Call for chapters
Edited collection on the work of Joni Mitchell
Editor: Dr. Ruth Charnock [University of Lincoln, UK]
Deadline for proposals: 30 September 2015

Joni Mitchell is widely recognised as an innovative, influential, much-loved and much-imitated artist. From her debut album Song to a Seagull to her most recent Shine, Mitchell’s music – her tunings, her lyrics, her scope – has drawn critical and popular acclaim. And yet, scholarly attention to her work has been relatively limited. This edited collection will attend to Mitchell as a figure worthy of sustained critical thought and appreciation, with a major publisher having already expressed interest.

Essay proposals that mix personal with critical, historical, musicological, or cultural studies analyses are welcome. Topics may include but are not limited to:
• Considerations of the relationship between Mitchell’s visual art and her music.
• Politics and political activism in Mitchell’s music [for example: Mitchell as reluctant feminist, Mitchell’s ecocriticism].
• Race in Mitchell’s work.
• Low affect in Mitchell’s work [disappointment, boredom, ennui, alienation].
• High affect in Mitchell’s work [joy, desire, excitement, enchantment].
• Commodification, stardom, the market and fame.
• Cover versions and reworkings.
• Mitchell’s milieu.
• The politics of space and travel in Mitchell’s work.
• Mitchell in popular culture.
• Mitchell’s histories.
• Queer Mitchell.

Please send 350-500 word chapter proposals to Dr Ruth Charnock by 30 September 2015.

If your essay is selected for the collection, a first draft of 5,000-6,000 words will be due by 1 February 2016.

Please direct all enquiries to Dr Ruth Charnock: rcharnock[at]lincoln.ac.uk