[Commlist] Call for Papers: ENSFR 2026

      ENSFR 2026 Call for Papers

In Different Shapes: The Short Story and its Modes of Circulation in 
Magazines and Newspapers

10–12 June 2026 / 10-12 juin 2026/ 10–12 de junio de 2026

Laboratoire Textes et Cultures (UR4058), Université d’Artois

Invited Speakers:
Elizabeth Baines
Paul Delaney, Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin

View the full call here>>

https://www.intellectbooks.com/short-fiction-in-theory-practice#call-for-papers 
<https://www.intellectbooks.com/short-fiction-in-theory-practice#call-for-papers>

***

Numerous studies link the birth of the short story to the most primitive 
myths (see, among others, Paul Delaney, Charles E. May). As a literary 
genre, the first examples appeared in the 19th century, although it must 
be acknowledged that the first buds were already visible in Boccaccio’s 
Decameron(1353), Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales(1387), and Cervantes’s 
Exemplary Novels(1613). In the 19th century, it seems that practitioners 
of this emerging genre moved away from Voltaire-style philosophical 
tales and fables, turning their attention to inner worlds and 
characters. The ordinary they are interested in mainly has two faces: 
one realistic, the other darker, often associated with the fantastic, 
the gothic, even horror. As Jonathan Daniel Wells explains, magazines in 
the United States were ‘modeled [. . . ] after European journals like 
Graham’s Magazineand the Edinburgh Review(Wells 2011: 3). They were 
often meant to reflect life in specific region and, when circulated 
largely, to promote tourism. Some publications, such as Le Chat noirin 
France or the illustrated Madrid-based magazine Blanco y Negroin Spain, 
were intended, like The New Yorkersome years later, to advertise 
cultural events and venues while publishing renowned artists and 
offering a platform for those trying to make themselves known.

Following the ideas initiated at the Leuven conference in 2017 on the 
short story, its contexts and co-texts, the 2026 ENSFR conference will 
be devoted to short forms appearing in magazines and newspapers. We will 
consider any story printed in such media but also stories that were 
solely published in magazines and newspapers (as opposed to stories that 
were later collected in book form), adapted into film or into longer 
works of fiction (as is often the case with “stories” that appear in the 
fiction section of The New Yorker, in Grantaor in academic journals such 
as TriQuarterly). Panelists may also work on any short form to be found 
in magazines (commercials, letters to the editor, notes...) as well as 
illustrated stories—the illustrations providing yet another story to 
explore, as Stuart Sillars demonstrates and as suggested by the success 
in Spain of publications such as La Ilustración Española y Americanaor, 
later, El Cuento Semanal. Writers often admit that some of their stories 
were inspired from actual events that they read about in the press, 
heard about on the radio… How are such news items turned into fiction? 
Are they made more sensational, more topical? How do readers respond to 
them? In the Spanish context, contributors may also examine how writers 
managed to adapt under Francoism to a constrained context marked by 
strong ideological control, as the magazine Ínsuladid. Certain magazines 
target a specific audience, and it could be stimulating to reflect upon 
writers’ ability to please (at least on the surface) literary editors. 
What role do academic journals or journals closely connected to academic 
circles play as laboratories of the genre? Such publications also 
examine the dynamics of consolidation or emancipation of the tropes of 
the genre, while posing the eternal question of the tumultuous 
relationship between short stories and the publishing industry that 
differs from their relationship with the press. In the nineteenth 
century, stories were often referred to as “articles,” “tales” or 
“sketches” (see Goyet, and, among others, Monfort)—how does this 
influence our understanding of the texts? What are the differences 
between stories printed in magazines and those printed in newspapers? 
The conference will give us an opportunity to discuss magazine 
publication with several authors and critics (Elizabeth Baines, and Paul 
Delaney have confirmed their presence) and see how magazine and 
newspaper publication has evolved since its earliest forms.

Deadline for submissions (200 words and a bio statement): 31 January 2026

Send your proposal to (caroline.lyvet /at/ univ-artois.fr) 
<mailto:(caroline.lyvet /at/ univ-artois.fr)> and (gerald.preher /at/ univ-artois.fr) 
<mailto:(gerald.preher /at/ univ-artois.fr)>

Selected articles will be published in Short Fiction in Theory and 
Practiceand the Journal of the Short Story in English.

Conference fees: 80 euros (60 for doctoral students).

REFERENCE
Wells, Jonathan Daniel (2011), Women Writers and Journalists in the 
Nineteenth-Century South, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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