Deadline: August 15, 2025 (Pacific Time)

Submission length: 7,000-8,000 words (including works cited and notes) in either English or French

Canadian fiction, film, and television increasingly abound with representations of suburban life, such as Sort Of, co-created by and starring playwright Bilal Baig; Run the Burbs, co-created by and starring Andrew Phung; the film adaptations of Catherine Hernandez’s novel Scarborough and David Chariandy’s novel Brother; Larissa Lai’s speculative post-Greater Vancouver novels Salt Fish Girl and Tiger Flu; and Mona Awad’s 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl, a collection of linked stories mostly set in “Misery Saga, which is what you’re allowed to call Mississauga if you live there” (1). Foregrounding the lives of people of colour, often first- and second-generation immigrants, these recent depictions centre the suburbs in Canadian experience, offering more varied representations than the stifling, empty periphery of earlier treatments, such as Margaret Atwood’s Cat’s Eye, Barbara Gowdy’s Falling Angels, or even Dionne Brand’s What We All Long For. In her monograph Canadian Suburban, Cheryl Cowdy quotes the speaker in Brand’s long poem Thirsty to describe how Canadian suburban imaginaries are marginalized by the assumption that the suburbs are “prefabricated from no great narrative” (xii). They seemingly lack culture and are rarely associated with “dissident artistic or poetic expression,” Cowdy points out; more often, suburbs serve as the butt of jokes and are seen as fertile ground for comedians, such as Mike Myers, Jim Carrey, and the pop band The Barenaked Ladies (xii).

This special journal issue will examine literary approaches to suburban life in Canada across a range of mediums, genres, and periods, paying attention to the suburbs as both an imaginative and a material form. We are especially interested in considering how the mid-twentieth-century popular representation of the suburb as a white, middle-class, automobiled enclave has been written otherwise across varied experiences of racialization, diaspora, and generation—and in the era of fossil-fueled climate change. What dreams and diasporas land immigrants and Indigenous people in suburbs? What histories are disrupted and which are forged in suburban lives and spaces? How do queer and trans people find and write themselves through suburbia? What other places and social lives are relationally entangled in the suburbs—in social connections, in memory, in colonial displacements, and in material economies of labour, production, consumption, waste, and emissions? How are suburban arrivals and departures—and pasts and futures—narrated? What poetic practices engage suburban form and its social relations?

We invite papers of 7,000-8,000 words, in English or in French, that join us in asking: If Canada is a suburban nation, what are its suburban stories?

Submission Guidelines

All submissions to Canadian Literature must be original, unpublished work. Essays should follow current MLA bibliographic format (MLA Handbook, 9th ed.). Word length for articles is 4,000-8,000 words, which includes endnotes and works cited.

Poetry

We accept submissions of original poems from Canadian citizens and permanent residents. All poetry submissions must include a short biography that lists previous publications or, for as yet unpublished poets, a few lines that give context for your work.

Due to space considerations, poems of 1-2 pages in length are preferred. Please do not include more than 5 poems per submission. Files must also be in Portable Document Format (.pdf) to ensure proper spacing and formatting.

Accepted poems will be published in the journal and on the website. Note that your Social Insurance Number will be required for a small honorarium. Separate arrangements for payment will be made if your poem has been accepted for publication.

Articles

Include the following information in your submission:

• Author bio (50-100 words)
• Abstract (maximum 150 words)
• For special/themed issue submissions: (1) Specify which call for papers you are responding to, and (2) indicate whether you would like your paper to be considered for a future general issue if it is not accepted into the special/themed issue

Submission length

• Word count: Between 7,000-8,000 words (including endnotes and references)
• Shorter works between 2,000-3,000 words may be submitted for consideration for the Opinions & Notes section (specify upon submission). These are not peer reviewed so they are also not considered scholarly articles.

Document formatting

• Font: 12 pt., Times New Roman (or another default font such as Calibri or Arial)
• Spacing: Double-spaced
• Page layout: Standard, with 1-inch margins on each side and 8.5 x 11-inch dimensions
• File format: Word document (.doc or .docx)
• Citations: Formatted according to the latest edition of MLA style

Anonymize your paper

If necessary, submit an original version of your paper and an anonymized version with identifiable information removed, such as acknowledgments sections.

In Microsoft Word documents, author information must be removed from the file.

• On Windows:
  • Go to “Options” under the Tools menu.
  • Go to “Security.”
  • Under “Privacy Options,” select the box “Remove personal information from the file on save,” then click “OK.”
  • Save the file.
• On Mac:
  • Go to “Preferences” under the Word menu.
  • Go to “Security.”
  • Under “Privacy Options,” select the box “Remove personal information from the file on save,” then click “OK.”
  • Save the file.To ensure the integrity of the anonymous peer-review process, every effort should be made to anonymize the identities of authors and reviewers.

Feel free to contact us if you have questions about what is considered identifiable information or want support anonymizing your document.