Professional Notes and Announcements

Three Scholarships from The Children's Literature Association

Margaret P. Esmonde Memorial Scholarship

To honor the achievement and dedication of Margaret P. Esmonde, the Children's Literature Association has established a $500 scholarship for proposals that deal with critical or original work in the areas of fantasy or science fiction for children or adolescents. Since Professor Esmonde was particularly interested in encouraging new scholars to enter the field, the scholarship is intended to enable "entry level" scholars, i.e., graduate students, instructors, or assistant professors, to bring to a publishable level dissertations, theses, or papers that they have written.

ChLA Research Scholarship

ChLA offers annually a $1000 scholarship for a proposal dealing with criticism or original scholarship with the expectation that the undertaking will lead to publication and make a significant contribution to the field of children's literature in the areas of scholarship or criticism. The award may be used for transportation, living expenses, materials, and supplies, but not for obtaining advanced degrees, for creative writing, for textbook writing, or pedagogical projects. Winners are encouraged to submit their completed papers to Children's Literature or ChLA Quarterly and should acknowledge ChLA in any publication resulting from the award.

The Weston Woods Media Scholarship

Weston Woods, a leader in the field of audio visual media, offers to ChLA members a $500 stipend to encourage scholarly investigation into the elements and techniques that contribute to the successful adaptation of children's literature into motion pictures, filmstrips, and recordings. Also of interest are proposals relating to programming such materials for television and video. Winners, in addition to the $500 stipend, may also use the facilities and resources of Weston Woods to further their research without charge or limitation. Graduate students whose research might be hampered for want of money or research opportunities are encouraged to apply.

Guidelines for the awards can be obtained from Jeanie Watson, Chair, English Department, Rhodes College, 2000 North Parkway, Memphis, TN 38112.

Call for Nominations

The Children's Literature Association Awards Committee calls for nominations for the literary criticism book award. Nominations should be of books by single or dual authorship (anthologies and text-books are ineligible) published in the last two to five years. The book must be published in English. Please send nominations to Roderick McGillis, Department of English, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, T2N 1N4 Canada.

Paper Call

Children's Literature Association for the Modern Language Association Meetings San Francisco, California, December 27-30, 1987

1. 1. Theoretical and Critical Approaches to Children's Literature Written Before 1850: Too often, children's literature from the distant past is treated as an unproblematic "mirror" of social reality, or dismissed as lacking literary interest because it is didactic. Can we take such texts seriously as "literary" works, and if so, how should we go about it?

   Papers should address the problem of approach. Though an individual work may exemplify the critical points raised, the argument should go beyond explication of individual texts. All critical approaches are welcome—Marxist, feminist, deconstructive, or whatever—especially those which consider what methodologies make an informed historical criticism possible, given contemporary critical pluralism. Submit queries, two-page abstracts to Mitzi Myers, UCLA Center for the Study of Women, 2206 Bedford Drive, Fullerton, CA 92631; (714) 993-4472, by January 31, 1987.

2. 2. Non-fiction, Faction, and Fiction: Personal and Public History in Children's Literature:

   What are the boundaries? Where should they be? What distinguishes non-fiction for children? How do authors incorporate autobiography, history, or contemporary events in their works? When does specificity become parochial? When does "fact" become interpretation or propaganda? What are the outstanding examples of non-fiction or fiction in contemporary children's literature.

   The papers may focus upon an individual work, author, genre, period, or culture. All critical approaches welcomed. Studies of contemporary non-fiction encouraged. Submit queries, two-page abstracts to Frances S. Foster, Prof., San Diego State U., San Diego, CA 92182; (619) 265-5443, by January 31, 1987.

   Completed papers due by October 1, 1987; participants should plan to make presentations of not more than ten minutes in length; participants must be members of...