The Sixth Annual David Foster Wallace Conference on Contemporary Literature and Culture will be held at Illinois State University, June 27-29, 2019. The conference invites both critical scholarship and creative writing.  Please review our policies below, and then click NEXT to begin the submission process.

Inspired by the broad interests of the late David Foster Wallace, we welcome interdisciplinary approaches to understanding the state of contemporary literature, culture, and writing.  Research presentations should focus on works published since the 1950s and/or in the writing of David Foster Wallace.  Pedagogy presentations should explore introducing Wallace in the classroom and/or guiding students to become better writers.  Creative works are welcomed in a variety of genres.

If you submit your proposal by February 20th, you'll get an early decision on acceptance.  Also, we guarantee that anyone who submits by this date may have a "second chance" submission if needed.  So if your proposal doesn't feel "ready," there's no penalty for submitting early.

Please submit your proposal by the end of March!  If we have enough proposals by this date, we won't extend the deadline.

If your proposal is accepted, we'll require you to pay the registration fee or receive a waiver by May 15th to reserve your place on the schedule.  If you don't register by the 15th, we'll likely send a gentle reminder.  In case of family emergency or other serious circumstances, we can refund a registration fee - just be sure to communicate with us so we can plan our schedule.

We will continue our Diversity Roundtable this year - we also welcome proposals for open discussions addressing aspects of Wallace's writing, issues affecting the scope of DFW Studies, and the state of contemporary literature and culture in general.  In your proposal, please describe the topics your panel would discuss, the questions you intend to raise, and how you will engage audience members.  To aid our scheduling process, please use the categories and keywords that best fit your topic of discussion.

We won't be soliciting special sessions this year.  Instead, we'll continue matching presenters by research focus, and ensuring that each panel has a descriptive and accurate title.  Prior special session topics addressing pedagogy, politics, philosophy, and diversity in relation DFW Studies are of course still welcome.  We have expanded the categories of submissions to specifically include Pedagogy and to separate Literature and Culture.