Tania Hershman
28. Sara Shumaker
