The Lion and the Unicorn

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The Lion and the Unicorn is a peer-reviewed journal that critically examines children’s literature within the wider concepts of children’s and adolescent culture. General issues and special issues are published. Interviews with children's authors and reflective essays are occasionally published. L&U aims to promote research within the international community of the interdisciplinary field of children’s literature and culture.

Editorial correspondence and manuscripts for general issues should be sent to:

lionunicorn@ksu.edu
Department of English
108 English/CS Building
Kansas State University
Manhattan, KS 66506

Books and all inquiries for reviews should be sent to:

Victoria Ford Smith
University of Connecticut
victoria.f.smith@uconn.edu

Anastasia Ulanowicz
University of Florida
aulanow@ufl.edu

Guidelines for Submission

Manuscripts should follow the format outlined in the MLA Handbook. All text must be double-spaced in a clear, easy-to-read 12-point typeface. Text should be left justified with one-inch margins. Manuscripts are not to exceed (25) twenty-five double-spaced pages, including endnotes and Works cited pages. Illustrations or other images (graphs, charts) should be counted as occupying half a page of text. Manuscripts should be submitted electronically, as attachments to: lionunicorn@ksu.edu. Please make sure that personal identification does not appear on the manuscript itself. Send a second attachment with your name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address. Illustrations can be sent as .jpgs at this stage. Manuscripts should be original and not previously published.

Acknowledgement of receipt of your manuscript will be sent by e-mail. Then your manuscript will be sent anonymously for review. You will be notified of the results and a copy of the comments will be sent to you.

If the manuscript is accepted for publication, the author(s) must submit an electronic copy in Word. Illustrations must be sent as .tif files at 300dpi—on a CD if necessary. Authors are also required to submit a 100 word abstract and a brief biographical note.

Permissions for copyrighted materials. The author must secure any necessary permissions for copyrighted material for print and electronic reproduction. Permission fees are the responsibility of the author.

The Hopkins Press Journals Ethics and Malpractice Statement can be found at the ethics-and-malpractice page.

Peer Review Policy

The Lion and the Unicorn publishes literary criticism and author interviews. Submissions should be original work, and the journal does not accept simultaneous submissions. Translations may be considered. Work should explain its relationship to current critical conversations in the field of children's literature studies, or otherwise establish its own exigency. The editorial team determines if the work is appropriate to the journal and sufficiently developed to be sent to outside readers for review. All outside reviews are double-blind, typically with two reviewers per submission. Editors return reviewer comments to the author with one of the following recommendations: accept, revisions required, revise and resubmit, decline. If revisions are required, the editor determines whether or not the original reviewer(s) will be consulted.  Revised and resubmitted essays are typically returned to an original reviewer as well as to one new reviewer.  The timetable is approximately 12-14 weeks from submission to decision. However, exigent circumstances may require more review time.

Editors

David L. Russell, Ferris State University
Karin E. Westman, Kansas State University
Naomi J. Wood, Kansas State University

Poetry Award Editor

Krystal Howard, California State University, Northridge

Book Review Editors

Victoria Smith, University of Connecticut—Storrs
Anastasia Ulanowicz, University of Florida—Gainesville

Editorial Board

Daniel Feldman, Bar-Ilan University
Richard Flynn, Georgia Southern University
Marilisa Jiménez Garcia, Lehigh University
Kelly Hager, Simmons College
Michael Joseph, Rutgers University
Kenneth Kidd, University of Florida—Gainesville
Michelle Martin, University of Washington
Marek Oziewicz, University of Minnesota
Lissa Paul, Brock University
Anne Phillips, Kansas State University
Phillip Serrato, San Diego State University
Katharine Capshaw Smith, University of Connecticut—Storrs
Lynne Vallone, Rutgers University
Andrea Mei-Ying Wu, National Cheng Kung University

Founding Editors

Geraldine DeLuca, Brooklyn College
Roni Natov, Brooklyn College

Previous Editors

Sandra Beckett, Brock University
Lissa Paul, Brock University
Louisa Smith, Mankato State University
Jan Susina, Illinois State University
Jack Zipes, University of Minnesota

Editorial Consultants

Editorial consultants rotate for each issue of the journal according to the essays  reviewed and selected for publication.

Send books for review to:

Victoria Ford Smith
University of Connecticut
victoria.f.smith@uconn.edu

Anastasia Ulanowicz
University of Florida
aulanow@ufl.edu

Please send book review copies to the contact above. Review copies received by the Johns Hopkins University Press office will be discarded.

Abstracting & Indexing Databases

• Clarivate Analytics
  • Arts & Humanities Citation Index
  • Current Contents
  • Web of Science
• De Gruyter Saur
  • Dietrich's Index Philosophicus
  • IBZ - Internationale Bibliographie der Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaftlichen Zeitschriftenliteratur
  • Internationale Bibliographie der Rezensionen Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaftlicher Literatur
• EBSCOhost
  • Academic Search Alumni Edition, 1/1/2005-
  • Academic Search Complete, 1/1/2005-
  • Academic Search Elite, 1/1/2005-
  • Academic Search Premier, 1/1/2005-
  • Current Abstracts, 1/1/2000-
  • Humanities International Complete, 1/1/2005-
  • Humanities International Index, 1/1/2005-
  • Humanities Source, 1/1/2005-
  • Humanities Source Ultimate, 1/1/2005-
  • MLA International Bibliography (Modern Language Association)
  • Poetry & Short Story Reference Center, 1/1/2005-
  • RILM Abstracts of Music Literature (Repertoire International de Litterature Musicale)
  • TOC Premier (Table of Contents), 1/1/2005-
• Elsevier BV
  • Scopus, 2002-
• Gale
  • MLA International Bibliography (Modern Language Association)
• OCLC
  • ArticleFirst, vol.19, no.1, 1995-vol.35, no.1, 2011
  • Electronic Collections Online, vol.19, no.1, 1995-vol.35, no.1, 2011
  • Periodical Abstracts, v.24, n.1, 2000-v.34, n.2, 2010
• Personal Alert (E-mail)
• ProQuest
  • MLA International Bibliography (Modern Language Association)
  • Periodicals Index Online
  • Professional ProQuest Central, 06/01/1996-
  • ProQuest 5000, 06/01/1996-
  • ProQuest Central, 06/01/1996-
  • Research Library, 06/01/1996-
  • RILM Abstracts of Music Literature (Repertoire International de Litterature Musicale)

Abstracting & Indexing Sources

• Abstracts of English Studies   (Ceased)  (Print)
• Children's Literature Abstracts   (Ceased)  (Print)
• MLA Abstracts of Articles in Scholarly Journals   (Ceased)  (Print)

Source: Ulrichsweb Global Serials Directory.

0.1 (2024)
0.4 (Five-Year Impact Factor)
0.00010 (Eigenfactor™ Score)

Rank in Category (by Journal Impact Factor):
Note: While journals indexed in AHCI and ESCI are receiving a JIF for the first time in June 2023, they will not receive ranks, quartiles, or percentiles until the release of 2023 data in June 2024.
 

© Clarivate Analytics 2025

2020

Winner: 
Kwame Alexander. The Undefeated. Illustrated by Kadir Nelson. Versify, 2019.

Honorable mentions: 
Nikki Grimes. Ordinary Hazards: A Memoir. WordSong, 2019.
Aida Salazar. The Moon Within. Scholastic, 2019.
Patrice Vecchione and Alyssa Raymond, editors. Ink Knows No Borders:
Poems of the Immigrant and Refugee Experience. Seven Stories P, 2019.

2019

Winner: 
Elizabeth Acevedo. The Poet X. Harper Teen, 2018.

Honorable mentions: 
Joy McCullough. Blood Water Paint. Penguin Books, 2018.
Tony Medina. Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Boy. Illustrated by Floyd Cooper et al. Penny Candy Books, 2018.
Naomi Shihab Nye. Voices in the Air: Poems for Listeners. Illustrated by Dawn Henning. Greenwillow Books, 2018.

2018

Winner: 
Nikki Grimes. One Last Word: Wisdom from the Harlem Renaissance. Artwork by Cozbi A. Cabrera, et al. New York: Bloomsbury, 2017.

Honorable mentions: 
Francisco X Alarcón. Family Poems for Every Day of the Week / Poemas familares para cada día de la semana. Illustrated by Maya Christina Gonzales. New York: Children’s Book Press (a division of Lee &
Low), 2017.
Jo Ellen Bogart. Count Your Chickens. Illustrated by Lori Joy Smith. Toronto: Tundra Books (Penguin Random House of Canada), 2017.
JonArno Lawson. But It’s So Silly: A Cross-Cultural Collage of Nonsense Play and Poetry. Hamilton, Ontario: Wolsak and Wynn, 2017.

2017

Winner: 
Nikki Grimes. Garvey’s Choice. Honesdale, Pennsylvania: WordSong, 2016.

Honorable mentions:  
Kwame Alexander. Booked. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016.
Jorge Argueta. Somos como las nubes / We Are Like the Clouds. Pictures by Alfonso Ruano. Translated by Elisa Amado. Toronto: Groundwood Books, 2016.
JonArno Lawson. The Hobo’s Crowbar. Woodcuts by Alex Dempster. The Porcupine’s Quill, 2016.

2016

Winners: 
Calef Brown. Hypnotize a Tiger: Poems about just about Everything. Henry Holt and Co., 2015.
Marilyn Nelson. My Seneca Village. namelos, 2015.

2015

Winner: None.

Honorable mentions: 
Marilyn Nelson. How I Discovered Poetry. Illus. Hadley Hooper. New York: Penguin, 2014.
Lemony Snicket. 29 Myths on the Swinster Pharmacy. Illus. Lisa Brown. McSweeney’s McMullins, 2014.

2014

Winners:  
Dana Teen Lomax, ed. Kindergarde: Avant-Garde Poems, Plays, Stories, and Songs for Children. Illus. Cliff Hengst. Lafayette: Black Radish, 2013.
JonArno Lawson. Enjoy It While It Hurts. Illus. JonArno Lawson. Hamilton, Ontario: Wolsak, 2013.

Honorable mentions: 
Robert Priest. Rosa Rose and Other Poems. Illus. Joan Krygsman. Hamilton, Ontario: Wolsak, 2013.
Maurice Sendak. My Brother’s Book. Illus. Maurice Sendak. New York: HarperCollins, 2013.

2013

Winner: 
JonArno Lawson. Down in the Bottom of the Bottom of the Box. Illus. Alec Dempster. Ontario: The Porcupine’s Quill, 2012.

2012

Adoff wins The Lion and The Unicorn Poetry Award

Arnold Adoff has been named the winner of The Lion and The Unicorn Award for Excellence in North American Poetry for his collection Roots and Blues: A Celebration. The journal, published by the Johns Hopkins University Press, has sponsored the award since 2005. 

Read the announcement

2011

Winner: Susan Blackaby
Honorable Mentions: Nan Forler, Paul B. Janeczko

2010

Winner: None

2009

Winner: JonArno Lawson
Honorable Mentions: Helen Frost, William New

2008

Winner: Linda Sue Park
Honorable Mentions: Jay M. Harris, Carole Boston Weatherford

2007

Winner: JonArno Lawson
Honorable Mentions: Helen Frost, Walter Dean Myers, Walter Dean Myers

2006

Winner: Wynton Marsallis
Honorable Mentions: Marilyn Nelson, Naomi Shahib Nye, Shel Silverstein

2005

Winner: Marilyn Nelson
Honorable Mentions: Helen Frost, JonArno Lawson, Walter Dean Myers, Allan Wolf

Published three times a year

Readers include: Librarians, teachers, writers, scholars, and those interested in children's literature

Print circulation: 106

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