Proposing, Writing and Editing for Bloomsbury's 33 1/3 Series

Drawing on first-hand experiences of writing proposals and books for Bloomsbury’s 33 1/3 Series, this panel seeks to offer information and tips for prospective 33 1/3 authors. The panel features a diverse range of authors who have published editions across the Europe, Japan, and US series. How should authors go about choosing a suitable artist / album to write about? What makes a strong pitch to the 33 1/3 series? How can authors devise suitable conceptual frameworks in which to study their chosen album? And what are some examples of successful pitches? In a roundtable discussion format, the panel will cover all aspects of the 33 1/3 process to include choosing the right album, writing proposals, structuring and chapterising a book, to marketing and promotion techniques. The discussion will be followed by Q&A.

Samantha Bennett is Professor of Music and Associate Dean Higher Degree Research at the Australian National University, and Chair of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM). She is the author, co-author, and co-editor of six books including her latest, ‘Gear: Cultures of Audio and Music Technologies’ co-authored with A/Prof Eliot Bates (CUNY) and forthcoming from The MIT Press, and ‘Peepshow’, a 33 1/3 series edition on the album by Siouxsie and the Banshees (Bloomsbury Academic, 2018). She is an advisory board member and editor of Bloomsbury Academic’s 33 1/3 Series. Her journal articles are published in Popular Music, Popular Music and Society, Convergence, and the Journal of Popular Music Studies.

Fabian Holt completed his PhD (2001) in a music department and worked on the sociology of music festivals throughout the 2010s. This research culminated in a Habilitation in 2019, which has been reviewed in five international journals across disciplines such as anthropology, business, and music studies. The reviews describe the dissertation as a seminal work. Anthony Seeger, professor at UCLA and son of Pete Seeger, wrote: “Unique in its approach, groundbreaking in its objectives, Everyone Loves Live Music is a milestone and a point of reference for future studies.” Fabian is also the founding editor of the 33 1/3 Europe book series published by Bloomsbury, comprising 15 titles thus far.

C.C. McKee is Assistant Professor of Modern Art in the Department of History of Art at Bryn Mawr College, USA. McKee has curated exhibitions at the Block Museum, Iceberg Projects (Chicago, IL), and the Ghetto Biennale (Port-au-Prince, Haiti) and published various pieces of art criticism and articles in Art Forum, Art Journal, and CASVA Seminar Papers. McKee’s research and curatorial projects have been supported by a number of grants including the American-Scandinavian Foundation Research Grant and the College Art Association Professional Development Fellowship. C.C. is the author of Aqua’s ‘Aquarium’ in the 33 1/3 Europe Series.

Brooke McCorkle Okazaki is an Assistant Professor of Music at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. She specializes in opera of the nineteenth century to the present, film music, and the music of modern Japan. In addition to numerous articles and book chapters, Okazaki is the co-author of Japan’s Green Monsters: Environmental Commentary in Kaijū Cinema (2018) and the author of Shonen Knife’s Happy Hour: Food, Gender, Rock and Roll (Bloomsbury 33 1/3 Japan Series). Her monograph Searching for Wagner in Japan is forthcoming with Oxford University Press.