Announcing new e-journal: Call for Submissions to Assay

The purpose of Assay is to publish the best in critical scholarship of creative nonfiction, to provide a space for work that elevates the genre in an academic setting.  Our purpose is to facilitate all facets of that conversation, to be a resource for writers, scholars, readers, and teachers of nonfiction.

 General Guidelines:  We seek critical explorations of nonfiction texts, explications of nonfiction pedagogy, and conversations with nonfiction writers, teachers, and scholars.

Article Guidelines:

• Scholarly articles of 15-25 pages, not including Works Cited.
• We welcome explorations of all types of nonfiction texts, from traditional to experimental, from travel writing to memoir. We also seek submissions that attend to the incredible variety of nonfiction forms.
• We welcome all critical lenses, from craft analysis to ecocriticism to postcolonialism.
• We seek a wide variety of authors and texts to represent the range of the genre. We particularly seek articles on women and nonfictionists of color.
• We welcome submissions by undergraduate writers, but please query us first.

Conversations Guidelines: 

• Interviews: The subject and approach are negotiable, though we are open to video and podcast interviews as well as traditional print; the interview will aim to add something new to the nonfiction conversation; we will not accept interviews simply because of name recognition; please query us if you wish to do an interview.
• Riffs: Riffs include short, informal discussions of a craft element or reaction to a work of nonfiction (book length or otherwise), whether that text is new or not. We generally do not publish book reviews, but if you would like to query us with a book review idea, please feel free to do so. We are open to the conversation. We do, however, seek to build a library of reviews of nonfiction textbooks (please see Pedagogy). Riffs should be 500-1000 words.

Pedagogy Guidelines:

• We seek to facilitate conversations between teachers of nonfiction.  To do this, we seek work that addresses the pedagogy of nonfiction.  This may include a reading list with explanation for a nonfiction course, a Riff addressing how a particular book worked (or failed) in a course you’ve taught, a lesson plan with writing exercises, or other aspect of practical pedagogy, your credo or philosophy of nonfiction. These are only a few ideas; Pedagogy is a flexible forum.
• We seek Pedagogy that addresses all levels of students, from first year composition to beginning and advanced creative writing undergraduates, to graduate students.
• Pedagogy submissions are generally short (1000 words); we also seek scholarly articles of nonfiction pedagogy, but we will consider them under Articles guidelines.

For More Information

Please visit us online at www.assayjournal.com or email Karen Babine at assayjournal@gmail.com