By Whitney Hale

The Kentucky Women Writers Conferencehas named three finalists in its Prize for Women Playwrights, which honors new theatrical work. Now in its fifth biennial cycle, the prize seeks to bring more plays by women to the stage, through a collaboration among the Kentucky Women Writers, partnering producer and director Eric Seale, and guest judge Ifa Bayeza. The winner receives a world premiere production for a paying audience in November 2019 at the Pam Miller Downtown Arts Center, with royalties, plus a cash prize of $500.

Finalists are:

“Bite the Apple” by Linda Manning, of Bronx, New York. Cinderella, in a

By Ryan Girves

Eighteen University of Kentucky students are making their way to the State Capitol Building in Frankfort, Kentucky, to present their research at the 2019 Posters-at-the-Capitol event. This one-day annual event is held to show Kentucky legislators the importance of undergraduate research and scholarly work in Kentucky. The governor proclaims this day to be Undergraduate Research Day across the Commonwealth.

"Posters-at-the-Capitol is a platform whereby undergraduates from across the Commonwealth’s eight public institutions proudly showcase their undergraduate research projects," said Evie Russell, assistant director at the Office of Undergraduate Research. "Each year, University of Kentucky students look forward to communicating their research achievements to Kentucky Legislators and their peers."

The work presented by students

By Whitney Hale

University of Kentucky juniors Shania Goble, of Inez, Kentucky, and Katie Huffman, of Harrodsburg, Kentucky, have been awarded English-Speaking Union (ESU) Scholarships presented by the English-Speaking Union Kentucky Branch. The scholarships will cover Goble and Huffman's expenses for summer study at Oxford University.

The Kentucky Branch of the English-Speaking Union awards a limited number of scholarships to qualified Kentucky college students for courses offered at institutions in the United Kingdom. Scholarship awards include tuition, lodging and meals for three-week courses at the recipient's chosen institution. Scholarships also include one week of lodging in London and a cash allowance. 

ESU scholarships are awarded for

The deadline for our Early American Literature's 2019 Book Prize has been extended, moved from February 1 to March 1, 2019.

Nominations for second or later books will be accepted through that date. For more information regarding the nomination process, please see our original announcement on the EAL website.

Professor Caroline Wigginton of the University of Mississippi has been selected to receive the 2018 Early American Literature Book Prize, which is awarded in even calendar years to a first monograph published in the prior two years, and in odd years to a second or subsequent book. Wigginton’s In the Neighborhood: Women’s Publication in Early America was published by the University of Massachusetts Press in 2016.

According to prize committee members, In the Neighborhood “combines media studies with literary analysis to highlight women's expressive networks,” thereby “showing them to be savvy participants in complex, dense scenes of intercultural encounter.” The study’s innovative approach encourages readers to resist the tendency to think of early American women primarily in symbolic terms related to nationhood monolithically conceived.

Early American Literature seeks conference reviewers for SSAWW 2018, ASA 2018, MLA 2019, SEA 2019, MELUS 2019, ASECS 2019, ALA 2019, NAIS 2019, and the Charles Brockden Brown Society Conference 2019. Conference reviews cover panels relevant to EAL’s readership, encompassing the overall range of the event and addressing key themes of particular interest to the reviewer. Conference reviews are generally 1500-2000 words in length, but can be longer or shorter depending on the scope of the event.

We welcome reviewers at all ranks who study early American literature and encourage recommendations for other conferences with an early American literature presence. If you are interested in participating, please send an email to Michelle Sizemore michelle.sizemore@uky.edu by January 15, 2019 for conferences that have already

By Ryan Girves

Last week, University of Kentucky graduate and undergraduate students competed in the final rounds of the 5-Minute Fast Track Research Competition and the 3-Minute Thesis Competition (3MT). While two final winners prevailed, research also came out ahead.

Research is one of the foundations of the university — creating solutions to some of the world's most pressing issues. Research is also one of the great opportunities provided to students at UK. 

Often, when we think of research, a scientist with smoking beakers comes to mind, but that does not always have to be the case. The 5-Minute Fast Track Research Competition, for undergraduate students, and 3MT, for graduate students, aim to change the stereotype surrounding research, while also providing students with an opportunity to present their research to an audience in a way that is brief and

The editors of Early American Literature are pleased to announce the fifth annual Early American Literature Book Prize, which will be given for an author’s second or subsequent academic monograph about American literature in the colonial period through the early republic (roughly 1830). The prize is offered in collaboration with the University of North Carolina Press, the Society of Early Americanists, and the MLA’s Forum on American Literature to 1800.

Monographs published in 2017 or 2018 are eligible for the 2019 prize, which carries a cash award of $2000. 

The deadline for nominations is February 1, 2019. Please send a single copy of any books nominated for the 2019 prize to:

EAL Book Prize
c/o Professor Marion Rust
Editor, Early American Literature
Department of English
University of Kentucky