The Westbrook College Campus of the University of New England invites the submission of proposals for individual papers or thematic sessions on Women's Private Writing/Writing Women's History for an interdisciplinary conference June 15-18, 2000. The conference program committee welcomes submissions on any aspect of women's private writing including papers which explore women's lives based on manuscript documents, papers which address methodological and/or theoretical issues surrounding the use of diaries, journals, letters, and other manuscripts, and papers which explore how manuscript materials can be used in elementary, secondary, and university educational settings to enhance the study of women's lives. In addition, we encourage papers concerning the preservation of manuscripts and the use of technology with manuscript materials. We welcome participation from educators of all levels, librarians, archivists, museum professionals and those interested in women's writing and history.

This conference highlights the rich resources of the University of New England's Maine Women Writers Collection. Previous conferences have included May Sarton at 80 (1992), Sarah Orne Jewett and Her Contemporaries (1996), and American Women Nature Writers (1998). Founded in 1959 to honor and preserve the writings of Maine women achieving literary recognition, the Maine Women Writers Collection is the preeminent collection of published and unpublished works by and about Maine women writers. The conference program committee especially welcomes papers based on authors or material found within the Maine Women Writers Collection.

Those submitting individual proposals should send a one page abstract and one page c.v. Session proposals should include a description of the session theme, abstracts for each paper, the name of the session chair, and c.v.s for each participant. Send proposals, by October 15, 1999 to Elizabeth De Wolfe at the address below.

For more information on the Maine Women Writers Collection at the University of New England, contact Roberta Gray ; phone 207-797-7261.