Dear ENSFR Members,
Following the ideas initiated at the Leuven conference in 2017 on the short story, its contexts and co-texts, the 2026 ENSFR conference will be devoted to short forms appearing in magazines and newspapers.
The conference will consider any story printed in such media but also stories that were solely published in magazines and newspapers (as opposed to stories that were later collected in book form), adapted into film or into longer works of fiction (as is often the case with The New Yorker). Panelists may also work on any short form to be found in magazines (commercials, letters to the editor, notes…) as well as illustrated stories—the illustrations providing yet another short story from to explore.
Certain magazines target a specific audience, and it could be stimulating to reflect upon writers’ ability to please (at least on the surface) literary editors. In the nineteenth century, stories were often referred to as “articles,” “tales” or “sketches”—how does this influence our understanding of the text? What are the differences between stories printed in magazines and those printed in newspapers?
The conference will give us an opportunity to discuss magazine publication with several authors and see how magazine and newspaper publication has evolved since its earliest forms.