2016 Bicentenary Conference

The Keats Foundation is delighted to announce its third bicentenary conference, ‘Keats in London; Keats out of Town’, to be held from 20 – 22 May 2016 at Keats House, Hampstead.

Keats was a true ‘Cockney’, born within earshot of Bow Bells, and like William Blake he had a Londoner’s knowledge of the streets, lanes and alleys north and south of the River Thames. As a poet Keats wrote at Southwark, Cheapside, Hampstead, and further afield at Margate, Bedhampton, the Isle of Wight, Teignmouth, Oxford, on Mull and at Iona, and amid the Scottish Highlands. Our conference theme ‘Keats in London; Keats out of Town’ proposes explorations of Keats’s life and creativity at all of these locations and more.

We are excited to have Prof. Grant F. Scott (Muhlenberg College) and Prof. Fiona Stafford (University of Oxford) as our keynote speakers; Prof. Michael O’Neill (Durham University) will be our guest of honour.

The Call for Papers can be found at https://keatsfoundation.com/call-for-papers/ ; the deadline for paper proposals is 15 March 2016 and we expect to let you have a decision by 20 March 2016 at the latest. For obvious reasons, all papers should have a significant Keats dimension.

Lectures and papers will be presented in the spacious Nightingale Room adjacent to Keats House. We anticipate leisurely walks to explore the Keatsian locality, Hampstead Heath, and Leigh Hunt’s Vale of Health.

For more information, or to send in a paper proposal, please contact us by email at [email protected]. We look forward to having you join us!