Deadline for abstract submissions:

May 1, 2026

Deadline for paper submissions:

November 1, 2026

contact email:

Popular genre fiction offers an influential platform for the critique of Irish cultural containment and the victimization of women. Despite commercial dominance, genre fiction holds a complicated position in the literary marketplace, which carries over to scholarly appraisals. Noticing this pattern, Sarah Townsend argues that when Tana French “publishes crime fiction that literary readers consume [she is] unsettling the hierarchies of generic and gendered prestige that professional writers (particularly women writers) must continually navigate.”[1]

French’s infusion of high-art politics into middlebrow fiction is part of a contemporary push on the part of both literary scholarship and creative fiction to challenge and dismantle the misconception that popular writing does not have the capability to question the status quo. As Renée Fox explains, the multidimensional features of French’s work challenge “us to envision alternative literary histories”[2] that push beyond genre definitions. More specifically, Brian Cliff argues that popular crime fiction has the unique power to represent “some of the most disturbing, most fraught experiences around Ireland’s regulation of sexuality and gender.”[3]

Tana French and Ireland will engage recent debates about the power of contemporary Irish writing to blur the lines between genre fiction and literary fiction while offering a complex depiction of modern Ireland. The collection will offer chapters on each of French’s novels, including her Dublin Murder Squad series, and chapters focused on interdisciplinary conversations about French’s work.

We are interested in work that provides either singular perspectives on individual novels or arguments produced collaboratively by 2 or more authors from different disciplinary perspectives. Submissions for the collaborative section of the collection would ideally focus on the Dublin Murder Squad series, the Cal Hooper Series, or The Witch Elm.

400-500 word chapter proposals can be submitted to Ellen Scheible ([email protected]). Final chapters should be no more than 5,000-6,000 words.

[1] Sarah Townsend, “Writing the Tiger,” 258.

[2] Renée Fox, “Reading outside the lines,” 280.

[3] Brian Cliff, Irish Crime Fiction, 136.