A Weekend Symposium

Friday, October 19th and Saturday, October 20th, 2012

The Elmira College Center for Mark Twain Studies, in conjunction with
the Mark Twain Circle of America, will host a symposium honoring the
work of Dr. Michael Kiskis on the weekend of October 19th-20th, 2012.
The symposium, entitled Complicating Twain: Biography, Autobiography,
and the Personal Scholar: Remembering Michael J. Kiskis, will be held on
the campus of Elmira College and at Quarry Farm. The keynote speaker
will be Dr. Laura Skandera Trombley, the president of Pitzer College; in
addition to formal panels, we have scheduled opportunities for more
informal discussions, as well as a dinner honoring Dr. Kiskis.

We invite submissions on topics relating to the biographical and
autobiographical narratives that Twain both inspired and produced, on
domesticity and Twain, including Twain's representations of the child
and of women, on the subject of the sometimes fraught relationship
between Twain and his biographers, editors, and his reading public; and
on the ways in which scholarly writing is often at odds with the call to
authenticity that underlies so much of Twain's work. In other words, we
invite submissions that reflect not only upon the scholarly legacy of
Michael Kiskis, but that consider the wonderfully skeptical, ironic,
playful, and original voice of Michael Kiskis as well. 

Please send abstracts to Dr. Kerry Driscoll at [log in to unmask] and to
Dr. Ann M. Ryan at [log in to unmask] Papers will be considered for
inclusion in an edition of The Mark Twain Annual dedicated to Michael
Kiskis.

Due Date for Abstracts: June 1, 2012