The 2026 general article submission window will be open until the beginning of June 2026. Book review queries and submissions remain open throughout the year. If you passed your accessibility screening and are already in process of working with us for a creative think piece or essay, please remain in touch with the editor with whom you have been working.
If you are submitting to JFA Presents: The Ruthven Literary Bulletin, follow issue-specific guidelines here or at the bottom of this page. Submissions for the focused issue will be open until June 2026 and acceptances will go out by September 2026. The issue will be published in early 2027. For submission information for the Bulletin, click here or scroll to the bottom of this page.
Please make sure that essays and book reviews adhere to the JFA Submission, Accessibility and Sensitivity Review Handbook and JFA In-House Style Guide before submission to journal@fantastic-arts.org. All submissions must be completely anonymous and submitted in .doc or .docx following MLA guidelines as adapted by our In-House Style Guide. Do not submit without making sure your work is in line with the guidelines articulated in the Submission, Accessibility and Sensitivity Handbook. Please wait until submission windows have closed before querying about review status.
JFAs-Submission-Accessibility-and-Sensitivity-Handbook
Subject Matter
Like the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts from which it was generated, JFA welcomes papers on all aspects of the fantastic in world literatures and media, as well as interdisciplinary approaches including African/Diaspora Studies, anthropology, area studies, critical game studies, disability studies, future studies, gender studies, history, Indigenous studies, music, philosophy, political science, postcolonial studies, psychology, queer studies, religious studies, science and technology studies, and sociology. All papers are made available in English. Those interested in publishing in other languages in addition to English are asked to inquire with our Acquisitions Editor at jfa.editor@fantastic-arts.org with the subject line “Languages.”
Submissions should contain a more in-depth discussion than a conference-length paper and demonstrate a grasp of current scholarship on the subject. The length of articles generally varies from 3,500-9,000 words and ranges from 15-35 pages.
Submissions are peer-reviewed in accordance with our peer review statement and the BIPOC Anti-Racist Statement on Scholarly Reviewing Practices. If submissions are flagged at any point of the review process for the risk of promulgating potentially misrepresentative, stereotypical, ableist, or racist views, contributors will be asked to address these problems before the review process can continue.
An accessibility or subject reviewer can recommend a final rejection, which will be upheld by the Journal. Please be aware that there is an upper limit of three review rejections of an essay, even without a reviewer’s request for a final rejection, that will nevertheless result in a final rejection. This means that if an essay does not pass an accessibility and sensitivity or subject review, the submission may only be revised and submitted twice more before the Journal‘s final rejection. Please pay careful attention to feedback from any and all anonymized reviews. Be aware that requests for revision are alternatives to final rejection. Please respect and leave in place editorial revisions reviewers may have made for you. Should you wish to discuss revisions, immediately contact the Acquisitions and Reviews Editor-in-Chief at jfa.acquisitions@fantastic-arts.org. Please also be aware that compromising your or a reviewer’s anonymity will also result in an immediate final rejection of the essay.
JFA also publishes reviews of scholarly works addressing the fantastic, broadly construed. Reviews of fiction are limited to reissues of speculative works with new introductions and scholarly apparatuses, and speculative works with the potential to impact scholarship in the genre. Books and other media received are advertised on the IAFA discussion list (which can be subscribed to through the IAFA homepage at www.iafa.org), and IAFA members are encouraged to suggest titles for review. Questions and suggestions may be addressed to the Acquisitions Department through Submissions Editor-in-Chief Tedd Hawks at journal@fantastic-arts.org with the subject line including the phrase “Book Review.”
Formatting the Manuscript
Since the refereeing process is anonymous, the author’s name should not appear anywhere on the text file itself, including the notes. No title page is needed. However, an abstract of 100-150 words should be included with each submission.
Please ensure that all citations and the Works Cited entries are MLA-aligned for all formatting not specifically defined by JFA in-house style rules. Please do not use automatically generated notes; end notes (only) must be entered manually. A paper that doesn’t meet our printing parameters can take a great deal of time to adjust. To avoid unnecessary changes and delays, it is best to use our guidelines from the start. For complete guidelines, please refer to the Submission, Accessibility and Sensitivity Review Handbook and the JFA In-House Style Guide. In case of conflicting instructions, defer to the Submission, Accessibility and Sensitivity Review Handbook and the JFA In-House Style Guide. Contributors are responsible for acquiring all permissions to quote and/or use illustrations that accompany their article, and for paying (or arranging to have their institutions pay) all usage fees, including copyright.
Contributors are responsible for acquiring all permissions to quote and/or use illustrations that accompany their article, and for paying (or arranging to have their institutions pay) all usage fees, including copyright.
Submitting
All submissions should be copied to Submissions Editor-in-Chief Tedd Hawks at journal@fantastic-arts.org. Scholarly articles are processed through the department of the JFA‘s Acquisitions and Reviews Editor-in-Chief, Novella Brooks de Vita, jfa.acquisitions@fantastic-arts.org. Book reviews are solicited; however, the journal’s Submissions Editor-in-Chief Tedd Hawks may be contacted for information on books available for review and to suggest books for review.
JFA Submission Checklist-at-a-Glance
- Follow In-House manuscript formatting and composition: Classic MLA style with Accessibility adjustments. This means write in:
- Times New Roman 12-point font throughout, including the title.
- Double space only between all lines, paragraphs, and sections.
- Use MLA Title Case for titles.
- Each quote must be followed by an in-text citation including this information: (Author, Title or “Title,” page number, ch. number, np, or Time Stamp).
- Do not use quotation marks or italics except for attributed quotes and titles, unless quoting.
- Avoid Subheadings throughout the essay; build a narrative argument.
- Use Endnotes, not footnotes.
- Write Works Cited, not a Bibliography or References.
- Online materials in Works Cited must end with an Access date.
- Follow Accessibility/Sensitivity Guidelines as detailed in the JFA’s Handboook.
- Do not color code people unless quoting; use regional ancestral descriptors, if ethnic identity is necessary, and capitalize ethnic group names.
- Do not write offensive, demeaning, or derogatory labels for people unless quoting.
- Do not write in royal “we”; use third person anonymous or first person singular.
- Write an Abstract that states the essay’s thesis argument; explain what the essay proves and how the essay contributes new knowledge or insight to the study of the Fantastic.
- Times New Roman 12-point font, double-spaced throughout, anonymized, with an abstract, endnotes if necessary (not footnotes), and Works Cited; write in third person plural (“readers”) or singular omniscient (“one”) or first-person singular as necessary; do not write in second person or first person plural (royal “we”).
- In-text citations following quotes:
- “Quote without final punctuation” (Author’s Last Name Text or “Text” page number or np for no pages) final punctuation.
- “Quote without final punctuation” (Film’s Title time stamp as 00:00:00) final punctuation.
- (Ibid.) if all the above information remains unchanged from the previous quote.
- Block quotes do not have the final punctuation after the closing parentheses.
- Except in the case of citations, punctuation marks go inside quotation marks (Canada-US-style, rather than British).
- In order to ensure that screen readers to not misinterpret information, do not shorten University Press to UP and use SF instead of sf.
- For page ranges give the full range (for example, 231-235 instead of 231-5).
Make sure that your Works Cited is formatted according to this template:
Works Cited
Author’s Last Name, First Name. Additional Authors’ First and Last Names, if applicable. Full-Length Text or “Short Text.” City: Publishing Company. Year of Publication
Author’s Last Name, First Name. Additional Authors’ First and Last Names, if applicable. Full-Length Text or “Short Text.” Publishing Company. Date of publication. DOI: URL. Accessed date for online sources.
Film Title. First and Last Name, Writer if significant. First and Last Name, Director. Distributing Company. Year of Distribution.
PLEASE NOTE
If you have submitted an article or other correspondence to the JFA’s acquisitions email and have not yet heard back, please resend your query to both jfa.acquisitions@fantastic-arts (dot) org and journal@fantastic-arts (dot) org. Thank you for your interest.
JFA Presents: The Ruthven Literary Bulletin – FOCUSED ISSUE CALL FOR PAPERS
Issue Editor: Elizabeth Schechter
In preparation of the relaunch the Ruthven Literary Bulletin. the Lord Ruthven Assembly welcomes papers that explore and expound on the appearance and mythology of vampires and revenants in world literature and media, including fiction/nonfiction/mass media/periodicals, as well as reviews of both academic works and fiction. Interdisciplinary approaches are welcome and encouraged, including but not limited to explorations of the vampire in non-Eurocentric settings, African/Diaspora Studies, anthropology, area studies, critical game studies, disability studies, future studies, gender studies, history, Indigenous studies, music, philosophy, political science, postcolonial studies, psychology, queer studies, religious studies, science and technology studies, and sociology. All papers are made available in English. Those interested in publishing in other languages in addition to English are asked to inquire with our Acquisitions Editor at jfa.editor@fantastic-arts.org with the subject line “Languages.”
Submissions should contain a more in-depth discussion than a conference-length paper and demonstrate a grasp of current scholarship on the subject. The length of articles generally varies from 3,500-9,000 words and ranges from 15-35 pages.
Submissions are peer-reviewed in accordance with our peer review statement and the BIPOC Anti-Racist Statement on Scholarly Reviewing Practices. If submissions are flagged at any point of the review process for the risk of promulgating potentially misrepresentative, stereotypical, ableist, or racist views, contributors will be asked to address these problems before the review process can continue.
An accessibility or subject reviewer can recommend a final rejection, which will be upheld by the Journal. Please be aware that there is an upper limit of three review rejections of an essay, even without a reviewer’s request for a final rejection, that will nevertheless result in a final rejection. This means that if an essay does not pass an accessibility and sensitivity or subject review, the submission may only be revised and submitted twice more before the Journal‘s final rejection. Please pay careful attention to feedback from any and all anonymized reviews. Be aware that requests for revision are alternatives to final rejection. Please respect and leave in place editorial revisions reviewers may have made for you. Should you wish to discuss revisions, immediately contact the Acquisitions and Reviews Editor-in-Chief at jfa.acquisitions@fantastic-arts.org. Please also be aware that compromising your or a reviewer’s anonymity will also result in an immediate final rejection of the essay.
JFA also publishes reviews of scholarly works addressing the fantastic, broadly construed. Reviews of fiction are limited to reissues of speculative works with new introductions and scholarly apparatuses, and speculative works with the potential to impact scholarship in the genre. Books and other media received are advertised on the IAFA discussion list (which can be subscribed to through the IAFA homepage at www.iafa.org), and IAFA members are encouraged to suggest titles for review. Questions and suggestions may be addressed to the Acquisitions Department through Submissions Editor-in-Chief Tedd Hawks at journal@fantastic-arts.org with the subject line including the phrase “Book Review.”
Formatting the Manuscript
Since the refereeing process is anonymous, the author’s name should not appear anywhere on the text file itself, including the notes. No title page is needed. However, an abstract of 100-150 words should be included with each submission.
Please ensure that all citations and the Works Cited entries follow MLA 8 or 9 style rules. Please do not use automatically generated notes; end notes (only) must be entered manually. A paper that doesn’t meet our printing parameters can take many hours to adjust. To avoid needless changes and delays, it is best to use our guidelines from the start. For complete guidelines, please refer to the Submission, Accessibility and Sensitivity Review Handbook. In case of conflicting instructions, defer to the Submission, Accessibility and Sensitivity Review Handbook.
Contributors are responsible for acquiring all permissions to quote and/or use illustrations that accompany their article, and for paying (or arranging to have their institutions pay) all usage fees, including copyright.
Submitting
All submissions should be sent to Submissions Editor-in-Chief Tedd Hawks at journal@fantastic-arts.org. When submitting, use the following subject line format: “LRB Submission: Title” in order for your Bulletin submission to be directed to the appropriate editor. All submissions should be written to: journal@fantastic-arts.org, cc: easchechter+LRA@gmail.com.
Scholarly articles are processed through the department of the JFA‘s Acquisitions and Reviews Editor-in-Chief, Novella Brooks de Vita, jfa.acquisitions@fantastic-arts.org. Book reviews are solicited, however the journal’s Submissions Editor-in-Chief Tedd Hawks may be contacted for information on books available for review and to suggest books for review.
Submissions will be open through the month of May and will close June 2026. You may expect a formal acceptance or rejection of your submission by September 2026. JFA Presents: The Ruthven Literary Bulletin will be published in early 2027.