“To another Sea”: Dickinson, Environment, and the West

EMILY DICKINSON INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY International Conference 2019

August 8-11, 2019
Asilomar, California

To view the conference program summary overview, click here.

The very exciting 2019 International Conference on the work of Emily Dickinson and the sea will take place on August 8-11, 2019, in Asilomar, California. Known as Monterey Peninsula's “Refuge by the Sea,” Asilomar State Park is located on 107 acres of state beach and conference grounds, within the quaint and scenic town of Pacific Grove. Asilomar is celebrated for its restored dune ecosystem and architectural significance, with cozy, historic structures designed by renowned Arts & Crafts architect Julia Morgan between 1913 and 1928. Dickinson writes she “never saw a moor” or “the sea,” yet she knows “how the heather looks” and “what a billow be,” and also the sea's swells, tides, mysterious and familiar creatures. Indeed, Dickinson explored the landscape of the inner wild. Her poetic and epistolary writings investigate the end of consciousness and the West, as a figure for the unknown and a way to transcend physical and mental boundaries. Her writings investigate this unknown place by transforming her daily experience as she dwells in poetry. As her readers are more than aware, Dickinson welcomes us to take this profound imaginative voyage with her.

The conference features panels by international scholars on a variety of topics, including critical interpretations of Dickinson’s poetry and letters in light of water, environmental criticism, non-human studies, plant studies, creativity and imagination, ecology, geography, landscape, and the like. Topics on unrelated areas of current interest in Dickinson studies are also part of the program. A variety of formats, including traditional panels and roundtables, as well as flash presentations, will fill our days and nights by the sea, facing West.

To register for the EDIS 2019 conference, click here.


Housing information available here!

To access the original CFP, click here.