Due date: October 15, 2025 

ChLA invites proposals exploring the theme of neighborhoods as they relate to children’s literature, media, and culture. We welcome work that examines how these spaces are imagined, represented, and experienced across texts and contexts. For many, neighborhoods exist as both real and imagined spaces of safety, community, inclusiveness, familiarity, and nostalgia. However, for others, neighborhoods do not.  

This theme invites us to consider how neighborhoods, for better or worse, shape childhood, community, and belonging: In the 21st century, what might it mean to be a good neighbor? Who are the people in your neighborhood? Who counts as neighbors? How can we account for inclusion or exclusion when talking about our global neighbors? Are neighborhoods limited by space, proximity, time, and shared values? Who gets to define the boundaries of a neighborhood? What role(s) do children play in the neighborhoods of today or the technologically advanced neighborhood of the future? How has our conception of neighborhoods changed? 

Click here to read the full CfP and to submit a proposal. 

Team Virtual’s Report on the 2025 ChLA Conference 

Several years ago, to encourage global participation, help offset rising costs, and reduce our environmental impact, ChLA’s Executive Board decided to alternate between virtual and in-person meetings. The Board also assumed the task of planning, designing, and administering the conference.  

The 2025 meeting of the Children’s Literature Association—our fifty-first annual conference—was held virtually from June 10 to 14, with pre-conference activities beginning on June 9.  

The conference was a great success based on responses to the post-conference survey, with an overall satisfaction rating of 4.6 out of 5. The virtual format made possible both the continuation of regular conference features and various innovations in format and content. Participation was robust and energetic, with session attendance strong across the board and comparable to attendance at in-person conference sessions. 294 people registered for the conference, including presenters. A number of first-time attendees joined us, and the overall cohort was decidedly more international than usual. 

Read Team Virtual’s full report on the 2025 ChLA Conference here.