Call for Papers
Among Thaxter’s Isles of Shoals
September 10–13, 2026
Star Island, New Hampshire
Questions and Scope
In 1873 Celia Thaxter published Among the Isles of Shoals and put her small archipelago on the nation’s literary map. Thaxter’s text was initially read as a series of exquisite descriptions of the islands’ harsh charm, which then opened the islands to tourist exploration and exploitation.
Today we read her text differently: a meditation on the rocks and people living on them, but also a study in how the waves and wind shaped them—and how human affairs in general are crafted by the environment.
In the age of the Anthropocene, when humans themselves have become a geological force, Thaxter’s Shoals compels us to consider some larger questions about the intertwining of human and non-human worlds:
- What happens to history in fragile environments?
- How is memory possible in the context of ecological erasures and displacements?
- What ideas about self emerge when nature is the main creator of those ideas?
- How has our domestication and commodification of island spaces shifted over time?
Historical Inspiration
Thaxter was not the only one on the Shoals asking these questions. Every summer, the Appledore Hotel she ran with her brothers and the art salon she hosted in her cottage gathered some of the most interesting American minds of the time.
Childe Hassam kept visiting the archipelago well after Celia died to sketch its post-apocalyptic rocks. William Morris Hunt’s very last drawing was of blurry, disappearing Appledore. While Nathaniel Hawthorne was bewildered by its harshness, Sarah Orne Jewett waxed poetically about Star Island’s vanished towns. James Russell Lowell poeticized the archipelago’s atmospheric enchantment.
Suggested Topics
We welcome proposals from a range of disciplines that explore the Isles of Shoals and Celia Thaxter’s circle through literary, artistic, historical, environmental, or interdisciplinary lenses. Topics may include (but are not limited to):
- The ocean as a cultural or philosophical force
- Artistic representations of the Isles of Shoals
- Island ecology and climate in the Anthropocene
- Gender and place in Thaxter’s writing
- Celia Thaxter’s garden and domestic spaces
- Regionalism and coastal literature
- Isolation, health, and class in 19th-century island life
- Tourism and the commodification of natural spaces
Submission Guidelines
We invite submissions for 15–20 minute presentations. Proposals should include:
- Title
- A 250–300 word abstract
- A short bio
Please submit your proposal by email to thaxterconference@gmail.com or via the form below or .
Deadline for submissions: January 1, 2026
Notification of Acceptance: February 1, 2026