MAM Updates

We warmly welcome our new co-editor of Enarratio!

Dr. Emilee Howland is Teaching Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin – Superior where she teaches medieval and early modern British literature. She is originally from northern Missouri but believes she has found her home on the shores of Lake Superior, though she remains a loyal Kansas City sports fan. Her academic research includes the representation of magic in medieval and early modern literature, women’s literature, Arthurian romances, and the cultural history and implications of book challenging/banning. Her reading interests include horror, urban fantasy, and speculative fiction. 

Many thanks for electing me MAM President for another term.

I appreciate the trust and am delighted to report that we are making progress on our agreed goals for MAM.  It was a lively social meeting at ICMS (2025) which was great to see, but even more importantly our sessions were full and the conversation (as well as  debate) was lively!  That is the best news we can offer - our sessions were well attended and those that we submitted for next year are looking promising, so please consider submitting a paper!

Our Medieval Monsters + conference is also looking good!  We have had over 90 submissions, many of which are graduate students, so, such great news to report.  At every meeting since I have been president,  we have focussed on what our "reason for being" has become and supporting our junior colleagues and graduate students to thrive has been our main goal.  Finding ways to help them publish with our incredible editors, Alex and Emiliee is one branch of our endeavors, partnering with like-minded organizations as IMA and MAMA, CARA, The Newberry Library, International Pearl Poets, and more is a second priority, and those collaborations have been thriving.  If you are a member in a fellow organization and would like to discuss collaborations - get in touch!

Hope to see you at our Medieval Monsters + conference in October, if you can't come in person consider being an online audience participant or helping to support a graduate student attend.  We have developed the Tom Shippey Graduate fund and the more students we can help to build support communities, the more sustainable our field in these difficult days.

OUR UPCOMING CALL FOR PAPERS - ICMS 2026!

Embodying the Medieval in Speculative Fiction 

Mysticism, Transcendence, and Cosmologies: Medieval Pathways to the Twenty-First Century (A Roundtable)

Reengaged Learning: Pedagogy and Teaching the Medieval 

Apocryphilia: Biblical Apocrypha in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages  

- For more information email: Tory Schendel-Vyvoda or search MAM on the ICMS Conference system

Medieval + Monsters Conference

MAM, MAMA, & IMA Joint Conference with The Newberry Library

October 17 & 18, 2025

Hosted @ Dominican University & the Newberry Library

Questions:  Monsterconference2025@gmail.com

Maria Dahvana Headley will be our keynote speaker on

Friday October 17, 2025.

With the new addition to our Conference, we are hoping to engage

even more of our medieval and medievalism colleagues as the

creative and the academic merge in Headely's works, most

especially Beowulf and The Mere Wyf.  Please share this conference info

with your grad students and colleagues as we seek to build a supportive

network for all.

New York Times Bestselling Author
Academy of American Poets Harold Morton Landon Translation

Awards
Joyce Carol Oates Prize Finalist
NPR Book of the Year 
 

Maria Dahvana Headley is the New York Times-bestselling, World Fantasy and

Hugo Award-winning author of eight books, most recently Beowulf: A New

Translation (FSG, 2020), which won the Harold Morton Landon Translation Prize

from the Academy of American Poets, and The Mere Wife (FSG, 2018), a

contemporary novel adaptation of Beowulf. Her full cast musical adaptation of 

The Aeneid, titled Vergil: a Mythological Musical, came out from Audible in 2023.

She delivered the Tolkien Lecture on Fantasy Literature at Oxford in 2023, and

has taught writing at Sarah Lawrence and Bennington, among many others.  

When asked by Slate about her use of contemporary slang in her Beowulf

translation,Headley responded, “My whole career has been grabbing bits of

folklore and repurposing them, and testing out different meters and repurposing

them. That’s the writer I am. But in terms of using some of the more recent slang,

I was really just interested in how much of the English language has been

constructed out of slang always.That’s just the nature of the language. It’s a

language that grabs culturally, jumps class." 

The Jim Falls Paper Prize

The Jim Falls Paper Prize will be awarded to the best paper by a graduate

student delivered at the 2025 joint meeting of (MAM), (MAMA), and the (IMA).

The prize includes a monetary award of $100. 

Deadline: 15 September 2025.

Graduate students are encouraged to send a completed copy of the accepted

paper (no more than 10 pages not including notes) along with their name, university

institution, and graduate status to blantonv@umkc.edu

. Please include in the subject line: Jim Falls Graduate Prize.  The paper you submit

should be the paper you intend to present at the conference. Please do not submit

an entry if you have previously received this award.

See the previous winners of the Jim Falls Paper Prize.

Additional Information

Registration Information

Cost to register for the conference:

$100.00 for faculty & working professionals (includes membership to

MAM for 2025)

$75.00 retired/independent scholar (includes 2025 MAM Membership)
Students: no charge
Payment options coming 

Conference Sessions will be at Dominican University (River Forest, IL),

the Newberry Library (Chicago, IL), and online. More to follow.

Graduate Student Travel Grants & Fees

Travel Information

Conference Publication Opportunities

For questions, please contact

Mickey Sweeney

 
Professor of English, Dominican University
Honors; Medieval & Renaissance Minor
President of the Medieval Association of the Midwest

Strength in Collaboration: Learn more about our publications and

partnerships

This conference is all about the strength in collaboration and partnerships,

we are looking to support all our colleagues in the future of their professions

and research. Enarratio, MAM's journal & Essays in Medieval Studies, the journal

for IMA, will be sharing the submissions for our mutual publications. Be sure to

see our 2024 collections now available online. 

Newberry Library Center for Renaissance Studies

We are delighted to partner with the Center for Renaissance Studies and the

Newberry, which is a public research library located in Chicago that houses a

strong collection of medieval manuscripts, printed books, and other objects.  

We are looking forward to a session, a workshop, and a tour of the library's

Medieval and Renaissance collections. 

We are also grateful for the CARA grant that will support graduate

attendance at this conference.