The Literary Encyclopedia at www.litencyc.com is looking for qualified writers to enhance its coverage of postwar and contemporary American poetry. Following is a list of poets and/or movements for whom/which we are seeking introductory essays of ca. 2500 words covering biography and historical context and giving a brief overview of relevant works. The list below is not comprehensive or final, and new proposals of writers/works/context essays that are not currently listed in our database are also welcome. In addition to articles on canonical or frequently taught literary works, the Encyclopedia hopes to make available information about writers and works that have not received proper attention, and to publish articles about movements, theories, concepts, themes and historical events that are relevant to literary understanding. 

The overwhelming majority of our contributors are academic scholars, while the remaining are highly endorsed doctoral students and independent researchers. All contributions will be peer-reviewed.

More detailed information on the Encyclopedia – including its publishing model, editorial policies, specific information for authors, etc. – can be found on its homepage at www.litencyc.com, under the ABOUT tab. We hope that you will wish to join us in expanding this enterprise. If you wish to contribute, please contact the volume editor(s) for American (US) Writing and Culture, Dale Fancher Enggass (dale.enggass@utah.edu) and Justin Parks (justin.parks@uit.no), or the managing editor, Dr Cristina Sandru (cristinasandrulitencyc@gmail.com). 

Names highlighted in bold require urgent contributions. “Works” or specific titles appended to the name of an author indicate that we need articles on that author’s most important works. 

Rae Armantrout

Jimmy Santiago Baca

Jen Bervin

Kamau Edward Braithwaite

Mei-mei Bressenbrugge

Sterling A. Brown (works: Southern Road; Collected Poems)

John Cage (+Silence: Lectures and Writings)

Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (+ Dictée)

Clark Coolidge

Jayne Cortez

Hart Crane (The Bridge)

Craig Dworkin

Robert Duncan (major works: The Opening of the Field; Roots and Branches; Passages; The H.D. Book)

Larry Eigner

Baroness Else von Freytag-Loringhoven

Allen Ginsberg (major works: Howl and Other Poems; Kaddish and Other Poems; Planet News; The Yage Letters)

Kenneth Goldsmith

Robert Grenier

Robert Hayden

Cathy Park Hong

Kenneth Irby

Ronald Johnson

Jackson Mac Low

Robert Kelly

Myung Mi Kim

Philip Lamantia

Li-Young Lee

Mina Loy

Nathaniel Mackey (+ major multivolume works From a Broken Bottle Traces of Perfume Still Emanate; Song of the Adombulou

Harryette Mullen

Maggie Nelson

Charles Olson (works incl. The Maximus Poems; Collected Poems)

George Oppen (+works: Discrete Series; Of Being Numerous; The Materials; This in Which; New Collected Poems)

Simon Ortiz

Michael Palmer

Vanessa Place

Sylvia Plath (Ariel)

N.H. Pritchard 

Sun Ra

Carl Rakosi

Claudia Rankine (works; Citizen)

Ed Roberson

Jerome Rothenberg (+works and anthologies such as Poems for the Millennium; Technicians of the Sacred)

Aram Saroyan

Ron Silliman

Juliana Spahr

Jack Spicer

Wallace Stevens (works: Ideas of Order; The Man with the Blue Guitar; Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction) 

Nathaniel Tarn

Anne Waldman

William Carlos Williams (major works: Spring and All; In the American Grain; Paterson; The Desert Music; The Complete Collected Poems). 

Hannah Weiner

John Wieners (+ works incl. The Hotel Wentley Poems)

John Yau

Louis Zukofsky (major works: A; A Test of Poetry; Bottom: On Shakespeare; Catullus; Collected Short Poems)