Announcements

Two creative pieces

2026-06-19

In addition to this morning's third batch, we have also added two new pieces to the Creative Matters section:

"Rather than Crap Decisions: Confessions of a Confessional Writer" by Omar Sabbagh.

"Refugees Writing About Displacement" edited by Katherine L. Hall.

Like all contributions to our Creative Matters section, these pieces creatively explore and experiment with what life writing can do. We hope you enjoy them as part of your weekend reading!

On behalf of the editorial team,

Olivia Doidge

Associate Editor

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A new paper, two book reviews, and an interview

2026-06-19

We are pleased to announce that the third batch of the current volume (15) of the European Journal of Life Writing is now online.

Added to the 2026 edition of our journal is the following paper:
- "Res Gestae in Autobiography: From Anecdote to Worlding " by Julie Codell.

Also available now are two book reviews:

- Sean Grass's (ed.) Life Writing and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Market, reviewed by Tadakazu Suzuki.

- Hannie Lawlor's Relational Responses to Trauma in Twenty-First-Century French and Spanish Women's Writing, reviewed by Ángela Calderón.

Finally, this batch also includes a new contribution to the "EJLW in Conversation" section, where we interview scholars who have been foundational in the field of life writing:

"'I'm Just the Messenger'. In Conversation with Craig Howes" by Katrin Bingham.

More publications will follow throughout the coming months.

On behalf of the editorial team,

Olivia Doidge

Associate Editor
Read more about A new paper, two book reviews, and an interview
Call for Reviews: International Life Writing Not Yet Available in English

2026-05-27
The European Journal of Life Writing invites review proposals for significant publications in the field of life writing that have not yet been translated into English.

We are particularly interested in reviews that introduce readers to important autobiographical, biographical, autofictional, or hybrid life-writing texts in other languages than English. Reviews should be written in English and should contextualize the work for an international readership, addressing both the text itself and its broader literary, historical, or cultural significance.

Possible areas of interest include (but are not limited to):
- memoir and autobiography
- biography
- autofiction
- family and intergenerational narratives
- queer life writing
- migration and exile narratives
- trauma and memory studies
- transnational and multilingual life writing traditions
Scholars interested in reviewing work in other languages than English are invited to contact the Book Reviews Editor with a brief proposal, including:
- the title and author of the work,
- the language in which it was published,
- a short description of the text and its significance,
- and a brief biographical note.
We especially welcome proposals that help broaden the geographical and linguistic scope of life-writing scholarship.

If you are interested, please contact Janina Levin, Reviews and Reports Manager, at jlevin@sju.edu or https://ejlw.eu/submission.
Read more about Call for Reviews: International Life Writing Not Yet Available in English
Two papers and two book reviews

2026-05-07

We are pleased to announce that the second batch of the current volume (15) of the European Journal of Life Writing is now online.

Added to the 2026 edition of our journal are the following two papers:
- "Stress, Freedom and Self-Transformation in Central European Life Writing: The Works of Yuri Andrukhovych and Andrzej Stasiuk" by Jacek Bielawa
- "'Tricked' into English: Translation and the Cultural Politics of Ruth Andreas-Friedrich’s Berlin Underground (1947) " by Christine Wiesenthal.

Also available now are two book reviews:

- Elleke Boehmer and Katherine Collins's (eds.) Life Writing and the Southern Hemisphere. Texts, Spaces, Resonances, reviewed by Jobst Welge

- Patrick Hayes's The Oxford History of Life-Writing, Volume 7: Postwar to Contemporary, 1945–2020, reviewed by Neil Vickers.

More publications will follow throughout the coming months.

On behalf of the editorial team,

Sjoerd-Jeroen Moenandar
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Volume 15 out now!

2026-02-18

Dear readers of the European Journal of Life Writing,

We are pleased to announce that the first contributions to volume 15 of the European Journal of Life Writing are now online.

The 2026 edition of the journal is off to a great start with two papers:

- "Translated Autobiographies in an Interconnected World: A Cross-Linguistic Study of Eighteenth- and Early Nineteenth-Century Religious Memoirs" by Martin Åberg and Hanna Enefalk

- "Automathographical Traces in Wang Zhenyi’s travel poetry" by Maria Tamboukou

Also online now, are three book reviews:

- Zachary Leader’s Ellmann’s Joyce: The Biography of a Masterpiece and Its Maker, reviewed by James Woodall

- Rimko van der Maar’s In de ban van Vietnam: De Vietnamese onafhankelijkheidsstrijd en het Westen [Enthralled by Vietnam; The Vietnamese struggle for independence and the West], reviewed by Sjoerd-Jeroen Moenandar

- Grant Rodwell’s A Pedagogist’s Memoir: Some Boys Are Born Twice, reviewed by Loretta Bowshall-Freeman

Finally, two works of creative non-fiction have been added in our Creative Matters section:

- “Art School Prostitute” by Dylan Jonas Stone

- “A Place to Stand: Life Writing and an Immigrant’s Journey Towards Belonging” by Anne Bradley

As always, you are cordially invited to publish your life writing research, book reviews and creative matters in our journal. Guidelines can be found here or you can contact us at ejlw@rug.nl if you have any questions about the process.

Warm regards, also on behalf of the journal's board and editorial team,

Katrin Bingham
Assistant Journal Manager
Read more about Volume 15 out now!
End of year announcement

2025-12-18

Dear readers of the European Journal of Life Writing,

With the recent batch of publications, we rounded up the fourteenth volume of our journal. This year, we published seven regular academic papers, two clusters (Life Narrative and the Digital containing seven papers and an introduction, and Life Writing in Times of Crisis containing six papers and an introduction), eight book reviews and three pieces of creative non-fiction and an interview. We also started a new section, In Conversation, with conversations with founding figures in the field of life writing.

Looking back on the 614 pages that make up this volume , I think we can say 2025 was a fruitful year for the European Journal of Life Writing. You can find the entire volume here.

2025 was also the year that we saw the people who made up the journal’s board for many years step down. Please join me in thanking Monica Soeting, Marijke Huisman and Ernestine Köhne for all the time and effort they spent on the journal throughout their time on the board. And please join me in welcoming Dennis Kersten (chair), Marleen Rensen (finances) and Babs Boter as the new board! We also said goodbye to Alexander Williams, our assistant journal manager, who I also would like to thank for his years of service. I propose a virtual round of applause for the work and dedication to the journal of all these people.

In this respect, you may enjoy reading the conversation with Monica Soeting we published recently, which also touches upon the journal’s history and Monica’s work in the field of life writing.

I am already looking forward to starting volume 15, for which the first batch of publications is expected in late January. For the coming weeks, responses to emails and submissions may be delayed somewhat, for which we hope for your understanding.

Last year, we adopted Chicago Style referencing (endnotes+bibliography). From 1 January 2026 onwards, the journal will switch completely to Chicago Style. Another change stating with the new volume, will be that clusters will henceforth be called special issues.

I wish you a restful summer or winter break, depending on the hemisphere in which this email finds you, and happy holidays for those who celebrate.

Sjoerd-Jeroen Moenandar
Journal Manager

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A new paper and two book reviews

2025-12-15

We are pleased to announce that the final batch of the current volume (14) of the European Journal of Life Writing is now online.

Added to the 2025 edition of our journal is the following paper:
- "Russian-language Autofiction and Cultural Trauma(s)" by Larissa Muraveva.

Also available now are two book reviews:

- Jarmila Mildorf's Life Storying in Oral History. Fictional Contamination and Literary Complexity, reviewed by Zuzana Fonioková.

- Amy Prendergast's Mere Bagatelles: Women’s Diaries from Ireland, 1760-1810, reviewed by Colleen Taylor.

With that, we close the fourteenth volume of the journal. New publications will follow in the fifteenth volume, expected in January 2026.

On behalf of the editorial team,

Sjoerd-Jeroen Moenandar
Read more about A new paper and two book reviews
A creative piece, two book reviews, and a new section

2025-11-04

We are pleased to announce that the fourth batch of the current volume (14) of the European Journal of Life Writing is now online.

Added to the 2025 edition of our journal is a creative piece: "A Cloak for Courage in the Anthropocene" by Kay Syrad.

Also available now are two book reviews:
- "Jarmila Mildorf, Life Storying in Oral History. Fictional Contamination and Literary Complexity" by Zuzana Fonioková.
- "Helena Duffy and Avril Tynan (eds.), Trauma, Ethics, Hermeneutics: Essays in Honour of Colin Davis" by Sjoerd-Jeroen Moenandar.

Finally, this batch also includes the first contribution to an exciting new section of the journal, titled "EJLW in Conversation". Over the coming months, we plan to publish a series of interviews in this section with foundational figures in the international life writing community. The very first interview is with Monica Soeting, one of the founders of our journal and IABA/Europe. Be sure to check it out!

"'A Good Biographer Does Not Take the Easy Way'. In Conversation with Monica Soeting" by Sjoerd-Jeroen Moenandar.

More publications will follow throughout the coming months.

On behalf of the editorial team,

Olivia Doidge
Read more about A creative piece, two book reviews, and a new section
New cluster: Life Writing in Times of Crisis; Creative Matters; book review

2025-07-10

We are pleased to announce that we have just published a new cluster, "Life Writing in Times of Crisis," edited by Paweł Rodak and Teresa Bruś.This cluster collects six papers that were originally presented at the IABA/Europe conference of the same name, held in Warsaw from July 5–8, 2023. You can read these papers and the guest editors' introduction at the European Journal of Life Writing website:

- Cluster introduction, "Life Writing in Times of Crisis" by Teresa Bruś and Paweł Rodak.

- "The Autobiographical Triangle – and Then What?" by Małgorzata Czermińska.

- "Psychoanalysis and Biography in Times of Crisis: Freud’s Late Correspondence with Marie Bonaparte" by Agnieszka Sobolewska Alsberg.

- "Narratives of Homesteading in Times of Crisis: Peasant Economies in the Light of Interwar Polish Diaries" by Marta Rakoczy.

- "Wartime Diaries: Diaristic Forms of Recording Borderline Situations" by Jacek Leociak.

- "Prison Epistolarity and the Crisis of Politically Motivated Incarceration in the Letters of Abd al-Azim Anis" by Rowa Nabil.

- "Coming Out as a Secular Rite of Passage – a Lived Experience Study Based on Diary Narratives of the Polish LGBTQ+ Community" by Joanna Anczaruk.

Clusters are how we call 'special issues' at this journal. We thank the guest editors for their hard work.

Also recently published is the following content:

- A creative non fiction piece, "The Fence," by Laura Malacart.

- An interview with Deborah Levy, "Two Silver Herrings for My Granddaughter”: Central Europe, Poland, and Transnational Affinities," by Robert Kusek & Wojciech Szymański.

- A book review of Eleanor Paynter's Emergency in Transit: Witnessing Migration in the Colonial Present by Violetta Ravagnoli.

We cordially invite you to read these and other items at the journal's website. All contributions to our journal are completely open access.

Kind regards,

Sjoerd-Jeroen Moenandar
Journal Manager
Read more about New cluster: Life Writing in Times of Crisis; Creative Matters; book review
Life Narrative and the Digital: Full cluster online now

2025-07-04

We are pleased to announce that the cluster "Life Narrative and the Digital", edited by Sandra Mayer and Timo Frühwirth, has been expanded with three papers and two editorials and can now be read in full at the European Journal of Life Writing website.

The cluster makes a timely contribution to the study of life narrative with a focus on the digital. Like all contributions to our journal, it is completely open access. The following content has been added to the cluster:

- Cluster introduction, "Life Narrative and the Digital: Outlining the Contours of an Emerging Field" by Timo Frühwirth and Sandra Mayer.

- "The Digital Life Narrative of a Romanian Transgender Microcelebrity through the Lens of Networked Publics" by Alexandra Cotoc and Anamaria Radu.

- "About Disputed Existences: Dys4ia’s Conflicted Status between Game and Autobiography" by Felix Tenhaef

- "Narration Through Data: The Life and Relationships of a Fourteenth-Century Tuscan Merchant" by Emiliano Degl'Innocenti, Alessia Spadi and Federica Spinelli.

- A transcript of a roundtable discussion, "‘To Bring Them into Dialog’: A Conversation about Life Narrative and the Digital" with Caitríona Ní Dhúill, Anna Spitzbart, Christian Wachter, Florian Windhager and Sandra Mayer.

Clusters are how we call 'special issues' at this journal. We thank the guest editors for their hard work and cordially invite you to read these and other works at the journal's website.

Kind regards,

Sjoerd-Jeroen Moenandar
Journal Manager
Read more about Life Narrative and the Digital: Full cluster online now
Two papers and a book review

2025-06-13

We are pleased to announce that the third batch of the current volume (14) of the European Journal of Life Writing is now online.

Added to the 2025 edition of our journal are the following three papers:
- "Writing Care: Narrative Strategies and Corporeal Realities in Carmen Maria Machado's In the Dream House" by Angel Maria Varghese and Arka Chattopadhyay.
- "A Quartet of Diplomatic Memoirs" by Kenneth Weisbrode.

Also available now is a book review of Douglas Field's Walking in the Dark: James Baldwin, My Father, and Me by Janina Levin.

More publications will follow throughout the coming months.

On behalf of the editorial team,

Sjoerd-Jeroen Moenandar
Read more about Two papers and a book review
New Cluster: Life Narrative and the Digital

2025-05-09

We are pleased to announce that we just published the first three papers of a new cluster at the European Journal of Life Writing site: "Life Narrative and the Digital", edited by Sandra Mayer and Timo Frühwirth.

The cluster makes a timely contribution to the study of life writing with a focus on the digital. Like all contributions to our journal, it is completely open access. Three papers can now be read at our website:

- "Archiving Uncertainty: Leveraging Crowdsourcing Methodology in Documenting Personal Experiences of COVID-19" by Sanita Reinsone, Ilze Ļaksa-Timinska, Haralds Matulis, and Elvīra Žvarte.

- "The Evolution of Arabic Self-Expression in the Western Mediterranean: Using an Annotation Schema as a Comparative Framework" by Laila M. Jreis-Navarro.

- "Finding Aids and Networked Biography: Stuart Hall and the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies" by Katherine Parsons

Over the coming months, a few more papers, as well as editorial sections are expected to be added to this cluster.

Kind regards,

Sjoerd-Jeroen Moenandar
Journal Manager
Read more about New Cluster: Life Narrative and the Digital
Two papers and a creative writing piece

2025-04-08

We are pleased to announce that the second batch of the current volume (14) of the European Journal of Life Writing is now online.

Added to the 2025 edition of our journal are the following three papers:
- "What’s Cooking? Mobilizing Women’s Life Narratives in Diasporic Cookbooks " by Arththi Sathananthar.
- "From Epicureanism to Stoicism: Central European Literary Responses to History of the Twentieth Century and Exile (Sándor Márai, Joseph Roth and Stefan Zweig)" by Aleksandra Tobiasz.

Also available now is the non-fiction piece "Fractal Fragments: Reflections on Human and More-than-human Matter(s) in the Kogelberg Biosphere, South Africa", by Mathilda Slabbert, this volume's first contribution to the Creative Matters section of our journal.

More publications will follow throughout the coming months.

On behalf of the editorial team,

Sjoerd-Jeroen Moenandar
Read more about Two papers and a creative writing piece
CfP: panel "Limits of Self-Narratives" at the 8th Conference of the European Network of Narratology (ENN)

2025-02-06

The 8th Conference of the European Network of Narratology (ENN) invites scholars to submit proposals for the panel "Limits of Self-Narratives", organized by Larissa Muravieva (Bard College Berlin).

In contemporary culture, self-narratives have become increasingly prominent due to technological advancements, social transformations, and evolving philosophical perspectives on identity. This panel aims to explore the boundaries of self-narratives, questioning how fact and fiction intertwine in personal storytelling, as well as the ethical and political implications of narrating the self and others. The rise of trauma culture has redefined the role of self-narratives, shifting the subject from hero to victim and emphasizing vulnerability. Additionally, the expansion of digital media has transformed the relationship between narrators and audiences, enabling more interactive and participatory storytelling. However, it also raises concerns about the appropriation of others' experiences and the ethical limits of autobiographical representation.

This panel will explore the limits of self-narratives, engaging with questions such as:

- Fact vs. Fiction; Re-enactment vs. Representation in Contemporary Self-Narratives
- Narrating Self: Vulnerability vs. Heroic Representation
- Self and Other: Ethical, Political, and Discursive Aspects
- The Dialectics of ‘Narrated Self’ vs. ‘Performed Self’ in Contemporary Cultural Practices
- Narrating Self in Autofiction, Biofiction, Exofiction, and Autotheory
- Trauma and Self-Narratives: Limits of Representation
- Self-Narratives across Media

A detailed description of the panel can be read here (under panel 6).

The Conference will be held in Wuppertal (Germany), September 29 to October 2, 2025

Submission Deadline: March 1, 2025
Notification of Acceptance: March 25, 2025

For more details and submission guidelines, please see the Call for Papers.

You can submit your proposal via the submission Form

For inquiries, please contact the conference office: enn2025@uni-wuppertal.de
Read more about CfP: panel "Limits of Self-Narratives" at the 8th Conference of the European Network of Narratology (ENN)
Volume 14 out now!

2025-01-23

We are pleased to announce that the first articles of volume 14 of the European Journal of Life Writing are now online. The 2025 edition of the journal is off to a great start with the papers "Time and The Diary in Captivity, a Case Study: The Diary of Fela Szeps (1942-1944)" by Batsheva Ben-Amos and "Writing under the 'Auto/biographical Demand' in Deborah Feldman’s Unorthodox (2012) and Exodus (2015)" by Szidonia Haragos.

Also online now, are a book review of Samira Saramo' Building That Bright Future: Soviet Karelia in the Life Writing of Finnish North Americans by Lynn Dominaand Anna Poletti's Stories of the Self: Life Writing after the Book by
Mārtiņš Kaprāns.

As always, you are cordially invited to publish your life writing research, book reviews and creative matters in our journal. Guidelines can be found here or you can contact us at ejlw@rug.nl if you have any questions about the process.

Warm regards, also on behalf of the journal's board and editorial team,

Sjoerd-Jeroen Moenandar
Journal Manager
Read more about Volume 14 out now!
Final publications for the 2024 volume of the European Journal of Life Writing

2024-12-17

Dear all,

Today, the final two publications were added to volume 13.

- "Inside the Lives of Comedians — Or Not: Signs of Constructedness and Referentiality in Stand-Up Comedy", by Ida Marie Munck.

- "Queer Tango", a contribution to our Creative Matters section by Dylan Jonas Stone.

With that, we round up the thirteenth volume of our journal. This year, we published thirteen regular academic papers, a cluster on medical humanities containing a further four papers plus introduction, four extensive book reviews, and four creative pieces. With that, I think we can say 2024 was a fruitful year for the European Journal of Life Writing. You can find the entire volume here.

If this email finds you in the northern hemisphere, I wish you a restful winter break, and happy holidays for those who celebrate.

I am already looking forward to starting volume 14, for which the first batch of publications is already expected in late January. For the coming weeks, responses to emails and submissions may be delayed somewhat, for which we hope for your understanding.

Please note that from January 1 onwards, the journal has switched to Chicago Style referencing. Please see our submissions page and style guide for more information.

All the best,

Sjoerd-Jeroen Moenandar
Read more about Final publications for the 2024 volume of the European Journal of Life Writing
Three new articles added to volume 13 of the European Journal of Life Writing

2024-12-13

We are pleased to announce that the fifth batch of the current volume (13) of the European Journal of Life Writing is now online.

Added to the 2024 edition of our journal are the following three papers:
- "Hand-Reading: New Pointers for Life Writing" by Babs Boter & Alexandra Nagel

- "A Woman Haunted: How Graphic Biofiction Revises Mary Shelley’s Early Feminist Life" by Maria Juko

- "We Were There: Individual, Social, and Cultural Memory in Punk Memoirs by Women" by Cristina Garrigós.

We expect one final batch before the end of the year.

On behalf of the editorial team,

Sjoerd-Jeroen Moenandar
Read more about Three new articles added to volume 13 of the European Journal of Life Writing
CfP: 2025 IABA Europe Conference, Coimbra (Portugal), July 23 to 26

2024-11-12

The next IABA Europe Conference will be held at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Coimbra in partnership with the Centre for Social Studies, 23-26 July 2025. Proposals for individual papers or panels of 3-4 papers are invited, as well as round-table suggestions on the theme of the Conference: “Life Writing and Social Transformation”.

Practicalities:

Conference website: ces.uc.pt/eventos/iabacoimbra2025

Conference e-mail: iabacoimbra2025@ces.uc.pt

Deadline for proposals: January 15, 2025

Notifications of acceptance: will be sent out by January 31, 2025
Read more about CfP: 2025 IABA Europe Conference, Coimbra (Portugal), July 23 to 26
Three creative contributions and a review

2024-10-31

I am delighted to announce that the Creative Matters section of volume 13 of the European Journal of Life Writing is now active. Three wonderful creative non-fiction pieces have been added:

- "Gone Missing" by James Woodall (a memoir describing the biography-making of Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges)
- "Polyculed: A Writer’s Tale of Surviving the Pandemic and a Polycule" by Christopher Linforth (an essay exploring contemporary and historical polyamory and its relationship with identity-formation and artistic personae)
- "Portrait of my Father" by Nadia Butt (a work of life writing in which the author aims to piece together her late father)

Also online now is a review of Anita Wohlmann's Metaphor in Illness Writing: Fight and Battle Reused by Anna Ovaska.

A new batch of regular articles is also expected soon.

Sjoerd-Jeroen Moenandar
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Three papers and a review

2024-10-01

We are pleased to announce that the fourth batch of the current volume (13) of the European Journal of Life Writing is now online.

Added to the 2024 edition of our journal are the following three papers:
- "Living on a Picture: Approaching Images and Life Stories in Social Media" by Ana Isabel Galván García de las Bayonas.
- "A Feminist Autoethnography of a Family Archive: Affects, Narratives and Practices During Two World Crises: World War II and Covid-19" by Sonia Yuruen Lerma Mayer.
- "Writing the Lone Mother’s Lifetime: Peter Handberg’s Den vita fläcken" by Helena Wahlström Henriksson.

Also available now is a review of Amy Carlson's Reading Mediated Life Narratives: Auto/Biographical Agency in the Book, Museum, Social Media, and Archives by Iana Nikitenko.

More publications will follow throughout the coming months.

On behalf of the editorial team,

Sjoerd-Jeroen Moenandar
Read more about Three papers and a review
Cluster: Gender and (Auto)pathography from a Transnational Perspective

2024-09-19

I am pleased to announce that we just published a cluster at the European Journal of Life Writing site: "Gender and (Auto)pathography from a Transnational Perspective", edited by Isabel Durán Giménez-Rico.

The cluster, which opens with an introduction by Isabel Durán Giménez-Rico, makes a timely contribution to the medical humanities from a life writing perspective. Like all contributions to our journal, it is completely open access. It contains the following contributions:

- "The Violent ‘Trojan Horse’: a Comparative, Transnational Reading of Two Paralysis Narratives" by Isabel Durán Giménez-Rico.

- "A New ‘Stockholm Syndrome’: Physical Impairment and Hospital Confinement as Post-Holocaust Sequelae in Ilona Karmel’s Stephania" by Francisco José Cortés Vieco.

- "‘Women Bleed in Private’ / Miscarriage Goes Public: A Relational Response to Social Silence over Miscarriage in Sarah Ruhl’s Writings" by Noelia Hernando-Real

- "‘Unlearning this Desire to Vanish': Rape, Illness, and the Politics of Testimony in Lucia Osborne-Crowley’s I Choose Elena and Amy Berkowitz’s Tender Points" by Isabel Marqués-López

More articles in the general section of the journal, as well as reviews, are expected in October.

Kind regards,

Sjoerd-Jeroen Moenandar
Journal Manager
Read more about Cluster: Gender and (Auto)pathography from a Transnational Perspective
Three new publications online

2024-09-13

We are pleased to announce that the third batch of the current volume (13) of the European Journal of Life Writing is now online.

Added to the 2024 edition of our journal is "Manifestations of Phototext as Hybrid Narratives in Biographies of Ingeborg Bachmann and Sylvia Plath" by Sophie Mayr and "The Physiognomy of an Impossible Return: Relational Geometries Between Autobiography, Narration and Image in Every Day Is for the Thief by Teju Cole" by Niccolò Amelii.

Also available now is a review of Lily Robert-Foley's The Duty to Presence by Helena Wahlström Henriksson.

Please also be informed that the European Journal of Life Writing can now be followed LinkedIn!

There is also an upcoming cluster on medical humanities, so stay tuned!

On behalf of the editorial team,

Sjoerd-Jeroen Moenandar
Read more about Three new publications online
Two new articles now online at the European Journal of Life Writing

2024-06-24

We are pleased to announce that the second batch of articles for the current volume (13) of the European Journal of Life Writing is now online. Added to the 2024 edition of our journal are the papers "'I shudder that I exist’. Hadewijch’s Mystical Writings as a Wayward Precursor of Autotheoretical Life-Writing" by Kris Pint, and "The Visual Life Story of a Self-made Economic Man: The Painting Series of Willem Albert Scholten (1819-1892) as an Autobiographical Practice" by Marieke Dwarswaard.

Please also be informed that the European Journal of Life Writing can now be followed LinkedIn!
Read more about Two new articles now online at the European Journal of Life Writing
We are now on LinkedIn!

2024-05-03

Follow the European Journal of Life Writing on LinkedIn.
Read more about We are now on LinkedIn!
Volume 13 (2024) out now!

2024-03-26

We are pleased to announce that the first articles of volume 13 of the European Journal of Life Writing are now online.
Read more about Volume 13 (2024) out now!
Call for papers: IABA 2024

2023-09-14

Fragmented Lives
IABA (International Auto/Biography Association) World Conference 2024 Reykjavik, 12-15 June 2024
Read more about Call for papers: IABA 2024
New article and cluster 'Refugee Tales'

2023-09-12

Dear readers of the European Journal of Life Writing,

On behalf of the editorial board, I am very happy to announce that the EJLW has published a new article and the cluster ‘Refugee Tales’.

I would like to take the opportunity of this announcement to say goodbye and to thank you all for your interest in the journal, the articles you have read, submitted or reviewed and for your contribution to the success of the EJLW. After six years it is time for me to concentrate on my own research and therefore, at the IABA-conference in Warsaw last July, I stepped down as journal manager. I’ve been succeeded by Sjoerd-Jeroen Moenandar.

Best wishes,

Petra van Langen
Read more about New article and cluster 'Refugee Tales'
New article, creative pieces and book reviews

2023-06-05

On behalf of the editorial board of the European Journal of Life Writing, I am very happy to announce that the EJLW has published a new article, three new creative pieces and two book reviews.

Best wishes, Petra van Langen, Journal Manager
Read more about New article, creative pieces and book reviews
Vacancy: Journal Manager

2023-03-29

Dear Reader,

Due to the imminent departure of our longstanding Journal Manager, the Board of Trustees of the European Journal of Life Writing (EJLW) is inviting applications for this position. Together with the assistant journal manager and the manager of the book reviews, the new journal manager will be responsible for the day-to-day running of the journal.
Read more about Vacancy: Journal Manager
CfP 'Urban Lives: Amsterdam Diaries and Other Stories of the Self Conference', University of Amsterdam, 26 – 28 October 2023

2023-01-26

Call for Papers

Urban Lives: Amsterdam Diaries and Other Stories of the Self

Conference held at the University of Amsterdam, 26 – 28 October 2023

In October 2025, Amsterdam will celebrate its 750th anniversary. In light of this upcoming celebration, two of the city’s institutes of higher education, the University of Amsterdam and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, are inviting academics, artists, and others to share their research and knowledge on one particular topic: Amsterdam diaries and other stories of the self.
Read more about CfP 'Urban Lives: Amsterdam Diaries and Other Stories of the Self Conference', University of Amsterdam, 26 – 28 October 2023
Reminder: CfP IABA Europe 2023, 5-8 July, Warsaw, Poland: Life-Writing in Times of Crisis

2022-12-18

We would like to remind you that the next IABA Europe Conference will be held in Warsaw, Poland, from July 5th to July 8th 2023. The conference will be held on-site only. The theme of the conference, Life-Writing in Times of Crisis, relates to the challenges we have had to face in Europe and all around the world in recent years. Deadline for proposals: December 31, 2022.

On behalf of IABA Warsaw 2023 Organising Committee,

Petra van Langen

Journal Manager EJLW
Read more about Reminder: CfP IABA Europe 2023, 5-8 July, Warsaw, Poland: Life-Writing in Times of Crisis
New book review and creative pieces

2022-10-11

On behalf of the editorial board of the European Journal of Life Writing, I am very happy to announce that the EJLW has published a new book review and two new creative pieces.

Best wishes, Petra van Langen, Journal Manager
Read more about New book review and creative pieces
IABA Europe 2023, 5-8 July, Warsaw, Poland: Life-Writing in Times of Crisis

2022-09-12

We are pleased to announce that the next IABA Europe Conference will be held in
Warsaw, Poland, from July 5th to July 8th 2023. The conference will be held on-site
only. The theme of the conference, Life-Writing in Times of Crisis, relates to the
challenges we have had to face in Europe and all around the world in recent years.
Read more about IABA Europe 2023, 5-8 July, Warsaw, Poland: Life-Writing in Times of Crisis
New article, cluster and book reviews

2022-06-07

On behalf of the editorial board of the European Journal of Life Writing, I am very happy to announce that the EJLW has published a new article, a new cluster and two new book reviews.

Best wishes, Petra van Langen, Journal Manager
Read more about New article, cluster and book reviews
Symposium: What’s New? Topical Work in Transnational Life Writing.

2022-04-25

What’s New? Topical Work in Transnational Life Writing

Sixth Annual Symposium organized by Unhinging the National Framework: Platform for the Study of Transnational Life Writing

Friday, 20 May 2022, 9.30 – 17.00

Campus Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Free of charge, but please register before 15 May 2022: b.boter[at]vu.nl
Read more about Symposium: What’s New? Topical Work in Transnational Life Writing.
New articles, cluster and book review

2022-04-21

On behalf of the editorial board of the European Journal of Life Writing, I am very happy to announce that the EJLW has published 4 new articles, the cluster 'Autobiography and Narrative Resilience' and a new book review.

Best wishes,

Petra van Langen

Journal Manager
Read more about New articles, cluster and book review
Volume XI, first creative article and book reviews

2022-03-11

On behalf of the editorial board of the European Journal of Life Writing, I am very happy to announce that the EJLW has published the first creative article and book reviews of its eleventh volume.
Read more about Volume XI, first creative article and book reviews
New cluster and book review

2021-12-07

We are very happy to announce that the EJLW has published the new cluster ‘Beyond Boundaries' edited by Helma van Lierop-Debrauwer, Jane McVeigh and Monica Soeting, and a book review.
Read more about New cluster and book review
New deadline CfP: Taking Control: critical and creative uses of digital tools in screen, literature, graphic texts, and visual culture narratives

2021-12-03

This is a slightly revised call for abstract submissions for an international edited collection entitled Taking Control: critical and creative uses of digital tools in screen, literature, graphic texts, and visual culture narratives.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, we have extended the deadline date for abstracts to 30 April 2022.
Read more about New deadline CfP: Taking Control: critical and creative uses of digital tools in screen, literature, graphic texts, and visual culture narratives
What’s New? Topical Work in Transnational Life Writing

2021-11-13

What’s New? Topical Work in Transnational Life Writing

Sixth Annual Symposium organized by Unhinging the National Framework: Platform for the Study of Transnational Life Writing

Friday, 3 December 2021, 9.30 – 17.00

Campus Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Atrium, Medical Faculty

Van der Boechorststraat 7 (first floor)

Free of charge, but please register before Tuesday, 30 November 2021: b.boter@vu.nl
Read more about What’s New? Topical Work in Transnational Life Writing
Call for Papers: Hybridity in Life Writing: How Text and Images Work Together to Tell a Life

2021-09-13

This is a call for papers for the international and interdisciplinary conference Hybridity in Life Writing: How Text and Images Work Together to Tell a Life. Organizers: Clare Brant (King’s College London) and Arnaud Schmitt (Bordeaux University & LARCA Université de Paris). Venue: Université de Paris, Paris, 7–8 July, 2022. Keynote Speaker: Pr. Teresa Bruś (Wrocław University). Deadline: 30 November, 2021
Read more about Call for Papers: Hybridity in Life Writing: How Text and Images Work Together to Tell a Life
New cluster and book review

2021-09-08

We are very happy to announce that the European Journal of Life Writing has published the new cluster 'Women's Lives on Screen' edited by Eugenie Theuer and Julia Novak, and a new book review.
Read more about New cluster and book review
New articles, clusters and book review

2021-07-09

On behalf of the editorial board of the European Journal of Life Writing, we are very happy to announce that the EJLW has published 2 new articles, 2 new clusters and a new book review.
Read more about New articles, clusters and book review
Please consider donating to the European Journal of Life Writing

2021-05-28

This year we are celebrating the tenth birthday of the European Journal of Life Writing. The EJLW has developed into a flourishing open access, peer reviewed journal, that is indexed in most of the important bibliographies and directories.

However, as the number of publications continues to grow, the work of the journal manager and of the review editors is increasing as well. This makes it impossible for them to maintain their work on a solely unpaid, voluntary basis. Apart from this, money is required for yearly editors’ meetings, and for expenses like obtaining copy rights of illustrations. We therefore urgently need financial help to continue!

Please consider donating to support our work. Your donation – any amount helps, but may we suggest a minimum of € 50 – can be transferred to: Stichting European Journal of Life Writing, Rooseveltlaan 207 III, 1079 AS Amsterdam, the Netherlands. IBAN: NL61 RABO 0328 1078 59; BIC: RABONL2U.

Thank you very much for your great help and support!
Read more about Please consider donating to the European Journal of Life Writing
New Deadline CfP: 'Taking Control: the Use of Critical and Creative Digital Tools in the Now and Beyond, in Screen, Literature, Graphic Texts, and Visual Culture Narratives.

2021-05-25

This call is for abstract submissions for an international edited collection now entitled Taking Control: the Use of Critical and Creative Digital Tools in the Now and Beyond, in Screen, Literature, Graphic Texts, and Visual Culture Narratives.

Currently I am seeking a number of academics and professionals in the field who might like to send me an abstract for consideration for inclusion in the book.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the deadline date for abstracts has been extended:

Abstracts now due: 19 October 2021.
Read more about New Deadline CfP: 'Taking Control: the Use of Critical and Creative Digital Tools in the Now and Beyond, in Screen, Literature, Graphic Texts, and Visual Culture Narratives.
New Deadline CfP: Cultural Representations of the Second Wife: Literature, Stage, and Screen.

2021-05-25

This slightly revised call is for abstracts for a scholarly, international edited collection entitled, Cultural Representations of the Second Wife: Literature, Stage, and Screen.

Currently I am seeking a number of academics and professionals in the field who might like to send me an abstract for consideration for inclusion in the book.

Due to effects of the covid-19 pandemic 2020-21, and the strain this has placed on people and businesses (including academics and universities world-wide), the deadline for abstracts for this project has been extended.

New deadline for abstract submissions: 15 September 2021
Read more about New Deadline CfP: Cultural Representations of the Second Wife: Literature, Stage, and Screen.
Volume X, first cluster and articles

2021-04-22

On behalf of the editorial board of the European Journal of Life Writing, we are very happy to announce that the EJLW has published the first cluster and articles of its tenth volume.
Read more about Volume X, first cluster and articles
CALL FOR PAPERS: The Multiple Lives of Memories: Materializing Experiences of Soviet Terror

2021-03-16

Edited by Samira Saramo (Migration Institute of Finland) & Ulla Savolainen (University of Helsinki)
Keywords: memory; life stories; experiences; materiality; emotion; mobility; violence; repression;
Soviet Union.

This peer-reviewed international collection of articles focuses on the expansive reach of Soviet Terror
through an analysis of the materialization of memories from multi-sited perspectives. The book
examines the concrete mobility of life stories, letters, memoirs, objects, and bodies reflecting Soviet
repression and violence across borders of geographical locations, historical periods, political regimes,
and generations, while simultaneously paying attention to more abstract processes of textual
circulation and (re)mediation. The collection asks: what happens to life stories, testimonies, and
experiences when they travel in time and space and are (re)interpreted and (re)formulated through
these transfers? What types of spaces for remembering, telling, and feeling are created, negotiated,
and contested in these contexts? What are the boundaries and intersections of intimate, familial, and
community memories?
Read more about CALL FOR PAPERS: The Multiple Lives of Memories: Materializing Experiences of Soviet Terror
New deadline for submissions for a scholarly, international edited collection entitled 'Writing Australian History on Screen: cultural, sociological, and historical depths in television and film period dramas “down under”.'

2021-03-08

Due to effects of the covid-19 pandemic 2020-21, and the strain this has placed on people and businesses (including academics and universities world-wide), the deadline for abstracts for this project has been extended.

Read more about New deadline for submissions for a scholarly, international edited collection entitled 'Writing Australian History on Screen: cultural, sociological, and historical depths in television and film period dramas “down under”.'
Book: Unhinging the National Framework. Perspectives on Transnational Life Writing

2020-12-01

The international and interdisciplinary research group “Unhinging the National Framework: Platform for Life Writing and Transnationalism” has published its first volume of essays (Sidestone Press December 2020). It is Volume 5 in the CLUES series, an international series of academic texts in the fields of culture, history and heritage that are either written by, or performed under the supervision of, CLUE+ members.

Editors Babs Boter (VU, CLUE+), Marleen Rensen (UvA) and Giles Scott-Smith (Leiden University) have brought together twelve essays on topics that deal with life writing and transnationalism, such as the way in which translations from the Dutch has helped broaden the horizons of American poet Adrienne Rich (by Diederik Oostdijk, member of CLUE+); the Amsterdam networks of Civil Rights activist W.E.B. DuBois (by Lonneke Geerlings, former PhD-candidate of the VU); and transnationality as part of the self-presentation of Dutch writer Cissy van Marxveldt (by Monica Soeting, former guest researcher at the VU and co-editor of The European Journal of Life Writing). Boter and Rensen wrote an Introduction that theorizes and contextualizes the notions of life writing and transnationalism.
Read more about Book: Unhinging the National Framework. Perspectives on Transnational Life Writing
Diary as Literature Through the Lens of Multiculturalism in America

2020-01-27

This collection of diary voices, side by side, document and demonstrate how social pressures and literary practices affect people despite race, culture, creed, or pedigree.

Based on the diary, the contributors of Diary as Literature write about multiculturalism and intercultural relations during the Civil War experienced by African-Americans and Irish-Americans soldiers, through the lives of Afro-Cuban diaspora, within a New Englander’s cultural clash in the Appalachia, the hardships of a Bengali immigrant in New York City, and the “racial barriers as a false social construct to create multicultural identities.”
Read more about Diary as Literature Through the Lens of Multiculturalism in America
Call for Papers Life Writing in Translation (Conference) King's College London / Centre for Life-Writing Research / 27 May 2020

2019-10-23

The Centre for Life-Writing Research is a pioneering group producing some of the most innovative work in the field. Established in 2007, and now part of the Arts & Humanities Research Institute, it enables experts and students to share, research and exchange ideas with a wider audience. We work on all sorts of topics and periods covering a wide range of genres – biography, autobiography, autofiction, diaries and letters, memoirs, digital life writing including social media, blogs, audio and video, the visual arts (especially portraiture), poetry, and medical narratives. What connects us is an interest in the theory, history and practice of life writing.

It's more that when it comes to writing and reading translations the question of what is wholly normal or truly plausible, of what was really said or written, gets suspended, slightly. The translator asks me to agree to its suspension. To suspend, or to suspend even further, my disbelief. /.../ Which is to say: before we're even in the position to critique or worry over the decisions made by the translator, some provisional agreement has already been made. We have accepted the book in English. We have accepted that the book is now written in what appears to be English. (Kate Briggs, This Little Art)
Read more about Call for Papers Life Writing in Translation (Conference) King's College London / Centre for Life-Writing Research / 27 May 2020
Announcement: Life Writing and Social Inclusion: or, Three Pots, a Lid and a Wedding

2019-10-04

Life Writing and Social Inclusion. Or, Three Pots, a Lid and a Wedding

Life Writing from Below in Europe (EJLW 7, 2018) explored ways in which, historically, social groups previously excluded from full participation in their societies narrated their lives as a way of asserting dignity and the right to be included. Such struggles continue today. One such effort, Healthnic, a collaborative European project funded within the EU's Erasmus framework, embeds life narration as part of workshops involving the exchange of culinary, dietary, and IT skills.

Read more about Announcement: Life Writing and Social Inclusion: or, Three Pots, a Lid and a Wedding
Notice to the Readers

2019-07-20

Dear Reader,

On behalf of the editorial board of the European Journal of Life Writing, we are very happy to announce that the EJLW has published the first 28 articles of its eighth volume. Since the end of 2018, the European Journal of Life Writing is no longer published by the University Library of the VU Free University in Amsterdam, but by the University of Groningen Press. We are very grateful to the people of the Library of the VU Free University, who have very skilfully and kindly helped and guided us when we first started our Journal. At the same time we are very happy to have joined the collection of interesting scholarly journals published by the no less skilful, helpful and kind staff of the University of Groningen Press at Groningen University, who have expertly remodelled the lay-out of the EJLW and introduced a new version of OJS (Open Journal System). Please note that the European Journal of Life Writing is an open-access, scholarly e-journal, which is not funded by any governmental or other organisations. To support the ongoing work of the Journal, please visit https://ejlw.eu/donations. We are most grateful for any kind of financial support.Another possibility to support the Journal is by purchasing a hard copy of the Festschrift we made for Philip Lejeune on the occasion of his 80^th birthday. A copy can be bought for € 30 (Libraries: € 50).If you have any questions about submitting an article or about donating money to the Journal, or if you would like buy a copy of the Festschrift, please contact the journal managers Monica Soeting (m.soeting@xs4all.nl) or Petra van Langen (ptvanlangen@gmail.com).Thank you very much for your support!

On behalf of all the editors of the European Journal of Life Writing,

Petra van Langen and Monica Soeting
Read more about Notice to the Readers
Beyond Boundaries: Authorship and Readership in Life Writing. A two-day conference held at Tilburg University, the Netherlands, 24 and 25 October 2019

2019-07-02

A two-day conference held at Tilburg University, the Netherlands, 24 and 25 October 2019

Keynote speakers: Julia Lajta-Novak, Anna Poletti, Bart Moeyaert and Edward van de Vendel

Conference organizers: Helma van Lierop (Tilburg University), Jane McVeigh (University of Roehampton), Monica Soeting (European Journal of Life Writing)

For more information see: beyond-boundaries.
Read more about Beyond Boundaries: Authorship and Readership in Life Writing. A two-day conference held at Tilburg University, the Netherlands, 24 and 25 October 2019
IABA EUROPE CONFERENCE 2019 KNOWING THE SELF: AUTO/BIOGRAPHICAL NARRATIVES AND THE HISTORY OF KNOWLEDGE

2018-11-23

June 19–21, 2019 UNIVERSIDAD COMPLUTENSE DE MADRID (SPAIN)

Conference Fees:

PARTICIPANTS AND ATTENDEES: EARLY BIRD 200€; AFTER MAY, 15TH: 250€

STUDENTS: EARLY BIRD 120€; AFTER MAY, 15TH: 150€

Deadline for Late Bird registration is June 10th. Conference website:

https://eventos.ucm.es/26045/detail/iaba-conference-2019.-knowing-the-self_-autobiographical-narratives-and-the-history-of-knwoledge.html

(Be sure to check ‘English’ in the ‘IDIOMA’ tab on the upper-right corner of the site)

The sixth IABA Europe conference proposes to examine the interrelation between life writing and the history of knowledge. Insofar as all life writing is concerned with human self-understanding, it is necessarily entangled with diverse fields that produce knowledge about humans, whether the narration aims at rendering a seemingly given knowledge of the self or at acquiring it, at questioning it or at staging it. Any “knowledge of the self” is inscribed in a broader history—or histories—of knowledge. Yet, to which bodies of knowledge and which theoretical languages do auto/biographical narratives refer in order to gain or communicate a specific “knowledge” of the self? Which historically and culturally diverse fields of knowledge have contributed or are contributing to shaping ideas of “the self,” and how do these fields affect the modes of production, the forms and the rhetoric of life narratives? And vice versa: Which role do auto/biographical narratives play for knowledge production and the evolution of disciplines?
While certain fields of the humanities have been widely recognized for their importance for auto/biographical self-fashioning and self-exploration, such as historical and psychoanalytic hermeneutics, the conference encourages an interdisciplinary exploration of the relationship between auto/biographical writing and a wide range of fields of knowledge and of disciplines. At the same time, not least in view of the rapidly growing number of “expert autobiographies,” it aims at stimulating research on the role of life writing in the development and shaping of disciplines. On a further level, the conference aims at sparking methodological reflections on how to go about examining interrelations between life writing and the sciences or the humanities. Are connections to be described as a matter of influence, or can we identify epistemic currents that equally encompass autobiographical writing and the generation of knowledge, scientific, theoretical, or other? With which notion of knowledge do we and with which notion do the works studied operate? Especially with regard to autobiographies, this involves also the question: to what extent we are to distinguish between “subjective” autobiographical and “objective” theoretical writing—if at all. And how is the relation between autobiographical and theoretical writing negotiated by the narratives themselves? Do they confirm, subvert, blur or contest established distinctions between scientific facts, evidence-based knowledge and theoretical writing on the one hand, and individual self-observation and personal writing on the other? What is their “poetics of knowledge”?
Read more about IABA EUROPE CONFERENCE 2019 KNOWING THE SELF: AUTO/BIOGRAPHICAL NARRATIVES AND THE HISTORY OF KNOWLEDGE
Puls – journal for ethnomusicology and ethnochoreology. Invitation for contributions to PULS 5

2018-10-25

We invite authors to submit contributions for review to Puls 5 – the deadline is April 1, 2019. The journal’s fifth issue aims at opening up for general discussion and welcomes articles in ethnomusicology, ethnochoreology and adjacent disciplines. Read more about Puls – journal for ethnomusicology and ethnochoreology. Invitation for contributions to PULS 5
Portrayals of the Bride in Screen, Stage and Literary Productions, and Pop Culture Narratives.

2018-09-08

This is a call for abstracts for an international edited collection entitled Portrayals of the Bride in Screen, Stage and Literary Productions, and Pop Culture Narratives.
To whatever degree, every culture in the world is different to all others. Yet one figure that consistently features in almost every culture is the bride. The bride is a central figure in the wedding ceremony, a ritual that symbolizes the psychological and real foundation of marriage or committed union and expresses both the promise of happiness, security, safety, protection, and peace and unity in the home and the most exalted aspects of frith—the sanctity of the unionized state and human life. From antiquity to the present, brides feature in stories, witticisms, anecdotes, jokes and in both high and low culture. The concept of the bride symbolizes the promise of renewal and growth of the family and is an important part of social and cultural history and ritual in all societies, world-wide, yet it would seem that there are no published academic books on portrayals of the bride from the angle suggested in this cfp.
Read more about Portrayals of the Bride in Screen, Stage and Literary Productions, and Pop Culture Narratives.
Beyond Endings. Past Tenses and Future Imaginaries

2018-07-19

This international conference, organised by the Forum for Life Writing Research at the University of Münster, Germany, will take place from September 26th - September 28th, 2018. Read more about Beyond Endings. Past Tenses and Future Imaginaries

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