Submission: Essays in Honour of Percy Bysshe Shelley
‘I am borne darkly, fearfully, afar’: Essays in Honour of Percy Bysshe Shelley on the Bicentenary of His Death (2022) was published on 8 July 2022. You can read the collection here.
We at Gothic Keats Press are excited to announce our first essay submission in honour of Percy Bysshe Shelley, another beloved poet of ours, to commemorate the bicentenary of his tragic death in 1822. Submissions will be open from 1 April until 1 June 2022, and accepted essays will be published on our website as an essay collection on Shelley’s anniversary, 8 July 2022.
We understand there are many wonderful academic journals that publish works pertaining to the studies of Romanticism (we read them), so we encourage and welcome simultaneous submissions. If your piece gets accepted elsewhere just let us know. We will also accept previously published work, as long as you own the rights and/or have permission to reprint.
Examples of Essay Topics:
Although we hope to receive a number of essays with a particular focus on Percy’s tragic death (events that led to this; the immediate aftermath and why it mattered; the effect it had on Shelley’s image as a poet in the decades that followed; etc.) and/or his poetry at the time (his The Triumph of Life that was left unfinished at his death; Hellas: A Lyrical Drama, his poetic response to the Greek rebellion against Ottoman rule and his last work to be published during his lifetime; his poems and ariettes to Jane Williams; etc.), we very much welcome pieces that focus on other areas of Shelley’s life (his ideas on politics, religion, revolution, poetry, etc.) as well as essays that focus heavier on his close circle, especially Mary Shelley, Claire Clairmont, Lord Byron, Edward and Jane Williams, Leigh Hunt, and Trelawny, among others.
If you already have a finished essay (or an idea for one) and are unsure if it fits, just send us a short email describing the piece (or idea) and we will try to get back with you ASAP.
Other Submission Details:
Word count: We prefer essays between 1,000 and 5,000 words, not inclusive of notes and bibliography. However, if you have already written a piece that is longer (or if you write an essay for this submission and it goes a little over), please send us an email first before submitting. Keep in mind we are currently a small press of only two people, and we both have demanding, fulltime jobs.
Style: Even though we love consistency, we are not partial to any one particular style; however, if you choose to use the “notes and bibliography” system (raised numerical superscripts with footnotes), please put all notes at the very end of the document as endnotes, followed by a bibliography (style of your choice). If you choose to use the “author and date” system (parentheses with author’s last name and publication year), please include a bibliography at the end of the essay (again, style of your choice).
See the Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide as a reference: https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html
Peer Review: We are currently unable to offer a blind peer review process. However, since these essays will be published online, we can always fix errors that we miss (incorrect dates, misquotes, etc.). We may decide to publish a print and/or Kindle edition toward the end of the year, and if we do, we will make sure each essay has been peer reviewed and is correct before printing.
Who we Publish: We at Gothic Keats Press are happy to publish everyone, from the entire hierarchy of university professors and lecturers to PhD students and graduate teaching assistants, from postgrads to undergrads, and from independent researchers to simply those with an interest (a passion, preferably) in the Shelleys and their circle. We welcome all!
How to Submit: Please send essays as a Word attachment (.doc, .docx, or .rtf) to gothickeatspress@gmail.com. Include a short biography in the third person. There is no need to submit a formal abstract, but in the body of your email please briefly describe your essay, and include a word count.
Payment: Unfortunately, at this present moment, we are unable to pay contributors for this particular essay collection. However, we have wonderful plans for the future, and we aim to pay future publication contributors using both our own funds and crowd-funding sources.