The 45th Annual Mid-America Theatre Conference
The Crown Plaza Hotel
Atlanta, GA
March 6-8, 2025
Pitch Your Book Session – Call for Papers
Submit proposals here
Click this link for a downloadable PDF of the CFP:
MATC is pleased to offer the Pitch Your Book session, an interactive workshop for scholars and practitioners developing book proposals in the areas of theatre history, performance, pedagogy, theory, and/or practice. In order to best foster productive conversations for the preselected authors, the session is closed to outside observers. Book editors will offer participants suggestions for improving their book pitches, as well as strategies for submitting their book proposal to academic publishers.
Recent Pitch Your Book editors have included Harvey Young (University of Michigan Press), Heather Nathans (University of Iowa Press), Brian Herrera (NYU Press), Shannon Walsh (Palgrave), and Laura Hussey and Claire Margerison (Routledge).
If you are developing a book proposal and would like critical feedback from editors on how to present the project to publishers, please submit a Google form (not the full book proposal or manuscript) by NOVEMBER 1, 2024. Questions may be directed to session coordinators Weston Twardowski and Stefano Boselli at book_pitch@matc.us.
For consideration, please complete the Google Form at LINK HERE
The Google form will ask for:
All proposals must include:
- your name
- your academic affiliation, if any
- your title (identifying whether you are faculty or an independent scholar—both are invited to submit)
- your contact information
- book project title
- a 500-word abstract of the book project
- a one-paragraph genealogy of the book project including answers the following questions:
- Is it based on a dissertation, or is it a new project? If based on a dissertation, please specify how it has been expanded and revised both in terms of scope and complexity.
- What is the project’s current stage of completion (i.e. is it a complete manuscript or are just a few chapters finished)?
- Has it been submitted to a press in the past as either a proposal or a manuscript?
Session coordinators will select participants for the closed workshop based on the overall clarity of the project and the time limitations of the conference itself. Authors initially selected will submit expanded proposals (details shared upon acceptance) by January 31, 2024 and register for the conference for final approval for the session.
Further Conference Information
Please note that no individual may submit to more than two symposia, including the Pitch Your Book session. This limit is put in place to avoid scheduling conflicts and to provide more individuals the opportunity to present.
The Mid-America Theatre Conference commits to advancing intersectional equity, inclusivity, and diversity; creating a conference that is welcoming and fully accessible; and to disrupting the ongoing damage of white supremacy within MATC and the broader academic and theatrical worlds. As part of this effort, we highly encourage a broad range of submissions by presenters or about theatre of historically disenfranchised and underrepresented populations, particularly those of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities. For MATC’s full statement on anti-racism, accessibility, and inclusivity please see our website at http://matc.us.
MATC prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind, including during all associated meetings, the annual conference sessions, and within publications. In case of questions or concerns, to request specific accommodation, or to report a bias incident, please contact our Equity and Inclusion Officer at equity@matc.us.
All submission are due by 11:59pm PST on November 1, 2024.