Not at MLA

I did not go to MLA this year. Except for the fact that it means that the four US schools I applied to for jobs all blanked me, I'm pretty darn happy about that. I've been to MLA twice already, when it was in New York in 2002 and last year in DC. I'm almost certainly going to go next year (interviews or not). But I don't like MLA--too crowded, too claustrophobic, and too stressful. And unlike all the American scholars, it's not a chance for me to meet up with friends and colleagues. That's what the SAA and the Learned's are for, my two favorite conferences where all the Shakespeareans and the Canucks hang out. I'm happy that I didn't have to go to MLA because instead I got to spend a very nice week in my home province celebrating xmas (which I don't like to celebrate but which was fine nonetheless) with my birth mother for the very first time--and getting a chance to blog through the airport's free wireless connection on my way back to mon pays.

On the other hand, I have been eagerly reading lots of blogs about people who are at MLA and enjoying them immensely: Blogging the Renaissance, Flavia, and In Favor of Thinking have all be providing MLA reports, and I've enjoyed reading them all immensely. I can't think of a better way to experience MLA than virtually. Get the scoop, not the stress! So I'd just like to say a big thanks to all three of them!

Holy crap! I'm even more happy not to be at MLA now. I just got upgraded to first-class for free for the first time in my life! New Year's drinks are on Air Canada! :-)

End of article / year joy

Happy New Year to me! I just sent off an article to a journal editor today. Yay! It had been accepted back in July, recommended by both readers but with some revisions, and I was told that if I finished the revisions by December there was a chance it would make it into the issue coming out this spring. I didn't even have time to start working on it until the beginning of this month, and I sure am relieved that I managed to get it done. The 24-hour train ride home for xmas had something to do with that! Lots of spare time with nothing to do but edit. I didn't have a lot of time before that to work on it this month because...

I was in San Francisco celebrating my 30th birthday! That was tons of fun, a total blast! The only downside was that San Francisco was just as cold as Québec! LA, on the other hand, was absolutely gorgeous. I couldn't have wished for a better way to spend my birthday.

Waiting Game Wiki

I just found out about a new resource for those of us playing the waiting game on the job market. It was mentioned in The Chronicle of Higher Education apparently, although I heard about it from a friend. It's a wiki that anyone can update with information about the status of the application process at each of the universities hiring this year in any particular field: i.e., requests for writing samples, the scheduling of MLA interviews, and campus visits. I got a request for a writing sample a few weeks ago, and have generally written off by now all of the other schools that didn't want a writing sample in the initial application and haven't asked me for one yet, but for those schools that already have my writing sample and at which I might still have a chance at a MLA interview, well, the waiting game really sucks--especially since it makes it impossible to make xmas travel plans without knowing whether or not there is any need to make MLA travel plans. With this wiki, based on updates provided by other candidates who have been contacted, it's possible to know when a particular school has begun to schedule MLA interviews, and when it is time to throw in the towel and give up hope of hearing from that school. Some people over on The Chronicle forums think that it's better to just send off the applications and not think about them anymore, but I think this is a great tool. I've got lots of other things to do besides sit and wait and wonder--and now it's possible to know when hope is still alive and when it's not. Job hunters, spread the word!