CALL FOR PAPERS: “We’re Going Virtual”: A Children’s Literature Association Quarterly Special Issue
The concept of virtual worlds, while not new, has become a normalized part of 21st-century consciousness. Once a realm reserved for playful escape, “dissolv[ing] the constraints of the anchored world so that we can lift anchor—not to drift aimlessly without point, but to explore anchorage in ever-new places” (Heim, 1993), virtual spaces have taken center stage in our everyday lives. Our meeting places, our workplaces, our places of learning, even the places where we unite to break bread have shifted from the physical realm to the virtual. Children in particular have felt the seismic cultural shift from in-person to virtual interaction, as it has fundamentally changed the way they play, learn, and grow.