CEA Publications

The CEA Critic (1939 - Present)

The CEA Critic has been in print since 1939, starting as a four-page tabloid titledThe News Letter of the College English Association. In various formats, the journal has appeared in paper ever since. While other journals have gone digital,The Critic, published by the prestigious Johns Hopkins University Press, continues to appear in hard copy three times each year. Not only is the result a permanent part of “the conversation,” almost all authors, when pressed, will cheerfully admit that no online website feels as wonderful as a print copy.

The CEA Critic seeks scholarly works that, through "close reading" methodology, examine the texts of fiction, poetry, drama, nonfiction, and film studied on the college level. Bridging traditional academic scholarship with practical pedagogy, the journal encompasses a broad range of interests gathered traditionally under English studies: literature, women's and gender studies, speech, composition & rhetoric, minority studies, creative writing, popular culture, film & screen studies, technical communication, and language & linguistics. By focusing on the contextual as well as the theoretical aspects of texts,The CEA Critic provides a refreshingly sharp academic and practical perspective for teachers and scholars alike.

Keeping Current

The Critic has always been attentive to the changing nature of our profession while keeping a close eye on the evolution of our discipline. Here are a few examples:

At the start of the COVID outbreak, The Critic was among the first publications to deliver a special issue about teaching during the pandemic (2020 Vol. 82 No.3).
The Critic has been prescient in considering how our field and profession have evolved. A 1996 special issue explored the debate between multicultural versus international literature.
In 2010, The Critic published an issue devoted to teaching the graphic novel.
In 1990, The Critic considering the place of “Visual Texts in the English Classroom,” and
A 1998 a special issue looked at the emerging genre of creative non-fiction.

And we can’t forget that in 2010, the same year The Walking Dead debuted on the small screen, essays about Zombies appeared in The Critic.

The Critic's COVID Issue is Featured in a 2020 JHUP Podcast

As members of The College English Association prepared for their annual conference last spring, the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic led organizers to a now all too familiar decision: the conference had to be cancelled. CEA Critic Editor Jeraldine Kraver was not only gutted about missing this annual event, but now had another challenge: the journals' third issue each year was normally a proceedings of the annual meeting. Along with everything else going on, she was now without a journal issue. But Jeri did what all talented educators know how to do well: change the plan and pivot accordingly. Within a few short weeks, The CEA Critic put out a call for papers for reflections of educators' and students' experiences teaching and learning during the early days of the pandemic. Join us in a candid and congenial conversation to find out how this special issue, Living the Teaching Life in a Time of COVID-19, came together.

LISTEN HERE

The Critic Supports Emerging Scholars

The CEA Critic seeks to encourage the newest members of our community, whether graduate students or early-career professors. To assist them toward publication, a familiar feature at the annual CEA conference is a round-table featuring the editors of The Critic and the members of the editorial board discussing the publishing process. Not to be overlooked, too, is that The CEA Critic itself routinely seeks to publish essays written by graduate students.

ADVICE FROM THE EDITORS

Write for The Critic

The CEA Critic publishes scholarly articles that read closely the texts-including fiction, poetry, drama, nonfiction, and film-that English professors study and teach. The Critic celebrates the importance of literary criticism from a variety of approaches and the value of reading and teaching familiar and unfamiliar literary works.

The CEA Critic will publish only articles by members of the College English Association. Non-members are welcome to submit but must join the CEA in order for accepted submissions to be published. The editors will send submissions to members of the Editorial Board or other qualified reviewers. The editors, however, reserve the right to reject submissions that they consider inappropriate for The CEACritic without sending them out for review. Unrevised conference presentations or unrevised graduate term papers are not appropriate for publication in The CEA Critic.

If you would like to submit an essay for publication in The CEA Critic, you may e-mail submissions as WORD documents to the editors at criticunco@gmail.com.

Manuscript Guidelines

Manuscripts (as WORD documents) should be between 6,000 and 8,000 words and must be accompanied by a 150-300 word abstract.
Submit two copies of your manuscript, one with the author’s name, affiliation, and email address and one without any author identification. In addition, please include a statement that the manuscript is not under consideration elsewhere.
Notes should be (1) inserted manually (as if with an old-school typewriter) and (2) placed before the Works Cited.
All documentation should follow the most recent MLA edition. Authors are responsible for both the accuracy of quotations and for representing source material fairly.
Authors are responsible for securing any copyright releases involving graphs, tables, or illustrations.

Note: The submission review process normally takes 2 to 6 months to complete (there may be delays if the review period overlaps with a long holiday or Summer/Winter break). We are unable to offer substantive comments on submissions that do not pass our first round of review.

Reviewers Welcome!

Reviewers are subject-area specialists who evaluate article submissions to The CEACritic based not only on the quality, completeness, and accuracy of scholarship but as well on their fit with the aims of journal and the CEA. Reviewers might be asked to provide feedback on the paper and/or suggest improvements. Most importantly, they make recommendations to the editors about whether to accept, reject, or request changes to submissions. The ultimate decision always rests with the editor, but reviewers play a significant role in determining the outcome.

Email the editors for more information or sign up at criticunco@gmail.com.

Learn More About the Review Process