Latest Call for Proposals from the First Press to Specialize in Books on Motherhood/Mothering (a press based in the GTA)

I couldn't resist passing this information along right away because I know many of you will want to consider contributing to this mothering anthology yourself or you'll know someone who will want to contribute (or know about) this project. It sounds like it's going to be fantastic. Just FYI: Demeter Press is the first press to specialize in books about motherhood/mothering and it's based right here in the GTA.

If you visit the Demeter Press website, you can find about other books the press has in the works. Readers of this blog may be particularly interested in the call for proposals for Mothering Canada as well as Queer Parenting. [Note: See also my earlier post about this related parenting anthology being published by Toronto's Insomniac Press.] Demeter Press is also currently accepting proposals for projects for publishing year 2012-2013, according to the most recent information available on the site (the guidelines for prospective authors, available for download from the press home page).

While you're there, be sure to check out Demeter's impressive (and growing) list of books on mothering. (I'm pretty pumped about the essay I have coming out in Mothering and Blogging: The Radical Act of the MommyBlog by May Friedman and Shana L. Calixte, which is being published next spring.)

Just as a point of interest, Demeter Press' name was inspired by Demeter, the Greek goddess of motherhood.

- Ann

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CALL FOR PAPERS

DEMETER PRESS is seeking submissions for an edited collection on Latina/Chicana Mothering Publication Date: Spring 2011
Editors: Dorsía Smith Silva and Janine Santiago
We are very excited to edit an interdisciplinary book on mothering in the Latina and Chicana communities. We seek papers that examine the narratives, histories, practices, and theories of Latina and Chicana mothering as they reflect the realities and complexities of diverse perspectives. Latina and Chicana mothering is a rich experience, which engenders a sense of identity, multiple viewpoints, and cultural orientations. Here, the Latina/Chicana mothering experience seeks to provide a site for inquiry of those life histories and legacies, which have been marked by undergoing childbirth, raising children, or becoming mothers, as well as transatlantic mothers. One of the main goals of this text will be to examine the complex representations of Latina and Chicana mothering and to address the space where Latina and Chicana perspectives are in many cases rendered invisible. We encourage varied approaches from across the humanities and social sciences including, but not limited to topics as the following: theoretical, historical, cultural, feminist, maternal, transgender, and gender studies; personal and reflective essays; ethnographies; oral histories, cultural studies; literary representation; mother activists and activism perspectives; constructions and hybridity theories of identity and changes in identity; constructions of ethnicity and changes in ethnicity; Latina and Chicana/mothering in global and transnational contexts; issues of immigration, diaspora, citizenship, national identity, embodiment theories; feminist philosophies of mothers and mothering; film and media representations; mothering conflicts; ideological and social debates and tensions within discussions of Latina and Chicana mothering; mothering critiques; issues of Latina and Chicana mothering, especially as they intersect with categories of race, discrimination, class, gender, economics, nation, family, community, education, and language; law, political, or scientific issues; politics and public policies; poverty; health, health care, reproduction, and reproductive rights; the role of web communities and technology; spiritual, cultural, emotional, communal, or social influences; support services for Latina and Chicana mothers; self-sponsored Latina and Chicana mothering communities and institutions; ideologies in Latino and Chicano communities Abstracts/Proposals (250-400 words) due October 31, 2008
Acceptances made by December 1, 2008
Accepted and completed papers (15-20 pp. double-spaced, MLA format) due: March 31, 2009
Please send inquiries and papers, along with a brief biography, to: Editors, Dorsía Smith Silva and Janine Santiago at latinachicanamothering@yahoo.com.

About the Editors:

Dorsía Smith Silva teaches English in the College of General Studies at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras.  Her research and teaching focus on Ethnic and Caribbean Literature, the Latino community and the Diaspora, and feminism.  She is the author of several articles and is the co-editor of The Caribbean without Borders: Caribbean Literature, Language, and Culture (Cambridge Scholars Press, 2008).

Janine Santiago is an Assistant Professor of English at University of Puerto Rico, College of General Studies.  Santiago was granted a Ph.D. in American Studies from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 2003. Her research interests are in the areas of Gender Studies, Oral History, Caribbean Women Writers, and Hispanic and Latino/a Literature and Popular Culture.  She has published several articles, including her work in Latinas in the United States: A Historical Encyclopedia (2006).

Association for Research on Mothering (ARM) Demeter Press 726 Atkinson, York University
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