EGO: English Graduate Organization

The Poetry Foundation is pleased to announce the Pegasus Poetry Book Prize, recognizing a United States poet aged 40 or older for their first or second poetry collection. In addition to publication and promotion of the manuscript by Graywolf Press, the awardee will receive a prize of $10,000 from the Poetry Foundation along with funding for a residency opportunity.

Learn more: https://bit.ly/3JKETli

Come one, come all!

We're excited to share that on the weekend of our English Graduate Conference, our keynote speaker will be at SoPro on April 4th to read from his new book! Benjamin Morris will also be joined by a graduate of our program and current faculty, Jennifer Peterson, who is also Hattiesburg Poet Laureate!

I heard a rumor that there will be an open mic, too!

Send a message to learn more

ATTN: Mississippi and Gulf States Graduate Students -

USM’s English Graduate Organization Conference Call for Papers

Mythologizing Space and Navigating Ecologies

April 4 and 5, 2025

University of Southern Mississippi

Hattiesburg, MS

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The University of Southern Mississippi’s English Graduate Organization (EGO) invites abstracts and proposals from Mississippi and Gulf States graduate students for its annual spring conference, a two-day, in-person event on April 4th and 5th at USM in Hattiesburg, MS.

The theme of this year’s conference is “Mythologizing Space and Navigating Ecologies.” We invite papers that explore aspects of this theme across disciplines, historical and cultural contexts, and geographical locations. We encourage all graduate students to submit creative, critical, and/or pedagogical projects that speak directly to the theme or complicate our expectations.

Along with traditional paper proposals, we welcome pitches for panels, roundtable discussions, and special events on topics including, but not limited to, the following:

Roots
Climate
Terrain
Borders
Fables/Folklore/Allegory
Cultivation
Ecocriticism
Ecogothic
Landscapes
Pastoral
Sublime
Ecologies
Decay/Erosion
Intersections
Inheritance


If you have any ideas for a session or event, or would like to discuss any ideas for proposals, please email Arleigh Rodgers at [email protected] or Grace Borcherding at [email protected] to discuss.

Keynote:

Our keynote speaker on Saturday, April 5, is Dr. Benjamin Morris. Originally from Mississippi, Morris is the author of various books, including Hattiesburg, Mississippi: A History of the Hub City (History Press, 2014) and Ecotone (Antenna/Press Street Press, 2017). His writing appears in The Oxford American, The Southern Review, and elsewhere. His next poetry collection, the Singing River, is forthcoming from Belle Point Press in 2025.

Submission and Contact Information:

Please submit your abstracts/proposals via email to [email protected] using the subject line: “EGO 2025 Proposal: Shortened Title of Your Proposal” by February 7, 2025. You may address this email to Arleigh Rodgers and/or Grace Borcherding.

For all abstracts and proposals, please include a short bio (100 words or fewer) in the body of your submission email, the title of your paper, panel proposal, roundtable, or special event, and the genre (critical essay, creative work, or pedagogical).

You may attach your proposal as a doc, docx, or PDF, or include it directly in the body of the email.

For a paper proposal, please submit a 250-word abstract.

For a panel, please submit a 500-750-word proposal that includes brief abstracts for all featured papers.

For a roundtable discussion, please submit a 350-word proposal.

If you would like to propose a special event for the conference, you may submit a proposal of up to 1,000 words that detail your vision.

You may submit more than one proposal so long as your submissions are in different categories, i.e. one creative work and one conference paper proposal.

We will send notification of decisions by March 1, 2025, at the latest!

Please email Arleigh Rodgers at [email protected] or Grace Borcherding at [email protected] if you have any questions.

Thank you for considering our conference, and we look forward to reading your proposals!

Send a message to learn more

Check out "Writing From Photography" tomorrow at 11:30!!

Some of our wonderful workshops this Saturday!

One of our upcoming workshops on Creative Writing Day, March 25th! "Examining the Lyric Essay" taught by our own Professor in the Center for Writers - J.A. Bernstein. 2:30 PM in LAB 101 (Hattiesburg Campus)!

Some of our upcoming workshops this Saturday for Creative Writing Day!

LAB (Hattiesburg campus), room 101!

Some of our upcoming workshops this Saturday, March 25th for Creative Writing Day!

LAB (Hattiesburg campus) 101!