Critical anthology on Lois McMaster Bujold; abstracts due 1 Sept 2011

full name / name of organization: 
Janet Brennan Croft
contact email: 

Forward Momentum:
The Science Fiction and Fantasy of Lois McMaster Bujold
Edited by Janet Brennan Croft
Critical Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy Series, McFarland Press

Purpose:
Lois McMaster Bujold has a shelf full of awards – Hugos, Nebulas, and others – for both her science fiction and fantasy writing. She is one of the most respected names in the field, always delivering polished, thoughtful, and well-crafted writing and dealing with important issues. Yet there is a dearth of serious critical writing about her output, and certainly no book-length collection. This collection aims to begin to correct that situation by gathering essays from a variety of critical perspectives addressing many aspects of her writing. Attention will be given to both her Miles Vorkosigan science fiction series and her Chalion and Sharing Knife fantasy series, as well as the books that fall outside these series. Also included will be a bibliography and list of awards. This anthology is under contract with McFarland Press.

Abstracts:
Please send an abstract of 250-500 words to jbcroft@ou.edu. Deadline for abstracts is September 1, 2011.

Potential topics:
• The contrasting theological systems of the Chalion and Sharing Knife fantasy series
• The role of female characters and "codedly feminine" characters in both the SF and fantasy series
• The fantastic/familiar North American landscape of the Sharing Knife series
• An examination of the "Grateful Dead" folklore motif in The Spirit Ring
• Bujold's tendency to deliberately combine and subvert genre divisions
• Bujold's influences: Star Trek, J.R.R. Tolkien, Dorothy L. Sayers, etc.
• The theme of finding and losing one's life's work
• Doppelgangers, reintegration of split personalities, psychic links, and other issues of identity, doubling, and splitting
• Bujold's depiction of the effects of accelerated technological change on individuals and society, including both military and medical technology
Timeline:
Deadline for abstracts: September 1, 2011
Deadline for finished papers: February 1, 2012
Manuscript to publisher: May 1, 2012

About the Editor:
Janet Brennan Croft is Head of Access Services and Associate Professor of Bibliography at the University of Oklahoma libraries. She earned her Master of Library Science degree at Indiana University in 1983. She is the author of War in the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien (Praeger, 2004; winner of the Mythopoeic Society Award for Inklings Studies) and several book chapters on the Peter Jackson films; has published articles on J.R.R. Tolkien, J.K. Rowling, and Terry Pratchett in Mythlore, Mallorn, Tolkien Studies, and Seven; and is editor of two collections of essays: Tolkien on Film: Essays on Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings (Mythopoeic Press, 2004) and Tolkien and Shakespeare: Essays on Shared Themes and Language (McFarland, 2006). She has also written on library issues for College and Undergraduate Libraries, Interlending and Document Supply, Journal of Access Services, Collection Building, and Journal of Interlibrary Loan and Document Supply, and is the author of Legal Solutions in Electronic Reserves and the Electronic Delivery of Interlibrary Loan (Haworth, 2004). She is currently the editor of Mythlore (for which she complied a book-length annotated index) and book review editor of Oklahoma Librarian, and serves on the board of the Mythopoeic Press, for which she has indexed and annotated several titles.