After some three centuries of recognised existence, the time is ripe to take a comprehensive look at the nature of African American literature. From being one aspect of the residual tradition of enslaved Africans to the distinguished corpus of literary works that are available today, it can be said that the literature has come a long way from its humble origins. Barriers peculiar to African Americans, especially racial prejudice, have been largely overcome, and a literary tradition worthy of its greatest exponents has come into being. What has been the driving force of this literature? What are the themes and motifs that shape it?

After some three centuries of recognised existence, the time is ripe to take a comprehensive look at the nature of African American literature. From being one aspect of the residual tradition of enslaved Africans to the distinguished corpus of literary works that are available today, it can be said that the literature has come a long way from its humble origins. Barriers peculiar to African Americans, especially racial prejudice, have been largely overcome, and a literary tradition worthy of its greatest exponents has come into being. What has been the driving force of this literature? What are the themes and motifs that shape it?

_The Looking Glass_ invites submissions to all columns and sections for
the following special issues:

Displaced Children (publication date April 2005; deadline for
submissions 1 October 2004)

Japanese Children's Literature and Culture (publication date April
2006; deadline for submissions 1 October 2005).

_The Looking Glass_ also invites scholarly submissions for the following
special topics to be highlighted in Alice's Academy, its scholarly
refereed section:

International Children's Mysteries (publication date January 2005;
submission deadline 1 September 2004)

Magic Realism in Children's Literature (publication date January
2006; submission deadline 1 September 2005).

Do the philosophical implications of MTV really get you going?

If so, you are invited to submit an abstract for a collection of essays on
'MTV and Philosophy'. I seek to obtain the permission of Open Court Books in
publishing the result as part of their trendy Popular Culture and Philosophy
series. The series has spawned six successful volumes since its 2001 debut
with 'Seinfeld and Philosophy', including the best-selling 'The Matrix and
Philosophy', and is noted for revitalising philosophical narratives through
its celebration of pop culture as worthy of in-depth analysis.

Do the philosophical implications of MTV really get you going?

If so, you are invited to submit an abstract for a collection of essays on
'MTV and Philosophy'. I seek to obtain the permission of Open Court Books in
publishing the result as part of their trendy Popular Culture and Philosophy
series. The series has spawned six successful volumes since its 2001 debut
with 'Seinfeld and Philosophy', including the best-selling 'The Matrix and
Philosophy', and is noted for revitalising philosophical narratives through
its celebration of pop culture as worthy of in-depth analysis.

Postcolonial Studies Journal: Special Issue: "Postcolonial Food"

Postcolonial Studies is calling for contributions on the topic
of 'Postcolonial Food'. An early reviewer of Claudia Roden's 1968 A Book of
Middle Eastern Food, described the text as 'a work of cultural anthropology'.
The quote is a little misleading: for Roden not only describes a set of
foreign culinary practices, she gives recipes for their recreation. Imagine of
Postcolonial Studies saw that as its mission. We have devoted a great deal of
time to the critique of representation, but rather less to the possibility of
intercultural communication, not to mention learning.

Call For Papers—Please Forward

We call for papers for a proposed edited
collection on the topics of literature and
authority—governmental, legal, rhetorical,
anthropological--in the Pacific, including
Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, the
Philippines, Malaysia, other Pacific Island
nations and Hawai'i. Successful essays will
address one or more Pacific writers and/or texts,
including both indigenous and "white" writers,
and will address either how the
interrelationships of politics and culture
affects writers, readers, and literature or how
literatures (traditional and non-traditional)
reflect themes of the relationship of history,
authority, and cultural self-expression.

UPDATE...

A number of potential contributors have requested time past the=20
original deadline to submit an abstract to the "Teaching Bibliography=20
and Book History" collection. Therefore, it only seems fair to offer=20
the same opportunity to others as well.

If you were interested in submitting a proposal but missed the deadline=20=

due to other obligations, please contact me and we'll set up a new=20
deadline.

Thanks to all those who submitted proposals--I will be sending those=20
along to the editorial board in the next week.

I've appended the original call below my signature.

Ann Hawkins

Facts on File Companion to the British Short Story & Short Fiction

Contributors are sought for the above book (due for publication in early
2006) which aims to analyse the genre, covering the early nineteenth
century to the present:

Author biographies and bibliographies
Analyses of short stories and novellas
Literary themes and terms
Historical events that have influenced short story writers.

Facts on File Companion to the British Short Story & Short Fiction

Contributors are sought for the above book (due for publication in early
2006) which aims to analyse the genre, covering the early nineteenth
century to the present:

Author biographies and bibliographies
Analyses of short stories and novellas
Literary themes and terms
Historical events that have influenced short story writers.

Collection of Critical Essays

Cultural Representation in the Short Story Sequence

Call for Abstracts

GENERAL CALL FOR PAPERS

Social Semiotics is a refereed journal and has been published continuously for
14 years. The journal invites work that explores relationships between Culture,
Meanings and Practices in a broad range of contexts. We invite contributions
from anyone who feels at home in the transdisciplinary conjunction which the
journal represents. We would be interested in papers which deal especially (but
not exclusively) with the following topics:

- asylum seekers
- cultural geography
- space and identity
- risk and communication
- surveillance

Papers should be 5-7 000 words in length and referenced in the Chicago Style.

COLLECTION OF ESSAYS ON STORM JAMESON

Contributors are sought for a collection of original essays on Storm Jameson.
The deadline for 500-word abstracts is 15th May 2004.
It is intended that the volume should explore each of
the genres within which Jameson worked (novels, plays,
short stories, and literary criticism). I am particularly interested
in receiving contributions that address Jameson's fiction and literary
criticism after the 1930s and that consider the relationship of her work to that
of other women writers of her generation (Naomi Mitchison, Rose Macaulay, Sylvia
Townsend Warner, Rebecca West and others)

>> Call for Contributors <<

MASTERS OF MAGIC: ESSAYS ON WIZARDS IN WESTERN CULTURE
Deadline for Proposals: September 15, 2004

In J. R. R. Tolkien's THE LORD OF THE RINGS, the Hobbits are warned, "Do not
meddle in the affairs of wizards"; yet, few readers today, in a time when
the wizard features so prominently in both popular culture and scholarship,
would choose to follow this admonition. Accepting this as a given, proposals
are now being accepted for an essay collection co-edited by Charlotte A. T.
Wulf and Michael A. Torregrossa and investigating the figure of the wizard
in Western culture.