About

C21: Journal of 21st-century Writings is a diamond Open Access journal, and the official affiliated journal of the British Association for Contemporary Literary Studies (BACLS). The journal is dedicated to examining the genres, forms of publication, and circulation of 21st-century writings. Originally launched in 2012, and open access since 2016, C21 aims to create a critical, discursive space for the promotion and exploration of 21st-century writings in English.

Journal History

C21 was originally launched as a journal with Gylphi Press, an independent arts and humanities publisher specialising in the contemporary period. In 2016, C21 joined the Open Library of Humanities (OLH) and became Open Access. All content published since then is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal.

The journal is currently edited by Dr Katie Da Cunha Lewin and Dr Kiron Ward, and has previously been edited by Prof. Siân Adiseshiah, Prof. Caroline Edwards, Prof. Deborah Philips, and Prof. Katy Shaw.

Focus and Scope

C21 aims to create a critical, discursive space for the promotion and exploration of 21st-century writings in English. It addresses writing in contemporary culture, from the novel, poem and play to hypertext, digital gaming and contemporary creative writing. The journal features engaged critical and theoretical pieces alongside new unpublished creative works and investigates the challenges that new media present to traditional categorisations of literary writing.

Articles are encouraged from academics, contemporary writers, publishers and readers. The journal also publishes review essays, roundtable discussions, and interviews with academics, readers and writers in the field.

The journal is supported by an interdisciplinary and international editorial board.

Publication Frequency

The journal is published online as a continuous volume and issue throughout the year. Articles are made available as soon as they are ready to ensure that there are no unnecessary delays in getting content publicly available. We aim to publish accepted articles within two years

Publication Fees

This journal is published by the OLH. Unlike many open-access publishers, OLH does not charge any author fees. This does not mean that we do not have costs. Instead, our costs are paid by an international library consortium.

If your institution is not currently supporting the platform, we request that you use our 'Recommend Us' tool. The OLH is extremely cost effective and is a not-for-profit charity. However, while we cannot function without financial support and we encourage universities to sign up, institutional commitment is not required to publish with us.

Citation Metrics

C21 is archived and indexed according to the publisher's policy.

Special Issues

C21 has published many special issues, and continues to welcome proposals for special issues. Before submitting a full proposal, prospective guest editors should send an inquiry to the co-editors-in-chief using the contact form, concisely outlining the special issue and the rationale for publishing it in C21. These inquiries do not need to include full article abstracts or a complete list of contributors. Once the prospective guest editors have received feedback and a positive response from the journal’s co-editors, they can begin to put together a full proposal. The complete proposal will be considered by the whole editorial team.

We strongly prefer proposals with contributions drawn from a diverse range of scholars.