Submitting a Conference Paper

WLA’s annual conference includes panel sessions where participants read scholarly or creative works related to the literature of western America  and culture. Each paper presentation is allowed approximately 20 minutes (which is about 10 pages of double-spaced text).

Travel funding is available for graduate students presenting papers at the Western Literature Association conference. Click here to download the application. As well, see below for information about the J. Golden Taylor and Louis Owens Awards for graduate students.

If you need some instruction on how to write an abstract for a conference paper, check out the details provided Conference Abstracts.

In 1984, the J. Golden Taylor Award for Best Essay Submitted to the WLA Conference by a Graduate Student was awarded for the very first time to Anne K. Phillips (now associate professor and assistant department head in English at Kansas State University). Named in honor of the first editor of Western American Literature, the Taylor Award is a prestigious award juried by a team of experts in the field and given annually to a work of scholarship submitted for the annual conference. Creative work is not considered for the Taylor; however, creative work may be submitted to the association’s Manfred Prize, and graduate student participants have been successful in winning that in the past (see Manfred Award).

To be eligible for the Taylor award, please submit a conference paper proposal by June 22 (note new date) and a complete paper of no more than 15 pages (if your proposal is accepted) by August 10, to bmacdonald@wtamu.edu or nancy.cook@mso.umt.edu, asking to be considered for the award.

Note: the award can only be received once.

For information on writing an abstract, see submission information.

A few Taylor alumni at the 2009 Conference in Spearfish, SD:
Front row: Joshuah O’Brien (2009), Cheryll Glotfelty (1987), Matthew Lavin (2008)
Back row: Matt Burkhart (2003), Nancy Cook (1988), Anne Kaufman (1998), Evelyn Funda (1993)

2010: Alex Young, University of Southern California
2009: Joshuah O’Brien, West Texas A&M
2008: Matthew J. Lavin, University of Iowa
2007: Patrick Gleason, University of California, San Diego
2006: Angela Waldie, University of Calgary
2005: John Gamber, Univ. of California, Santa Barbara
2004: Ianina Arnold, University of Idaho
2003: Matt Burkhart, University of Arizona
2002: Laurie Clements Lambeth, University of Houston
2001: Virginia Kennedy, Montclair State University
2000: Jenny Emery Davidson, University of Utah
1999: Jenny Emery Davidson
1998: Anne L. Kaufman
1997: Jonathan Pitts, SUNY-Buffalo
1996: Wes Mantooth
1995: Phil Coleman-Hull
1994: David Mazel
1993: Evelyn I. Funda, Univ. of Nebraska-Lincoln
1989: Nat Lewis
1988: Nancy Cook, SUNY-Buffalo
1987: Cheryll Burgess Glotfelty, Cornell University
1986: Linda A. Hughson-Ross
1984: Anne K. Phillips

The WLA honors the great writer and scholar Louis Owens for his contributions to western American and American Indian literary studies and for his unfailing generosity as a colleague, teacher, and mentor. The goal of the Louis Owens Awards is to build for the future of the Western Literature Association by modeling Owens’ own support and encouragement of diverse graduate student engagement in western literature and culture studies.

The Owens Awards are intended to foster ever-greater diversity within the WLA membership, to help broaden the field of western American literary studies, and to recognize both graduate student scholarship and financial need. Preference will be given to graduate students from under-represented groups, but applications are invited from all graduate students whose papers concern minority literatures and cultures in the West.

To be eligible for this award, you must be registered as a graduate student at the time of the conference. You are not eligible for this award if you have received it previously.

Student stipends consist of a combination of a cash award, free or reduced accommodation at the conference hotel, and a ticket to the conference banquet. The total value of the prize is approximately $750. To be eligible for a stipend, applicants must be registered as graduate students at the time of the conference and must attend the whole conference. To apply, please submit the following materials to the address specified on the application form:

1. A completed application form.
2. A line-item budget.
3. An abstract of the paper that the candidate proposes to deliver at the WLA annual conference. The paper must be no more than 20 minutes in length. (Please do not send a complete essay with this application.)
4. One letter of reference from a professor who is familiar with the candidate’s work. This letter should comment on the merits of both the candidate and the proposal, and, in the case of the Owens Award, should discuss how the candidate’s presence at the conference will further the goals of the Louis Owens Awards as described above. The letter may be included with the application in a sealed envelope signed by the referee, or it may be sent directly by the referee to the WLA President.

If you are interested in applying for any of these travel support awards, submit a paper proposal for participation in the conference by June 15. If your paper is accepted, you can then submit the above-mentioned award application materials by August 10.

If you are awarded one of the Owens stipends, you are expected to attend most of the conference.

Please see conference details for the current WLA Conference. If you have any questions regarding the Owens Award, contact the current WLA President.

In 2007, Grad Rep Angela Waldie organized WLA’s first annual Graduate Student Professionalization Panel, a roundtable panel session in which fellow graduate students and experienced faculty members give brief remarks on career-related issues, and then the session is opened up for discussion among all those attending. Past professionalization panels have discussed why graduate students should aim to publish and ways they can do just that, how to maximize your time and effort when writing a thesis or dissertation, ways to conquer the first-time teacher jitters, transitioning from an MA program to a PhD program, and what to expect at your thesis or dissertation defense. To request a topic for the panel to cover, email your graduate representative, Kerry Fine.

For additional advice on a variety of professionalization issues, check out In Medias Res, an online newsletter for graduate students, edited by WLA member Evelyn Funda, Associate Professor of English at Utah State University. The newsletter is written by and for graduate students about their concerns regarding their professional lives. Topics in previous issues include advice on attending conferences (why, how many, and how), getting and benefiting from an internship, preparing a successful PhD application, guidelines for writing a CV, and a reprint of a wonderful essay by WLA’s Distinguished Achievement Award winner Professor Patricia Limerick, entitled “Dancing with Professors: The Trouble with Academic Prose.”