58th Annual Western Literature Association Conference
Speculative Territorializations of New Western Literatures
Tucson, Arizona, October 2–5, 2024

Hope in a Hogan ©Ryan Singer, 2022
The Western Literature Association is inviting participation in our 2024 annual conference. While
this year’s theme is focused on the speculative West and the re-inscription of territory, we also
welcome proposals for individual papers, organized panels, workshops, posters, performances andother forms of academic engagement on all themes relative to the literary culture of the AmericanWest. The chosen site of Tucson, Arizona, is situated on the ancestral lands of the Tohono
O’odham Nation, who referred to the area as Cuk Ṣon in their language. Stressing the layering ofterritoriality that comes about through history and story, the history of Tucson also bears the strong
imprint of Spanish and Mexican cultural influences deriving from its establishment as the Presidio
San Agustin del Tucsón during the colonial period, while also being the current-day home to thePascua Yaqui Tribe, amongst twenty other federally recognized tribes that call Arizona home. Thesecontexts are also marked with the legacy of significant territorial conflict, of course, with the legacyof American colonialism especially prevalent as the contexts of the Mexican-American War, theTreaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the Gadsden Purchase all starkly indicate. Given such complex
and deeply embedded circuits of diverse cultural presence, life and cultural experience, we are also
seeking presentations that speak to the complexities that have shaped the history, culture and literary
traditions of this unique space, place and landscape. In addition to these broadly geographic andsocio-historical themes, we encourage proposals exploring the following topics, themes and issues:••••

Native and Indigenous literatures, including works emerging from the twenty-two federallyrecognized tribes located in Arizona
the work of this year’s Distinguished Achievement Award recipient, Frances Washburn,along with keynote speakers Gerald Vizenor, Stephen Graham Jones, Tom Holm and Ryan
Singer, as well as that of long-time Tucson residents Leslie Marmon Silko and Ofelia Zepeda
Memorials/commemorations on the life and work of Annette Kolodny, Cormac McCarthy
and N. Scott Momaday
Arizona writers, storytellers and texts by such figures as Edward Abbey, Sherwin Bitsui,Natalie Diaz (ASU), Rosemarie Dombrowski, William Eastlake, Jim Harrison, Joseph WoodKrutch, Felipe S. Molina, Alberto Ríos, Laura Tohe and others•••••

Literary contributions (broadly defined) of Latinx, African American, Asian American andother POC writers from the region and the West more broadly
Ecocriticism, nature writing and environmental ethics, including topics related to nationalparks, public lands, reservations and natural resources of the West such as water, fossil fuelsand minerals
Musical and other forms of aural storytelling from, of and about Arizona and the American
West
Visual arts, including painting, photography and digital art—i.e., Ansel Adams, MiguelCamarena, Maynard Dixon, Thomas Moran, James Turrell, Edward Weston
Critical engagements with the conceptions of the borderlands and la frontera

Please upload abstracts of 200-250 words, along with any other relevant information or
supplementary materials, to: https://www.conftool.pro/wla-conference-2024/.
Deadline for proposals: June 5, 2024.
The Western Literature Association’s 58th annual conference will meet at the El Conquistador
Hilton Resort, October 2–5, 2024 (Wednesday through Saturday).
For further information or specific questions, please consult the WLA website
at https://westernlit.org/wla-conference-2024/.