Dear Reader,
Due to the imminent departure of our longstanding Journal Manager, the Board of Trustees of the European Journal of Life Writing (EJLW) is inviting applications for this position. Together with the assistant journal manager and the manager of the book reviews, the new journal manager will be responsible for the day-to-day running of the journal.
Read more about Vacancy: Journal ManagerCall for Papers
Urban Lives: Amsterdam Diaries and Other Stories of the Self
Conference held at the University of Amsterdam, 26 – 28 October 2023
In October 2025, Amsterdam will celebrate its 750th anniversary. In light of this upcoming celebration, two of the city’s institutes of higher education, the University of Amsterdam and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, are inviting academics, artists, and others to share their research and knowledge on one particular topic: Amsterdam diaries and other stories of the self.
Read more about CfP 'Urban Lives: Amsterdam Diaries and Other Stories of the Self Conference', University of Amsterdam, 26 – 28 October 2023We would like to remind you that the next IABA Europe Conference will be held in Warsaw, Poland, from July 5th to July 8th 2023. The conference will be held on-site only. The theme of the conference, Life-Writing in Times of Crisis, relates to the challenges we have had to face in Europe and all around the world in recent years. Deadline for proposals: December 31, 2022.
On behalf of IABA Warsaw 2023 Organising Committee,
Petra van Langen
Journal Manager EJLW
Read more about Reminder: CfP IABA Europe 2023, 5-8 July, Warsaw, Poland: Life-Writing in Times of CrisisOn behalf of the editorial board of the European Journal of Life Writing, I am very happy to announce that the EJLW has published a new book review and two new creative pieces.
Best wishes, Petra van Langen, Journal Manager
Read more about New book review and creative piecesWe are pleased to announce that the next IABA Europe Conference will be held in
Warsaw, Poland, from July 5th to July 8th 2023. The conference will be held on-site
only. The theme of the conference, Life-Writing in Times of Crisis, relates to the
challenges we have had to face in Europe and all around the world in recent years.
On behalf of the editorial board of the European Journal of Life Writing, I am very happy to announce that the EJLW has published a new article, a new cluster and two new book reviews.
Best wishes, Petra van Langen, Journal Manager
Read more about New article, cluster and book reviewsWhat’s New? Topical Work in Transnational Life Writing
Sixth Annual Symposium organized by Unhinging the National Framework: Platform for the Study of Transnational Life Writing
Friday, 20 May 2022, 9.30 – 17.00
Campus Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Free of charge, but please register before 15 May 2022: b.boter[at]vu.nl
Read more about Symposium: What’s New? Topical Work in Transnational Life Writing.On behalf of the editorial board of the European Journal of Life Writing, I am very happy to announce that the EJLW has published 4 new articles, the cluster 'Autobiography and Narrative Resilience' and a new book review.
Best wishes,
Petra van Langen
Journal Manager
Read more about New articles, cluster and book reviewOn behalf of the editorial board of the European Journal of Life Writing, I am very happy to announce that the EJLW has published the first creative article and book reviews of its eleventh volume.
Read more about Volume XI, first creative article and book reviewsWe are very happy to announce that the EJLW has published the new cluster ‘Beyond Boundaries' edited by Helma van Lierop-Debrauwer, Jane McVeigh and Monica Soeting, and a book review.
Read more about New cluster and book reviewThis is a slightly revised call for abstract submissions for an international edited collection entitled Taking Control: critical and creative uses of digital tools in screen, literature, graphic texts, and visual culture narratives.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, we have extended the deadline date for abstracts to 30 April 2022.
Read more about New deadline CfP: Taking Control: critical and creative uses of digital tools in screen, literature, graphic texts, and visual culture narrativesWhat’s New? Topical Work in Transnational Life Writing
Sixth Annual Symposium organized by Unhinging the National Framework: Platform for the Study of Transnational Life Writing
Friday, 3 December 2021, 9.30 – 17.00
Campus Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Atrium, Medical Faculty
Van der Boechorststraat 7 (first floor)
Free of charge, but please register before Tuesday, 30 November 2021: b.boter@vu.nl
Read more about What’s New? Topical Work in Transnational Life WritingThis is a call for papers for the international and interdisciplinary conference Hybridity in Life Writing: How Text and Images Work Together to Tell a Life. Organizers: Clare Brant (King’s College London) and Arnaud Schmitt (Bordeaux University & LARCA Université de Paris). Venue: Université de Paris, Paris, 7–8 July, 2022. Keynote Speaker: Pr. Teresa Bruś (Wrocław University). Deadline: 30 November, 2021
Read more about Call for Papers: Hybridity in Life Writing: How Text and Images Work Together to Tell a LifeWe are very happy to announce that the European Journal of Life Writing has published the new cluster 'Women's Lives on Screen' edited by Eugenie Theuer and Julia Novak, and a new book review.
Read more about New cluster and book reviewOn behalf of the editorial board of the European Journal of Life Writing, we are very happy to announce that the EJLW has published 2 new articles, 2 new clusters and a new book review.
Read more about New articles, clusters and book reviewThis year we are celebrating the tenth birthday of the European Journal of Life Writing. The EJLW has developed into a flourishing open access, peer reviewed journal, that is indexed in most of the important bibliographies and directories.
However, as the number of publications continues to grow, the work of the journal manager and of the review editors is increasing as well. This makes it impossible for them to maintain their work on a solely unpaid, voluntary basis. Apart from this, money is required for yearly editors’ meetings, and for expenses like obtaining copy rights of illustrations. We therefore urgently need financial help to continue!
Please consider donating to support our work. Your donation – any amount helps, but may we suggest a minimum of € 50 – can be transferred to: Stichting European Journal of Life Writing, Rooseveltlaan 207 III, 1079 AS Amsterdam, the Netherlands. IBAN: NL61 RABO 0328 1078 59; BIC: RABONL2U.
Thank you very much for your great help and support!
Read more about Please consider donating to the European Journal of Life WritingThis call is for abstract submissions for an international edited collection now entitled Taking Control: the Use of Critical and Creative Digital Tools in the Now and Beyond, in Screen, Literature, Graphic Texts, and Visual Culture Narratives.
Currently I am seeking a number of academics and professionals in the field who might like to send me an abstract for consideration for inclusion in the book.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the deadline date for abstracts has been extended:
Abstracts now due: 19 October 2021.
Read more about New Deadline CfP: 'Taking Control: the Use of Critical and Creative Digital Tools in the Now and Beyond, in Screen, Literature, Graphic Texts, and Visual Culture Narratives.This slightly revised call is for abstracts for a scholarly, international edited collection entitled, Cultural Representations of the Second Wife: Literature, Stage, and Screen.
Currently I am seeking a number of academics and professionals in the field who might like to send me an abstract for consideration for inclusion in the book.
Due to effects of the covid-19 pandemic 2020-21, and the strain this has placed on people and businesses (including academics and universities world-wide), the deadline for abstracts for this project has been extended.
New deadline for abstract submissions: 15 September 2021
Read more about New Deadline CfP: Cultural Representations of the Second Wife: Literature, Stage, and Screen.On behalf of the editorial board of the European Journal of Life Writing, we are very happy to announce that the EJLW has published the first cluster and articles of its tenth volume.
Read more about Volume X, first cluster and articlesEdited by Samira Saramo (Migration Institute of Finland) & Ulla Savolainen (University of Helsinki)
Keywords: memory; life stories; experiences; materiality; emotion; mobility; violence; repression;
Soviet Union.
This peer-reviewed international collection of articles focuses on the expansive reach of Soviet Terror
through an analysis of the materialization of memories from multi-sited perspectives. The book
examines the concrete mobility of life stories, letters, memoirs, objects, and bodies reflecting Soviet
repression and violence across borders of geographical locations, historical periods, political regimes,
and generations, while simultaneously paying attention to more abstract processes of textual
circulation and (re)mediation. The collection asks: what happens to life stories, testimonies, and
experiences when they travel in time and space and are (re)interpreted and (re)formulated through
these transfers? What types of spaces for remembering, telling, and feeling are created, negotiated,
and contested in these contexts? What are the boundaries and intersections of intimate, familial, and
community memories?
Due to effects of the covid-19 pandemic 2020-21, and the strain this has placed on people and businesses (including academics and universities world-wide), the deadline for abstracts for this project has been extended.
Read more about New deadline for submissions for a scholarly, international edited collection entitled 'Writing Australian History on Screen: cultural, sociological, and historical depths in television and film period dramas “down under”.'
The international and interdisciplinary research group “Unhinging the National Framework: Platform for Life Writing and Transnationalism” has published its first volume of essays (Sidestone Press December 2020). It is Volume 5 in the CLUES series, an international series of academic texts in the fields of culture, history and heritage that are either written by, or performed under the supervision of, CLUE+ members.
Editors Babs Boter (VU, CLUE+), Marleen Rensen (UvA) and Giles Scott-Smith (Leiden University) have brought together twelve essays on topics that deal with life writing and transnationalism, such as the way in which translations from the Dutch has helped broaden the horizons of American poet Adrienne Rich (by Diederik Oostdijk, member of CLUE+); the Amsterdam networks of Civil Rights activist W.E.B. DuBois (by Lonneke Geerlings, former PhD-candidate of the VU); and transnationality as part of the self-presentation of Dutch writer Cissy van Marxveldt (by Monica Soeting, former guest researcher at the VU and co-editor of The European Journal of Life Writing). Boter and Rensen wrote an Introduction that theorizes and contextualizes the notions of life writing and transnationalism.
Read more about Book: Unhinging the National Framework. Perspectives on Transnational Life WritingThis collection of diary voices, side by side, document and demonstrate how social pressures and literary practices affect people despite race, culture, creed, or pedigree.
Based on the diary, the contributors of Diary as Literature write about multiculturalism and intercultural relations during the Civil War experienced by African-Americans and Irish-Americans soldiers, through the lives of Afro-Cuban diaspora, within a New Englander’s cultural clash in the Appalachia, the hardships of a Bengali immigrant in New York City, and the “racial barriers as a false social construct to create multicultural identities.”
Read more about Diary as Literature Through the Lens of Multiculturalism in AmericaThe Centre for Life-Writing Research is a pioneering group producing some of the most innovative work in the field. Established in 2007, and now part of the Arts & Humanities Research Institute, it enables experts and students to share, research and exchange ideas with a wider audience. We work on all sorts of topics and periods covering a wide range of genres – biography, autobiography, autofiction, diaries and letters, memoirs, digital life writing including social media, blogs, audio and video, the visual arts (especially portraiture), poetry, and medical narratives. What connects us is an interest in the theory, history and practice of life writing.
It's more that when it comes to writing and reading translations the question of what is wholly normal or truly plausible, of what was really said or written, gets suspended, slightly. The translator asks me to agree to its suspension. To suspend, or to suspend even further, my disbelief. /.../ Which is to say: before we're even in the position to critique or worry over the decisions made by the translator, some provisional agreement has already been made. We have accepted the book in English. We have accepted that the book is now written in what appears to be English. (Kate Briggs, This Little Art)
Life Writing and Social Inclusion. Or, Three Pots, a Lid and a Wedding
Life Writing from Below in Europe (EJLW 7, 2018) explored ways in which, historically, social groups previously excluded from full participation in their societies narrated their lives as a way of asserting dignity and the right to be included. Such struggles continue today. One such effort, Healthnic, a collaborative European project funded within the EU's Erasmus framework, embeds life narration as part of workshops involving the exchange of culinary, dietary, and IT skills.
Read more about Announcement: Life Writing and Social Inclusion: or, Three Pots, a Lid and a Wedding
Dear Reader,
On behalf of the editorial board of the European Journal of Life Writing, we are very happy to announce that the EJLW has published the first 28 articles of its eighth volume. Since the end of 2018, the European Journal of Life Writing is no longer published by the University Library of the VU Free University in Amsterdam, but by the University of Groningen Press. We are very grateful to the people of the Library of the VU Free University, who have very skilfully and kindly helped and guided us when we first started our Journal. At the same time we are very happy to have joined the collection of interesting scholarly journals published by the no less skilful, helpful and kind staff of the University of Groningen Press at Groningen University, who have expertly remodelled the lay-out of the EJLW and introduced a new version of OJS (Open Journal System). Please note that the European Journal of Life Writing is an open-access, scholarly e-journal, which is not funded by any governmental or other organisations. To support the ongoing work of the Journal, please visit https://ejlw.eu/donations. We are most grateful for any kind of financial support.Another possibility to support the Journal is by purchasing a hard copy of the Festschrift we made for Philip Lejeune on the occasion of his 80th birthday. A copy can be bought for € 30 (Libraries: € 50).If you have any questions about submitting an article or about donating money to the Journal, or if you would like buy a copy of the Festschrift, please contact the journal managers Monica Soeting (m.soeting@xs4all.nl) or Petra van Langen (ptvanlangen@gmail.com).Thank you very much for your support!
On behalf of all the editors of the European Journal of Life Writing,
Petra van Langen and Monica Soeting
Read more about Notice to the ReadersA two-day conference held at Tilburg University, the Netherlands, 24 and 25 October 2019
Keynote speakers: Julia Lajta-Novak, Anna Poletti, Bart Moeyaert and Edward van de Vendel
Conference organizers: Helma van Lierop (Tilburg University), Jane McVeigh (University of Roehampton), Monica Soeting (European Journal of Life Writing)
For more information see: beyond-boundaries.
Read more about Beyond Boundaries: Authorship and Readership in Life Writing. A two-day conference held at Tilburg University, the Netherlands, 24 and 25 October 2019June 19–21, 2019 UNIVERSIDAD COMPLUTENSE DE MADRID (SPAIN)
Conference Fees:
PARTICIPANTS AND ATTENDEES: EARLY BIRD 200€; AFTER MAY, 15TH: 250€
STUDENTS: EARLY BIRD 120€; AFTER MAY, 15TH: 150€
Deadline for Late Bird registration is June 10th. Conference website:
https://eventos.ucm.es/26045/detail/iaba-conference-2019.-knowing-the-self_-autobiographical-narratives-and-the-history-of-knwoledge.html
(Be sure to check ‘English’ in the ‘IDIOMA’ tab on the upper-right corner of the site)
The sixth IABA Europe conference proposes to examine the interrelation between life writing and the history of knowledge. Insofar as all life writing is concerned with human self-understanding, it is necessarily entangled with diverse fields that produce knowledge about humans, whether the narration aims at rendering a seemingly given knowledge of the self or at acquiring it, at questioning it or at staging it. Any “knowledge of the self” is inscribed in a broader history—or histories—of knowledge. Yet, to which bodies of knowledge and which theoretical languages do auto/biographical narratives refer in order to gain or communicate a specific “knowledge” of the self? Which historically and culturally diverse fields of knowledge have contributed or are contributing to shaping ideas of “the self,” and how do these fields affect the modes of production, the forms and the rhetoric of life narratives? And vice versa: Which role do auto/biographical narratives play for knowledge production and the evolution of disciplines?
While certain fields of the humanities have been widely recognized for their importance for auto/biographical self-fashioning and self-exploration, such as historical and psychoanalytic hermeneutics, the conference encourages an interdisciplinary exploration of the relationship between auto/biographical writing and a wide range of fields of knowledge and of disciplines. At the same time, not least in view of the rapidly growing number of “expert autobiographies,” it aims at stimulating research on the role of life writing in the development and shaping of disciplines. On a further level, the conference aims at sparking methodological reflections on how to go about examining interrelations between life writing and the sciences or the humanities. Are connections to be described as a matter of influence, or can we identify epistemic currents that equally encompass autobiographical writing and the generation of knowledge, scientific, theoretical, or other? With which notion of knowledge do we and with which notion do the works studied operate? Especially with regard to autobiographies, this involves also the question: to what extent we are to distinguish between “subjective” autobiographical and “objective” theoretical writing—if at all. And how is the relation between autobiographical and theoretical writing negotiated by the narratives themselves? Do they confirm, subvert, blur or contest established distinctions between scientific facts, evidence-based knowledge and theoretical writing on the one hand, and individual self-observation and personal writing on the other? What is their “poetics of knowledge”?
This is a call for abstracts for an international edited collection entitled Portrayals of the Bride in Screen, Stage and Literary Productions, and Pop Culture Narratives.
To whatever degree, every culture in the world is different to all others. Yet one figure that consistently features in almost every culture is the bride. The bride is a central figure in the wedding ceremony, a ritual that symbolizes the psychological and real foundation of marriage or committed union and expresses both the promise of happiness, security, safety, protection, and peace and unity in the home and the most exalted aspects of frith—the sanctity of the unionized state and human life. From antiquity to the present, brides feature in stories, witticisms, anecdotes, jokes and in both high and low culture. The concept of the bride symbolizes the promise of renewal and growth of the family and is an important part of social and cultural history and ritual in all societies, world-wide, yet it would seem that there are no published academic books on portrayals of the bride from the angle suggested in this cfp.
Read more about Portrayals of the Bride in Screen, Stage and Literary Productions, and Pop Culture Narratives.
EJLW provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. Articles in this journal are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-
University of Groningen Press offers a publication platform for journals, books and other publications of faculties and researchers working at or with the University of Groningen. Our preferred model for publications is open access, so that any researcher or interested reader around the world can find and access the information without barriers.