David. Bowie. Is.

CFP, Anthology

Samuel Gladden and James Rovira, editors

2024

As the ten-year anniversary of the shocking death of superstar David Bowie approaches, the time is ripe for a critical reappraisal of an extraordinary life and career that spanned five decades and comprised achievements in many areas. Rock star, film star, stage actor, painter, provocateur, internet pioneer, investment genius, musician, singer, composer, producer, father, raconteur, sage and seer—David Bowie was all of these things, so much so that at times it seems as if he is still here. The proposed title of this collection, which references Paul Morley’s The Age of Bowie (2016) and the 2013 traveling career retrospective launched, still active in virtual form, adds declarative punctuation marks so that each word makes a bold statement, reminding us, through their collective insistence, of the perpetual presence of he who was sui generis, he who is often copied but never duplicated, he who comes to us again and again in the thousands of images we have come to know so well, he who appears and reappears as works about him in multiple media—film, music, text, painting, stage (both concert and theater)—proliferate. 

David. Bowie. Is. will make a unique contribution to the ever-growing catalog of reflections on one of the most significant artists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The editors invite original contributions from scholars in all disciplines addressing aspects of Bowie’s life and work as listed in the broad categories above. Contributors may choose to focus on single or multiple works/achievements/events spanning one or more of the artistic periods or decades throughout Bowie’ half-century career. Chapter proposals that focus on aspects of Bowie’s life and career receiving less attention are especially desired, such as 

• his own paintings and other intersections with the art world,
• his album art,
• his acting on stage and in film roles other than The Man Who Fell to Earth and Labyrinth, including his videos,
• live performances, especially in the context of his stage work,
• Bowie as a writer for the stage, including attempts to write musicals in the 60s and 70s, 
• his own performances on guitar, saxophone, or keyboards, 
• his work as a producer or composer,
• Bowie and religion, especially the album Heathen,
• Bowie and philosophy,
• Bowie’s reading, especially beyond the top 100 book list,
• less frequently examined aspects of his personal life, such as his fatherhood. 

Contributors should keep in mind that substantial attention has been paid to Bowie in the 70s and to his Berlin period, and that Blackstar is rapidly becoming a major focus of critical attention, so proposals should demonstrate significant knowledge of previous work in these areas. The editors welcome a variety of theoretical or historical approaches, but we ask that all chapter proposals and finished chapters evidence significant engagement with scholarship on David Bowie and within the approach of the author’s choice. 

Abstracts of at least 500 words and no more than 1,000 words may be sent to the editors at samuel.gladden@gmail.comand jamesrovira@gmail.com. Submissions should include an updated CV or résumé of no more than one page, email and cell phone contacts, and an indication of when the draft manuscript may be completed. We request that all chapter proposals be sent by January 1st, 2025. 

The volume’s co-editors have published work on Bowie in previous outlets, including two collections from Palgrave Macmillan edited by Rovira and including chapters by Gladden (David Bowie and Romanticism and Rock and Romanticism: Blake, Wordsworth and Rock from Dylan to U2), and each has enjoyed a successful career in academia. Samuel Gladden is Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, Education and Human Development at the University of New Orleans, where he also holds a position as Professor of English. Dr. Gladden’s books have been published by Routledge and Broadview Press. James Rovira is the Program Chair of Graduate Studies at Keiser University and is widely known for his work on the intersections of music and literature: he has edited four collections of works exploring such connections, and he has published scholarly work on many other topics, including literary theory and philosophy and literature. He is currently at work on the anthology Romanticism and Heavy Metal, co-edited with Julian Knox. 

David. Bowie. Is. will be written and edited throughout 2024 and 2025 with a hoped-for publication date of 2026 or 2027, roughly a decade after Bowie’s untimely passing. The editors plan to host a conference—real or virtual—upon the publication of the book and to develop a playlist of songs accompanying the work, an ancillary resource Rovira has produced on multiple occasions for multiple works.