ISSN 0043-3462
eISSN 1948-7142
In a desire to further this tradition of integrating western studies into global scholarly conversations, there is special interest in publishing theoretical and critical articles in areas such as critical regionalism, global indigeneity, settler-colonialism, digital humanities, cinema and new media, global wests, and other cutting edge approaches.
Visit the journal's editorial page on the WLA website.
Volume 58, Number 3, Fall 2023
Contents
Essays
The Water-Energy-Food Nexus: Tracing Mexican American Environmental Concerns in María Amparo Ruiz de Burton’s The Squatter and the Don
Anthony Gomez III
A Turn in the Fog: Gertrude Atherton Reads Henry James
Lisa Orr
Tall Tale and Anti-Capitalist (Post)Western Storytelling in Douglas Coupland’s Generation X
Junwu Tian and Yingjie Duan
Book Reviews
Joel Deshaye, The American Western in Canadian Literature
John Donahue
Suzanne Roberts, Animal Bodies: On Death, Desire, and Other Difficulties
Jennifer Sinor
Margaret D. Jacobs, After One Hundred Winters: In Search of Reconciliation on America’s Stolen Lands
Meredith Eliassen
Kai Bosworth, Pipeline Populism: Grassroots Environmentalism in the Twenty-First Century
Sebastian Braun
E Cram, Violent Inheritance: Sexuality, Land, and Energy in Making the North American West
Christine Self
Michael K. Johnson, A Black Woman’s West: The Life of Rose B. Gordon
Jennifer S. Tuttle
Lawrence P. Jackson, Hold It Real Still: Clint Eastwood, Race, and the Cinema of the American West
Jimmy L. Bryan Jr.
David McKay Powell, Cather and Opera
Maria Mackas
Neil Campbell, Worlding the Western: Contemporary US Western Fiction and the Global Community
Christopher Conway
Shannon Egan and Marthe Tolnes Fjellestad, Across the West and Toward the North: Norwegian and American Landscape Photography
Carolina Arellanos
Robinson Jeffers, The Point Alma Venus Manuscripts, edited by Tim Hunt and Robert Kafka
Cory Willard
Megan Riley McGilchrist, Exile, Nature, and Transformation in the Life of Mary Hallock Foote
Christie Smith
Robert Wrigley, The True Account of Myself as a Bird
Robert McFarland
2023 WLA Award Recipients
2024 WLA Conference Announcement
Western American Literature publishes literary criticism and interdisciplinary work with a literary focus. We invite manuscripts on any aspect of the literature, culture, and place-oriented pedagogy of the North American West, including western Canada and northern Mexico. We are especially interested in work that advances the field in new and provocative directions and that engages in a conversation with the latest scholarship.
If unfamiliar with our journal, take a look at recent copies available on Project MUSE.
Due to space limitations, WAL will not consider essays more than 35 pages in length, inclusive of endnotes and works cited. Please do not submit an essay that is under consideration elsewhere or that has been previously published.
Articles should be submitted via our online portal.
Do not put your name anywhere on the article or in a running head, and veil any references to your own work (if applicable) to assure anonymity with the readers. You will need to register with the online portal before submitting, so we will have your personal information in the system keyed to your submission.
Typically, the peer-review process takes 3-6 months, sometimes longer. Please be patient.
NOTE: Your manuscript should follow the most recent edition of the MLA Handbook. Please use endnotes, not footnotes. Long discursive notes should be avoided and will count toward the page limit.
You are welcome to provide illustrations that are pertinent to your essay. Images should be scanned at 350 dpi or higher and saved as a TIF or EPS file. It is your responsibility to obtain reprint permission for images, for both print and digital formats. The editors and the publisher reserve the right not to use poor-quality images.
Also, if you are writing about poetry, it is almost certain that you will need to obtain permission to quote from the poems. If you don't do so ahead of time, be prepared to do so immediately should your article be accepted.
A word to the wise: we receive many submissions on a few authors about whom much has already been written, in particular Cormac McCarthy, Willa Cather, and Leslie Marmon Silko. Please be sure you have something truly new to say about these authors and are familiar with the latest critical studies of their work.
Editor
Amy T. Hamilton, Northern Michigan University
Editorial Board
José Aranda, Rice University
Neil Campbell, University of Derby, UK
Nancy Cook, University of Montana
Krista Comer, Rice University
Charles Crow, Bowling Green State University
Cheryll Glotfelty, University of Nevada, Reno
Victoria Lamont, University of Waterloo, Canada
David Rio, University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU, Spain
Susan Shillinglaw, San José State University
Sara Spurgeon, Texas Tech University
Janis Stout, Texas A&M University
Lisa Tatonetti, Kansas State University
Steve Tatum, University of Utah
Nicolas S. Witschi, Western Michigan University
Book Review Editor
Kyle A. Bladow, Northland College
Editorial Fellow
Allison Peters, Northern Michigan University
Graduate Editorial Assistants
Sarah Jane Kerwin, University of Michigan
Meagan Meylor, University of Southern California
Sarah Nolan, University of Southern California
Julia Talen, Northern Michigan University
Trending Articles - Summer 2021
“'The Sterility of Their Art:' Masculinity and the Western in Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony" (Vol. 49 No. 3, 2014)
"The Only Cure Is a Dance: The Role of Night Swan in Silko’s Ceremony" (Vol. 50 No. 3, 2015)
“'Sovereignty'” (Vol. 53 No. 1, 2018)
"From Mysteries to Manidoos: Language and Transformation in Louise Erdrich’s The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse" (Vol. 49 No. 2, 2014)
"The Chinaman’s Crime: Race, Memory, and the Railroad in Willa Cather’s “The Affair at Grover Station'" (Vol. 49 No. 2, 2014)
Founded in 1965, the Western Literature Association (WLA) is a non-profit, scholarly association that promotes the study of the diverse literature and cultures of the North American West, past and present.
Since its founding, the WLA has served to publish scholarship and promote work in the field; it has gathered together scholars, artists, environmentalists, and community leaders who value the West’s literary and cultural contributions to American and world cultures; it has recognized those who have made a major contribution to western literature and western studies; and it has fostered student learning and career advancement in education.
WLA members receive Western American Literature as a benefit of membership and only members are able to obtain individual subscriptions to the journal.
Check out this list of peer-reviewed articles focusing on Critical Theory, Environmental Ethics, Economics & Business, and other areas of study on Climate Change.
Reading List: Sexual and Gender-Based ViolenceThis reading list is full of academic articles for both instructors & students seeking peer-reviewed materials on Rape Culture, Sexual Help, Models of Resistance, and other areas of study.
Reading List: MigrationThis list of peer-reviewed materials features articles on many topics spanning Globalization, Genocide, Religion, Diaspora Communities, and other aspects on the topic of Migration.
Reading List: Willa CatherThis list of peer-reviewed articles & reviews centers on the work of acclaimed author (and UNL alum) Willa Cather. Known for her novels on the pioneer experience, her works are reexamined here through the lens of modern-day academics.
Reading List: PandemicThis list of peer-reviewed articles looks at epidemics and pandemics from the Influenza Pandemic of 1918-19 to COVID-19 from the perspective of research in the humanities.
This site, a project of the journal Western American Literature and the Western Literature Association, is a useful starting point for researchers wishing to utilize the wealth of information on specific authors and topics presented over the many years of the journal's publication.
Advertise in Western American Literature TodayClick the link above to view this journal's advertising rates & options!
Libraries face a dilemma: the number of books, journals, and other information resources available to offer to their patrons is growing faster than their acquisitions budgets. Decisions about which new materials to add in a given year are influenced by a number of factors, not the least of which are whether they are aware of the existence of a resource and the value that resource would bring to those who rely on the library. Librarians often appreciate the input of users in gathering the information they need to make those evaluations. There is no one right way to share information about a particular journal with a library. Some institutions have formal procedures for submitting acquisition requests, others rely on regular communication between subject area librarians and the departments they serve, and some have no specifically defined method. You are in the best position to determine the most appropriate method for approaching your library with a request for the addition of a journal to its collection. However, we have developed a library recommendation form as one tool you can use to provide your library with relevant information. The form contains basic information about the journal: a description, its print and electronic ISSNs, frequency of publication, pricing, print and electronic options, and ordering information. It also includes a few questions for you to complete that address your evaluation of the journal's value. If you choose to use the form, fill it out then send it to the appropriate individual at your library. Do not return it to the University of Nebraska Press.
