Calls for Papers

Queerly Canadian

“Queerly Canadian: Changing Narratives”—Special Issue of Canadian Literature—will highlight scholarship that explores fictional and non-fictional narratives that document individual, political, community and cultural change through the very act of enunciation. Specifically, we invite contributions to the special issue that ask how queer narratives have changed, not only the changes from l/g to l/g/b to l/g/b/t to queer, but broad shifts in codes, contexts and practices of complex identification in relation to society and to history.

We invite articles that address historical, contemporary and emergent forms of queer narrative—diverse genres, aesthetics, relevance and appeal. Contributions that explore narratives of identification from a wide range of different perspectives as well as representations and social constructions of sexual diversities through time and space are welcomed. Wide and diverse interpretations of the themes ranging from the predictable to the surprising are encouraged. Papers might address such topics as the cultural impact of Jane Rule’s fiction, the trope of desire in Dionne Brand’s What We All Long For, representations of alterity in Highway’s Kiss of the Fur Queen, or literary history in Billeh Nickerson and John Barton’s Seminal: Canada’s Gay Male Poets, queer poetics in Hiromi Goto’s The Kappa Child. Or, they could look at themes such as queer cultural production and globalization, queering ‘coming out’ narratives, queer readings of post-colonial Canadian narratives of (im)migration, queer representations of sexuality and censorship in Canada etc.

Essays should follow the submission guidelines of the journal: www.canlit.ca/submissions.php. Cover letters should indicate that the article is to be considered for this Special Issue.


Canadian Literature and Sports

In recognition of Vancouver 2010, the Winter Olympics and Paralympics, Canadian Literature proposes to publish a special issue devoted to Canadian Literature and Sport. We welcome any submissions that embrace the two elements of this topic. An Olympic or winter sport connection is not essential. Some topics might include:

  • the narrative of particular team games as they structure novels, stories, plays, and poems
  • sports heroes and antiheroes, past and present in Canadian writing
  • gendered, ethnic, cultural, and racial aspects of sports as articulated in Canadian imaginative writing
  • the poetics and languages of curling, cricket, synchronized swimming, etc.
  • games and sports in First Nations cultures and writing
  • athletics in general, or a specific sport, as a source of metaphor
  • performance studies as they bear on sports
  • literary interpretation of women in sports

Papers on sports other than hockey are particularly encouraged. We must find one publishable essay on soccer (aka football) or the issue will be abandoned. We also welcome original submissions of creative non-fiction, poetry, or short short fiction on related themes.


Pour fêter Vancouver 2010, les Jeux olympiques d’hiver et les Jeux paraolympiques, Littérature canadienne va publier une livraison spéciale consacrée à « La littérature canadienne et le sport ». Toutes les soumissions traitant des deux aspects de ce thème sont les bienvenues. Un rapport aux Jeux olympiques ou aux sports d’hiver n’est cependant pas essentiel. Parmi les thèmes, on peut aborder les sujets suivants :

  • les récits appuyés sur des sport d’équipe et donnant lieu à des romans, des histoires, des pièces de théâtre et des poèmes
  • les héros et antihéros du passé et du présent dans la littérature canadienne
  • l’articulation dans la littérature canadienne des aspects du sport concernant le genre, les ethnies, les cultures et les races.
  • la poétique et les langages du curling, du cricket, de la natation synchronisée, etc.
  • les jeux et le sport dans la littérature aborigène du Canada
  • le sport comme métaphore
  • les mesures de performance et comment elles concernent le sport
  • l’interprétation littéraire des femmes dans le sport

Les textes sur les sports autres que le hockey sont spécialement bienvenus. Il nous faut trouver au moins un bon essai sur le soccer (le football) ou nous serons forcés d’abandonner le projet. Les soumissions originales de non-fiction créative, poésie, ou fiction courte sur ces thèmes sont aussi bienvenues.