Call for Papers

sx salon: a small axe literary platform invites essays and creative pieces for a special discussion section on the work of Lorna Goodison. 

Key dates:

• • Proposal abstracts for this special section are due by 30 September 2024 
  • Full discussion articles will be due by 15 December 2024 
  • Publication is slated for the June 2025 issue of sx salon

From her first collection of poetry, Tamarind Season (1980), through her short fiction, essays, and memoir, Lorna Goodison has written eloquently and elegantly about love, family, and her home country of Jamaica. As Kei Miller wrote in appreciation of her work: Goodison practices “a poetics of love, heart, soul, spirit and light.” Goodison has been awarded such distinguished prizes as the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, the OCM Bocas Prize for Poetry, the Windham–Campbell Literature Prize, and the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry. She also served as the Poet Laureate of Jamaica from 2017 to 2020, during which time she initiated the much-praised “All Flowers Are Roses: Poetry and Self-Defence” program for young people via the National Library of Jamaica.

For this discussion section of sx salon, guest editor Kelly Baker Josephs invites targeted explorations of any aspect of Lorna Goodison’s multifaceted oeuvre – her poetry, prose, visual art, work as Poet Laureate, and more – that range from 2000-2500 words. sx salon, launched in 2010 as part of the Small Axe Project, is a digital publication dedicated to literary discussions, interviews with Caribbean literary figures, reviews of new publications (creative and scholarly) related to the Caribbean, and short fiction and poetry by emerging and established Caribbean writers. View past issues and submissions guidelines here.

Please send proposal abstracts to kbjosephs@miami.edu by 30 September 2024. Full discussion articles (2,000-2,500 words) of accepted proposals will be due by 15 December 2024.