Bulletin Board

Call for Papers Children's Popular Culture

The 1984 conference of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association will be held in Toronto, Canada, March 29 to April 1, 1984. The Children's Culture Caucus of PCA invites presentations on any aspect of children's popular culture: toys, games, comics, TV, clothes, language, and literature. Papers on children and technology and on Canadian children's culture are especially sought for this meeting. PCA encourages interdisciplinary approaches and the use of visual media in the presentations, which should be 20-25 minutes long. Deadline for paper or substantial abstract is October 20, 1983. Submit material to Lucy Waddey Rollin, Chair, Children's Culture Caucus of PCA, English Department, Clemson University, Clemson, S. C. 29631.

MLA Paper Call

The Children's Literature Division of the MLA is seeking papers for a session on the literary experience in early childhood for the 1984 MLA Convention, to be held in Washington, D.C., in late December. Possible topics include the origins of the literary experience in the preschool years, studies or observations of the young child's response to story and/or illustration, and the implications of child language studies for literary criticism. Critical assessment of the work of such writers for the very young as Margaret Wise Brown, Marie Hall Ets, and Shirley Hughes would also be appropriate. Papers (10 pages or less) should be sent to Elizabeth Segel, 5821 Wayne Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15206, by February 15.

ChLA Leader Dies

Margaret Powell Esmonde, 49, Associate Professor of English at Villanova and Founding editor of both the ChLA Quarterly and annual Proceedings, died August 3, 1983 at Bryn Mawr Hospital after a long illness. Dr. Esmonde was a charter member of ChLA. She served on the Board during 1974-78, and was President of ChLA in 1978. Esmonde also served as book review editor for Children's Literature, the ChLA annual published by Yale University.

Professor Esmonde received her master's and doctorate degrees from the University of Miami. She taught at Villanova from 1971, and was an adjunct professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania 1979-80.

A research scholarship is being established by ChLA in honor of Margaret Esmonde. Full details will be in the Winter ChLA Quarterly. Contributions should be sent to Dr. Virginia Wolf, ChLA Treasurer, English Department, University of Wisconsin-Stout, Menomonie, WI 54751, and should be accompanied with a note explaining that the enclosed funds are a contribution to the Margaret P. Esmonde scholarship fund. Please make all checks payable to ChLA.

Book Week Materials

Posters, streamers, bookmarks, and even a play are available for this year's Book Week, November 14-20. The Children's Book Council, a non-profit association of children's book publishers and the official sponsor of Book Week have selected the overall "Get into Books." To order materials write to the Children's Book Council, Inc., 67 Irving Place, New York, N.Y. 10003.

NCTE Children's Literature Assembly

The Children's Literature Assembly will host a candlelight brunch at the Grand Ballroom in the Denver Hilton on Sunday, November 20, 1983, at 10 a.m. Featured speaker will be author James Houston. Brunch tickets can be ordered from Dr. Linnea Lilja, 1702 Aspen Circle, Columbia, Missouri 65202 for $12.00. Checks should be to Children's Literature Assembly.

Call for Papers

The ChLA Paper Selection Committee has issued a call for papers for the 1984 ChLA Conference to be held in Charlotte, NC, May 24-27. The conference topic is The Pride of Place: The Wellspring of Story. All papers dealing critically with children's literature will be carefully considered. However, papers dealing with the conference theme will receive particular attention.

Send three 8-10 page double-spaced copies with a half-page abstract to Dr. Sarah Smedman, English Department, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, UNCC Station, Charlotte, North Carolina 28223 by February 1.

Forthcoming Meetings and Conferences

South Atlantic Modern Language Association, 28-30 Oct. 1983, Atlanta. Address Donald Kay, SAMLA, Drawer CA, University, AL 35486.

Midwest Modern Language Association, 3-5 Nov. 1983, Minneapolis. Address Thomas E. Lewis, 423 EPB, University of Iowa, Iowa...