ACETA Conference

The 2026 ACETA Conference will be held at the Chilton-Clanton Campus of Jefferson State Community College on Friday, February 27 and Saturday, February 28, 2026.

Call for Presentation Proposals for the 2026 ACETA Conference
Sponsored by ACETA and Jefferson State Community College, this conference broadly considers literature, film, and writing on the importance of sympathy and empathy. More broadly, papers or panels might address phenomenology, the intersection of philosophies and literature, transhumanism, performativity, trauma theory, literary sensation and sensationalism, the nonhuman experience in literature, and other topics related to the conference theme. Submissions in pedagogy and composition and rhetoric are also welcome.

Submissions for Presentation Proposals

Please select the appropriate option for your submission to the 2026 ACETA Conference. All submissions are due by November 14, 2025.

The 2026 William J. Calvert Award & The 2026 James Woodall Award
The 2026 William J. Calvert Award is awarded to a paper on any scholarly or theoretical topic in English studies, and the 2026 James Woodall Award is awarded to a paper on any pedagogical topic in English studies. College English teachers and graduate students may submit papers for one or both competitions.  The writer’s name, along with the title of the essay and the writer’s institutional affiliation, should appear on a cover sheet but not on the paper itself.  Papers may not have been previously read or published.

Each award winner will receive $150 from ACETA. Condensed versions of the winning paper will be presented at the annual conference of ACETA held in February 2026. Honorable Mention winners will receive $50 and recognition at the conference. More information will be forthcoming about conference sessions and award presentations.

Submissions for the William J. Calvert Award & the James Woodall Award

The 2026 Mary Evelyn McMillan Undergraduate Writing Award
The McMillan Award is presented annually to the undergraduate student at an Alabama college or university whose informal essay is judged most outstanding by a panel of judges chosen by ACETA.
 
Requirements

• The essay must have been written for a class taken during the current or previous academic year.
• It may be descriptive, reflective, or analytical, but it may not be a formal research paper.
• It must not exceed 2000 words.
• It must not have been published previously except possibly in campus publications such as college newspapers or literary magazines.
• The English instructor for whose class the essay was written should submit the essay.  An instructor may submit only one essay in each year’s competition.
• A cover sheet should be attached to the entry stating the title of the essay, the author’s name, the name of the college or university, and the name and title of the nominator, with address, telephone number, and email address.  No name should appear on the essay.

The winner will receive a cash award of $150 and will read the paper at ACETA’s annual conference in February 2026. The Honorable Mention winner will receive $50 and recognition at the conference. More information will be forthcoming about the conference sessions and award presentations.

Submissions for the Mary Evelyn McMillan Undergraduate Writing Award

Eugene Current-Garcia Distinguished Scholar Award
The Association of College English Teachers of Alabama solicits nominations for the 2026 Eugene Current-Garcia Award for Distinction in Literary Scholarship. This award is made annually to a living, outstanding literary scholar who is from Alabama or has worked primarily in Alabama or has focused mainly on Alabama writers.

As originally conceived, the award “recognizes and rewards Alabamians who have distinguished themselves as men or women of letters, specifically in scholarly reflection and writing on literary topics.” It also demonstrates “the respect of the scholar’s peers in the academic community and signals to the citizenry at large the lasting importance of the pursuit of knowledge and the contribution of literature to the culture.” The award includes a $2,500 honorarium and an ACETA recognition plaque. Winners of the Eugene Current-Garcia award are the featured keynote speakers at the ACETA annual conference the year following their award.

A nomination must include a curriculum vita reflecting the course of the nominee’s scholarly career, a detailed bibliography of the nominee’s scholarly productions, and a cover letter clarifying and supporting the nominee’s qualifications for the award. Nominations may contain other letters of support from recognized scholars in the nominee’s field; they should not contain copies of actual publications.

ACETA’s steering committee will review all nominations and select a winner, whose name will be announced at the 2026 ACETA Conference. All nominations and all committee deliberations are confidential.

A list of previous award winners can be found on the ACETA archive.

Submissions for the Eugene Current-Garcia Distinguished Scholar Award