NEEDED: Column submission for May 15 deadline!

English Journal 

Challenging Texts
Editor: P. L. Thomas 

GUIDELINES

Franz Kafka proclaimed that a “book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us.” The authors and texts we bring into our classrooms and the acts of literacy that students perform about and because of those texts are essential aspects of creating classrooms where students become critical readers and critical writers. This column will explore the authors and texts we choose that confront the world and the worldviews of students. We also explore various theoretical approaches to literature that challenge and energize students and teachers.

Contributors should explore and share their classroom practices that address questions such as, What authors and texts confront the world and students’ assumptions? What texts expand students’ perceptions of and assumptions about genre? What texts confront both big ideas and the art and craft of writing? How does critical pedagogy look in literature classrooms? What literary theories do you find most generative?

Submit an electronic Word file attached to your email to the column editor, P. L. Thomas, at paul.thomas[at]furman.edu. Contributors are encouraged to query the column editor and share drafts of column ideas as part of the submission process.