The Kirby Canon is an annual academic journal that publishes a compendium of outstanding essays from each level of English courses offered at Wilkes University.
Winning essays span an array of disciplinary approaches, including critical literary essays, essays that center rhetorical analysis and composition, as well as a multi variations of social and pedagogical frames. The work intentionally spans the breadth of study in the department, focusing on the writing of all levels in the program.
While the Kirby Canon began as a print publication, in alignment with our newest concentration in the Digital Humanities, we are restarting the Kirby Canon as a digital publication in order to allow us to capture the breadth of the department’s burgeoning work, including digital non-print formats. The Kirby Canon invites students who seek to explore, admire, and/or contest literary canons to submit their work to our collaborative Canon of student research.
Submissions undergo a blind review process completed by a panel of peers and faculty. To avoid bias, the reviewers do not evaluate essays submitted by students from their own courses and all names are removed prior to review.
Interested students are invited to submit up to two essays/research projects that they feel demonstrate their strongest academic work. Faculty are also invited to submit exceptional student essays and research projects. The strength of our publication derives from the strength of submissions, so we thank you for participating in our process.
Submissions can be any length and take any form, including traditional essays, web sites, and digital projects.
To submit an essay/research project, please submit the form linked below. Please submit a separate form for each submission. For the inaugural relaunch publication, we invite submissions from 2020-2023.