Writing the Midwest
A Symposium of Scholars and Writers
The Annual Symposium of the
Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature
May 28-29, 2026
Kellogg Hotel & Conference Center, East Lansing, MI
SSML welcomes proposals for individual papers, posters, panels, and roundtables on Midwestern literature, and reading of creative work with a Midwestern emphasis. Please plan on fifteen minutes for creative and scholarly presentations.
Proposals
Registration and Symposium
We ask that all attendees register for the conference through the online form, even if you plan to pay by check (by mail or at the conference).
- Presenters = $125
- Student presenters = $40
- Non-presenters = $25
Society membership is not required for non-presenters. Scholarship recipients are exempt from the registration fee but must pay the membership fee.
Writing Prizes
The Society offers monetary prizes for the best creative work and literary criticism read at the conference. Scholarly papers presented at the conference may also be submitted for inclusion in one of the Society’s peer-reviewed publications, MidAmerica and Midwestern Miscellany.
James Seaton Midwestern Heritage Prize for Literary Criticism ($1,000)
This prize is presented for the best work of literary criticism presented at the annual Symposium and then submitted to the contest. From 2006 through 2011, it was named after a longtime member as the Jill Barnum Midwestern Heritage Prize for Literary Criticism. Jill Barnum (also known as Jill Gidmark) died in October 2006. In 2012, the prize was renamed after SSML founder David D. Anderson, who had passed away December 2011. With the 2018 prize, it was renamed again in memory of another longtime member, James Seaton, who passed away on March 29, 2017.
David Diamond Student Writing Prize ($1,000)
In 2014, longtime member David Diamond, whose real name was Sid I. Davidson, passed away (learn more about him in his obituary). In his will, he made a large bequest to the Society, with the expressed intent that it be awarded to the winner of the David Diamond Student Writing Prize. Students who present work at the Symposium may choose which category to enter their work, but may enter in only one category.
Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Prize ($1,000)
In light of her wide renown as a major American—and Midwestern—poet, Gwendolyn Brooks was presented with the Mark Twain Award in 1985. She personally funded this prize for five years, and the Society continues to fund it in her memory.
Paul Somers Prize for Creative Prose ($1,000)
Paul Somers was a colleague of many SSML members in the Department of American Thought & Language at Michigan State University, teaching first-year writing. He was a humorist and a scholar of American humorists, as well as a creative writer himself. The prize was created in 2007 in his memory.
Questions?
Contact the conference organizer, Jeff Hotz (jhotz@esu.edu).
