Wednesday, March 14th, 2012 The Problem of the Second Book

Description

Many books and conference panels offer advice on how to turn a dissertation into a successful first book. There is almost no guidance for how to plan and write a subsequent book, even though the conditions of writing are almost always completely different. For a first book that begins as a dissertation, there are committees and advisors to help a scholar choose and shape their topic, to guide the research and direct the writing, and to give advice on how to reshape the resulting thesis into a book. The second book does not usually begin with a dissertation or the advice of a committee. Instead a scholar has to find the appropriate size of a project, plan for the research, and choose a style and genre of writing on his or her own. For many scholars the second book will be more ambitious in theoretical aspiration, style, and scale than their first, multiplying the challenges of the task. My talk will explore some useful ways to go about planning out a second book, along with some pitfalls to avoid. The advice should also be useful for those working on their thesis or first book.

Ken Wissoker is the Editorial Director of Duke University Press, acquiring books in anthropology, cultural studies, and literary theory; globalization and post-colonial theory; Asian, African, and American studies; music, film and television; race, gender and sexuality, and other areas in the humanities, social sciences, media, and the arts. He moved to Durham to join the Press as an Acquisitions Editor in 1991; became Editor-in-Chief in 1997, before being named Editorial Director in 2005.

Among the authors whose books he has published are Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Jane Gallop, Charles Taylor, Lisa Lowe, Lauren Berlant, Judith Halberstam, Brian Massumi, Ann Stoler, Aihwa Ong, Rey Chow and Arjun Appadurai. He is especially proud of the number of first book prizes that have gone to Duke University Press authors — a sign that the Press continues to have its pulse not simply on current scholarship, but on the most promising new intellectual developments.