CALL FOR PAPERS: Collection of critical articles on Walter Mosley

DEADLINE: 500-word abstracts or complete manuscripts by 11/1/05
EDITORS: Owen Brady (Clarkson University) and Derek Maus (SUNY Potsdam)

Submissions are invited for a collection of critical essays on the works
of Walter Mosley. We plan to build on the invaluable contributions made by
Charles E. Wilson, Jr.'s Walter Mosley: A Critical Companion (Greenwood,
2003), the first published book-length study of Mosley. The volume we are
compiling intends to expand the variety of critical approaches from which
Mosley's work can be examined and to provide more in-depth analysis of
individual works, including many of Mosley's lesser-known
books.

Over the course of two decades, Mosley has published seventeen books
of fiction in a variety of genres, an edited collection of essays on the
future of society, and two long essays on history and social philosophy.
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. wrote, "Mosley has swiftly entered into the company
of contemporary American novelists whose work is expected to last." Like
playwright August Wilson, Mosley has produced a body of literary art that
serves as a multi-faceted socio-historical chronicle of African American
life in the latter half of the twentieth-century. Moreover, Mosley has
projected his literary vision into the future in both fictional and
non-fictional forms, using African American experience as a lens through
which the reader can analyze American life.

We envision our volume on Mosley will include new essays presenting a
variety of critical perspectives on his corpus as well as a personal
interview that will allow Mosley to comment upon some of these
interpretations. As currently envisioned, our introductory essay will
provide an overview of Mosley's literary production and offer a critical
framework based on the "blues quest for home," a theme that concurrently
explores the American dream and Mosley's characteristic literary style. The
introduction will also include a brief survey of the extant criticism of
Mosley's work, a bibliography of which will appear at the end of the volume.

The essays that follow this introduction will analyze Mosley's diverse
fictional output as well as his non-fictional work. While all essays will
be considered, we especially welcome submissions that analyze works other
than the Easy Rawlins series, such as Mosley's Socrates Fortlow stories,
his Fearless Jones novels, R. L.'s Dream, The Man in My Basement, his
science fiction (Blue Light, Futureland), his young adult fiction (47),
and/or his philosophical writings (Workin' on the Chain Gang, What Next).
Taken as a whole, the essays in this volume will reveal Mosley's efforts to
depict and comment upon the shifting place of African Americans in relation
to the twin contexts of American culture and a broader Western
social/philosophical legacy.

As teachers and scholars, much of whose critical work and classroom
instruction has been in the field of African American literature, we
believe that we can provide our colleagues and students with a useful
collection of essays that will open up the world of Walter Mosley's writing
for serious study both as social documents and as literary artifacts.

Submissions or inquiries can be sent either as a hard copy by mail to one
of the addresses below or as e-mail attachments to obrady_at_clarkson.edu or
mausdc_at_potsdam.edu. Abstracts (500 words) or complete manuscripts
(3500-5000 words) formatted to MLA specifications are requested by November
1, 2005. Final versions of essays accepted for the volume will be due by
March 1, 2006.

Owen E. Brady Derek C. Maus
School of Liberal Arts Dept. of
English and Communication
Clarkson University SUNY Potsdam
Potsdam, New York 13699-5750 Potsdam, NY 13676
(315) 268-3981 (315) 265-5571
obrady_at_clarkson.edu mausdc_at_potsdam.edu

Derek C. Maus
Assistant Professor and Literature Program Coordinator
Department of English and Communication
SUNY College at Potsdam
244 Morey Hall
Potsdam, NY 13676
(315) 267-2196
mausdc_at_potsdam.edu

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       "Keep cool, but care"

         --McClintic Sphere in Thomas Pynchon's _V._
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       "Either the United States will destroy ignorance,
         or ignorance will destroy the United States."

                                  -- W.E.B. Du Bois
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Received on Sun Jul 24 2005 - 16:35:10 EDT