community/2026

We are excited to issue our first Call for Submissions!

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Our inaugural issue, on the theme of Community, will be published in the autumn of 2026.

Only ONE submission per Call can be accepted from the same contributor, and all submissions must follow our Style Guidelines. We invite submissions in the following two categories:

 

1. TRANSLATIONS

We welcome translations into English from fiction, poetry, drama, or any other literary genre written in any language. We especially encourage translations from recently published works. Contributions should relate to the theme of our first issue, Community. Communities can nurture and support, unite and empower. We need them to thrive and to connect as humans. But, when dysfunctional, communities can also engulf and alienate, restrict and oppress. Community, broadly understood and approached from any perspective, may feature thematically in the source text, and/or relate to the translator’s approach.

 

Please submit by Friday 10 April 2026:

• Your unpublished English translation. For prose, this can be between 800 and 2000 words. For poetry, up to 600 words.

• The source text, with firm or provisional copyright clearance.

• A Translator’s note (700-800 words), written in English and comprising: 1) brief context to the source text, including how it relates to the theme of Community; 2) discussion of your translation approach, highlighting any specific challenges or creative solutions.

• Biographical profiles for both author and translator, in English (100-120 words each).

• Copyright: you must show evidence that you have contacted the copyright holder/s and that they are, in principle, willing to grant us permission to publish the source text free of charge. If your contribution is selected for publication, you will then need to send us the required copyright forms (they will shortly be available on our website). We are unable to consider submissions for which no evidence of provisional copyright clearance has been provided.

 

Please note that we are unable to offer any payment to contributors, nor cover any copyright clearance costs. We do however promise careful editorial attention to accepted submissions.

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2. RESEARCH ARTICLES

We invite submissions of original, unpublished research articles on any aspect of literary translation. You are free to discuss translation from and into any language, but we ask that you clarify any examples with English-speaking readers in mind. Articles should be written in English and be 5000-6000 words in length, including references and a c. 200-word abstract.

 

We particularly welcome submissions which relate, more or less loosely, to the theme of the issue, Community. Contributors may want to consider aspects such as:

• Source culture community: the community of people whose language, stories, or oral traditions are being translated, and related questions of representation, responsibility, and preservation of identities.

• Readers and target audience/s: the specific community (as opposed to a ‘general reader’) the translation is aimed at, for instance a linguistic minority, a fan base, a certain demographic or social group.

• The community of translators: the networks of individuals who shape how literary translation is theorised and practised; writers and translators sharing creative norms, ethics, and collaborative practices (e.g. feminist, activist, or scholarly translation circles).

• Translation communities: the role that networks, institutions, associations, publishing initiatives, collectives, volunteers, crowd sourcing, etc. play in promoting and translating foreign literature.

 

CJLT will also include a section featuring REVIEWS of published literary translations into English, as well as academic books written in any language dealing with any aspect of literary translation. Reviews will be by commission only, but you are welcome to write to the Editors (CJLTjournal@gmail.com) with suggested titles and/or to express an interest in reviewing for us.

 

Key dates

Deadline for submitting your contribution: Friday 10 April 2026

Authors notified of publication decision: by Friday 12 June 2026

Authors to submit revised contributions: Friday 21 August 2026

Publication: Autumn 2026

 

We look forward to your submissions!

The Editorial Team