Coming Soon! JAF (Fall 2026)

The Fall issue (v. 139, no. 554) of JAF: A Global Quarterly/The Journal of American Folklore will soon be mailed to subscribers and made available online. The issue includes a presidential address, three research articles, a variety of book, exhibit, and sound reviews, and memorial tributes to friends and colleagues.

•  “You Gotta Go with Your Gut”: Navigating Risk and Fear in the Storm is Amy E. Skillman’s Presidential Address given at the 2025 Annual Meeting of the American Folklore Society. Drawing on the narratives of women sea captains who have faced storms and wrestled with fear, Skillman explores the role of embodied knowledge and intuition in facing fears and taking risks. In our current times when the infrastructure that supports the work of folklorists has been rocked to its foundations, much like a ship in a storm at sea, this Presidential Address provides lessons learned from the narratives of women who serve as captain, caretaker, and risk-taker on board their ships.

• Enongene Mirabeau Sone’s “Toward an African Cultural Entomology: Re-Examining the Symbolic and Ecological Roles of Insects in Oral Traditions and Folklore” foregrounds the rich emic meanings of insects in myths, folktales, riddles, proverbs, and rituals across multiple African societies. Drawing on decolonial theory, posthumanism, and oral literature scholarship, it demonstrates how creatures such as Anansi the spider (Akan), /Kaggen the mantis (San), bees and butterflies (Yoruba), and others function as tricksters, creators, ancestors, moral agents, and environmental indicators. The article reconceptualizes insects as key actors in African epistemologies and environmental ethics, illustrating their enduring capacity to shape communal memory, ecological awareness, and cultural identity.

• Jeffrey S. Debies-Carl’s “The Shadows Beneath the Trees: How Supernatural Folklore Shapes Perceptions of Forested Landscapes” investigates how folklore transforms perceptions and experiences of the woods. Through a qualitative analysis of traditional media, online discourse, and fieldwork, it illustrates how contemporary legends reframe ordinary settings as peculiar realms of possibility. In doing so, it highlights the practical value of understanding these dynamics for proper management, promotion, and protection of places affected by legends.

• Ólína Kjerúlf Þorvarðardóttir’s “Burning Questions: Icelandic Witch Trials, 1625–1719” offers a historiographical analysis of Icelandic witch trials within the broader framework of early modern European persecutions. By integrating judicial records with vernacular belief traditions, it demonstrates how accusations shaped communal dynamics and authorities’ efforts to impose social order. This study illuminates the ways in which belief and law intersected in the production of harm and the exercise of governance, underscoring the value of folkloristic perspectives for understanding these processes. 

The issue also presents memorial tributes to Ekaterina Anastasova, Lydia Fish and Bill Ivey. 

As always, the issue includes reviews of recent work in the field, including books, exhibits and sound recordings.

Many academic institutions and libraries have access to JAF through direct subscriptions or via Project MUSE, but if yours doesn’t, please consider filling out our online Library Recommendation Form to let your library know that you’re interested in reading all the latest in folklore studies. Find out how to access JAF at “Access the Journal.”

We encourage our readers and potential authors to visit our web page to learn about the types of material we publish and how to submit, including in innovative formats and genres. Please contact the Editorial Collective if you have ideas or questions at jaf.editors@afsnet.org.

Table of Contents

Fall 2026 • VOL. 139, NO. 554

American Folklore Society 2025 Presidential Address

“You Gotta Go with Your Gut”: Navigating Risk and Fear in the Storm by Amy E. Skillman

Articles

Toward an African Cultural Entomology: Re-Examining the Symbolic and Ecological Roles of Insects in Oral Traditions and Folklore by Enongene Mirabeau Sone

The Shadows Beneath the Trees: How Supernatural Folklore Shapes Perceptions of Forested Landscapes by Jeffrey S. Debies-Carl

Burning Questions: Icelandic Witch Trials, 1625–1719 by Ólína Kjerúlf Þorvarðardóttir

Obituaries

Ekaterina Anastasova (1962-2025) by Nikolai Vukov and Sarah Craycraft

Lydia Fish (1939-2026) by Elizabeth Tucker

Bill Ivey (1944-2025) by Timothy Lloyd

Book Reviews

What Side Are You On?: A Tohono O’odham Life Across Borders (Wilson and Lucero) by Ciara Bernal

Rituality and Social (Dis)Order: The Historical Anthropology of Popular Carnival in Europe (Testa) by Samuel Kinser

Mildred, Quit Hollering! and Other Ozark Folktales (Randolph) by Sarah Jane Nelson  

We Dance for the Virgen: Authenticity of Tradition in a San Antonio Matachines Troupe (Botello) by Brenda M. Romero 

Justice in 21st-Century Fairy Tales and the Power of Wonder (Bacchilega and Greenhill) by Summer Shigley 

Water into Bones: Birth Rituals, Ancestors, and Religious Pluralism in Northern Madagascar (Nourse) by Liru Zhang

Exhibit Reviews

A Responsibility to Pass It Along: Traditional Arts in Wyoming by Andrea Graham

Fiddlers and Funny Ladies: Entertainment in Norwegian America by Anne Sigrid Refsum

Sound Reviews

Giorgos Katsaros (Katsaros) by Yorgos Evangelou  

Wirlmarni (Nagarra) by Boots Lupenui