How does poetry circulate in/through contemporary everyday spaces, and how do the networks of poets, publishers, and readers inform its evolving role in public discourse? The inaugural EAAS Poetry Network symposium aims to examine not only poetry as an individual expression but as a collaborative practice deeply embedded in collective experience. By exploring how poetry engages public spaces, we also hope to address questions of accessibility, inclusivity, and the boundaries of poetic form.

This symposium invites the full range of poetry in a contemporary sense, which means including its publics and expanding a definition of the lyric “I”. We contend our task as scholars involves reimagining and enabling relations between poets and their readers.  This involves approaching poetry as a sphere of collaboration and dialogue, while understanding sociability and networks as historically central to even the most personal and subjective poetic voices. Our work further involves looking outwards, towards the civic and communal, where a definition of poetry is constantly being renewed as it exists in a generative relationship with its readers and the places they occupy and create.

We invite papers on the following topics, which are suggested but not limited to:

• Poetry and civic space
• Poetry’s Peoples
• Letters between poets/digital networks between poets
• Readerships and audiences
• Poetry As… (e.g., Resistance; Public Voice; Politics)
• Poetry in (response to) crisis (e.g., climate crisis; international war)
• Poetry and race
• Poetry festivals
• Poetry awards
• Revising, editing, interviewing, mentoring 
• Poetry presses, pamphlets, and magazines
• Poetry’s relationship to other literary forms
• Poetry and medium
• Poetry and archive
• Poetry and translation

The symposium welcomes proposals from all scholars, poets, and industry professionals, and especially from postgraduates and ECRs. Please submit a 300-word abstract, along with a short bio, to poetrynetwork.eaas@gmail.com by Friday, December 13th, by 5pm.