Louis Owens (1948-2002) was one of the major voices of contemporary Native American literature and scholarship. His work includes five acclaimed novels, scholarly studies, and some one hundred essays. The extensive oeuvre Owens produced includes writing on themes of mixed-blood identities, working-class life, travel, the western American landscape, the environment, survivance, tricksters, story-telling, and memory. Owens was a scholar of international stature on John Steinbeck, a figure who strongly influenced his own realist fiction.
This edited collection of critical essays will provide an opportunity for new understandings of the contributions of Louis Owens as a story-teller and scholar. We are soliciting essays dealing with such topics as his gothic and noir modes of fiction; re-workings of Euro-American and indigenous cultures; misunderstanding and non-communication between two worlds; tribal beliefs and Choctaw culture; post-Indianism; dispossession, alienation, and exilic existence; historiographic imaginings; violence and evil; environmental despoliation; representations of place and space; and colonial ghosts.
While most of the volume will concern Owens’ fictions, the editors will be interested especially in essays addressing the scholarship of Louis Owens, theoretical contributions, and treatments of his work in comparative global contexts. We welcome and encourage theoretical discussion, but essays should employ clear and accessible language.
Please send 250-word abstracts, or full draft manuscripts of previously unpublished material, to the co-editors no later than January 31, 2017 for consideration. Include a 100-150 word bio. Authors will be notified by February 15, 2017. Final drafts of selected abstracts or manuscripts will be due on June 30, 2017. Essays should not exceed 10,000 words; bibliography in Chicago style; and 11 pt. Courier font with one inch margin. Anticipated date of manuscript completion to be submitted to the publisher for peer review is planned for December 1, 2017. Revisions will be required in early fall of 2017. Publication of individual manuscripts cannot be guaranteed.
Send proposals and submissions as Word file attachments via email to both Joe Lockard (Joe.Lockard@asu.edu), Department of English, Arizona State University, and Irene Vernon (Irene.Vernon@colostate.edu), Chair, Ethnic Studies Department, Colorado State University. Queries are welcomed.