EXTENDED CALL FOR CHAPTER PROPOSALS

The Works of Elaine May
SCREEN STORYTELLERS book series
Bloomsbury Academic

Editor: Jonathan Winchell

New deadline for abstract submissions: June 30, 2026

The proposed edited volume, The Works of Elaine May, has received preliminary interest from the SCREEN STORYTELLERS series editor. Nine chapters have been reviewed and confirmed for inclusion (see below).

I am currently seeking additional chapters on:

• Primary Colors
• Such Good Friends
• Nichols and May (comedy)

Please submit a 250-word abstract along with a 150-word biographical statement to Jonathan Winchell (jhwinchell237@gmail.com) by June 30, 2026. Please title the subject line of your email: Abstract – The Works of Elaine May.

Abstracts should be for previously unpublished chapters on Elaine May’s work as a screenwriter and comedy writer. Final chapters will be 3,000-3,500 words, written for an audience of student readers.

Current chapters include:

• Elaine May’s Ishtar: Within Morocco’s Broader Political Landscape and 1980s Moroccan Cinema

• From Elaine May to Tina Fey: Women, Comedy, and a Perception of “Meanness” (A New Leaf, The Heartbreak Kid)

• Parodying The Graduate: New Cabaret Shlemiel-Shiksa Routines in Elaine May’s The

Heartbreak Kid

• Queer Comedy for Straight Audiences: Elaine May’s Contribution to New Queer

Cinema (The Birdcage)

• Casting Her Daughter: Celebrating Jewish Women’s So-Called Bodily Deficiencies (The Heartbreak Kid)

• Elaine May’s Repertory: Collaboration, Performance, and the Architecture of Comic Voice (A New Leaf, The Heartbreak Kid, Mikey and Nicky, Heaven Can Wait, Ishtar, The Birdcage, Primary Colors)
• Transforming Warren Beatty’s Star Power into a Critical Device (Heaven Can Wait, Ishtar)
• The Subversive Scripts of Elaine May: Storytelling, Identity, and Adaptation (Heaven Can Wait, The Birdcage)
•  Elaine May’s “Difficult” Male Characters (A New Leaf, Mikey and Nicky)

There have been several books published on Elaine May in recent years, including The Films of Elaine May (ReFocus series) edited by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Dean Brandum, Nichols and May: Interviews (Conversations with Filmmakers series) edited by Robert E. Kapsis, and Miss May Does Not Exist: The Life and Work of Elaine May, Hollywood’s Hidden Genius by Carrie Courogen. These books explore May as a film director, comedienne, actor, and screenwriter. The Works of Elaine May will focus on May’s work as a writer: screenwriter, script doctor, comedy writer, and improv writer/actor.

The Works of Elaine May

Elaine May has been one of the most influential comedic voices in American comedy, film, television, and stage for more than seven decades. She revolutionized comedy in the 1950s and 1960s as part of the comedy duo with Mike Nichols, performing on television and Broadway and making Grammy-winning albums. In 1967, May began acting in films, and in the 1970s, she became a groundbreaking screenwriter and film director at a time when few women were writing and directing feature films in Hollywood. She wrote films such as Such Good Friends, Heaven Can Wait, The Birdcage, and Primary Colors and directed films such as A New Leaf, The Heartbreak Kid, Mikey and Nicky, and Ishtar. Although her credits as a screenwriter are limited to seven feature films to date, she was widely known as one of the top script doctors and consultants, working on films ranging from Tootsie to Reds to Bill Murray films such as Ghostbusters II and What About Bob? As a screenwriter, director, actress, and comedienne, she has remained one of the most significant women creatives from the second half of the 20th century to the present day. May, who is 94, is currently in development on a fifth feature film with Dakota Johnson attached in the starring role and as a producer.

I welcome contributions from scholars of film, television, media studies, and popular culture, as well as working practitioners, including screen and television writers, filmmakers, and playwrights. Chapters may explore individual works or may interrogate a single theme, question, or construct across multiple works. I expect many chapters will offer a critical analysis of Elaine May’s work so readers can expand their knowledge and understanding of the screenwriting and comedy craft, and many chapters in this volume will include historically sophisticated commentaries, exploring May’s career through the lens of production, reception, and creative collaborations and dynamics.

Please direct questions or inquiries to jhwinchell237@gmail.com. I welcome submissions from scholars at all stages of their careers, as well as practicing and aspiring screen and television writing professionals. Please share this announcement with colleagues whose work aligns with the focus of this volume.

Abstracts due by June 30, 2026

The SCREEN STORYTELLERS series is designed for students, professors, and enthusiastic consumers of film, television, and new media who seek information about contemporary and historically significant screenwriters that is both accessible and critically rigorous. The intention with this series is to bring much-deserved attention to screen and television writers who have developed noteworthy films and television series of significant aesthetic or cultural achievement, critical acclaim, or commercial success, and to offer close readings of the films and series from the perspective of story, screenwriting craft, audience reception, and cultural impact. Each volume explores the works of a single screen storyteller. The series places a strong focus on examining works by screenwriters often left out of classroom syllabi, including women, writers of color, LGBTQ writers, and international writers.

For more information about the SCREEN STORYTELLERS series, contact series editor Anna Weinstein: aweinst6@kennesaw.edu.