The Journal of Mythology is now accepting abstract submissions for its next themed issue on creatures. Before the gods took human form, they wore fur and feather and scale, and the creaturely has remained at the heart of mythic imagination ever since. We invite scholarship across the full range: real animals in myth, ritual, and sacred text; dragons, phoenixes, kraken, basilisks, kitsune, naga, sphinxes, and the hybrid beings of the bestiary tradition; theriomorphic deities, shapeshifters, psychopomps, totem animals, and the companion creatures of trickster cycles; the fae, the oni, the kami, and the guardians of wilderness; cryptids and contemporary folk monsters; and the creaturely figures that continue to populate literature, film, games, dreamwork, and ecological thought. All this to say, the definition of creature is broad and we invite that breadth and depth of topic for Issue 3. Submissions may engage the creaturely as a category of mythic meaning through comparative mythology, depth psychology, folklore, religious studies, literary analysis, ecocriticism, or any related field.

All abstracts must be submitted blindly through our online form, with identifying information entered only in the designated author fields. The deadline for abstract submissions is June 15, 2026.