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Join Us for The Spirit of Canada (Leaskdale, 20–22 October 2017)

Benjamin Lefebvre

Please join us next month for The Spirit of Canada: Celebrating a Canadian Literary Patriot, L.M. Montgomery, to be held at Leaskdale Manse National Historic Site (home of L.M. Montgomery from 1911 to 1926) on 20–22 October 2017.

Keynote speakers include Elizabeth Rollins Epperly (“Capturing Canada: L.M. Montgomery’s Career of Creating Place”) and Benjamin Lefebvre (“The Upward Climb to Heights Sublime: Private and Public Narratives in L.M. Montgomery’s ‘The Alpine Path'”).

The program also features presentations by Ted Barris, Rita Bode, Lesley D. Clement, Melanie J. Fishbane, Andrea McKenzie, Jen Rubio, Kate Scarth, and Emily Woster.

For more information, including a detailed agenda and a registration form, please visit the website for the Lucy Maud Montgomery Society of Ontario.

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Deadline Reminder: L.M. Montgomery and Gender

Benjamin Lefebvre

Just a reminder that the deadline for proposals for L.M. Montgomery and Gender, the twelfth biennial conference hosted by the L.M. Montgomery Institute and held at the University of Prince Edward Island on 23–26 June 2016, is coming up on 15 August 2015! See the full call for papers for details.

UPDATE: The deadline for proposals is now 31 August 2015!

Here’s the latest from the conference co-chairs, Andrea McKenzie and Laura Robinson:

Canada is fast approaching the centenary of women’s suffrage in the province of Manitoba (1916) and nationally (1918), so the twelfth biennial conference hosted by the L.M. Montgomery Institute at the University of Prince Edward Island will re-consider the role of gender in L.M. Montgomery’s work, broadly defined: her fiction, poetry, life writing, letters, photographs, and scrapbooks, as well as the myriad adaptations and spinoffs in film, television, theatre, tourism, and social media.

The L.M. Montgomery Institute is delighted to announce the following keynote speakers: Jane Urquhart, Mavis Reimer, and Elizabeth Epperly.

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Call for Proposals: L.M. Montgomery and Gender

Benjamin Lefebvre

Detail from Anne of Ingleside, by L.M. Montgomery (McClelland and Stewart, 1972)
Detail from Anne of Ingleside, by L.M. Montgomery (McClelland and Stewart, 1972)

Just a reminder that the deadline for proposals for L.M. Montgomery and Gender is 15 August 2015! This twelfth biennial conference, organized by Andrea McKenzie and Laura M. Robinson and hosted by the L.M. Montgomery Institute, will be held at the University of Prince Edward Island from 23 to 26 June 2016. It promises to be a dynamic, invigorating discussion of Montgomery’s life, work, and legacy, and we hope to see you there! Please see the call for papers for more details.

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L.M. Montgomery and War: Conference Registration Open

Benjamin Lefebvre

Registration is now open for the 11th International Montgomery conference, L.M. Montgomery and War, to be held on 26–29 June 2014 at the University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, PEI, Canada. The conference will explore war, its definition, and its impact through a multidisciplinary examination of the works of L.M. Montgomery and their influence across a century. With an exciting line-up of keynote speakers, including distinguished historian Jonathan F. Vance, Montgomery scholar and former UPEI President Elizabeth Rollins Epperly, and Canada Research Chair Irene Gammel, this conference promises to foster research excellence and innovative directions in Montgomery scholarship. For more information about the conference program and registration, go to http://www.lmmontgomery.ca/conference2014.

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CFP: L.M. Montgomery and War (26–29 June 2014)

Benjamin Lefebvre

University of Prince Edward Island, 26–29 June 2014

Please note that the deadline for submissions is now 15 August 2013

“And you will tell your children of the Idea we fought and died for—teach them it must be lived for as well as died for, else the price paid for it will have been given for nought.”
—Rilla of Ingleside (1921)

“I am thankful now, Jem, that Walter did not come back . . . and if he had seen the futility of the sacrifice they made then mirrored in this ghastly holocaust. . . . ”
—The Blythes Are Quoted (2009)

The year 2014 marks the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War, a global conflict that would prove life-changing for L.M. Montgomery and millions of her contemporaries. For the eleventh biennial conference hosted by the L.M. Montgomery Institute at the University of Prince Edward Island, we invite proposals for papers that consider war in relation to L.M. Montgomery’s fiction, poetry, life writing, photographs, and scrapbooks, and the range of adaptations and spinoffs in the areas of film, television, theatre, tourism, and online communities.

Montgomery’s 1921 novel Rilla of Ingleside is one of the only contemporary accounts of Canadian women’s experience on the homefront during the First World War, but the War is evoked and implied in direct and indirect ways in many of the novels, short stories, and poems that precede and follow it. The Blythes Are Quoted, Montgomery’s final published work, bridges the years between the First World War and the Second World War, complicating Montgomery’s perspectives and thoughts about war and conflict. Montgomery’s work has met with a variety of responses world-wide during times of war and rebellion, from post-WWII Japan to today’s Middle Eastern countries. Different kinds of wars and rebellions also permeate her fiction and life writing—class conflicts, family disputes, gender and language wars—sometimes humorous, sometimes tragic. This conference seeks to take stock of the complex ways in which war in all its forms has influenced Montgomery’s works and their reception, both in Canada and around the world.

Possible topics include: the Great War anticipated, revisited, remembered, and re-imagined; the politics of gendered witnessing; Montgomery’s reception in times of war and conflict; chivalry, patriarchy, conflict, and romance in poetry and fiction; war as an agent of change; internal and external rebellion in relation to war; the psychology of war in battle and on the homefront.

Proposals should clearly articulate the proposed paper’s argument and demonstrate familiarity with current scholarship in the field (please see for an updated bibliography). For more information, please contact the conference co-chairs, Dr. Benjamin Lefebvre (ben@roomofbensown.net) and Dr. Andrea McKenzie (acmcken@gmail.com). Submit a proposal of 200–250 words, a biographical statement of 70 words, and a list of A/V requirements by 15 August 2013 by using our online form at the L.M. Montgomery Institute website at http://www.lmmontgomery.ca/. Proposals for workshops, exhibits, films, and performances are also welcomed. Since all proposals are vetted blind, they should include no identifying information.

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L.M. Montgomery and Cultural Memory: Day 4

Benjamin Lefebvre

Guest post by Vappu Kannas

My name is Vappu Kannas and I’ll be giving you my impressions on Day 4—sadly the final day—of the wonderful L.M. Montgomery and Cultural Memory conference. I came to PEI all the way from Helsinki, Finland, where I’m doing my Ph.D. on Montgomery’s journals.

As seems to be a habit among the guest bloggers, I too was a bit late for the first session of Day 4. Like Melanie, I’m not a morning person and sometimes wish conference sessions happened late at night (perhaps in a pub). However, I was able to catch the last few minutes of Kate Sutherland’s talk on Montgomery’s legal battles. I’ve heard Kate’s earlier papers and I’m always so fascinated about her insights on this aspect of Montgomery’s life. Then, Adeline Carrie Koscher from Massachusetts talked about the New Woman in our cultural memory and aptly demonstrated that Anne of Green Gables is a New Woman character. The panel was completed with Emily Woster’s great talk on her Ph.D. project on Montgomery’s “reading autobiography.” I can’t wait to get my hands on Emily’s dissertation! (By the way, Emily’s sister’s name is Anne.)

The second and last panel of the day was a special one. Dana Gerberi and Sandy Wagner talked about the very concrete aspect of Montgomery’s cultural memory: her handiwork, or, more specifically, hooked mats and quilts. Dana connected the hooking of rugs with the hooking of stories, and showed us that many of Montgomery’s fictional characters (as well as herself) are characterized through their quilts, needlework, and so on. We also heard a nice piece of local folklore which states that Ewan and Maud stood on a hooked rug made by Maud’s grandmother, when they were married in Park Corner in 1911. Sandy showed us some elaborate patterned quilts with names such as “Flying Goose” and “Rising Sun”; somebody in the audience even mentioned a “Tuxedo pattern.” I wonder what that looks like.

That’s the end of my “serious” notes, but this is where the fun field trip part begins! The now-famous Bus Tour of Montgomery Places took off around midday. With our brown paper bags (containing lunch), we ventured out of Charlottetown to visit or re-visit all the important Montgomery-related places: Park Corner/Silver Bush (Anne of Green Gables Museum), Montgomery’s Birth Place in New London, Green Gables, and the Macneill Homestead in Cavendish. It was great to be back to those enchanting places that I saw for the first time in 2010 with my new LMM friends and my parents. In addition to visiting the museums, I enjoyed some nice chatting time with Mary Beth Cavert in the bus, and getting to know William (Bill) Thompson from Edmonton, who was visiting the LMM places on PEI for the first time.

Another special moment was a joint endeavour to clean Frede Campbell’s grave in the Geddie Memorial Cemetary, where we stopped briefly. Frede was a very important friend of Montgomery’s and she describes Frede’s death, which devastated her, in a long entry in her journals. Initiated by the always vigilant Vanessa Brown, it was a touching moment to see these friends of Montgomery, and thus of Frede, scratching off the lichen from the gravestone with their bare hands. We all went back to the bus with a little bit of cultural memory under our nails.

The day ended at the Macneill Homestead in Cavendish where Montgomery used to live from 1876 to 1911. Unfortunately the actual house is not there anymore, but a walk around the grounds and what used to be the old apple orchard brings Montgomery’s times vividly back. There’s something very soothing and peaceful in the atmosphere at the Homestead. We took the same little short cut path that Montgomery used to take to go to church, and heard some wonderful Island poets (Deirdre Kessler, Judy Gaudet, David Helwig, and Hugh MacDonald) recite their own poems among Montgomery’s and Milton Acorn’s poems in the Cavendish United Church, where we could also see Montgomery’s old organ, so instrumental in her meeting her future husband Reverend Ewan Macdonald. . . .

Through the misty (and a bit ghostly) evening we headed back to Charlottetown, after a short visit to Montgomery’s grave. Luckily, this wonderful conference does not have to end in the rather sad sight of Montgomery’s final resting place, but in the new beginnings of people flying off to their various destinations. We all leave PEI with our own unique but shared memories of the last four days. With ideas for fan fiction and Emily and Anne spin-offs (Anne meets Tarzan, Emily turns into a vampire, Walter meets Dean Priest etc.), I can’t wait for the next conference in 2014 to continue all the conversations began here.

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L.M. Montgomery and Cultural Memory: Day 3

Benjamin Lefebvre

Guest post by Christine Chettle

My name is Christine Chettle, I’m a Ph.D. student at the University of Leeds in the UK, and this is my first time at an L.M. Montgomery conference. As a lifelong fan of L.M. Montgomery’s work, and particularly of her Emily trilogy (I named my pet hedgehog after Ilse Burnley because she kept climbing out of her cage), I was really excited to attend the 2012 conference on L.M. Montgomery and Cultural Memory and share some of my work on Charlotte Brontë and the Emily books. However, I also felt quite shy, as I hardly knew anyone. But I shouldn’t have worried. L.M. Montgomery is a writer who knows all about the dynamics of community—both the pros and the cons—and because of this, perhaps, L.M. Montgomery lovers seem to share her sense of community, and in a particularly kind way. At this conference, there have been no Josie Pyes or Miss Brownells!

Throughout Day 3 of the conference, I’ve had the opportunity to reflect on L.M. Montgomery’s connections with a number of differing communities. First of all, the educational community: Jennifer Litster, Benjamin Lefebvre, Tara Parmiter, Diane Tye, and Åsa Warnqvist all provided complementary insights into her interactions with various entities, discussing her connections to, respectively, an ambivalent Scots heritage, fluctuating audience receptions, traditions of ghost stories, processes of memory, and the dynamics of folklore. Later, thanks to the presence of Jean Ledwell and Lesley Clement in my panel session, I discovered her links to New Zealand literature and to visual art. Miss Stacy and Mr. Carpenter would definitely have approved.

Mr. Carpenter, with his enthusiasm for Emily’s PEI heritage, would also have enjoyed Sarah Gothie’s presentation on the Green Gables museum and Judy Plum (of the Pat books) would have loved Jean Mitchell’s exploration of Park Corner, PEI through the light of Silver Bush. A presentation from the Lucy Maud Montgomery Society of Ontario gave an inspiring view of Montgomery’s influence beyond PEI in Leaskdale, Ontario. In the spirit of matriarchs Rachel Lynde and Miss Cornelia, they have nurtured Montgomery’s home in the Leaskdale community from a forgotten derelict to a thing of beauty (and with these ladies at the helm it will quite possibly be a joy forever).

At the conference banquet this evening, we had the opportunity to hear about Åsa and Stefan Warnqvist’s lovely romance. The conference coincides with a number of their anniversaries, falling as it does around the important Swedish celebration of Midsummer’s Eve: nine years ago they met, five years ago they became engaged, and four years ago they came to PEI for their honeymoon. This is a happily-ever-after that I can imagine Valancy and Barney Snaith enjoying!

My table at the banquet was the “international” table, representing Montgomery’s worldwide reputation in communities across five different countries (the conference included delegates from seven countries) apart from Canada. The international table included sa We laughed and talked exuberantly, sharing our passionate love of Montgomery, our earlier adventures with Montgomery-inspired YouTube clips and fan-fiction, and our speculations on vampires as cultural texts. Maybe at the next conference, we’ll start a newspaper, like the King children in the Story Girl books, or tame a lion, like Jane and her friends in Jane of Lantern Hill. But for tonight, we limited our adventures to the dance floor, where I tried out moves I generally only use in Zumba class to the sounds of Meaghan Blanchard’s inspired musicianship. If Anne Shirley had been there, I’m certain she would have done the same.

Throughout the whole conference, we’ve all been aware of Simon Lloyd’s and Pauline MacPherson’s fantastic guidance, and and this evening, all the delegates paid enthusiastic tribute to their work above and beyond the call of duty in nurturing and organizing this event. Like Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, they’ve made sure that everyone has found a home—however briefly—at the 2012 conference.

And then, of course, we all went to the pub. . . .

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L.M. Montgomery and Cultural Memory: Day 2

Benjamin Lefebvre 2 Comments

Guest post by Melanie Fishbane

My name is Melanie Fishbane and I am thrilled to be writing my first blog post for the L.M. Montgomery Research Group. I’ll be giving you my impressions of the second day of the L.M. Montgomery and Cultural Memory Conference. By the way, if you want a more in-depth play-by-play of the day’s events, do follow the #lmmi2012 or #lmmipei hashtags on Twitter.

Alas, I was a little behind today with my tweeting, having walked to the conference with my travel companion and roommate and was a little late for the first speaker. Those who know me know that I am not a morning person. Getting anywhere for 9 AM is a feat in itself. But arrive we did and listened to papers that both stimulated and stirred our imaginations.

The first special panel was on Memory, Communities and Readers.  From memories of family vacations that led to lobster trap coffee tables, to finding that rare edition in the most unlikely of places,  Davida Mackay, Christy Woster, Jeanne Kaye Speight and Mary Beth Cavert recounted how L.M. Montgomery’s works had influenced their lives.

The Keynote panel that followed was a mixture of sadness and joy for us.  Because of a recent death in the family, one of the rockstars of Montgomery scholarship, Elizabeth Waterston, was unable to attend the conference. However, her editorial buddy and dear friend, Mary Rubio, read Waterston’s paper, “L.M. Montgomery’s Journals: Changes in Cultural Landscape, 1982–2012” out loud, providing her own commentary as well. I shall not lie: when Rubio held up the newly revised The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery: The PEI Years, 1889–1900, I did a little jig in my seat. I simply cannot wait until tomorrow when there will be a book release party with Rubio signing copies of the new edition. The geek girl in me is squealing.

Elizabeth (Betsy) Epperly followed with a brilliant discussion on “Remembering Home: Memory, Meaning and Metaphor in L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Ingleside,” which was so amazing that it made me want to run home and read it right away. Also, just when she started to talk about the last two paragraphs of the last novel that Montgomery published in her lifetime, the lights went out.

The afternoon panel discussions continued to delight us as we discussed concepts of memory, re-interpreting truths, and asking ourselves “what is Montgomery’s ‘true voice’?”  Vappu Kannas discussed versions of memory while editing Montgomery’s selected journals and William Thompson explored social resistance and psychic re-visioning in the Emily books. While Cynthia Sugars talked about hauntings and ghost stories in The Story Girl, giving me pause when thinking about this morning’s “electric failure.”

The final panel of the afternoon were two fascinating papers by Andrea McKenzie and Yoshiko Akamatsu about Montgomery’s posthumously published novel, The Blythes Are Quoted. And our blogger from yesterday, Vanessa Brown, did an excellent job describing her detective work in finding a ledger that is connected to Montgomery’s suicide note. (See, Vanessa? No reason not to be kind!) These insightful papers give us much to ponder about Montgomery’s last novel and her final days.

Then we all brown bagged it and hopped on the bus to Belfast for a quick visit to the Sir Andrew Macphail Homestead,  where Montgomery once visited and met Canada’s Governor General, Earl Grey—the story has to do with them sitting on the steps of an outhouse and people avoiding it as they didn’t want to disturb the GG in his discussion.  We really wanted to know where that outhouse was, but there were way too many mosquitos out tonight to do an adequate search of the property.

The night ended with an intimate evening of music at St. Paul’s Church for the Festival of Small Halls, a local musical festival where musicians from Atlantic Canada play at local small venues. Built in 1824, the church still had some of its original markings. It was beautiful and the sound was incredible. Dylan Guthro, Irish Mythen, Nathan Wiley and Matt Minglewood charmed the audience with their folk and blues medleys and good humour. L.M. Montgomery conference attendees were specifically welcomed by the organizers who mentioned that Montgomery’s husband, Ewan Macdonald, had lived in the area before they were married  and that one of the members of the church actually lived in the house!

I cannot wait for tomorrow which not only includes a silent auction and our banquet, but more informative and interesting papers on this fascinating topic of Montgomery and cultural memory.

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L.M. Montgomery and Cultural Memory: Day 1

Benjamin Lefebvre

Guest post by Vanessa Brown

Welcome Montgomery fans to my first blog for the L.M. Montgomery Research Group! Guess what? I’m here to tell you about my exciting day at the Montgomery Conference here in beautiful Prince Edward Island, and it really has been exciting.

This morning we found out about new plans from the L.M. Montgomery Institute to start a publication series, a app for your iPhone, and the digitization of Montgomery’s letters to Penzie MacNeill. How cool is that?

I’m selling books at the conference for Attic Books in London, Ontario, but like any good bookseller, I slept a little bit late. Still, there was plenty of interest at my booth despite my tardiness, and also at the booth for Gallery 18 who was only here for today. It was great to meet Aubrey Bell and talk a little shop before diving into the day’s intellectual fare with a cup of coffee and some pastries—the trademark nutrition of any academic gathering.

I sat in on Trinna Frever’s presentation on Recollection and Remembrance, as well as Katja Lee’s enthralling talk on Montgomery’s self-branding with particular focus on The Alpine Path. Maud’s focus on crafting her image for the public and for herself was apparent for both speakers and led to some riveting discussion. I also enjoyed the question period following presentations on predestination, “future memories” and the conflict of modernity in the Emily books, by quick witted Balaka Basu, the venerated Andrea Valenta and brilliant Laura Breitenbeck, respectively.

After some yummy refreshments, I dug my teeth into Melanie Fishbane’s multimedia presentation on sexy Gilbert Blythe—Oh, how I love you Jonathan Crombie!—and even played Diana in a dialogue highlighting his place in our cultural memory. Later topics included Walter Blythe and the World Wars (Gwen Gethner), liminal spaces in Anne’s House of Dreams (Poushali Bhadury) and Queen Victoria’s role in the Emily books (Holly Pike).

Sitting around all day works up an appetite, so we found ourselves at the Anne of Green Gables Chocolates in downtown Charlottetown, where I picked up some delicious Avonlea cheese. Yes, I’m an Anne fan, but I’m also a cheese fan and I would eat this yummy stuff if it was called by any other name. It’s twice the price in London, Ontario, so I consider this a score.

The evening was topped off by a glorious cocktail reception, hosted by the Heirs of L.M. Montgomery for the conference speakers. Kate Macdonald Butler and Sally Keefe Cohen throw a superb party, with delicious appetizers and a flowing bar—all at the Great George Hotel where Regis and Kelly stayed on their recent visit to the Island. Did you read that folks? Regis and Kelly! One of the bartenders told me that he was assigned to be their personal slave and assured me that Kelly is super tiny in real life, and so is Regis.

Actually, I was more impressed to find out that Anne Murray had stayed there, but it’s all subjective.

I left the party still hopping and expect my roommate to come in late and certainly not sober. That’s it for today! Tomorrow is my big talk, and I’m super nervous. I hope whoever is blogging tomorrow is kind.

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L.M. Montgomery and Cultural Memory: Pre-Conference Day

Benjamin Lefebvre

I’m currently in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island for the 10th biennial international conference hosted by the L.M. Montgomery Institute at the University of Prince Edward Island. This year’s theme is L.M. Montgomery and Cultural Memory, and as program chair I’m particularly excited about this conference because I’ve been reading about all of these papers for several months and finally this weekend I will get to hear them.

Unveiling of Epperly Plaza at University of Prince Edward Island, 20 June 2012
Unveiling of Epperly Plaza at University of Prince Edward Island, 20 June 2012

Today was the pre-conference day, which began with a special unveiling of the Epperly Plaza, a beautiful garden and pathway in front of the Robertson Library that was named in honour of UPEI’s fourth president, Montgomery scholar Elizabeth Rollins Epperly. As Dr. Epperly reminded us during her delightful speech, it was today in 1908 that L.M. Montgomery received her author’s copies of her first novel, Anne of Green Gables.

Truck featuring Anne of Green Gables: The Musical, in downtown Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island
Truck featuring Anne of Green Gables: The Musical, in downtown Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island

In the afternoon my friend Vanessa and I went wandering around Charlottetown in search of secondhand books and other collectibles. Once again, Anne was everywhere.

Finally, in the evening, we had our opening reception where I bumped into several old friends. One of the things I’ve always liked about this conference series is the feeling of community that has developed over the years. I’ve been attending this conference series since 1996, and what I’ve really appreciated is seeing friends and colleagues again as well as meeting new people. In a way, it feels a lot like coming home.

The conference is on until Sunday, and if past conferences have taught me anything it’s that it’s bound to be an intense few days. To shake things up a bit on this website, I’ve asked some of my old friends to join me on this blog and write about their impressions of the conference. So stay tuned!

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L.M. Montgomery and Cultural Memory: Registration and Preliminary Program

Benjamin Lefebvre

Just a quick announcement that registration and the preliminary program for L.M. Montgomery and Cultural Memory, the 10th biennial conference hosted by the L.M. Montgomery Institute at the University of Prince Edward Island, are now available! Once again we’ve got a fantastic line-up, and the conversation promises to add much to our understanding of Montgomery’s legacy. You can also read the original call for papers.

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CFP: Lucy Maud Montgomery at Home in Leaskdale: A Centennial Celebration, 13–15 October 2011

Benjamin Lefebvre

The Lucy Maud Montgomery Society of Ontario (LMMSO), headquartered in Uxbridge Township, is hosting a three-day celebration to mark the centenary of Montgomery’s arrival in Leaskdale, Ontario from Prince Edward Island. Key-note speakers include

  • Ted Barris
  • Kate Macdonald Butler
  • Donna Campbell
  • Mary Beth Cavert
  • Elizabeth Epperly
  • Irene Gammel
  • Mary Rubio
  • Kevin Sullivan
  • Kate Sutherland
  • Elizabeth Waterston

LMMSO invites proposals of 200–250 words for 20-minute presentations with a historical, cultural, and/or literary interest that focus on Montgomery and the Leaskdale years (1911–1926).

Due: 5 January 2011. Send to: lclement[at]lakeheadu[dot]ca.

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Two L.M. Montgomery Calls for Papers

Benjamin Lefebvre

Two calls for papers have now been posted, for the next two conferences hosted by the L.M. Montgomery Institute at the University of Prince Edward Island: L.M. Montgomery and Cultural Memory (21–24 June 2012) and L.M. Montgomery and War (26–29 June 2014).

L.M. Montgomery and Cultural Memory (21–24 June 2012)

“Nothing is ever really lost to us as long as we remember it.”
—The Golden Road (1913)

“and even if you are not Abegweit-born you will say, ‘Why . . . I have come home!’”
—“Prince Edward Island” (1939)

For the tenth biennial conference hosted by the L.M. Montgomery Institute at the University of Prince Edward Island, we invite scholars, writers, readers, and cultural producers of all kinds to consider the topic of L.M. Montgomery and cultural memory. A term that originated in the field of archaeology and that now resonates in a wide range of disciplines, cultural memory refers to the politics of remembering and forgetting, sometimes in opposition to official versions of the past and the present. Within textual studies, the term invites us to consider the ways in which the past, the present, and the future are remembered, recorded, and anticipated by members of a collective and encoded into text. As a result, cultural memory touches on a number of key concerns, including identity, belonging, citizenship, home, community, place, custom, religion, language, landscape, and the recovery and preservation of cultural ancestries.

But what versions of Prince Edward Island, of Canada, of the world do Montgomery’s work and its derivatives encourage readers to remember? How do gender and genre (not to mention religion and power) affect and shape Montgomery’s selective and strategic ways of remembering in her fiction and life writing? What acts of memory can be found in the depiction of writers, diarists, letter writers, oral storytellers, poets, and domestic artists in her fiction? What roles do domesticity, nature, conflict, and war play in the shaping and reshaping of cultural memory? To what extent do nostalgia and antimodernism drive Montgomery texts in print and on screen? How have these selective images of time and place been adapted to fit a range of reading publics all over the world?

The LMMI invites proposals for papers that will consider these issues in relation to Montgomery’s fiction, poetry, life writing, photographs, and scrapbooks, and the range of adaptations and spinoffs in the areas of film, television, theatre, tourism, and online communities. Proposals for workshops, exhibits, films, and performances are also welcomed. Proposals should clearly articulate the proposed paper’s argument and demonstrate familiarity with current scholarship in the field (please see for an updated bibliography). For more information, please contact the program chair, Dr. Benjamin Lefebvre (ben@roomofbensown.net). Submit a proposal of 200-250 words, a biographical statement of 70 words, and a list of A/V requirements by 15 August 2011 by using our online form at the L.M. Montgomery Institute website at http://www.lmmontgomery.ca/. Since all proposals are vetted blind, they should include no identifying information.

L.M. Montgomery and War (26–29 June 2014)

“And you will tell your children of the Idea we fought and died for—teach them it must be lived for as well as died for, else the price paid for it will have been given for nought.”
—Rilla of Ingleside (1921)

“I am thankful now, Jem, that Walter did not come back . . . and if he had seen the futility of the sacrifice they made then mirrored in this ghastly holocaust. . . .”
—The Blythes Are Quoted (2009)

The year 2014 marks the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War, a global conflict that would prove life-changing for L.M. Montgomery and millions of her contemporaries. For the eleventh biennial conference hosted by the L.M. Montgomery Institute at the University of Prince Edward Island, we invite proposals for papers that consider war in relation to L.M. Montgomery’s fiction, poetry, life writing, photographs, and scrapbooks, and the range of adaptations and spinoffs in the areas of film, television, theatre, tourism, and online communities.

Montgomery’s 1921 novel Rilla of Ingleside is one of the only contemporary accounts of Canadian women’s experience on the homefront during the First World War, but the War is evoked and implied in direct and indirect ways in many of the novels, short stories, and poems that precede and follow it. The Blythes Are Quoted, Montgomery’s final published work, bridges the years between the First World War and the Second World War, complicating Montgomery’s perspectives and thoughts about war and conflict. Montgomery’s work has met with a variety of responses world-wide during times of war and rebellion, from post-WWII Japan to today’s Middle Eastern countries. Different kinds of wars and rebellions also permeate her fiction and life writing—class conflicts, family disputes, gender and language wars—sometimes humorous, sometimes tragic. This conference seeks to take stock of the complex ways in which war in all its forms has influenced Montgomery’s works and their reception, both in Canada and around the world.

Possible topics include: the Great War anticipated, revisited, remembered, and re-imagined; the politics of gendered witnessing; Montgomery’s reception in times of war and conflict; chivalry, patriarchy, conflict, and romance in poetry and fiction; war as an agent of change; internal and external rebellion in relation to war; the psychology of war in battle and on the homefront.

Proposals should clearly articulate the proposed paper’s argument and demonstrate familiarity with current scholarship in the field (please see for an updated bibliography). For more information, please contact the conference co-chairs, Dr. Benjamin Lefebvre (ben@roomofbensown.net) and Dr. Andrea McKenzie (acmcken@gmail.com). Submit a proposal of 200–250 words, a biographical statement of 70 words, and a list of A/V requirements by 15 August 2013 by using our online form at the L.M. Montgomery Institute website at http://www.lmmontgomery.ca/. Proposals for workshops, exhibits, films, and performances are also welcomed. Since all proposals are vetted blind, they should include no identifying information.

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Press Release: L.M. Montgomery and the Matter of Nature

Benjamin Lefebvre

The following press release is from the L.M. Montgomery Institute:

A new generation of Montgomery scholars converges in Charlottetown

Young scholars from institutions around the globe will converge in Charlottetown June 23–27 at the 2010 International L.M. Montgomery Conference, “L.M. Montgomery and the Matter of Nature,” to share their research on the province’s best-known writer.

For Alicia McDonald, an Islander, UPEI alumna and graduate student at the University of Western Ontario, Montgomery’s works have hit close to home. “Having grown up on Prince Edward Island, I found myself drawn to Anne and subsequently, L.M. Montgomery because they were talking about places I knew, and represented kindred spirits who understood what it was like to grow up in a rural area where everyone knows you. As I’ve gotten older and have traveled further away from PEI, I’ve found Montgomery’s vivid descriptions of our Island and rural culture to be a stunning reminder of home that I can easily carry with me.” McDonald’s presentation, “Literary Tourism—Anne of Green Gables and Twilight as Tourist Attractions,” takes place Saturday, June 26.

Emily Woster, a PhD student at Illinois State University, will be attending the L.M.M. Conference for the third time, along with her mother, Christy Woster. “My love of all things L.M.M. began when my mother named me ‘Emily’ and my sister ‘Anne’ five years later,” says Woster of her interest in Montgomery. L.M.M. has provided her both professional and personal opportunities and lots of “scope for imagination.” The pair will be giving their presentation, entitled “A Book by Its Cover: Collecting the Artistic Interpretations of L.M. Montgomery’s Works,” together on Sunday, June 27.

Jean Mitchell, an associate professor of anthropology at UPEI and co-chair of the 2010 L.M.M. International Conference, sees these presentations as evidence of the continuing interest in Montgomery’s works. “The students’ topics are very far-ranging and eclectic, suggesting Montgomery’s multiple and meaningful influences on a new generation.”

Other student presentations include: Vappu Kannas, of the University of Helsinki, “Familiar landscape in L. M. Montgomery’s Emily series: Nature as the integrating factor in the Finnish translations”; Christiana Salah, of the University of Connecticut, “Bonds of Sea and Shore: Locating the Gothic in Montgomery’s Prehensile Landscape”; Erin Whitmore, of the University of New Brunswick, “The ‘Old-Time Kitchen’: Domesticity, Nature and Avonlea’s Transforming Rural Economy”; and Kathryne Dycus, of the University of Glasgow, “Footprints on the Landscapes of Artistic Creation: “Wanderlust” in the Emily Books”.

All are welcome to register, and day and session passes are available for those unable to attend the full conference. For information and to register, visit lmmontgomery.ca/events/conference2010, email katmacdonal2@upei.ca, or call 902-628-4346.

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Press Release: Epperly to Headline 2010 Montgomery Conference

Benjamin Lefebvre

The following press release announces the 9th International L.M. Montgomery conference, L.M. Montgomery and the Matter of Nature, hosted by the L.M. Montgomery Institute of the University of Prince Edward Island on 23–27 June 2010. For more information, including a list of scheduled events, see the conference website.

Former UPEI president Dr. Elizabeth Rollins (‘Betsy’) Epperly, a world-renowned scholar and author on the life and work of L.M. Montgomery, will headline the international conference, “L.M. Montgomery and the Matter of Nature” running June 23 to 27 at UPEI. Her talk, “Natural Bridge: L.M. Montgomery and the Architecture of Imaginative Landscapes” promises to be a highlight in four days of discussion and enjoyment of the enduring legacy of the province’s best-known writer.

“We are thrilled that Betsy can be such an important part of this event,” says conference co-chair Dr. Jean Mitchell of UPEI. “Betsy has so much knowledge and passion for Montgomery that people are always eager to hear what she has to say.”

Ever since Epperly helped establish the L.M. Montgomery Institute at UPEI in 1993, its international conference on Montgomery has become an essential focal point for the rapidly-growing field of Montgomery studies. 2010 marks the ninth such conference, and will draw scholars and admirers from across North America and around the world, with presenters from Europe, Australia, Africa, and Asia.

The 2008 Conference attracted some 200 registrants to Charlottetown, and organizers expect a similarly enthusiastic response this year. Besides Epperly’s keynote, highlights will include: panel discussions of responses to Montgomery in Asia and Europe; a presentation by Canada Research Chair and leading Montgomery scholar Irene Gammel; and the PEI launch of two publications of recently-rediscovered Montgomery works, The Blythes Are Quoted (edited by conference co-chair and LMMI visiting scholar Dr. Benjamin Lefebvre) and Una of the Garden. All are welcome to register, and day and session passes are available for those unable to attend the full conference. For more information and to register, visit lmmontgomery.ca/events/conference2010, e-mail cydennis@upei.ca, or call 902-628-4346.

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Five-Day Extension for LMMI Conference

Benjamin Lefebvre

Due to an unexpected technological difficulty, Jean Mitchell and I would like to offer a five-day extension to everyone interested in submitting a proposal to the L.M. Montgomery and the Matter of Nature conference, to be hosted by the L.M. Montgomery Institute and held at the University of Prince Edward Island. Please send your abstracts and full contact information in the body of an e-mail to lmmi@upei.ca by Monday, 21 September at the very latest.

The call for papers can be found here.

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CFP: L.M. Montgomery and the Matter of Nature (updated)

Benjamin Lefebvre

L.M. Montgomery and the Matter of Nature
9th International Conference
University of Prince Edward Island
23-27 June 2010

At the ninth biennial conference hosted by the L.M. Montgomery Institute (University of Prince Edward Island), we invite you to consider L.M. Montgomery and the matter of nature. In recent years, the matter of nature has been the subject of much contested debate and theoretical innovation across disciplines. While multiple romanticisms have informed L.M. Montgomery’s passionate views of the natural world, her complex descriptions show her writing both of and for nature. This complexity extends as well to the depiction of cultural and gendered mores (domesticity, friendship, faith, community, biological determinism) as both natural and cultural. In all its forms, nature situates binary relationships that are often represented as hierarchical and oppositional: nature and culture; child and adult; animal and human; female and male; emotion and reason; body and mind; traditional and modern; raw and cooked; wild and domestic; rural and urban.

We invite the submission of abstracts that consider these issues in relation to Montgomery’s fiction, poetry, life writing, photographs, and scrapbooks, as well as the range of adapted texts in the areas of film, television, theatre, tourism, and online communities. Possible questions include:

  • What are the effects of the representations and images of nature that are crafted and circulated in Montgomery’s work?
  • How do Montgomery’s narrations of nature shape children and adults within and across cultures?
  • How do particular constructions of nature work in fiction, across such differences as gender, race, culture, and class?
  • What are the cultural and historical contingencies surrounding nature in Montgomery’s work?
  • What does it mean to consider Montgomery as a “green” writer (Doody) or as a proto-ecofeminist (Holmes)?
  • What do Montgomery’s provocative readings of nature offer us at a time of environmental crises and ecological preoccupations?
  • How does the notion of “nature” impact some of the most central preoccupations in Montgomery’s fiction, poetry, and life writing (the nature of war, of mental illness, of cultural inheritance, of conflict, of same-sex friendships and of heterosexual marriage, of cultural memory, of national ideologies)?

Abstracts should clearly articulate the paper’s argument and demonstrate familiarity with current scholarship in the field (please see for an updated bibliography). For more information, please contact the conference co-chairs directly: Dr. Benjamin Lefebvre (ben@roomofbensown.net) and Dr. Jean Mitchell (mjmitchell@upei.ca). All proposals will be vetted blind and should therefore contain no identifying information.

Please submit one-page abstracts and short biographical sketches by 15 September 2009 to the L.M. Montgomery Institute’s OCS page ).

If you’ve already submitted an abstract for the 2010 Conference, please verify that it has been received by e-mailing the director at lmmi@upei.ca. All those who were registered through the 2008 OCS page have been made authors and should go to to submit their abstract. If you were registered but have forgotten your password, please use the Reset Password link located here: . If this is your first time using OCS for the L.M. Montgomery Conference, then please register yourself as an author here: (make sure to select the “Create account as Author: Able to submit items to the conference” option at the bottom of the registration form).

The 2010 Conference planning is well underway so please be on the lookout for future emails with details concerning accommodations and other events. And as always, if you have any problems, do not hesitate to contact us at lmmi@upei.ca.

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L.M. Montgomery—Writer of the World (20-23 August 2009)

Benjamin Lefebvre

The first international conference on L.M. Montgomery outside Canada

Uppsala, Sweden, will be the venue for an international conference entitled L.M. Montgomery—Writer of the World, 20-23 August 2009. The conference commemorates the first translation of Anne of Green Gables, the Swedish Anne på Grönkulla which appeared in 1909. Conference organisers are Gabriella Åhmansson, University of Gävle  and Åsa Warnqvist, Uppsala University.

The main theme for the conference is reading response and it has attracted 28 speakers from 10 different countries, including major Montgomery scholars such as Elizabeth Waterston, Mary H. Rubio, Elizabeth Rollins Epperly and Irene Gammel. The last day of the conference, Sunday August 23, is open to the general public, a tribute to one hundred years of devoted Montgomery readers in Sweden.

For a detailed programme and information on how to register, please visit the conference website or contact the conference coordinators at asa.warnqvist@littvet.uu.se.

The conference is hosted by University of Uppsala, one of Europe’s oldest universities, established in 1477. More information on the beautiful medieval city of Uppsala and its surroundings can be found on the Uppsala Tourism official website .

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L.M. Montgomery and the Matter of Nature (2010)

Benjamin Lefebvre

Call for Papers

Please note the extended deadline is now September 15, 2009.

L. M. Montgomery and the Matter of Nature
9th International Conference
University of Prince Edward Island
June 23-27, 2010

In 2010 we invite you to consider L.M. Montgomery and the matter of nature. While multiple romanticisms have informed L.M. Montgomery’s passionate views of nature her descriptions were complex as she wrote both of and for nature. What are the effects of the representations and images of nature that are crafted and circulated in the fiction of Montgomery, and in that of other writers of literature (especially for children and youth)? How do her narrations of nature shape children and adults within and across cultures? How do particular constructions of nature work in fiction, across such differences as gender, race, culture and class? What are the cultural and historical contingencies surrounding nature in Montgomery’s work? In recent years, the matter of “nature” itself has been the subject of much-contested debate and theoretical innovation across disciplines. Nature situates binary relationships that are often represented as hierarchical and oppositional. These include nature and culture; child and adult; animal and human; male and female; reason and emotion; mind and body; modern and traditional; raw and cooked; domestic and wild; urban and rural─among others. How might any of these formulations be examined and challenged (or not) in the context of Montgomery’s work? What does it mean to consider Montgomery as a “green” writer (Doody) or as a proto-ecofeminist (Holmes)? What do Montgomery’s provocative readings of nature offer us at a time of environmental crises and ecological preoccupations?

Please send one-page abstracts and short biographical sketches by September 15, 2009 to:
L.M. Montgomery Institute
University of Prince Edward Island
550 University Avenue, Charlottetown, PE C1A 4P3 Canada
E-mail: lmminst@upei.ca

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NeMLA Panel on “Beyond Green Gables”

Benjamin Lefebvre

The following panel, “Beyond Green Gables” (chaired by Rita Bode, Trent University), will take place at the Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA) conference in Boston on 27 February 2009. It includes the following panelists:

  • Kate Scarth, Memorial University, “Taking the Country to the City: Redefining ‘Home’ in L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of the Island“
  • Christiana R. Salah, University of Connecticut, “Bonds of Sea and Land: The Prehensile Places of L.M. Montgomery’s Fiction”
  • Trisha Tucker, University of Southern California, “L. M. Montgomery and the Curious Child”
  • Anne Ramirez, Neumann College, “Anne Shirley and Ellen Montgomery: Imagining a Wider World”
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MLA 2008 Panel on Anne of Green Gables

Benjamin Lefebvre

The following panel will occur on Monday, 29 December 2008, between 8:30 and 9:45 a.m., at Hilton San Francisco, as part of the 2008 MLA Convention in San Francisco. The panel is titled “Return to Prince Edward Island: Anne of Green Gables at 100” and is arranged by the Division on Children’s Literature.

Presiding: Michele Ann Abate, Hollins University

  1. “The Creation of the Family in Anne of Green Gables: Making Twenty-First Century Readers at Home in the Victorian.” Kathleen A. Miller, University of Delaware, Newark.
  2. “A Return to the Wild; or, Long-Lasting, Mystical ‘Lunacy’ in Anne of Green Gables.” Val Czerny, Florida Atlantic University.
  3. “The Problem Novel Then and Now: Using Anne of Green Gables in the Contemporary Young-Adult Literature Class.” Fiona Paton, State University of New York, New Paltz.
  4. “From Formula Fiction to Girls’ Classic: Anne of Green Gables, Fashion Magazines, and Sunday School Writing.” Irene Gammel, Ryerson University.
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Green Gables to Globalization

Benjamin Lefebvre

Here are extracts from a press release for a conference called “Green Gables to Globalization: Crossover, Canada and Children’s Books”:

iBbY Ireland announces a one-day conference to be held on Saturday October 18th 2008 in The Church of Ireland College of Education, Upper Rathmines Road, Dublin 6.

The main theme of the conference will examine ways in which children’s literature transcend boundaries of all kinds, focusing in particular on crossover fiction and a sense of belonging in books from Canada, a post-colonial, multiethnic society.

Irene Gammel of Ryerson University will be speaking on “Looking for Anne of Green Gables: A Literary Icon at 100,” as part of the conference. For more information and for the complete program, visit the iBby Ireland website.

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