Eleven months after the project was begun, Critical Insights: Robert A. Heinlein at last was released by Salem Press.  See the Amazon page here.  This is a top-notch new reference text full of essays by a worldwide crew of scholars, and I am so pleased to see it come to fruition at last!

​Rafeeq

Two days ago, Salem Press gave me the green light on to do a collection of new scholarly essays on Robert A. Heinlein...and within 30 hours of my first solicitations, all 15 chapters had been assigned!  Critical Insights: Robert A. Heinlein, part of the wide-ranging Critical Insights Series of Salem Press, will be written by a crew of scholars from all over world, arranged and edited and whatnot by this most humble editor, and released in late 2015.  I suspect it is going to be very, very good...

Rafeeq

After three long months of work, now over a dozen contributors from all around the world, along with the volume editor, are done, done, done!  All finished chapters have been approved by our series editor at Salem, table of contents has been set, and the index has been drawn up.  Now everything is in the hands of the final copy-editors, and we can look forward to publication in November.  'Tis very exciting.

Rafeeq

As the deadline approacheth, we are a good 85% done, and I hope to wrap up nearly everything in the coming week.  The essays are interesting and well written, table of contents is good to go, and apparatus is ready.  My new friends from all around the world have really pulled on the oars, and this trireme is almost into port: http://salempress.com/Store/samples/critical_insights/fahrenheit.htm.  'Tis very exciting indeed.

Rafeeq

First load of infrastructural matters plus a couple of chapters have been submitted to our series editor at Salem, and this is a very fine start.  Plenty more good stuff coming in from scholars in the next few weeks!

For the first time in a solid month, I also had some time for my novel.  Aside from some nice little edits here and there, I also tweaked chapter sizes very helpfully, which led to a rejiggering of the samples on the website, complete overhaul of all the links, etc., etc.  Strange, but I seem to find such things rather fun...

So now, as I wait for 451 contributors to send more chapters, it's time to revisit good ol' Student Body.

Rafeeq

I am pleased to report that all chapters for the Fahrenheit 451 project for the Critical Insights series of Salem Press have been assigned, so now we are well underway!

I am very happy to have been able to bring together a company of such scholars as kindly have responded to the call for essays, and I am privileged to be working with them.  The proposals we have are all fascinating indeed, and I can hardly wait to bring everything together in the final publication.

Thank you again to everyone who has expressed an interest in this exciting project.  And now, of course, it is time to write...

Rafeeq

As volume editor for a collection of new scholarly essays on Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 that will be published by Salem Press in its Critical Insights Series, I am entertaining proposals for the following:

a biographical sketch, around 2000 words;

an introductory chapter on Cultural/Historical Context, 4000-5000 words;

an introductory Compare-and-Contrast chapter, 4000-5000 words;

an introductory chapter on Critical Reception of the novel, 4000-5000 words;

an introductory Critical Lens chapter of a close reading from a particular critical standpoint, 4000-5000 words; and

ten Critical Reading chapters on topics related to the work, author, or its themes, 5000 words each.

Contributors will receive an honorarium of $250.  I believe access to the electronic version of the text may be given as well, and for traditionalists who enjoy having a printed book around—like myself, I confess—the press, if I recall, is amenable to purchase by contributors at around 50% off.

Fahrenheit 451 is a work particularly dear to me, one which over the years I have read again and again, taught, and written about.  In this current effort I am extraordinarily pleased to have the opportunity to bring together important essays that will help further the understanding of the novel by academics, students, and ordinary readers alike.

Interested scholars, please contact me immediately at [email protected].  Due dates will be around the middle of October, so the sooner I can get all ducks in a row, the better.  Naturally, if you are interested, I of course have fuller instructions/guidelines from Salem to send, then a contributor’s contract, etc.