Call for Papers #1: Margaret Walker
Study the South and the Oxford Conference for the Book
Call for Papers
“Margaret Walker”
Study the South, a peer-reviewed, multimedia, open-access journal published by the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, announces a call for papers to advance scholarship on the life and literature of Mississippi writer Margaret Walker. The author of the selected paper will be invited to discuss or present a portion of his or her work at the 2015 Oxford Conference for the Book, which will be dedicated to Walker in recognition of her contributions to American letters.
In the Literature volume of The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, Ethel Young-Minor writes, “Margaret Walker played an active role in American arts and letters for at least seven decades. She was a distinguished poet, respected essayist, groundbreaking novelist, and award-winning educator. Her final collection of poetry, This Is My Century, accurately describes the wide range of themes and issues encompassed in her work. The 20th century became Margaret Walker’s century, as she ‘saw it grow from darkness into dawn.’ Her writings demonstrate vestiges of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s, traces of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, and markings of what some would deem as the Womanist Renaissance of the 1980s.”
Any scholarly topic related to Walker is welcome. Study the South will have first publication rights for the article—planned for publication on March 25, 2015, the commencement of the 2015 Oxford Conference for the Book. Copyright will revert to the author six weeks after date of publication. The Center for the Study of Southern Culture and Study the South will retain, however, non-exclusive rights to publication.
To submit an original paper for consideration, please e-mail complete manuscript to James G. Thomas, Jr. at jgthomas@olemiss.edu. Submissions are due by December 1, 2014, and the successful candidate will be notified by January 15, 2015. Study the South expects that the successful candidate will be an advanced graduate student or professional scholar in a field such as literature, African American studies, American studies, gender studies, or history. Submissions will not be considered if they have been previously published or are concurrently under consideration by another journal or press.
For questions or additional information, please contact: James G. Thomas, Jr., jgthomas@olemiss.edu, (662) 915-3374.