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JOURNAL

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Online Registration is now closed. Please register at the conference. See you there!

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If you are registering online but need to print off the selection sheet for Wednesday and Saturday tours, click here. (A new window will open)

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Click on any of these links to jump directly to:

• Program
• Hotel
• Transportation
• Information for Panelists and Chairs
• Emotion in the Western Classroom: A Workshop and Conversation
• Wednesday Tours
• Saturday Tours
• Things to do in Boise

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Dear WLA Colleagues,

The conference program will shortly be available on the WLA website to guide your planning. As you’ll see, we have nearly eighty sessions this year as well as the usual meals and eceptions, with tours both Wednesday and Saturday, so we hope you can stay for the entire conference or longer. Program highlights include:

For information on tours, transportation, hotel, and Boise attractions, see enclosures. You may register by mailing the enclosed form to me with your check or by submitting the online form with a credit card at the WLA website.

I look forward to greeting you in Boise on October 25!

Tara Penry
WLA President 2006

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Program

Program now posted.

You can download a WORD file by clicking (or right-clicking) here: 2006 Program.

Hotel        

Sessions will be held at The Grove Hotel in downtown Boise, where the conference rate is $94 (single)/ $104 (double) plus taxes. Since we have contracted to fill a minimum number of rooms here, we encourage you to stay at this hotel. To make a reservation, call 888-961-5000 and ask for the Western Literature Association rate. As this hotel is smaller than some recent WLA venues, we have made arrangements for additional rooms at a nearby hotel if necessary. If you have trouble making a reservation on any night at the Grove, please let me know; I’ll give you the contact information for our second hotel and update the conference website accordingly. www.grovehotelboise.com

** Aug 24 Update **

We have currently filled our block of Wednesday rooms at The Grove Hotel. Rooms continue to be available at the Grove on other nights. For those who wish to make a reservation that includes a Wednesday night stay, please make it at our 2nd hotel a block away from the Grove: The Statehouse Inn (location of the 1981 WLA conference). Contact: 800-243-4622 or www.statehouse-inn.com for reservations. Identify yourself as a member of the Western Literature Association for our negotiated rate of $89/night.

Please continue to make reservations at The Grove Hotel if your stay does not include Wednesday night, as this will help us to meet our room block for the whole conference.

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Need a roommate? Email Amy Garrett-Brown at amygarrett@boisestate.edu with your name, title, gender, date(s) for which a roommate is sought, and smoking/non-smoking preference.

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Transportation

Air: The Boise airport (BOI) is served by the following airlines: Continental, Delta, Alaska, Southwest, United, America West, Horizon, Alaska, Frontier, and Big Sky. The green and red Boise Shuttle arrives at Ground Transportation outside the baggage claim area every 10 to 15 minutes, with free service to The Grove Hotel (about a 15-minute ride). If you don’t see the shuttle when you claim your bags, you can call The Grove Hotel at 208-333-8000 or 888-961-5000 to request it. Several car rental agencies also have desks in the baggage claim area of the Boise Airport. Garage parking at The Grove Hotel is $4.95 per day for hotel guests, or $12 per day for those who stay elsewhere.

Auto: From I-84, take the Vista/Airport exit (#53). Go north on Vista until it turns down a hill into Capitol Blvd, still northbound. Go north on Capitol Blvd approximately 1 mile to the corner of Front Street. Hotel is on the left, three blocks south of the capitol building. Enter parking garage by passing Front Street and turning left from the left-hand lane of Capitol Blvd (a one-way street) at street level of Grove Hotel.

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Information for Panelists and Chairs

Online schedule: Registration materials and the conference program will be posted on the WLA website at Utah State University around the end of July. We hope to make as few changes in the schedule as possible; however, some changes are inevitable. Please review the program online and notify Tara Penry of any misprints or grave problems by mid-September.

Presentation time: You will notice on the program that we have a full schedule again this year, with four panelists in most 75-minute sessions, and smaller panels often occupying 60-minute sessions late Friday or early Saturday. This means that most presenters will have only 15-18 minutes per paper. Please check to see how many presenters are scheduled in your session, and plan your presentation accordingly. On behalf of the chairs who must watch the clock, thank you!

AV requests and sessions: To moderate conference costs, we have placed all sessions with AV requirements on Friday or Saturday. While we will do our best to accommodate new audio-visual requests if they occur, we may not be able to fulfill those requests as of this time.

Preregistration is open until September 8 this year. After Sept 8, we will begin to release to the community unused tickets to the lecture by Terry Tempest Williams, so WLA members are encouraged to register by that time if possible.

“Guest rate”: We introduce a "Guest rate" for spouses and partners this year. Hopefully, this will offer some relief to couples who have been paying double costs when only one person is eligible for professional reimbursement. We hope also to make non-academic spouses and partners feel welcome at receptions and sessions if they would like to attend them. (We'll even provide a name tag.)

New awards: Graduate students should refer to the WLA website to find guidelines for the new Louis Owens Awards to support student travel to the annual conference. WLA offers the Susan J. Rosowski award for teaching and mentoring for the first time this fall.

Contacting Madame President: Tara will be out of the office August 7-18. If possible, please aim questions to arrive before or after those dates.

Willa Pilla award: Any panelist whose presentation is intended to be humorous may notify Tara prior to mid-September so that her/his paper may be considered for the Willa Pilla award, given to the most humorous conference presentation. If the number of entrants justifies it, such papers may be marked in the program with a special logo so Pilla judges can be sure to consider all candidates.

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Emotion in the Western Classroom: A Workshop and Conversation

Co-Chairs: Tara Penry & Michelle Payne (Author, Bodily Discourses), Thurs 10/26, 9:30-10:45

Call for Exercises or Short Papers (due Sept 1)

One reason for teaching western literature in the West is to introduce students to the literature and intellectual life of the places they inhabit – to show them familiar places through others’ eyes. Many students discover in these classes authors they “love,” who elegantly articulate their own feelings about familiar places, relationships, dilemmas, or politics. Some are inspired to reconsider their relationship to western places or communities because of the feelings provoked by a skillful writer. Such classes have their delicate moments – as when a student feels threatened in his or her sense of “home” by a reading that interprets the homeplace strangely, perhaps even seeming to stigmatize the students’ own family for its complicity in a legacy of conquest. Experienced teachers may successfully defuse emotional tensions over literature of place without much preparation or method. But why not harness student emotions (and our own) as part of our pedagogy? Why not share ideas about how to do so? Some place-based pedagogies may activate student feeling for western subjects by taking a class outdoors to experience lessons with the senses. But what of strategies for the classroom itself?

Based on a series of premises about emotion and learning, this session aims to stimulate ideas about how to use student and teacher emotions as a conscious part of a western literary pedagogy.

a We are looking for WLA members who would like to participate in this session by sharing their own experiences and teaching strategies. If you have answers to the questions below and would like your ideas to be considered for use in this workshop, please send your presentation, assignments, or strategies in about 1-2 pages to Tara Penry by September 1. Selected participants will be notified by October 1.

The session will be conducted as a workshop and conversation, with presentations selected from this process as well as questions and ideas for group discussion. If your presentation or assignment is accepted for use in the session, we hope that you will attend the session to present in person. However, if you cannot attend, we will be pleased to consider your proposal for the workshop (with credit to you, of course!). Please indicate on your proposal if you do not expect to attend.

Questions:

1. What texts have you taught that seem to provoke more discomfort than usual among students? What has caused the discomfort? What have you done to alleviate the discomfort? Or, how do you turn class tensions to a pedagogical purpose?

2. What texts have you taught that seem to resonate personally with students, so that you observe both intellectual and emotional engagement? Have you done anything to promote such responses? Have you observed different students responding positively to different texts? Any surprises in such responses?

3. Think of a time when your western literature classroom grew strained for some reason. What happened? What did you do? What would you do in that situation again? Or how would you prevent it?

4. What exercises, assignments, activities, or questions do you use to engage student emotions as partners in your pedagogical aims?

5. When have your own feelings about western places, politics, or other subjects conflicted with your students’? How have you defused these conflicts? Could you use them to serve a pedagogical aim? How?

6. Have you conducted any research that helps you to understand how emotion can serve pedagogy?

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Wednesday Tours

Boise Public Art Walk: 11-noon. Guided walking tour of public art in the Boise downtown core, from Grove Hotel lobby. Free

Basque Block Walk: Wed 1:30-3 or Thurs 11-12:15 (Session Three). Walk across Capitol Blvd to the Basque Block; guided tour of Basque museum and the block. $5

MK Nature Center: 1:30-4 pm. Depart in a van from Grove Hotel lobby. Site introduction by Idaho Fish and Game staff; self-guided tour of the 4.6-acre site along the Boise River Greenbelt. The MK Nature Center reproduces a microcosm of Idaho landscapes, from wetlands to high desert to Alpine lakes and trout and salmon streams. Adjacent to the Boise River, the Nature Center also provides habitat for a number of species. fishandgame.idaho.gov/cms/education/mknc  $5 

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Saturday Tours

Old Boise/Foote Tour: 12-5 pm. Depart Grove Hotel by bus with sack lunch. Visit the site where Arthur and Mary Hallock Foote lived on the Boise River just upriver from town, among the black cliffs recognizable in some of Foote’s drawings. Return to Boise for a guided tour of the Old Penitentiary and Women’s Prison, operated during the Footes’ time, closed in 1973, and now a museum. Prisoners quarried the stone to build the original structures from the adjacent Boise foothills. The Old Pen’s excellent displays offer glimpses into a century of Idaho social history as well as prison life and penal codes. Return to bus for a tour of downtown Boise sites familiar to the Footes, guided by Boise historian Judy Austin. Space limited. $33

Hint: Members of this tour may want to catch Judy’s slideshow on the Footes in Boise during the 9:30 Saturday morning session.

Oregon Trail/Winery: 1-8:30 pm. Includes a buffet dinner at Carmela Winery on the Snake River instead of a sack lunch. Members should eat lunch in Boise before bus departs at 1 pm. Retrace a stretch of the Oregon Trail while driving I-84 to Glenn’s Ferry, Idaho, where the tour will stop at Three Island Crossing Interpretive Center, the point at which most parties elected to cross the Snake River on the Oregon Trail. The small Interpretive Center features pioneer and tribal perspectives on the Oregon Trail, visible wagon ruts, and beautiful Snake River views. Proceed to Carmela Winery for a tour and tasting, followed by a buffet dinner in the dining room. With luck, the tour will end with a spectacular western sunset for the drive back to Boise. Drive time: approx 75 min each way. $38

Ketchum/Sun Valley: 11:45 am-11:00 pm. Board the bus immediately after the Business Meeting for a sack lunch and prompt departure to world-renowned Sun Valley, Idaho, a 3-hour drive from Boise through Idaho’s scenic desert, foothills, and sheep and cattle ranges, with several mountain ranges visible from the road. Hemingway scholar Marty Peterson (U of Idaho) provides narration about Hemingway in Idaho during the ride. Visit the Ketchum/Sun Valley Heritage and Ski Museum, Hemingway’s grave, and the historic Sun Valley Resort. Dinner at the Ketchum Grill, specializing in local cuisine, is included in the price of the tour. Bring extra cash to purchase alcohol with dinner or for souvenir shopping. Snooze or watch films about Hemingway on the return drive. $75

All buses will be equipped with restrooms.

Scenery highlights: Foote Tour: Boise River cliffs and arid foothills close to town. Oregon Trail: Snake River and irrigated hillsides and benches at Glenn’s Ferry. (Driving is all interstate.) Sun Valley: Most scenic tour. Mostly rural driving; multiple landscapes of interest. Destination is a mountain valley.

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Around Town

For those who arrive early, the Frank Lloyd Wright exhibit at the Boise Art Museum closes just blocks from our hotel on Sunday, October 22. www.boiseartmuseum.org

For those who stay late, the Idaho Steelheads (hockey) open their season in the arena that abuts The Grove Hotel on Friday, November 3. Lingering WLAers can purchase tickets at a reduced rate of $13 (regularly $19) by contacting Ben Cottier at bcottier@idahosteelheads.com or 208-472-2115. Just ask for the Western Literature Association group rate. (Yes, they know we actually meet a week earlier.)

Whenever you arrive… Also within walking distance or a short cab ride away is the Boise State University campus, where the special collections department at Albertsons Library houses a copy of Ernest Hemingway’s FBI file, personal papers of Idaho novelist Vardis Fisher, the Idaho Writers Archive, and other western Americana. For information about the collection or an appointment, visit the Special Collections website or contact archivist Alan Virta at (208) 426-3958. library.boisestate.edu/Special

Boise Contemporary Theater, located a few blocks from the Grove Hotel, will be playing Don DeLillo’s Love Lies Bleeding Oct 11-Nov 4 for $20-$28.50. Tickets go on sale around Sept. 1 on www.ictickets.com, or call the box office at 208-442-3232. www.bctheater.org

Boise Little Theater offers a gruesome thriller for Halloween (Oct 26-29 and other dates, $11). www.boiselittletheater.org

The Boise River Greenbelt and foothills offer extensive daytime walking, hiking, and biking opportunities. Bikes2boards will drop off and pick up a rental bike at The Grove Hotel (or other Boise location) for a $5 fee. Bike rentals are $15-20 for half-day or full day. Contact 208-343-0208 or bikes2boards@cableone.net.

Bringing the spouse and kids? Check out the following sites in or near downtown:

Discovery Center of Idaho	www.scidaho.org/
Boise Public Library	www.boisepubliclibrary.org/
Boise Art Museum (kids’ room)	www.boiseartmuseum.org/
Zoo Boise and city parks	www.cityofboise.org/Parks/

 

                      

 

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More info to come! Check back frequently!