Call for Chapter Proposals

Weird Tales: The Unique Magazine and the Evolution of American Fantasy and Horror

(Essay Collection)

With its debut in 1923, Weird Tales became the first pulp magazine with content composed entirely of supernatural and fantastic fiction. Over its three-decade run, the magazine featured works by some of the most important and influential writers of speculative fiction in the first half of the twentieth century, including H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Ray Bradbury, C.L. Moore, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert Bloch, August Derleth, Henry Kuttner, Edward Hamilton, Manly Wade Wellman, Seabury Quinn, Frank Belknap Long, and many others. Within its pages the modern genres of horror, fantasy, and science fiction began to develop and take shape, evolving their own tropes and conventions and creating the foundation upon which much of modern speculative fiction rests. Gary Hoppenstand has recently suggested that "no other pulp magazine was more important to the history of pulp fiction, or to the temperament of contemporary science fiction and fantasy, than Weird Tales."

This volume will collect critical essays that seek to provide a broader understanding of the magazine Weird Tales and its authors, artists, readers, and editorial practices, as well as the larger impact that the periodical had on popular culture and genre fiction.

Possible topics may include:

• Discussions of the major works of the primary WT authors.
• The origin of WT as a genre pulp and its competitors and successors
• The "Lovecraft Circle" and its influence
• The development of weird fiction fandom as expressed in letters and fanzines
• Depictions of race and ethnicity in WT.
• Sexuality and gender as expressed in text and art
• The development of new genres like "cosmic horror" and "sword-and-sorcery"
• The influence of WT and its authors on popular culture
• Philosophy and ideology in the works of WT writers
• Rhetorical approaches in WT

These are only suggestions and other related topics are welcome. Please submit proposal abstracts of approximately 300 words along with C.V. or brief bio to both co-editors:

Justin Everett
University of the Sciences
Email: j.everet@usciences.edu

Jeffrey Shanks
Southeast Archaeology Center
Email: jeffrey_shanks@nps.gov

Chapter proposals due: August 31, 2013

Initial draft due: February 28, 2014