After
12 years of being more or less the same in mission and format,
Chain is changing.
It's
been a good run. We've published an amazing array of works around
a variety of topics and we've learned a lot from the dialogues
these works have created under one cover together. But now, instead
of publishing an annual journal featuring the work of at least
seventy different people, we are morphing for an unspecified amount
of time into a radical pamphlets/small book series. We feel this
change in format will provide an opportunity for deeper conversation,
particularly around the intersection of art and politics.
We
would like to invite you to be part of the change by being a guest
editor of a small book in a new series, Chain Links.
We
want these books to be primarily driven by the Now.
We
want to forget art for art's sake. We want to forget the idea
of legacy and permanence. Instead, we want work that recognizes
that we, all of us on this small earth, are alive in a time of
crisis. It is our hope that each of these books (which will be
no more than 100 pages) will address a particular topic with an
interdisciplinary focus. Our main goal with this project is to
get all those people whose work we respect to begin to think about
how art/writing/whatever might change people's minds, might agitate
for (thought) reform, might be more than the sum of its small,
isolated genres.
We
also see this publishing project as continuing Chain's desire
to provide a space for publications that are falling through the
genre cracks. We welcome hybrid writing. We welcome unrecognizable
essays. We welcome previously thought to be unpublishable writing.
Here
are the more specific parameters . . .
If
you decide to take on this assignment and become an editor, realize
that this series requires that each book feature work in more
than one genre/art form-ideally with a political dimension. Think
of these books as a conference panel for the page, a panel that
is being held at an unusually interdisciplinary conference of
leftists, environmentalists, inventors, freethinkers.
To
begin the process, you should provide us with a proposal to present
the work of at least two, ideally three, possibly more than three
artists/writers/whatever participants that is focused around a
particular topic. An example (drawing on works published in the
last issue of Chain on "Public Forms") might be a book
around the topic of "activist signage" that includes
Kaia Sand and Jules Boykoff's essay "Southern Maryland Sign
Project," Che Qianzi's "Big-Character Posters,"
and Gregory Sholette's work with REPOhistory.
Editors
should showcase the work of others (not their own work), although
they may write an introduction or some other sort of frame for
the book.
Editors
are encouraged but not required to work with other editors, especially
if they find it hard to find work outside of their genre/medium.
Proposals
might include any or all of the following: a letter outlining
the idea, a list of participants, work samples (or online links
to previous work by participants), a timeline and estimated date
for when the book would be ready for production. Editors may propose
to reprint work; if the proposal is accepted, editors are required
to get permission to do this and pay any fees.
Email
all proposals to both josman[at]temple[dot]edu and jspahr[at]mills[dot]edu.
We will review proposals received on a rolling basis.
If
we agree to the proposal, we are committed to the project and
making it happen. However, should radical conceptual change between
the original proposal and the final manuscript occur, we reserve
the right to reject or request revision of the manuscript.
Once
a proposal is accepted, editors should at least provide us with
an electronic version of the final typescript. Editors may typeset
their own manuscripts provided they meet our general look and
budget or they may request that we typeset the book.
Each
editor gets twenty copies of the book. Each contributor gets five.
The books will be distributed to Chain subscribers and through
Small Press Distribution. Each book will have a small advertising
budget.
Please
pass this call for work onto others who may be interested.
