Call for Abstracts: The Fiction of Stephen Graham Jones

deadline for submissions: 
February 14, 2021
full name / name of organization: 
Billy J. Stratton, Special Issue of Transmotion sponsored by the Stephen Graham Jones Literary Society
contact email: 

Special Issue to appear in Transmotion: An Online Journal of Postmodern Indigenous Studies http://journals.kent.ac.uk/index.php/transmotion

Deadline for Abstracts: February 14, 2021

Guest Editor: Billy J. Stratton, University of Denver, bstratt4@du.edu

Highlighting the expanding reach and influence of the fiction of Stephen Graham Jones, a recent reviewer for Entertainment Weekly, writing on the imminent publication of The Only Good Indians (Saga 2020), called him the “Jordan Peele of horror literature.” This newfound recognition comes despite the fact that Jones has been challenging expectations with his bold experimental writing style since the publication of his mind-bending, The Fast Red Road: a Plainsong in 2000. Between these temporal signposts, Jones has fortified his reputation as one of his generation’s most imaginative and daring writers with a succession of fictional works from All the Beautiful Sinners, The Bird in Gone: A Monograph Manifesto, and Ledfeather, to the more experimental and genre-hopping Demon TheoryIt Came From Del RioThe Gospel of Z, and Growing Up Dead in Texas. Despite publishing over a dozen novels and more than 300 short stories over this span, the reach of Jones’ literary influence and readership had until recently stayed mostly within the circles of Native literary studies and genre fiction. With the publication of Mongrels with William Morrow in 2016 and Mapping the Interior with Tor in 2017, however, Jones broke through to mass market audiences. These works, with the accolades they’ve received, along with the recently published, The Only Good Indians, have helped to solidify Jones’ place as a seminal voice in contemporary Native/Indigenous writing, as well as a figure of growing significance and influence in twenty-first century American fiction more widely. 

This call for papers for an upcoming special issue of Transmotion sponsored by the Stephen Graham Jones Literary Society seeks to further advance the appreciation of and critical engagement with Jones’ growing body of work. It is also intended to emphasize the impact and significance of novels that serve as a continuation of his experiments in genre, form, and subject matter starting with The Fast Red Road—works that have attracted enthusiastic interest beyond the fields of Native American/Indigenous literary studies. Proposals from all critical, theoretical, and literary perspectives and approaches are welcome, but we are especially interested in those that engage with the following themes, issues, and perspectives:

  • Native and Indigenous knowledge
  • Colonialism/decolonization
  • Trauma/affect studies
  • Indigenous futurism
  • Native/Indigenous horror 
  • Dark fantasy 
  • Vizenorian trickster hermeneutics
  • Postmodernism
  • New wave science fiction
  • Genre studies
  • Comparative approaches with other genre work, e.g. Afrofuturism
  • Native regionalism

Please send abstracts of approximately 300 words as attachments or pasted into the body of your email, including your name, institutional affiliation, and email address/preferred contact information to: Dr. Billy J. Stratton, University of Denver, bstratt4@du.edu

The deadline for proposals is February 14, 2021 with selection by February 28. Completed articles will then be due by August 31, 2021.