The Second RJA Annual Fund Appeal: Goal $3,000

Like all non-profit organizations, the Robinson Jeffers Association depends on memberships and donations of time, expertise, and money to survive.  Indeed if it were not for the donations of countless hours of administrative work and the financial generosity our board and friends, we could not do what we do.

Our modest goal for this year’s annual fund is $3,000. Click here to join us in strengthening our organization.

Click here to read President David J. Rothman’s annual fund letter for a summary of RJA’s accomplishments this year.

How will this money be spent?  There is far more that we can do to advance our mission and keep our organization strong.  Among other things:

  • We still pay our conference keynote speakers far less than we should, which means we are always asking for favors;
  • In a time of shrinking travel budgets, we have limited funds to help students and junior faculty travel to our events, which means that every year there are some who cannot attend;
  • Our excellent journal, Jeffers Studies, is healthy but could always use greater resources;
  • We cannot advertise our conferences and journal to a larger audience;
  • We cannot pursue special projects and events as much as we would like, such as presentations of musical pieces inspired by Jeffers and productions of his plays;
  • We do not have the funds to accomplish greater outreach for new members;
  • We have now built a strong website, but of course it needs maintenance.

These are just some of the ways in which we would use the funds you give to us, and of course, as we are a 501c3, your gift is fully tax-deductible and our books are transparent.

So, as the year draws to a close and you consider your own charitable balance sheet, we hope that you will keep the RJA in your mind and help us to reach our modest goal for this Annual Fund of $3,000.  Your gift will make a significant difference in our fortunes.  I assure you that the funds will be used to advance programs that put Jeffers’s poetry into the hands of readers and to help us to attract the sustained attention that this great poet deserves now more than ever.

Donation Levels:
Gray Hawk $25
Peregrine  $50
Red-Tailed Hawk $100
Golden Eagle  $250
Bald Eagle $500
Condor $1,000
Other: _______

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Call for Papers for 17th Annual Robinson Jeffers Association Conference

The 2011 RJA conference will take place February 18-20 at the California State University, Long Beach, with a conference theme of  “Robinson Jeffers and the Mid-Length Narrative Poem.” The featured reader and keynote speaker is poet B. H. Fairchild.

The Robinson Jeffers Association invites proposals on any aspect of Jeffers’s mid-length narratives (“Roan Stallion,” “Resurrection,” “Solstice,” “Margrave,” “Mara,” “Hungerfield,” etc.) in the context of American poetry and literature and culture broadly conceived, including comparisons with other poets, writers and artists, definitional and theoretical concerns, and more.  As usual, serious papers on other subjects and on the relation of Jeffers to other writers, artists and thinkers are also welcome.

Download the Call for Papers

Read about the 2011 Conference

Proposals for papers should be relatively brief and must be postmarked by December 15, 2010.  The conference has a number of different formats and includes opportunities for standard academic talks (15-20 mins.), longer plenary presentations, responses to longer talks, panel chairs, participation in discussion sections, and poetry readings.

Please send all queries and proposals both to Erika Koss, Executive Director, at ExecutiveDirector@RobinsonJeffersAssociation.org.

All presenters must be members of the Robinson Jeffers Association at the time of the conference.

Call for Proposals for New Essay Collection on Jeffers

The editor of a book collection tentatively called “The Wild That Attracts Us: New Critical Essays on Robinson Jeffers” invites proposals for essays that evidence the advance in Jeffers scholarship, especially since the publication of the most recent collections in the early- and mid-1990s.  Since the publication of those volumes, there have been significant accomplishments in Jeffers scholarship: the entire five volumes of the Collected Poetry and the first of three volumes of the Collected Letters have been released, Jeffers Studies was established, and the Robinson Jeffers Association has flourished. Given the enlivened atmosphere of Jeffers scholarship, the time is right for a new collection of essays, one that significantly adds to the body of critical work on Robinson Jeffers.

To that end, proposals are invited for essays that specifically address the critical sea-change of the past two decades, especially as it concerns Jeffers study, including but not limited to: the full advance of ecocriticism; the re-imagining of regionalism as place studies; the continuing development of cultural studies and the new historicism; the development of the New Formalism; the increasingly poignant vector of science and literature; the advances in narratology; the glaring omission of feminist analysis in Jeffers scholarship; the similar dearth of writing about the teaching of Jeffers.  The primary audience for this project will be academic, faculty and students primarily at the undergraduate and graduate level; secondary audiences would include the general public, especially given that Jeffers has long maintained an energetic and mindful readership.

Proposals should be 750-1,000 words, include a clear title, highlight a unique contribution to Jeffers scholarship, and provide the editor with an unambiguous argument as to Jeffers’ poetry, the critical tactics undertaken by the essay’s author, and the significance of the essay to Jeffers scholarship as a whole.  The deadline for proposals is December 31, 2010.  Proposals may be sent either electronically or in hard copy to the appropriate address below.

ShaunAnne Tangney
Associate Professor of English
Humanities Division
Minot State University
500 University Ave. W
Minot, ND  58707
sa.tangney@minotstateu.edu