Publication and issue: Journal of The Short Story in English (JSSE): “Defiance in 21st–century South African short stories”.
Deadline for proposal submission: 1 June 2026.
Issue theme / Volume presentation
The short story is the short fiction genre in which South African literature has most consistently excelled. It experienced a literary “renaissance” in transitioning from apartheid to a non-racial South Africa (MacKenzie 2010). However, while short stories of the early 1990s marked the hopeful vision of a ‘rainbow nation, ‘post-2000 short stories reflect increasing generic diversification and a range of aesthetic practices symptomatic of the thwarted promises of the country’s political transition (Sandwith 2022). This special issue of the Journal of the Short Story in English (JSSE) will examine the 21st-century South African short story genre through the prism of defiance. How is defiance re-imagined in post-2000 South African writing? Is there a new poetics of defiance emerging in contemporary short stories? How do the shades of defiance, in form and substance, reflect and address the complexities of the country’s cultural, social and political realities?
Full CFP: https://journals.openedition.org/jsse/4636
Timeline
- Abstract submissions: 1 June 2026
- Notification of provisional acceptance : 1 July 2026
- Completed papers: 1 January 2027
- Publication in Autumn 2027
Website address
https://journals.openedition.org/jsse/4636
Contact details
DefianceJSSE2027@protonmail.com
CFP
For further details, please check the original call inserted below.
Call for Papers JSSE_ “Defiance in 21st–century South African short stories”(Posted 28 May 2025)