Volume 7, Issue 1, November 2014

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Letter from the General Editor

Welcome to the November 2014 issue of Transnational Literature.

2014 has been a good year for the journal. Our reach becomes constantly wider – recent statistics show that each of our articles has been downloaded on average more than 600 times, surely a figure most academic journals in print could only dream about. We are proud of being a free open-access journal, available to anyone with internet access, while maintaining a high standard.

This issue is a typically diverse one. Although each of the peer-reviewed articles focuses on fiction, there is a truly international selection. We have papers on Antiguan expatriate author Jamaica Kincaid, on Russian-Israeli literature, on Rabindranath Tagore, and on Haruki Murakami. There is a review essay on Indian-Danish author Tabish Khair, and a transcript of a speech given at the launch of American-Australian poet Jeri Kroll's latest book.

Also included is a translation of a story by Kashmiri writer Ali Mohammad Lone (1927-1987).

Seven stories make up our prose creative writing section, with themes ranging from suburban neurosis to literary hero-worship, as well as the big issues – death, ageing, sex, relationships and sexuality. Relationship to place is also important, whether the characters are expatriates or disaffected locals: many of the authors have travelled and lived extensively overseas.

Our poetry editor, Heather Taylor Johnson, is overseas at a writing residency and so we have taken the opportunity of appointing a guest poetry editor for this issue. Alison Flett has solicited a lively collection of poems from her Scottish colleagues, and this makes a special feature within the poetry section, along with a group of other poems from a broad range of writers. Read Alison's introduction here.

We hope you enjoy the November issue.

Gillian Dooley

Click here for Contents page and editor's letter in pdf form