Brave New World Literature Feature

To mark our second decade, we will switch out our permanent Writers on Writers Feature with a Brave New World Literature showcase (see our Winter 2021 issue for examples of work we have already published under the aegis of this Feature). We invite essays from readers, critics, translators engaging with and problematizing the very concept of “world literature.” Topics might include: the trend toward a more decentralized curation even as English remains dominant in world literature (as evidenced by the number of English-speaking Nobel laureates in the last decade alone), online literary journals and the role they play in curation, hegemonic statuses of texts determined by a predominantly white publishing industry (and the associated “danger of a single story”), the concept of the global novel, notions of center and periphery, major and minor literature, advocacy for underrepresented voices in world literature, modes of circulating world literature, canonization, literary gatekeeping, and even the question of institutional funding. All other guidelines apply. Rolling deadline.