Guidelines

Submission Checklist

Include the following information in your submission:

• Author bio (50-100 words)
• Abstract (150-200 words) and keywords (5-7). See below for guidelines
• For special/themed issue submissions: (1) Specify which call for papers you are responding to, and (2) Indicate whether you would like your paper to be considered for a future general issue if it is not accepted into the special/themed issue

Submission length

• Word count: Between 7,000-8,000 words (including endnotes and references)
• Shorter works between 2,000-3,000 words may be submitted for consideration for the Opinions & Notes section (specify upon submission). These are not peer reviewed so they are also not considered scholarly articles.

Abstracts and Keywords

Every submission to Canadian Literature should be accompanied by an abstract of 150-200 words that summarizes the intervention that the essay makes. A strong abstract helps Canadian Literature find suitable peer-reviewers for an essay. A strong abstract makes a published article more “discoverable” and more likely to be cited because abstracts are “mined” for their metadata by scholarly indexes and algorithmically curated platforms like Google Scholars.

Every submission to Canadian Literature should also be accompanied by 5-7 keywords relevant to the essay. Useful keywords are terms that, if searched for in a specialized academic search engine, for example, Google Scholar, will yield relevant scholarship. Keywords that don’t summon up the scholarly conversation to which you see your work contributing may not be useful keywords.

We ask that abstracts include most (if not all) of the following:

• the name of the article author (and any additional biographical/positional details that are important to you)
• language written in third-person (e.g., “In this article, Joanne Blow argues that . . .” rather than “In this article, I argue that . . .”)
• an abbreviated version of the essay’s title or perhaps another way to identify it (e.g., “this essay about belonging”)
• the full title(s) of the primary text(s) under discussion, italicized or put in quotation marks as appropriate
• publication years of the primary text(s) under discussion OR the general time-period of the writing of the text (e.g., “early twentieth-century novelist . . .”) Use “evergreen language” rather than language that will go out of date (e.g., refer to a writer’s “2014” novel rather than “latest” novel)
• genres and even subgenres of the primary text(s) under discussion (e.g., “novel,” “fantasy novel”)
• author(s)’s name(s) of text(s) under discussion and any additional biographical/positional details about the author(s), especially if these authors identify themselves in these ways and/or these are details relevant to their work (e.g., “Trinidadian Canadian author,” “Cree author”)
• terms identified as keywords. If your article uses a theoretical term as an heuristic, you could put that term in quotation marks to signal its distinction as a coined term (e.g., see “refugeetude” in the example below)
• a summary of the essay’s argument, ideally indicating methodology or approach

Below are sample abstracts and keywords for articles from back issues of Canadian Literature. They have been slightly revised with authors’ permission to include missing/valuable elements for the purposes of providing examples.

Example 1:

Abstract:
Nicole Flores’ essay examines water mythologies and relationships in Haisla writer Eden Robinson’s 2000 novel Monkey Beach and Trinidadian Canadian writer Dionne Brand’s 2001 work of creative nonfiction A Map to the Door of No Return: Notes to Belonging. It considers Robinson’s novel and Brand’s hybrid genre memoir-essay together because they both consider how the water offers anticolonial alternatives for place-making and comparably write water as a site of belonging but not claiming. When Brand dips her hands in the water to pay respect to Yemayá and Robinson’s protagonist Lisamarie dips her hands in the Kitlope River, both distance the practice of place-making from the confines of a colonial claiming. This essay argues, then, that considering how water fosters place-making in these texts can generate thinking that surpasses colonial creations and capturings of space and highlights forms of belonging that exist outside these restrictions.

Keywords: Water Methodologies, Belonging, Wayfinding, Resistance, Literary Mapping, Eden Robinson, Monkey Beach, Dionne Brand, A Map to the Door of No Return

Example 2:

Abstract:
Basmah Rahman’s essay “‘Work Hard’ to Find ‘Home’” applies Vinh Nguyen’s seminal concept of “refugeetude” to Laotian Canadian author Souvankham Thammavongsa’s 2020 collection How to Pronounce Knife: Stories. Focusing on the stories “A Far Distant Thing,” “Edge of the World,” and “How to Pronounce Knife,” Rahman argues that homemaking is complicated by refugee subjecthood as it is shaped by imposed narratives of gratitude, thus uniquely implicating them in Canada’s multicultural discourse. Even though refugeetude is an achieved consciousness, Rahman notes that it still leads to prolonged states of loneliness, particularly among second-generation refugees. Despite this loneliness, Thammavongsa’s collection refuses “refugee narratives to be subsumed into a national fabric.” Indeed, refugee claims to anger, joy, silence and living beyond survival are necessary to finding home in the nation-state.

Keywords: Souvankham Thammavongsa, How to Pronounce Knife, Refugee Subjecthood, Refugeetude, Vinh Nguyen, Gratitude

Example 3:

Abstract:
Tianne Jensen-DesJardins’ essay “Métis Futurist Research Creation: Transformation and Peoplehood in Chelsea Vowel’s 2022 story collection Buffalo is the New Buffalo” provides a reading of two stories, “Buffalo Bird” and “Unsettled,” to better understand how peoplehood and transformative potential figure into Vowel’s conception of Métis futurisms. This essay uses peoplehood as an approach that privileges the connections between Métis people rather than understanding Métis identity on purely racial terms. Similarly, the power of transformation in Vowel’s collection is rendered ordinary, and exceptional acts of transformation are recognized as transformative acts that create an impact. Transformation is also analyzed beyond the literature in Vowel’s innovative use of footnotes within her collection, and how footnotes can function as a form of methodology. Understood as research creation, Vowel’s creative-scholarly stories model Métis ways of knowing and producing knowledge, which creates space for Métis research practices within the academy.

Keywords: Chelsea Vowel, Buffalo is the New Buffalo, Métis Knowledge Production, Indigenous Futurisms, Identity Formation, Land Back

Document formatting

• Font: 12 pt., Times New Roman (or another default font such as Calibri or Arial)
• Spacing: Double-spaced
• Page layout: Standard, with 1-inch margins on each side and 8.5 x 11-inch dimensions
• File format: Word document (.doc or .docx)
• Citations: Formatted according to the latest edition of MLA style

Anonymize your paper

If necessary, submit an original version of your paper and an anonymized version with identifiable information removed, such as acknowledgments sections.

In Microsoft Word documents, author information must be removed from the file.

• On Windows:
  • Go to “Options” under the Tools menu.
  • Go to “Security.”
  • Under “Privacy Options,” select the box “Remove personal information from the file on save,” then click “OK.”
  • Save the file.
• On Mac:
  • Go to “Preferences” under the Word menu.
  • Go to “Security.”
  • Under “Privacy Options,” select the box “Remove personal information from the file on save,” then click “OK.”
  • Save the file.To ensure the integrity of the anonymous peer-review process, every effort should be made to anonymize the identities of authors and reviewers.

Feel free to contact us if you have questions about what is considered identifiable information or want support anonymizing your document.

About the peer review process

Canadian Literature uses a double-anonymous refereeing process. Submissions go through up to two rounds of peer review, with at least two reviewers per round. For the article to be accepted, there must be at least two favourable recommendations (ie. Accept and/or Accept with Revisions) in total: either two in the first round (meaning a second round of peer review is not necessary), one in each round (if the first round decision is Revise & Resubmit), or two in the second round. We do not allow a third round of revisions.

A reviewer for the second round may be one of the original referees or may be a new reviewer. Canadian Literature reserves the right to involve additional readers where required.

The editor can make exceptions to the peer reviewers’ decisions, based on the quality of the review, the expertise of the reviewer, and the quality of the submission. However, we usually follow the advice of our expert peer reviewers. The full procedure takes approximately three months or more. We appreciate your patience in the process.

Opinions & Notes

Occasionally, Canadian Literature publishes shorter opinion pieces and notes. Pieces may be submitted for consideration (specify upon submission that you are submitting to the Opinions & Notes section). While these submissions are not peer-reviewed (and are therefore not considered scholarly articles), they are subject to editorial review. Recent submissions have been between 2,000-3,000 words and have included personal reminiscences, responses to content published by the journal, notes about pedagogy, and bibliographies.

We accept scholarly interviews of writers working in the creative, literary, and/or academic landscapes of Canadian literature. These interviews fall under the same guidelines as articles (i.e., they are also peer-reviewed and about 7,000-9,000 words in length). Each interview submitted should include an abstract, a brief introduction (framing the interview), the interview itself, and any relevant works cited and/or notes.

Given that interview subjects are identified, peer-reviews are not “double-anonymized,” but the interviewer will be anonymized. Peer-reviewers will be asked to assess the interviewer’s initial framing of the interview and the scope, reach, and value of their questions as well as their editing of the interview subjects’ responses.

We accept submissions of original poems from Canadian citizens and permanent residents. All poetry submissions must include a short biography that lists previous publications or, for as yet unpublished poets, a few lines that give context for your work.

Due to space considerations, poems of 1-2 pages in length are preferred. Please do not include more than 5 poems per submission. Files must also be in Portable Document Format (.pdf) to ensure proper spacing and formatting.

Accepted poems will be published in the journal and on the website. Note that your Social Insurance Number will be required for a small honorarium. Separate arrangements for payment will be made if your poem has been accepted for publication.

We do NOT currently accept unsolicited reviews. All book reviews are written by contributors contacted by our editorial staff. As of summer 2023, we are only publishing new reviews of scholarly works on literatures in Canada (broadly defined), especially in relation to approaches such as postcolonialism, ecocriticism, feminism, and critical race and class studies, as well as literary and cultural history.

Reviews FAQs

• Is the book review process anonymous?

No, but reviewers must declare any conflicts of interest such as being an author, editor, or otherwise contributor of the book, or being commissioned by a third party to publish a review.

• How long should my review be?

Reviews are typically 1,000–2,000 words in length. For longer reviews, please consider submitting a review essay.

• What is a Review Essay?

Review essays examine 2-3 (or more) texts on a particular topic and show how they each contribute to their field(s). Unlike reviews, review essays can sometimes go through a round of author revisions with feedback from the Reviews Editor, if they are accepted for publication. Review essays are typically 2,000-3,500 words in length.

• Where will my review be published?

Reviews and review essays are published on our website in our Book Reviews section. At their discretion, the editorial team may also assign reviews to be published in the “Books in Review” section of our print issues.

• Are reviews paid?

Unfortunately, we do not currently offer payment or honoraria for reviews. In advance of your review, CanLit will arrange for a copy of the book(s) under review to be mailed to you by the publisher. Electronic copies may also be available. If your review is selected for publication in a print issue, we will mail you a complimentary copy of the issue in which your review appears.

• I am a book reviewer and see that you do not accept unsolicited reviews, but I think you might be interested in my book review or idea for a book review. Can I still submit one?

Although we do not accept unsolicited book reviews and only publish reviews on scholarly texts, we do welcome statements of interest from potential reviewers. If you are interested in reviewing books for us, please reach out on our Contact Us page. Be prepared to send the following:

1. A CV or Resumé, including your academic qualifications and research interests
2. A 500-word sample of your writing (or a sample review)
3. A short statement of interest outlining which book(s) you are interested in reviewing

• I am an author / publisher / distributor with a forthcoming publication. Would you consider our catalogues or books for review?

If you are interested in sending books to us for review, please use the Contact Us page to coordinate review copies and catalogues. Please do not send copies before contacting the journal.

If you would like to guest edit a special/themed issue of our journal, send queries and proposals using our Contact Us page.

Until 1995, authors publishing in CL held the copyright to their work. With the advent of electronic publishing, however, this arrangement proved no longer practical. After extensive consultation with UBC’s lawyers, CALJ (Canadian Association of Learned Journals), and the Writers’ Union of Canada, CL produced two separate Publishing Agreements (PAs).

You may view examples of our Publishing Agreement here:

• Poetry
• Articles
• Reviews

Poetry Submissions: PAs leave the copyright with the authors

Scholarly articles and reviews: PAs sign the copyright over to the journal. However, authors who relinquish copyright to the journal may still re-publish their work elsewhere provided they obtain permission and acknowledge in print that the work first appears in CL.

Authors are required to sign PAs before their work can be published in print. If your work has been accepted for publication, we will send you a personalized PA. We do not accept signed PAs that have been edited by the author.