MLR Article Prize 2025

On behalf of the Modern Humanities Research Association, the editors of the Modern Language Review (MLR) are happy to announce that the journal will henceforward award an annual Article Prize. This is in recognition of the success of our inaugural article prize – details of the winners below.

MLR publishes articles and book reviews on modern and medieval English and European languages, literatures, and cultures around the globe where European languages are spoken. The journal welcomes scholarship that takes a global or comparative approach as well as articles that appeal to a broad cross-section of scholars working on areas including, but not limited to, literature, the visual and performing arts, sociolinguistics, cultural history, and Translation Studies. We encourage submissions from scholars at all stages, including postgraduate researchers.

The Article Prize for volume 120 will be awarded to an outstanding article published in volume 120, which will appear in four issues in 2025. Submissions can be on any topic appropriate to the journal’s remit. The competition is open to all researchers. Submissions will be evaluated by a panel of the journal’s editors. Any piece accepted for publication in volume 120 will be considered for this prize. We encourage early submission of your work. Articles must have been through peer review and finalised for inclusion in MLR by mid-March 2025.

The winner will receive a prize of £750 and be interviewed for the Modern Humanities Research Association website. At the judges’ discretion, an Editorial Commendation prize of £350 may also be awarded.

Articles must be written in English and conform to MLR guidelines. Articles are typically about 8000 words in length, including footnotes. Articles should conform to MHRA style and be accompanied by an abstract of maximum 100 words. See full submission guidance at http://www.mhra.org.uk/pdf/mlr-submission-guidelines.pdf

The winner of the inaugural MLR Article Prize (for volume 118 of the journal) was Kathryn Bryan for her article ‘Fantine in the Belle Époque: Representation of the Fille-Mère in L'Assiette au beurre (1902) and Marcelle Tinayre's La Rebelle (1905)’. Editorial commendation went to Margarita Vaysman for her article ‘The Trouble with Queer Celebrity: Aleksandr Aleksandrov (Nadezhda Durova)'s A Year of Life in St Petersburg (1838)’.

For links to the articles (Open Access) and an interview with the winner, see https://www.mhra.org.uk/news/2023/12/19/modern-language-review-prize-kathryn-bryan.html

For queries on the Article Prize, contact the MLR’s General Editor, Dr Lucy O’Meara: leo@kent.ac.uk