Announcements

  • Women in the minificción. Coordinators: Laura Elisa Vizcaíno and Ana María Orjuela

    10-03-2026

    At the end of the 20th century and, above all, in the present 21st century, literature and literary studies have placed women at their centre. This approach arises in response to decades of deliberate neglect and the idea that women had no reason to participate in art or any profession other than motherhood and homemaking.

    The current interest in female writers in literary studies is evident in genres such as novels, essays, poetry and short stories. But what about microrrelato and minificción? During the lockdown of 2020, for example, some collectives became prominent by organising calls for submissions exclusively for women, as well as events to raise the profile of female authors. Nevertheless, studies on female authors and their role in these genres remain scarce. Therefore, from a critical and academic perspective, we must ask ourselves how the participation of women writers, women editors and women academics dedicated to the hyper-short genre is being studied, and how we can approach it analytically. Analysing women's participation may also be possible from the earliest examples of microrrelato, not just from a contemporary perspective. It is also necessary to consider the work of the first women in the development of the genre.

    The thematic scope of the monograph will cover:

    1. Production of female writers of minificción and microrrelato.
    2. Pioneering female authors of the genre.
    3. The work of women editors.
    4. The contribution of women academics, researchers and critics.
    5. The theme of women and/or femininity addressed by writers of minificción and microrrelato.
    6. Compendiums, bibliographies and anthologies of women writers.
    7. Collectives of women writers and other forms of organisation around women and minificción.

    The timeframe of the studies may span the 20th and 21st centuries. We hope that scholars of literature in general will be interested in the topic and will be able to contribute their own perspective on the prolific genre of brevity.

    You can find the author guidelines here. For this issue, only book reviews of works by women authors will be accepted.

    Dates:
    Submission deadline: July 20, 2026
    Publication of the special issue: November 1, 2026

    Read more about Women in the minificción. Coordinators: Laura Elisa Vizcaíno and Ana María Orjuela

  • Monograph Issue No. 20. Mikhail Bakhtin’s Chronotope: Time and Space in Flash Fiction Edited by July Seda Carrero. University of Puerto Rico at Carolina

    20-02-2026

    Narrative, in general, requires time and space to establish a context in which the plot unfolds. Thus, in the novel, the short story, and flash fiction, time and space serve to weave together the stories that are to be presented. In flash fiction, time and space help frame the ephemeral nature of what is being narrated. According to Bakhtin's chronotope, time and space are intrinsically connected in literary texts. However, hyperbrevity often causes these elements in micro-stories to be condensed or elided. Brevity conditions a change in the formal categories of the narrative text; that is, in character development, plot, dialogue, surprising endings, linguistic experimentation, and time and space. The following areas of study are proposed for this issue:
    1. Real or imaginary spaces in microfiction
    2. Intertextuality: interchangeable time and space
    3. Metaphorical spaces: contributions to the micro-story
    4. Urban spaces and microfiction
    5. Ellipsis: requirement of an active reader to fill in the narrative gaps
    6. Manipulation of temporal order: chronology or anachrony (analepsis or prolepsis) in the text
    7. Adventure chronotope: interchangeable spaces
    8. Connections between time, space, and characters (literary or historical)
    9. Microfiction in media res
    10. History (eras, movements, characters, events) and microfiction
    11. Presence or absence of time and space in microfiction
    12. Relationship between time, space, and title
    13. Time and space according to the author’s intention: social or political criticism/denunciation

     

    Deadlines:
    Submission of articles until February 1, 2027
    Publication of the monograph: May 1, 2027

    Read more about Monograph Issue No. 20. Mikhail Bakhtin’s Chronotope: Time and Space in Flash Fiction Edited by July Seda Carrero. University of Puerto Rico at Carolina