Free State of Jones. Directed by Gary Ross. STX Entertainment, 2016. In wide release, June 25, 2016. As I settled into my seat with my notebook, pen, bag of popcorn, and Junior Mints, I muttered to myself, “Please let this be good.” I was in the movie theater, with about twenty other . . .
Read MoreAs I pack my bags to go to the Western Association of Women Historians conference in Denver, I ask myself: why am I doing this? I don’t need another line on my cv. In fact, I don’t even need a cv these days. And conferences are expensive. The plane flight, hotel, transportation . . .
Read MoreIn my first job out of graduate school, I team-taught an undergraduate seminar with an older, male colleague. On the first day of class, the students went around the room introducing themselves and talking about their interests. When it was my turn, I listed my interests as “Nineteenth-century southern history, American literature, . . .
Read MoreThere’s been a lot of talk lately about how and why academics should write for “public audiences.” By this we usually mean that academics turn from the usual professional audience (fellow historians, in my case) and seek to engage non-academics who have an interest in the subject at hand. This discussion – . . .
Read MoreThis is one of the most trying times in the academic year. Job candidates are feverishly monitoring the Academic Jobs Wiki and reading one another’s Facebook status updates for clues. “Did she just check into the Madison Marriott? OMG!” Successful job candidates, having received an invitation to campus, are trying not to . . .
Read MoreIt’s that time of year again, people. The major academic associations in the fields of History (the American Historical Association) and Literature (the Modern Language Association) will be meeting this week/end in Atlanta (Ga.) and Austin (Tex.), respectively. There will be panels and receptions and live-tweeting. There will be coffee dates and . . .
Read MoreThe Book Proposal: the most important document that you will create in this whole process. So you know, no pressure. Many of you may have written book proposals before, for academic presses. The good news is that trade book proposals share much in common with their academic relations; the not-exactly-bad but somewhat . . .
Read MoreOnce you have compiled your list of agents and their contact information, it’s time to pitch your book project to them in the form of a query letter. The examples and questions below assume this is a non-fiction history book project, but the general structure is adaptable for pitching trade books in . . .
Read MoreThis is the first in a series of posts about how to go about pitching and placing a non-fiction trade book, if you have written one (or want to write one). There are three reasons to get an agent, rather than sending out your materials directly to editors: You don’t have access . . .
Read MoreWell, hello there. I’m Mr. Wolf. You haven’t heard from me in quite a while. It appears that most people prefer to do their complaining about students and colleagues in private. That’s fine with Mr. Wolf, it just means he’s a little bored. But now it is conference season, Mr. Wolf’s favorite . . .
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