HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Charles John Huffam Dickens! 200 years and still going strong!

What IS it about Dickens?

The 2012 celebration of his bi-centenary will take in the full range of his cultural influence worldwide. This PopMatters call for features and reviews seeks to reflect the visual and dramatic global cultures of Dickens, many examples of which can be found listed here, from New York to Manila. See, for example, Dickens 2012.04 and the British Council.org.

Along with the international recognition of his significance as a writer taking place throughout the year, there are the responses that readers and viewers have to the novels (first-time readings and re-readings), and the many and various adaptations. Recently the BBC has introduced new versions of Great Expectations and The Mystery of Edwin Drood; the former, starring Gillian Anderson as the youngest ever actor in the role of Miss Havisham.

PopMatters seeks essays (1,200 to 3,000 words, usually) about any aspect of popular culture, present or past. (If you are interested in pitching a review of some specific current work or performance, please contact the appropriate reviews editor.) We prefer careful analysis of the chosen subject matter with the intention of supporting an original thesis; we aren’t particularly interested in articles that merely want to promote their subject. An assessment of what ideological work a given pop culture phenomenon performs (i.e. what has allowed something to become popular, what’s at stake in its popularity besides money, how it is situated in a historical or geographical context, etc.) is especially welcome. Ideally essays will draw on sophisticated interpretive strategies derived from a theoretically informed point of view, but will be presented for a general reader in lively, accessible language.

For examples of the diversity of topics and range of approaches we welcome, please have a look at PopMatters features and columns archives.

Informed, intelligent, engaged and engaging writing (ergo, engaged thinking) is the hallmark of PopMatters. Our writers are cultural generalists with a broad range of interests; thus, our scope is broadly cast on all things pop culture. However, you don’t always have to write a 2,500-word essay to capture (and keep) our interest. PopMatters blogs, which are very popular with our hip, informed readership, run the gamut of topics in culture, and we’re looking for people who love to blog about all the world’s cultural offerings. Indeed, we encourage you to explore all mediums, and express most thoughtfully on all that you see, hear, read, play, watch, do.

PopMatters is looking for talented music critics and bloggers.

We’re looking for talented writers with deep genre knowledge of music and its present and past alongside a cultural generalist perspective with strong interests in many areas of culture.

Deadline: None. This is a standing call.
Contact: Karen Zarker
Email: zarker at popmatters dot com

PopMatters seeks intelligent and open minds to review books covering the entire spectrum of popular culture, from the big guns of the megapublishers to the edgy voices coming from the radical indie presses. Ideal reviews provide contextual commentary and bring an historical awareness to the piece—PopMatters book reviews are far more substantial than the average “liked it / hated it” review.

***Although we love fiction at PopMatters, we’re presently looking for more coverage of non-fiction titles, particularly coverage of a range of topics in cultural history.***

Standard book reviews average 800 words, shorter reviews are published on our books blog, Re:Print. Longer, in-depth essays are encouraged for worthy books, and the best pieces—those that set the subject matter in a culturally and historically relevant context, and are written in an informed and entertaining manner—will be considered for placement in the Re:Print column or features.

We are happy to arrange author interviews when possible, as well.

Interested in writing for the PopMatters’ books blog, Re:Print? In Re:Print, we are especially interested in covering new vistas in publishing (eBooks, web-exclusive publishing, hypertext projects) and book-related issues, such as censorship, rights arguments, and the struggle for essential truth in memoir and non-fiction. Please indicate your interest in blogging about books in your application.

Many of our writers are called upon for their opinion by notable members of the media such as the BBC, NPR, MSNBC, Radio Australia, and VH1. Publications such as USA Today.com, Alternet.org, and Movies.com regularly pick up links to PopMatters articles and post quotes from PopMatters writers. Many PopMatters stories are carried across McClatchey-Tribune’s wire services with more than 60 US newspapers and 1,200 media clients worldwide and MCT Campus, a national wire service reaching more than 1,000 college and high school newspapers.

Interested parties should send a query with your background and areas of interest, along with three samples of your writing, including one review of a book not in our archive that would be your first published piece at PopMatters if you are accepted, to:

• Karen Zarker, Senior Editor, zarker at popmatters dot com.

Note: we are unable to pay you monetarily for your work at this time. However, you are not uncompensated in some form; your ‘pay’, as it were, is the privilege of publishing with this reputable magazine, wherein you are rewarded with this platform to broaden your readership, currently over 1 million unique readers per month, and counting