Journal of Contemporary PoeticsCall for Papers

Deadline for submissions: Submission permitted throughout the year.

Full name / name of organization: International Islamic University, Islamabad

Contact email: jcp@iiu.edu.pk

In Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 (2004), the hospital scene has been paid special attention for seeming “more at home in a horror movie than a superhero sequel,” according to Bloody Disgusting’s Meagan Navarro: it depicts Dr. Octopus’ mechanical tentacles as they slaughter the surgeons who are about to remove them from his body. The scene is rife with the imagery of gaping screams, fingernails clawing into the floor, and limbs going limp, evoking an atmosphere of terror which even Dr. Octopus recognizes once he awakens to the carnage before him.

Co-editors Michael Dango, Erin Spampinato, and Doreen Thierauf invite original chapter-length contributions for a volume on New Rape Studies: Humanistic Interventions, under contract with SUNY Press. Final chapters are due February 1, 2023, and should be no longer than 8,000 words, inclusive of Chicago-style footnotes. We strongly encourage interested contributors to be in touch with abstracts by December 1, 2002, to ensure a fit before submissions of full drafts. We are committed to boosting the voices of graduate student, early career, and contingently employed writers. All queries can be sent to Michael Dango at dangomt@beloit.edu. 

While fantasy fiction has become incredibly popular and prolific in these last few decades, the appeal of fantastical literature dates back to antiquity, as mythologies, legends, and encounters with the supernatural have formed a large part of narrative traditions in every culture and language. This companion seeks to update and address underexamined areas of fantasy fiction, with the chief aim to provide a global introduction to English-language and English-translation fantasy fiction. This collection will focus on the contemporary written word (narrative prose) produced in late 20th and early 21st century.

Looming ecological and economic catastrophe has lent urgency to calls for “concrete utopian” solutions to capitalism’s excesses and to global governments’ failure to constrain those excesses—or to constrain them in ways that are consistent with democratic principles and international solidarity.  In this issue, we would like to prioritize articles that address the humanities’ role(s) in articulating and implementing real solutions to the political and economic issues of the twenty-first century.  We are interested in articles that emphasize the constructive over the diagnostic.

Material fragments such as a scrap of ancient poetry, a fractured sculpture, a torn diary page, or a partially written novel warranted increasing attention during the eighteenth century. The unfinished aesthetic of fragments offered an experience that was contrary to the sense of completion provided by whole and polished texts, and provided access to voices that would be otherwise inaccessible and lost. How do we understand this fascination with fragments in their various aesthetic, material, and political conditions? This panel invites contributions of papers on any aspect of the fragment. Papers may consider a single work, author, or artist; a theoretical approach; individual fragments or their role in larger works.

Learning of Castiglione’s death in 1529, Charles V declared “one of the finest gentlemen in the world has just died.”
The Spanish emperor’s praise is evidence of the depth and scope of the influence of Il Cortegiano during the
sixteenth century, appearing in Spanish translation by Juan Boscán in 1534 and in an Elizabethan translation by
Thomas Hoby in 1561. Yet Castiglione’s Courtier—read at times as a book of manners, and other times as
representative of Renaissance ideals—continued to influence writers, poets, and literary critics well into the
seventeenth century and for long after. Whether interested in sprezzatura, the art of conversation, the persistence of

Call for Submissions to ROMARD: Research on Medieval and Renaissance Drama.

ROMARD is currently seeking submissions for publication in Volume 60. Anyone may submit original work to be considered for publication provided that they hold the authorized copyright for the work. ROMARD welcomes submissions of:

2023 will mark the hundredth anniversary of Wallace Stevens’s debut poetry collection, Harmonium. To celebrate the occasion, the Wallace Stevens Society is organizing a panel about this landmark publication for the American Literature Association Conference in Boston (May 25-28, 2023). All approaches welcome, including fresh readings of individual poems, archival discoveries related to the book’s composition and publication history, discussions of new literary theories and their relevance to the poems, or reflections on the volume’s enduring impact on contemporary poetry.

CFP: Routledge Companion to Cultural Text and the Nation

We invite prospective contributions for the forthcoming Routledge Companion to Cultural Text and the Nation, an exciting new addition to the growing, dynamic book series. 

I am looking for papers for our  panel at  the Annual Convention of the Northeast  Modern Languages Assocation  (NEMLA) to be help at Niagra Falls, Buffalo, NY March 23-26, 2023.

Asia in popular media was predominantly represented as sexually conservative with heterosexual narratives culminating in marriage. The 21st century, however, witnessed a surge of queer depictions that challenged the dominance of the heteronormative. This panel invites papers exploring representations of non-normative sexualities and genders from media industries within Asia. We are seeking in-depth discussions about queer narratives in films – independent as well as mainstream, television programs, and webseries. How do these different media formats shape the queer? To what extent does censorship affect these depictions? What roles do studios/production houses play in crafting queer subjectivities? How is the queer embodied in these narratives?

In a memorable scene from Questlove’s award-winning documentary, Summer of Soul about the Harlem Cultural Festival (1969), singer Nina Simone performs “Backlash Blues,” a poem by her friend Langston Hughes. Five decades later, Beyonce performed a rousing version of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” for her Homecoming tour in 2019. The poem, affectionately called the Black National Anthem, was originally written by James Weldon Johnson in 1900. Across these multiple decades, (and long before) African American musicians have invoked Black Literature, while African American writers have referenced Black music.

Where were you when you got an email from your institution in spring 2020 that you would have to move your courses online? How do you address trauma perpetrated against marginalized groups without further traumatizing your students?

Two years into our unprecedented new normal, this round table seeks a clearer understanding of what makes a classroom resilient in the face of unanticipated challenges. Internationally, we face inequity regarding healthcare access, racial disparity in law enforcement and economic standing, and culture wars waged against marginalized identity groups, among an unfortunately long list of other inequities.