Contemporary Literature
banner
cl-journal.bsky.social
Contemporary Literature
@cl-journal.bsky.social
Quarterly of scholarly essays on contemporary writing.

Published @UWiscPress.

--> cl.uwpress.org
How was the future of literary criticism imagined in the past?

From the archives: two essays by Hayden White and Edward Said, included in Contemporary literature V17.N3.

Read it here: tinyurl.com/mr2r6de3
November 26, 2025 at 6:23 PM
How have poets post Black Arts Movement navigated the politics of form? In issue 66.1, Lizzy LeRud explores interplays of formalism and (non)conformity in recent radical poetry. Read "A Thousand 'We Real Cools':New Forms in Recent African American Poetry" here: cl.uwpress.org/content/current
October 17, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Contemporary Literature issue 66.1 is out now, featuring exciting new work by Inbar Gidron, Cynthia Hogue, Lizzy LeRud, Brett Sigurdson, and Emily K. Yoon. Read it here: cl.uwpress.org/content/curr....
Contemporary Literature: 66 (1)
cl.uwpress.org
October 17, 2025 at 12:02 AM
Contemporary Literature issue 65.4 is out now, featuring new work by Brooke Conti, Katy Dadacz, Kristin Emanuel, Hannah A. Jorgensen, and Weishun Lu. Read it here: cl.uwpress.org/content/curr....
Contemporary Literature: 65 (4)
cl.uwpress.org
August 21, 2025 at 11:00 PM
How does digital celebrity shape the self-consciousness of contemporary autofiction? Hannah A. Jorgensen answers in "Authentic Flesh, Digital Bits," featured in CL 65.4. Read it here: cl.uwpress.org/content/65/4/514
August 21, 2025 at 10:59 PM
Reposted by Contemporary Literature
2000 Blacks by Ajibola Tolase is on the shortlist for the 2025 Walcott Prize! Honoring the work of St. Lucian Nobel Prize poet Derek Walcott, the prize is offered annually for a book of poetry by a non-US citizen published anywhere in the world.

Congrats, Ajibola!

www.arrowsmithpress.com/walcott
July 30, 2025 at 12:29 PM
Reposted by Contemporary Literature
If you missed our last talk of the 2024-25 academic year, you can find it on our YouTube channel: Ken Wissoker and Macarena Gómez-Barris discussing the vital need for academic writing and publishing in impossible times!
youtu.be/52PR11MgTn0
Writing in Impossible Times: Thinking With and Beyond the First Book.
YouTube video by CUNY Graduate Center
youtu.be
June 27, 2025 at 5:10 PM
Reposted by Contemporary Literature
Thank you @cl-journal.bsky.social, & Congratulations Jessica Swoboda! 'Rachel Cusk's Attention Ecology' is a brilliant article
We are thrilled to announce that Jessica Swoboda has been awarded the 2025 L.S. Dembo prize for her wonderful article, "Rachel Cusk's Attention Ecology."

Honorable mention also goes to @georginacolby.bsky.social and Michael Dowdy. Details to follow... 🧵
June 20, 2025 at 11:11 AM
We are thrilled to announce that Jessica Swoboda has been awarded the 2025 L.S. Dembo prize for her wonderful article, "Rachel Cusk's Attention Ecology."

Honorable mention also goes to @georginacolby.bsky.social and Michael Dowdy. Details to follow... 🧵
June 17, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Reposted by Contemporary Literature
New work on waste in @cl-journal.bsky.social
A new wave of Chinese science fiction "depict[s] waste, not ordered progress, as the substance of China’s contemporary reality and the genre’s primary concern." In issue 65.3, Martha Swift examines the underside of science fiction's high-tech futures. cl.uwpress.org/content/curr...
June 15, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Don’t miss new work by @corinnanorue.bsky.social and @astarre.bsky.social on “Genre, Diversity, and Metanarrative” in Reese Witherspoon’s book club. Now available completely open access.
When a big @nytimes.com feature about #reeesesbookclub dropped in mid-May 2024, @astarre.bsky.social and I had just submitted our manuscript about - you guessed it - the club to @cl-journal.bsky.social. #Academicpublishing is slow, but here we are, 13 months later... (1/4)
June 10, 2025 at 9:56 PM
Reposted by Contemporary Literature
I went clubbing - book clubbing that is - with @corinnanorue.bsky.social and you can read about it in the new issue of @cl-journal.bsky.social. open access!
cl.uwpress.org/content/65/3...
More in Corinna's🧵
June 10, 2025 at 8:02 PM
A new wave of Chinese science fiction "depict[s] waste, not ordered progress, as the substance of China’s contemporary reality and the genre’s primary concern." In issue 65.3, Martha Swift examines the underside of science fiction's high-tech futures. cl.uwpress.org/content/curr...
June 10, 2025 at 9:51 PM
Contemporary Literature issue 65.3 is out now, featuring new work by Charlie Ericson, Sam Ladkin, Corinna Norrick-Rühl, Alexander Starre, Matt Prout, and Martha Swift! Read it here: cl.uwpress.org/content/current
Contemporary Literature: 65 (3)
cl.uwpress.org
June 10, 2025 at 9:42 PM
CL 65.3 is shaping up to be an exciting issue...stay tuned for its release later this week 📚🔜
June 9, 2025 at 5:58 PM
How does autofiction contend with technologically mediated ways of seeing and projecting the self? In our read of the week, Marek Makowski produces “A New Exercise in Looking”: Experiments in Autofiction and the Novels of Olga Tokarczuk. Read it here: cl.uwpress.org/content/curr...
May 8, 2025 at 7:08 PM
Reposted by Contemporary Literature
Great new titles out today!

-Typophoto by Jessica D. Brier
-Shelter and Storm by Tamara Dean
-Hermes II: Interference by Michel Serres
-Chaos and the Automaton by Franco Berardi w/ @eflux.bsky.social

#NewBooks #NewBooks2025 #PubDay
April 22, 2025 at 9:09 PM
How do modern managerialism, short-termism, and the information economy shape narrative resistance to work and capital?

Huw Marsh offers a salient analysis in our read of the week: "'Bullshit' Jobs and Ticklish Comedy: Humor and Sadness in the Contemporary Novel." cl.uwpress.org/content/current
April 8, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Reposted by Contemporary Literature
We're exhibiting at @scmstudies.bsky.social #SCMS25, and look forward to seeing friends old and new! Please stop by to visit @dlbookman.bsky.social & check out our recent titles!

If you're not here in person, you can still browse our virtual exhibit and use the 30% discount: tinyurl.com/yfeybvzp
April 4, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Reposted by Contemporary Literature
Philadelphia: reminder! Tomorrow, April 3, Big Blue Marble Bookstore will host a reading and conversation with Caroline Mar, Adrienne Perry, Somayeh Shams, and Eleanor Wilner, in celebration of Caroline Mar's new poetry collection, WATER GUEST!

Details: tinyurl.com/479t22uy
April 2, 2025 at 6:01 PM
Reposted by Contemporary Literature
We join @humanitiesall to condemn actions taken by the federal govt against the National Endowment for the Humanities. https://bit.ly/4i69BkJ

Cuts to the NEH will ripple through the entire scholarly ecosystem, harm communities in every state & contribute to destroying our shared cultural heritage.
April 2, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Reposted by Contemporary Literature
“What we are consistently hearing is that there is no data or evidence suggesting that federal funds allocated through the IMLS are being misused. In fact, these funds are essential for delivering vital services, often to the most underserved & vulnerable populations.”
www.wired.com/story/instit...
The DOGE Axe Comes for Libraries and Museums
The Institute of Museum and Library Services has long received bipartisan support. But after years of trying, President Donald Trump has delivered it a crushing blow.
www.wired.com
April 2, 2025 at 8:50 PM
Reposted by Contemporary Literature
AWP attendees: reminder! The annual Wisconsin Poetry Series reading at #AWP25 will be held Thursday, March 27, at 6:30 PM, at The Hoxton Downtown LA Bar & Lounge, 1060 S Broadway.

We hope you’ll join us for readings by Emily Bludworth de Barrios, Peter Covino, and Caroline M. Mar!
March 25, 2025 at 8:20 PM