Call for Submissions: Women Writing the Natural World (Nineteenth Century Gender Studies Journal)

This special issue of Nineteenth Century Gender Studies will explore the way in which nineteenth-century women wrote about the natural world. This special issue is designed to cover writings on landscape and on plant and animal life. It aims to emphasise women’s participation in scientific discussion of Darwinian ideas, and also in a broader range of scientific and aesthetic engagements with nature. The overall objective of this special issue is to show how, during the nineteenth century, women actively interpreted the natural world, participated in the scientific discourses that transformed nineteenth-century understandings of nature and plant and animal life, made their voices heard on activist issues like vivisection and conservation, and began to participate in various male-dominated professions, including scientific research, gardening, and, of course, writing.

This special issue may include articles on women’s poetry and fiction, but is also designed to turn the spotlight onto women’s non-fiction prose writing. It will encompass a broad range of different types of non-fiction writing – including scientific literature, “lifestyle” journalism, travel writing, and Romantic reveries on solitude and nature – and will also cover women’s work as illustrators and artists.

Topics might include women's nature poetry, and non-fiction writing on gardens and horticulture; plants as interior decor; animal rights and vivisection; geology and Sir Charles Lyell's discoveries; birds and birding; women's "natural" link to nature; women in professions such as gardening and teaching science; the sublime; evolution and biology; zoophytes; the writings of women explorers and travellers.

Submissions should run between 7000 - 1500 words (inclusive of endnotes and works cited) and be formatted in MLA style. Changes may be requested as a condition of acceptance.
Send two printed copies (to Dr. Lizzie McCormick, LaGuardia Community College, 31-10 Thompson Ave., Long Island City, 11101) and one electronic copy (to: womenwritethenaturalworld@gmail.com). Please include a brief bio.

Accepted essays will be published in the journal Nineteenth Century Gender Studies Summer 2011 Issue.

More information at the NIU Women's Studies Bulletin Board.

This blog is no longer updated. Please instead visit Writers For Diversity for new opportunities for women/ LGBT writers and writers of color. Thank you.