Submission Guidelines

College Literature: A Journal of Critical Literary Studies considers scholarly essays that fall within the scope of its Editorial Policy (see About the Journal). The journal will also consider commentary or opinion pieces on issues of importance to contemporary literary scholarship, but please contact the Editor prior to submission with details of your proposed topic for specific submission guidelines.

Essays

College Literature has a policy of anonymous peer review. The journal does not accept simultaneous submissions, and all submissions must be original and unpublished work. To learn more about our peer review practice and timeline, visit the journal's site on JHUP.

Manuscripts should be double-spaced and between 8,000 and 12,000 words.

Please ensure that neither your name nor any identifying reference appears anywhere in the manuscript. Any necessary reference to your previous work should be in the third person.

College Literature's style sheet can be downloaded here. We use the Chicago Manual of Style author-date reference system as set out in chapter 15 (Author-Date References) of the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition. However, for the purpose of submissions, we accept essays in MLA format as well. If an essay is accepted, we ask authors to change to the CMS author-date system.

Submit your essay as a Microsoft Word document through ScholarOne at this link: ScholarOne
If you are new to ScholarOne, you will be prompted to establish an account. You will also be prompted to submit an abstract of about 150 words as well as key terms. If you have questions about your submission, feel free to contact the journal at collit@wcupa.edu.

Book Reviews

Those interested in submitting book reviews can consult with the book review editor, Scott Gibson, by sending an email to stgibson@usfq.edu.ec. Those who have been assigned to write a book review can find our style sheet here.

Critical Forum Essays and Commentaries

Critical forum essays and commentaries are assigned by the editor of College Literature. Those wishing to propose a topic for a critical forum or a commentary should email the editor at collit@wcupa.edu. Do not submit unsolicited critical forum essays or commentaries through ScholarOne.

Special Issues

Scholars interested in guest editing a special issue of College Literature should contact the editor, collit@wcupa.edu, to determine the suitability of the topic to the journal. If a topic is appropriate, scholars will then be asked to submit a more formal proposal, which is reviewed by the Editorial Team and members of the Editorial Board.