CFPs – SFRA Review

Call for Papers: Short Takes on the 2025 Nebula and Hugo Award Nominees

From the SFRA Review

Short Takes on the 2025 Nebula and Hugo Award Nominees

The Editorial Collective

It’s award season, and few of us have the time to read all the nominated works. Yet most of us will read at least one of the works, and all of us can benefit from your insight on a particular text. The SFRA Review invites readers to submit short (1000-2000 word) analyses on any one or two of the novels, novellas, novelettes, short stories, dramatic presentations, kids/YA, or game writing nominated for the 2025 Nebula and Hugo awards, to be published in our 01 August issue.

The Nebula nominees can be found here, and the Hugo nominees here.

We’d love to read diverse perspectives on these works in order to understand what makes the works noteworthy. The SFRA Review invites scholars, fans or casual readers to submit a short take Each submission should include the following:

a very brief introduction to the author
a very brief plot summary and description of the formal qualities of the text: narration, presentation, prose style, etc.
what in your opinion makes the text stand out as worthy of nomination for a Nebula Award, or why it is not worthy of a nomination
a close reading/watching of a section of the text you feel demonstrates what makes the text (un)worthy
(optional) a comparison between two nominated works, or between a nominated work and another work you feel is salient

Submissions

Please note that this CFP is on a three-month timeline rather than our usual six-month timeline in order that the pieces be published during awards season.

Submissions should be in .docx format, between 1000 and 2000 words long. Citations should be in MLA format. Please avoid discursive footnotes/endnotes; such notes as are included within the text should not be linked: just use a superscript number and then put the notes at the end of the document. Please include a brief bio of yourself.

Please submit a brief abstract to icampbell@gsu.edu by 30 May and a completed submission by 30 June. Please be prepared to complete edits by 15 July. Submissions will be published in the 01 August issue. We look forward to hearing from you.

Call for Papers: Utopia and Dystopia in Turkish Science Fiction Literature

⮌ SFRA Review, vol. 55 no. 1

From the SFRA Review

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**From Pandora’s Box to The City of the Sun: Utopia and Dystopia in Turkish Science Fiction Literature**

The Editorial Collective

Utopias are imagined, idealized paradises that offer visions of alternative power relations. Dystopias, on the other hand, express a negative worldview characterized by domination, punishment, and oppressive practices. Utopias and dystopias alike offer a literary, political, and philosophical synthesis of political thought, techno-scientific narratives, and naturecultures. In doing so, dystopias may present subterranean civilizations, class relations, and the domination of high levels of technology in an ideological and ecocritical manner, whereas utopias are more likely to explore non-existent, lost, or imagined paradises.

The possibility of utopian thinking is, however, shaped by dystopian realities and foresight. In this context, utopias can be considered “some variation on an ideal present, an ideal past and an ideal future, and the relation between the three” (Gregory Claeys, 2020: 13). Utopian and dystopian fictions therefore hold a prominent place in science fiction literature. While science fiction genres in the 1970s focused on freedom, peace, climate change, and political and economic problems, today, influences such as critical theory, feminism, gender studies and posthumanism have an important impact on science fiction literature. In recent years, the increasing number of literary works (novels, short stories, translations, etc.) in the field of Turkish science fiction literature indicates a growing interest in these issues among Turkish writers and scholars. We present the theme of utopia and dystopia in Turkish science fiction literature with the concept of “disedebitopia.” This concept features the term edeb at its core, which is an abbreviation of edebiyat, the Turkish word for literature. Edeb also refers to edep, meaning decency or decorum, which holds significant importance in literature and represents respect for aesthetic and ethical values.

This CFP aims to expand research in Turkish science fiction literature from past to present. This issue aims to create an interdisciplinary anthology by bringing together studies focusing on the theme of disedebitopia.

This special issue of the SFRA Review is dedicated to an interdisciplinary review of utopia and dystopian fiction and their various subgenres and intersections in Turkish science fiction literature, as well as the humanities, social sciences, psychology, philosophy, and science and technology. SFRA Review is an open access journal published four times a year by the Science Fiction Research Association (SFRA) (eISSN 2641-2837; former ISSN 1068-395X). We encourage established and emerging scholars or graduate and postgraduate students interested in this special issue to submit abstracts related to, but not limited to, the following areas and topics within Turkish science fiction:

• Solar/Bio/Cyberpunk Subgenres and Utopia/Dystopia
• Cyberfeminism, Cyborg Feminism and Cyber Utopia/Dystopia
• Feminist Utopia / Dystopia
• Disability Studies in Utopia / Dystopia Fictions
• Robotic, Design and Artificial Intelligence Technologies in Utopia/Dystopias
• Futuristic, Artistic and Aesthetic Designs of Literary Utopia/Dystopias
• Gods, Heroes and Disasters: Mythological Connections of Utopia/Dystopias in Literature
• Spaces of the Future: Symbolic Use of Space in Utopia/Dystopias
• Utopia/Dystopia in the Framework of Transhumanism/Posthumanism
• Psychological Reflection of Social Structures: Family, Society and Power Dynamics in
Utopia/Dystopias
• The Collapse of Time: Fictional Time of the Future in Literary Utopia/Dystopias
• Critical Posthumanism, New Materialism and Posthuman and Non-Human Being/Becoming in Literary Utopia/Dystopian Fiction
• Back to Nature: Ecocriticism and the Redesign of Human-Nature Relations in Green Utopias
• Queer Utopias and Gender
• Humanity in the Age of Surveillance: Digital Totalitarian Systems of Dystopias
• Panopticon and Dystopia: The Role of Space in Totalitarian Regimes
• Capitalism and the Future: Dystopias, Marxist Critique and Political Economy
• The Post-Apocalyptic World and Humanity: Philosophical Foundations of Dystopias

Submissions

This CFP is addressed to academics, science fiction lovers, Turkish literature researchers, and anyone interested in science fiction literature. Those interested can send 250-word abstracts in both Turkish and English to Meltem Dağcı (dagci.meltem@gmail.com) and Duygu Küçüköz Aydemir (duygumbs@gmail.com), cc-ing managing editor Virginia L. Conn (vconn@stevens.edu). However, the full text of accepted abstracts must be submitted in English. Otherwise, it is recommended that manuscripts submitted in Turkish be translated into English after the initial review, after editorial corrections, and, if necessary, after being returned to the author with suggestions. However, we would like to remind interested applicants that any submissions will be subjected to an editorial review again after translation.

Following submission of a ~200-word abstract and 200-word bio, authors will be notified if their abstracts have been accepted and will be sent a Word document outlining the house style guides and regulations for submission. Full-text manuscripts of 3000-5000 words (excluding notes, citations, and bibliography) will then be requested. Manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with academic writing guidelines (references, citations, endnotes, etc.) and in MLA 9th edition style. For any questions or requests for early feedback, please contact the special issue editors Meltem Dağcı and Duygu Küçüköz Aydemir. Edited manuscripts will be published in the 2025 Fall issue of the SFRA Review. We hope this CFP will be of interest to you and invite you to submit your contributions.

Timeline

Deadline for submission of abstracts: March 15

Notification of accepted abstracts: March 29

Submission of first drafts: May 10

Return of first draft revisions: June 7

Submission of second drafts: July 5

Return of second draft revisions: August 2

Submission of final drafts: August 16

Date of publication: Fall 2025

Call for Papers: Alternative Governance in Science Fiction

⮌ SFRA Review, vol. 54 no. 3

From the SFRA Review

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Call for Papers: Alternative Governance in Science Fiction

The Editorial Collective

Among the many attractions of speculative fiction is its ability to envision a world different from our own, whether this be a distorted reflection of our own world or something entirely new. Especially in recent decades, many works of speculative fiction take a social rather than strictly technological approach to examining human society.

One aspect of these sorts of alternative worlds takes the form of different visions of governance. Many of the canonical works of SF have tended to imitate historic examples of governments, such as totalitarian empires, democratic republics, and hereditary monarchies. Especially in past decades, these governments serve as little more than set dressing for a story to take place, rather than being critically engaged with to explore the consequences of and alternatives to these systems. Now, however, we increasingly see in SF alternative systems of government both as a consequence of developing technology and as a distorted/distorting mirror through which to view our own systems.

This CFP seeks to broaden understanding of government in SF both within and beyond its typical bounds. We invite papers that reflect upon the issue of governance in SF as it can be, not necessarily how it is. Why and how does a given work depict a particular system of government? What is this system’s relationship to new technologies, whether these technologies be physical, digital or social? How and why is this system intended to estrange our own understanding of governance in the here and now?

The SFRA Review invites submissions that focus on the depiction or criticism of speculative, utopian, dystopian, alternative, or futurological systems of governing. Topics may include (but are not limited to):

Governments
Elections
Monarchies
Empires
Dictatorships
Republics
Democracies
Theocracies
Utopias
Dystopias

We invite proposals of ~250 words and short author bios by 15 September 2024. Contributors will be notified if their essays are selected for inclusion by 30 September 2024, and full essays of 4000-5000 words will be requested by 30 November 2024. Editing and revision will take place over the next few weeks, and final submissions will be due on 15 January 2025. Edited articles will appear in the Spring 2025 (01 Februrary) issue. Submissions should be sent to (jamesjknupp@gmail.com) and CCed to (vconn@stevens.edu). We look forward to hearing from you.

Special Issue CFP / Mormonism and SF (March 1, 2021)

Mormonism and SF

Special Issue of SFRA Review, vol. 51, no. 3, Summer 2021

Edited by Adam McLain

Background

Since its inception in the early nineteenth century, Mormonism has shot for the stars. With angelic visitors, planetary afterlives, and astronomical texts written by ancient patriarchs, the theology and history of Mormonism is ripe for analysis and criticism through the lens of SF. In addition to the beliefs, practitioners of the religion—the largest denomination of which is formally known as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with various smaller sects that use or engage with the same history and scriptures—have been and remain actively involved in the history and growth of SF. From staple science fiction authors like Orson Scott Card to contemporary authors like Brandon Sanderson and Shannon Hale, the genre has been shaped and will continue to be shaped by those who are practitioners and those who are adjacently connected to Mormonism broadly.

Submissions

SFRA Review seeks essays of c. 2,000-3,000 words for a special issue interrogating, analyzing, and critiquing the intersections of Mormonism and SF, where SF and Mormonism are understood in their broadest and most inclusive senses.

Submission should address but are not limited to:

• Early Mormonism and 19th century SF

Examples: Parley P. Pratt’s “A Dialogue between Joseph Smith and the Devil”, Nephi Anderson’s “Added Upon”

• Mormonism and Latter-day Saints/Mormons represented in SF

Examples: The Expanse (Spaceship Nauvoo), Starcraft (Zarahemla Starport and Helaman Colony in Tracy Hickman’s Speed of Darkness), Battlestar Galactica, Angels in America

• SF texts by Mormon/Latter-day Saint authors

Examples in Literature: Orson Scott Card, Brandon Sanderson, Shannon Hale, D. J. Butler, Stephenie Meyer, James Dashner, Ally Condie, Brandon Mull, Chris Heimerdinger, Jessica Day George, Obert Skye, J. Scott Savage, Aprilynne Pike, David Farland/Wolverton, Tracy Hickman, Charlie N. Holmberg, Dan Wells, Howard Tayler, Richard Paul Evans, and more.

Examples in other media: Glen A. Larson (Battlestar Galactica), Justin Santistevan (Dragon Prince), Sanderson board games (The Reckoners; Mistborn: House War; Call to Adventure: Stormlight Archive), Mormon versions of classic board games (Settlers of Zarahemla, Count Your Blessings Monopoly, Missionary Risk, Trek to Zion), Sandy Petersen (a creator of Doom), and more.

• History of Mormon fantasy and science fiction institutions

Examples: The Life, the Universe, and Everything Symposium; Leading Edge Magazine

• Mormon theology as SF

Examples: Planetary afterlives, angelic visitors, astronomy in the Book of Abraham, Saturday’s Warrior

For further reading on this topic, to help shape and springboard ideas, the editor suggests reading:

Michael R. Collings, “Refracted Visions and Future Worlds: Mormonism and Science Fiction,” Dialogue

Liz Busby’s recent five-part series on Mormon speculative fiction for the Association for Mormon Letters

Abstracts of c. 250 words and short author bios should be submitted by email to the special issue editor Adam McLain at adam.j.mclain@gmail.com using the subject line “Mormonism and SF Submission / Name Surname” by March 1, 2021.

Abstracts should clarify how the essay will engage with the intersections of Mormonism and SF, but prospective authors are encouraged to be creative in their approach to the questions raised by this special issue of SFRA Review. Authors will be notified of acceptance (or rejection) within two weeks.

If you are interested in writing an article for the special issue and would like to discuss it with the editor before submission of the abstract, please do so.

Accepted drafts of 2,000-3,000 words will be due in mid-May and should be prepared in MLA style with a Works Cited in MLA 8th edition. A full project timeline is listed below.

Timeline

March 1, 2021 = Abstracts due
March 15 = Authors notified of acceptance
May 15 = Drafts due to editor
June 15 = Edits on drafts returned to authors
July 15 = Second/Final draft due to editors
Early August = Publication of special issue in SFRA Review 51.3