academic book publishing workshops

BLACK FEMINIST WRITING WORK

Sankofa means carrying a tradition forward. I started this regenerative writing and workshop project as the result of a series of dialogues with colleagues in race and gender studies. Within one year, between February 2022 and 2023, a dozen universities and university presses invited me to review twelve book drafts in Black women's studies. Topics ranged from intellectual and educational history to biography and wellness traditions—all within the scope of my research. In addition to reviewing this large body of new research, I worked as a thesis and dissertation advisor, provided informal periodic mentoring for a few new faculty authors, reviewed several full professor tenure and promotion dossiers, and assessed multiple submissions in my role as a series editor for SUNY Press. 

During this time, I was invited by three faculty fellowship writing programs to serve on book manuscript review panels (University of Notre Dame, Pennsylvania State University, and Syracuse University) in addition to a request from Spain to sit on a dissertation committee (which I could not accommodate due to scheduling).

After two decades of writing, publishing, and reviewing, I hoped that my intensive year of peer review and developmental editing with authors eased their pathway to publication in some small way. That hope was the motivation for me to write the book BLACK FEMINIST WRITING: A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO PUBLSIHING ACADEMIC BOOKS.

Book manuscript workshops are ideal for university writing centers, offices for research or faculty development, faculty retreats, book prize or fellowship programs, archive/research centers, staff at scholarly presses, and foundation programs. Writing/publishing workshops or lectures can be tailored for informal faculty writing groups as well as centers, departments, or colleges that host events for faculty development.   

Workshops can be tailored for specific groups, including:

· Faculty in race & gender studies

· Humanities, social sciences, STEM or other disciplinary areas

· Colleges of arts & sciences, college of the arts or other divisions

· Department chairs, deans, and other administrators

· Non-tenure track faculty

· New faculty (dissertation to book projects)

· Tenured faculty working on promotion to full professor 

· Fellowship awardees

Completing a book project requires that you set goals, clearly outline tasks, and set realistic deadlines. In Black Feminist Writing, I share how writing is an everyday practice to reach your writing goals. 

• PERSONAL PRACTICE. VOICE: Academic writing is a way to share your unique and personal message with the world. 
• PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE. ARGUMENT: Academic writing requires that you reference existing scholarship to demonstrate how you are in discussion with scholars and adding to your field. 
• PUBLISHING PRACTICE. EDITING: Academic writing involves critical peer review by professionals in your field. Partnering with an editor at a university or scholarly trade press ensures your work is vetted before being released to the public. 
• PUBLIC PRACITCE. COMMUNITY. Academic writing in the Black feminist tradition means moving beyond an "audience" for your work and instead engaging community in the development, dissemination, and application of your research in ways that benefit more than just yourself. 
• POLITICAL PRACTICE. INSTITUTION. Scholars in race and gender studies are constantly subjected to academic hypocrisy and extraordinary scrutiny. Writing and publishing in Black women's studies is a way to institutionalize progressive ideas and center human rights work despite long traditions of dehumanization in the academy.

In writing workshops I highlight lessons learned from authoring four books and co-editing five. I focus on ways to RISE above stress:

• REST. WELLNESS & BALANCE: identify areas where faculty must manage stress in the writing and publishing process
• IMMERSE. CAREER CONTEXT: offer perspective of a long-time department chair about how to centralize bookwork in your career (before and after promotion)
• STUDY. DEVELOPMENTAL FEEDBACK: provide general, high-level review of book proposals or manuscripts from the perspective of a series editor at a university press
• ENGAGE. TIPS & RESOURCES: identify guides and strategies to demystify the publishing world and help you build relationships with communities and networks 

I am a writing consultant specializing in one-time workshops for academic faculty who are interested in publishing books for scholarly presses. 

I do not do individual coaching, ghost writing, copy editing, fiction, or individual developmental editing. For these professional services, visit my resource website: https://blackfeministwriting.net/resources