Studies in Crime Writing

Studies in Crime Writing is an online, peer-reviewed, open-access journal focusing on the literary study of crime writing. It is published by Newberry College in Newberry, South Carolina, United States.

We are currently accepting general submissions as well as submissions for a special issue on true crime.

CFP for Special Issue of Studies In Crime Writing:
The True Crime Renaissance 

Guest Editors:

Jean Murley, Associate Professor of English, Queensborough Community College. Author of The Rise of True Crime: 20^th Century Murder and American Popular Culture (Praeger/ABC-Clio, 2008). JMurley@qcc.cuny.edu

David Schmid, Associate Professor of English, University at Buffalo. Author of Natural Born Celebrities: Serial Killers in American Culture (Chicago, 2005) and editor of Violence in American Popular Culture (2 vol.s, Praeger, 2015). schmid@buffalo.edu

True crime sits at the fascinating intersection of law, morality, and psychology, and at its best interrogates our notions of truth, narrative form, and experience. The genre of true crime is experiencing a renaissance at the moment and has been given a boost from emerging and new media forms: from such podcasts as Serial and My Favorite Murder to streaming series like Making a Murderer, The Jinx, and OJ: Made in America, the current popularity of true crime is immense and unprecedented. This issue is devoted to scholarly explorations of the reasons for this popularity and a deep analysis of the genre in its present and multiple forms. While scholars have done extensive work on the history, historiography, and evolution of true crime, our aim is to understand as much as possible about true crime in its present iterations, including why it is so appealing to audiences now, what cultural work it does, new areas of inquiry posed by the genre, and what ongoing questions it raises about the relationship between crime and culture.

We welcome submissions on any aspect of this phenomenon. Possible topics may include, but are not limited to, the following:

True crime fandom
TC and gender (consumers and producers)
Transnational/international TC
Historical TC
Emerging topics/subjects of TC (including but not limited to race, wrongful conviction, and sociological/political subjects)
Terrorism and TC
Intersections of TC and crime fiction
TC and race
TC and new media—podcasts and streaming series
TC and the criminal justice system
Changing focus of narratives—memoir and victim-centered perspectives
TC and victimology
TC and the High/Low divide
TC and forensic science/psychology
TC and feminism/misogyny/masculinity
TC and film (fiction, non-fiction, documentary, docu-drama)

Please send 300-word abstracts and a 1-page cv to the co-editors by June 30, 2019.

First drafts of accepted essays will be due by September 30, 2019, and final drafts by January 31, 2020 for a 2020 publication date.

Please direct any questions to the editors.

Studies in Crime Writing

published by Newberry Colllege