Two new Calls for Papers at the Journal of Popular Romance Studies!
First, there's one called "Romancing the Library," which should be of interest to a new group of scholars (and working librarians) engaged with romance media:
CALL FOR PAPERS: Romancing the Library
Access to information is at the core of a library’s mission, whether it serves a public, academic, or special library audience. When it comes to romance novels, however, reader demand is often more than a library can meet, with constrained library budgets outstripped by the sheer volume of titles published each year. How, then, does a library decide which titles to purchase? What factors motivate selection or deselection? How do the explicitness of love scenes and / or controversial subject matter shape that decision making process? Where does the line between selection and censorship lie?
Once an electronic or print title has been acquired, the library must decide where to house it within the collection and how best to inform readers of its existence. A library can create finding aids or subject guides, designate a specialist on the subject of romance, or find other ways to coordinate reference services around popular romance titles. What are the best practices for readers’ advisory and reference for romance? How are other media, such as romantic films or graphic novels, incorporated into reference services for romance novels? Is there a significant enough overlap between those audiences to warrant doing so?
The Journal of Popular Romance Studies (JPRS) seeks articles for a special issue on the intersection between romance and all types of libraries, anywhere in the world. This issue will discuss policy and practice, controversies, patterns and changes in the way that the library profession deals with popular romance fiction and with romance in other media (film, graphic novels, magazines) as well.
Submissions are particularly welcome on the following topics, although articles that examine other intersections between popular romance and libraries will also be considered for publication.
- Collection development policy, practice, and preservation
- E-books versus print books, publisher/vendor e-book check out and geographic limits
- Popular romance in special collections, browsing collections
- Defining a core collection of romance novels
- Censorship of popular romance in libraries
- Romance reference and readers’ advisory
Submissions are due by May 1, 2014.
- Romantic films and other media within the library
This Special Issue of The Journal of Popular Romance Studies is guest edited by Crystal Goldman. Please submit scholarly articles between 5,000 and 10,000 words, including notes and bibliography. Pieces longer than 12,000 words will be returned unread.
Manuscripts can be sent to An Goris, Managing Editor, managing.editor@jprstudies.org. Submissions should be Microsoft Word documents, with citations in MLA format. Please remove all identifying material (i.e. running heads with the author’s name) so that submissions can easily be sent out for anonymous peer review. Suggestions for appropriate peer reviewers are welcome. For more information on how to submit a paper, please visit http://jprstudies.org/submissions/.Second, we have a call for papers on "Paranormal Romance." There was oodles of interest in Paranormal at this Spring's PCA conference, and we hope to get lots of submissions, so please do spread the word!
Call for Papers: Paranormal Romance
Romance Writers of America (RWA) defines a paranormal romance as a “romance novel in which the future, a fantasy world, or paranormal elements are an integral part of the plot.” Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark Hunter series, Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga, and J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood novels are just a few examples of the proliferation of this subgenre in the early 21st century. Paranormal romance is also flourishing in a broader sense—in the urban and dark fantasy novels of authors like Ilona Andrews (Kate Daniels, The Edge) and Charlaine Harris (Southern Vampires); in feature films (Warm Bodies, Let the Right One In, Beautiful Creatures); in television (The Vampire Diaries, True Blood, Supernatural, Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead), and in digital media forms from graphic novels to video games.
Why does the paranormal, in its myriad representations, resonate so strongly with pop culture consumers, particularly in its juxtaposition with romance? What can the paranormal romance teach us about contemporary understandings of gender, sexuality, race, the body, hybridity, genre, and the market?
The Journal of Popular Romance Studies (JPRS) seeks essay submissions for a special issue on Paranormal Romance. Kristina Deffenbacher and Erin S. Young are guest editors.
We welcome submissions on the following topics, although all papers engaging with the subject of paranormal romance will be considered. Submissions are due by July 1, 2014.More JPRS news coming soon!
Please submit scholarly articles between 5,000 and 10,000 words, including notes and bibliography. Pieces longer than 12,000 words will be returned unread. Manuscripts can be sent to An Goris, Managing Editor, managing.editor@jprstudies.org. Submissions should be Microsoft Word documents, with citations in MLA format. Please remove all identifying material (i.e. running heads with the author’s name) so that submissions can easily be sent out for anonymous peer review. Suggestions for appropriate peer reviewers are welcome. For more information on how to submit a paper, please visit http://jprstudies.org/submissions/.
- How do paranormal settings, characterizations, attributes, etc. facilitate interrogations and re-imaginings of gender, sexuality, and/or intimacy?
- How are paranormal characterizations informed by existing cultural narratives about race, ethnicity, and national identity?
- How do paranormal romances use characters’ non-human or not-fully-human status to represent beyond-normative bodies, sex and/or violence?
- What assumptions or anxieties play out in contentions over the generic boundaries of paranormal romance and its relationship to other (sub-)genres?
- How does the generic hybridity of paranormal romance affect dynamics within texts, between texts and readers, and/or in the marketing of texts?
- Who are the consumers of paranormal romance? How do blogs and online communities of paranormal romance writers and fans reflect and shape the genre?
