Journal of Science Fiction Special Issue on Young Adult Speculative Fiction

2021-06-04

Young adult (YA) speculative fiction routinely engages with many of life’s most important questions: love, death, relationships, the future of the planet, identity, belonging, and our very future as human beings. Whether styled after the classical bildungsroman or otherwise, coming of age narratives in the speculative genre encourage readers to challenge existing power structures and advocate self-expression and self-confidence. They also return agency to those often divested of power by the institutional and social structures that restrict freedoms based on age, and recenter the adolescent as a critical social figure.

To highlight the importance of young adult science and speculative fictions, the Journal of Science Fiction is seeking academic articles of 5,000 to 8,000 words, short reflection pieces of 500 to 1,000 words, and book reviews of 500-750 words by August 1st, 2021 for a special issue on YA speculative fiction.

For the purposes of this issue, Young Adult speculative fiction will be construed broadly to include traditional “hard sf,” as well as speculative fiction, fantasy, horror, and magical realism. We have expanded the parameters that usually guide our selection process for this issue to account for the wide range of YA speculative fiction texts and the industry trend of categorizing YA fiction differently than adult fiction. We hope that by expanding this definition, we will attract submissions that explore all aspects of YA speculative fiction across diverse cultures and cultural constructions.

We welcome submissions on any and all aspects of Young Adult speculative fiction, but are especially interested in works that offer insight into (but are not limited to) the following:

- The speculative bildungsroman
- BIPOC girls and girlhood
- Race, gender, sexuality, ability, or gender identity
- Resistance against authority and institutions
- Counter culture
- Beauty standards and double standards
- Posthumanism and transhumanism
- Environmental dispossession
- Belonging
- Cross-cultural friendship or romance
- Parent-child interactions and other power imbalances
- Individuality and rebellion
- Representations of agency
- Engagement with post-colonial, feminist, queer, and disability theories
- Non-Fiction
- Artwork
- Music
- Book Reviews
- Interviews

Special consideration will be given to essays addressing literature, theory, and contemporary texts and trends.

Please submit completed essays through the MOSF Journal of Science Fiction website, http://publish.lib.umd.edu/scifi/index. To submit your work, click "About" > "Submissions: Online Submissions", create an account, and follow the submission prompts.

Email to: aisha.matthews@museumofsciencefiction.org

Remember to include the following as separate documents:
1) Your demographic information (can be contained in email)
• Name, Affiliations, Contact Information
2) Abstract (up to 300 words) & Keywords
3) Essay containing no identifying markers (to ensure double-blind peer review)
Manuscripts should be submitted as .doc, .docx, or .rtf files. All submissions should be in APA style. The text of the manuscript and the reference list should be submitted as a single file.