Multimodal Writing: call for papers

Writing in Practice: The Journal of Creative Writing Research, Volume 7 Deadline for submission 26th June 2020

Multimodal Writing Special Issue

NAWE's Writing in Practice: The Journal of Creative Writing Research aims to explore the nature of the art of writing, highlighting current academic thinking and practice, and reflecting on this with an international outlook.

The journal encourages investigation of a broad range of approaches to practice research, focusing on critical discussion of creative process, and critical examination of research contexts, and Creative Writing’s history and pedagogy. Creative Writing itself is welcomed when integral to an article.

A focus of this special issue is multimodal writing, with guest co-editor Josie Barnard. Whether directly or indirectly, the digital ‘revolution’ has affected every aspect of the writing and publishing process. Writing – often thought of as primarily text-based – now routinely involves multiple ‘modes’, with photographs, emoji and audio, for example, featuring as integral parts of online narratives. The explosion of new media technologies may lead a creative writer to experiment with new technologies (perhaps writing Twine poetry or moving into self-publishing). Conversely, it might inspire a revived enthusiasm for using ‘old’ technologies such as pens, pencils, paper. This cfp welcomes submissions in both areas. In The Multimodal Writer, Barnard (2019) notes, ‘In a digital age, the ability to move between types of writing and technologies - often at speed - is increasingly essential for writers’; in order to ‘not just survive but, rather, thrive in an era characterised by fast-paced change’, creative flexibility and resilience are necessary. How to develop such creative flexibility and resilience is an important aspect of multimodal writing practice. All technologies were new at some point; in order to tackle new challenges, writers draw on past experiences of tackling something new, thereby ‘remediating’ their practice.

Please note that submissions need not have a ‘digital’ element to be considered for this issue and may be unrelated to multimodality. As usual, we are looking for articles on the art of imaginative writing from an authorial perspective. Contributions are invited from creative writing scholars, teachers, authors, poets, screenwriters, game designers, publishers and others with theoretical or practice interests in this field.

Contributions may include (but are not limited to):

• How material objects and activities (e.g. writing tools, food, walking) are embedded in creative writing process and practice;

• Traditional and digital technologies and approaches mingling during the creative process;

• ‘Remediation’ (i.e. new use/application) of previous creative practice in a new digital context;

• Alternative uses of social media platforms, e.g. for archiving creative practice, for innovative self-publishing and development of new genres;

• ‘Non-linear’ writing, such as for websites / games;

• The nature of ‘digital literacy’;

• The role and experiences of readers/audiences/users;

• Ethics of storytelling in the context of social media and/or developments such as virtual reality and artificial intelligence;

• Case studies of particular multimodal productions.

Submissions should be 4-10,000 words long and include an abstract of up to 200 words. All submissions will be anonymously peer reviewed. See the contributor guidelines to submit your work via the submissions link: www.nawe.co.uk/writing-in-education/writing-at-university/writing-in-practice.html

For further information on multimodal writing, see https://www.macmillanexplorers.com/creative-writing/the-multimodal-writer/17066448.

The deadline for submissions is 5pm (GMT) on 26 June 2020.