CALL FOR PAPERS

International Research in Children’s Literature

Special Issue: Global Perspectives in Queer Children’s and Young Adult Literature

Guest Editor: Cheeno Marlo Sayuno, PhD

Queerness has found its space specifically within contemporary children’s and young adult literature scholarship, drawing from gender and queer theories and futurities[i], as well as the nuances of queer theorizing when applied into the concept of childhood. In Queer Anxieties of Young Adult Literature and Culture[ii], Derritt Mason argued that “invisible, subtle, latent, and sideways queernesses are at least worthy of attention as visible manifestations of nonheterosexual desires and identities.” (6). Editors B.J. Epstein and Elizabeth Chapman collected essays for International LGBTQ+ Literature for Children and Young Adults[iii], where theoretical and empirical approaches to LGBTQ+  narratives for children and young adults across diverse cultural perspectives were showcased to “inspire further activism, writing, and research (xiv). The capacity of children’s books to “undertake essential sociocultural work” and “create imagined queer collectives that can have real consequences on experiences of community belonging and building as well as social and psychic transformation” is the subject of Jennifer Miller’s The Transformative Potential of LGBTQ+ Children’s Picture Books[iv] (4). Mary Zaborskis’ Queer Childhoods: Institutional Futures of Indigeneity, Race, and Disability[v] problematized the queering impacts of educational institutions in challenging gender/sexual inequities, since “institutions inducted children into contextually produced normativity precisely to queer them” (6). The Reparative Impulse of Queer Young Adult Literature[vi] is Angel Daniel Matos’ successful attempt at recognizing queer young adult literature’s politics and potentials in “[encapsulating] new ways of envisioning futures that are queer—or that at least defy the normalizing impulses toward gender and sexuality present in Western contexts” (xxviii)

Some milestones in advocating for queer rights emerge. Japan is set to roll out its first nationwide LGBTQIA+ education in schools, workplaces, universities, and homes[vii].  Thailand and Licehtenstein have embraced marriage equality, while Lithuania also celebrated its first same-sex civil partnership[viii]. However, the social realities of queer peoples across the globe muddled with continuous repressions, discrimination, and violence. United Nations (UN) human rights chief Volker Turk[ix] reports trends on discriminatory laws that not only penalize information campaigns on LGBTIQ+ issues but also criminalize same-sex conducts in 64 UN member-states, according to the data from the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intesex Association (ILGA World)[x]. For instance, in Ghana, homosexual activity is subject to up to 10 years of imprisonment[xi].  In Turkey, some lawmakers propose new restrictions to gender-affirming health care and punishments to “attitudes and behaviors contrary to biological sex and public morality”[xii]. In China, contents about sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics are curtailed, including creative works on gay erotica and articles that surface stories of homophobia[xiii]. The Malaysian government announced that it will replace the term “LGBT” with “deviant culture (budaya songsang)” in public discourse and social media, an anti-queer rhetoric that targets the safety and rights of LGBTQ+ individuals[xiv]. In the Philippines, Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton of the US Marines was convicted on the death of transgender woman Jeffrey “Jennifer” Laude, but the government has pardoned the killer[xv].  In the US, the Trump administration has continued to cut programs that impact the health needs of LGBTQ+ people[xvi]. Furthermore, data from PEN American found that 25% of more than 4000 banned titles in the US included LGBTQ people[xvii].

These are only a few of the issues that remain to confront queer individuals, also thus impacting queer children. It is thus important now more than ever to continue challenging literary and media representations of queer children and young adults and to provide commendable examples of the ways by which their lives should be told in narratives that celebrate their individualities and intersectionalities but also provide a nuanced understanding of their social contexts. Queerness and childhood are inextricably linked, as “children…are the hill upon which queer theory has been willing to die over and over—to prove its points, its relevance, its legitimacy” (Zaborskis 2).

This special issue aims to contribute to contemporary shifts in queer discourse and how these impact the writing, scholarship, and publication practices in children’s and young adult literature. We are interested in essays that provide country-specific, cross-country, region-based, and global literatures that exemplify good practices in queer representations, new directions in writing queer children’s literature, and challenging existing perspectives that takes LGBTQIA+ advocacies steps backward.  Topics include, but are not limited to the following:

• Queer and queer-coded representations in picturebooks and middle-grade and young adult novels
• Representations of queer child protagonists and their narrative journeys
• Representations of queer (chosen) family structures and their dynamics
• Discourses of queerness, race, culture, and class, and other issues on intersectionality within LGBTQIA+ narratives
• Underrepresented queer experiences in children’s and young adult literature and media
• Cases of in children’s and young adult literature across the globe
• Queer storytelling practices in literature and media
• Children’s responses to queer narratives
• Presence/absence of queer children’s and young adult literature in relation to cultural contexts of its country of origin
• Social realities of queer youth vis-à-vis literary representations
• Emerging perspectives in queer children’s and young adult literature

Submissions should follow guidelines set by the International Research in Children’s Literature.  Articles should be up to 7000 words, including all notes and a list of works cited, written in English (UK spelling) and following the MLA style guide. Full papers must be submitted on or before January 27, 2027, with a target publication of Fall 2027.

Please send submissions to Roxanne Harde, IRCL Senior Editor, at rharde@ualberta.ca and Dalia Mostafa Abdulrahman at daliamostafar@cu.edu.eg, with subject line: [IRCL Queer CYAL] Short Title of Article.

[i] See, for example, the following seminal works: Edelman, Lee. No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive. Duke University Press, 2004; Muñoz, José Esteban. Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity. New York University Press, 2009. 

[ii] Mason, Derritt. Queer Anxieties of Young Adult Literature and Culture. University Press of Mississippi, 2021.

[iii] Epstein, B. J., and Elizabeth Chapman, editors. International LGBTQ+ Literature for Children and Young Adults. Anthem Press, 2021.

[iv] Miller, Jennifer. The Transformative Potential of LGBTQ+ Children's Picture Books. Routledge, 2022.

[v] Zaborskis, Mary. Queer Childhoods: Institutional Futures of Indigeneity, Race, and Disability. New York University Press, 2024.

[vi] Matos, Angel Daniel. The Reparative Impulse of Queer Young Adult Literature. Routledge, 2025. 

[vii] Martin, Patrick, and Seena Katayama. “Japan to Roll Out Nationwide LGBTQIA+ Education for the First Time.” ABC News Australia, 15 June 2026, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-15/japan-rolling-out-lgbtqia-education-for-the-first-time/106775430. Accessed 17 June 2026. 

[viii] Middleton, Lucy. “LGBTQ+ Rights in 2026: What to Expect around the World.” Context, 7 Jan. 2026, https://www.context.news/socioeconomic-inclusion/lgbtq-rights-in-2026-what-to-expect-around-the-world. Accessed 17 June 2026.

[ix] “LGBTIQ+ face mounting violence and discrimination, warns UN rights chief,” UN News, May 2026, https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/05/1167532. Accessed 17 June 2026.

[x] International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association. ILGA World Database. ILGA World, https://database.ilga.org/en. Accessed 17 June 2026.

[xi] “LGBTQ Rights in 2026: What to Expect around the World.” Context, 2026, https://www.context.news/socioeconomic-inclusion/lgbtq-rights-in-2026-what-to-expect-around-the-world. Accessed 17 June 2026.

[xii] Human Rights Watch. “Abusive Anti-LGBT Proposals Resurface in Türkiye.” Human Rights Watch, 15 June 2026, https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/06/15/abusive-anti-lgbt-proposals-resurface-in-turkiye. Accessed 17 June 2026.

[xiii] Zhang, Phoebe. “Pride Month 2026 Marked by Backslide in LGBTQ Rights.” South China Morning Post, 5 June 2026, https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/3356823/pride-month-2026-marked-backslide-lgbtq-rights. Accessed 17 June 2026.

[xiv] Somiah, Vilashini, and Satkunasingam, Indramalar. “Anwar Government Joins in the Scapegoating of Queer Malaysians.” East Asia Forum, 16 June 2026, https://eastasiaforum.org/2026/06/16/anwar-government-joins-in-the-scapegoating-of-queer-malaysians/. Accessed 17 June 2026.

[xv] Lendon, Bran. “US Marine in Philippines Transgender Killing Case Pardoned.” CNN, 8 Sept. 2020, https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/08/asia/us-marine-philippines-transgender-killing-pardon-intl-hnk-scli. Accessed 17 June 2026.

[xvi] KFF. “Overview of President Trump’s Executive Actions Impacting LGBTQ+ Health.” KFF, 2025, https://www.kff.org/lgbtq/overview-of-president-trumps-executive-actions-impacting-lgbtq-health/. Accessed 17 June 2026.

[xvii] Baêta, Sabrina, Madison Markham, Tasslyn Magnusson, and Kasey Meehan. Banned in the USA: Beyond the Shelves. PEN America, 1 Nov. 2024, https://pen.org/report/beyond-the-shelves/. Accessed 17 June 2026; Edwards, Jonathan. “Banned Books about LGBTQ People, Black People and People of Color Dominate School Censorship Efforts, PEN America Says.” NBC News, 27 Feb. 2025, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/banned-books-lgbtq-transgender-black-people-of-color-pen-america-rcna193879. Accessed 17 June 2026.