Greetings Fellow Twainiacs,

Warning: This post has nothing to do with Ann Coulter, George Bush, or
current politics.

I need five or six additional proposals/abstracts (250-500 words) for a
volume of essays (3,500-6,000 words each) tentatively titled _Mark
Twain's Geographical Imagination_. Last year's Mark Twain Circle/SAMLA
session used this title, and the participants from the panel (plus two
other Twain scholars) have agreed to contribute to the proposed volume.
Cambridge Scholars Press (in UK but not affiliated with Cambridge
University) expressed interest in such a volume, pending, of course, a
proposal package that will satisfy its editors.

Proposals so far received discuss _Life on the Mississippi_, _A
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court_, _Tom Sawyer Abroad_, and
Twain's Hawaiian travels. I would prefer proposals that discuss other
works by Twain under the proposed title, which could include other
travel books by Twain, place and local cultural contexts in specific
texts (fiction or nonfiction), or figurative use of geographical
concepts and spaces, or some other imaginative application of the title
to a Twain text.

Note that the publisher prefers the Chicago Manual of Style author-date
system, so if you use references in your proposal, please document them
appropriately.

In addition, I would like to see proposals that help us understand the
text(s) under discussion without, necessarily, a "heavy" over-reliance
on theory, which is not to say that you should avoid theory, but that
it should be applied to help potential readers understand a Twain text
within the title concept. The audience for the proposed volume will
include individuals with an interest in Mark Twain (scholars and
non-scholars alike), public libraries, and, of course, college
libraries.

Deadline for proposals is August 1, 2006, preferably by appropriately
formatted e-mail attachment. Assuming the book proposal will be
accepted for publication, the full essay will be due January 31, 2007.
Please send a biographical sketch with your proposal.

If you have any questions, please send them to me directly; do not
reply to the Mark Twain Forum.

Joe Alvarez
900 Havel Court
Charlotte, NC  28211-4253

Telephone: 704.364.5090
Cell Phone: 704.564.2082
FAX: 704.364.9348