[Commlist] CFP: The Works of Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne

    CFP: The Works of Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne

deadline for submissions:
March 27, 2026
full name / name of organization:
Geoffrey Lokke
contact email:
(gl2493 /at/ columbia.edu)

Geoffrey Mustafa Lokke is seeking short (3,500-word) chapters for /The 
Works of Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne/, which will be an edited 
volume dedicated to Didion and Dunne’s lives in film.

The American couple were a prolific and popular screenwriting team 
despite being much better known for their respective novels, memoirs, 
and journalism. Accordingly, the volume will take into account both 
their produced and many unproduced screenplays—the latter of which are 
held in Didion and Dunne’s papers at the New York Public Library.

(Didion and Dunne’s life in Hollywood was recently detailed in Alissa 
Wilkinson’s book/ We Tell Ourselves Stories: Joan Didion and the 
American Dream Machine/, as well as Dunne’s 1998 memoir /Monster: Living 
Off the Big Screen/.)

Most chapters in the book will consider a single film or screenplay. 
Didion and Dunne’s produced films are: /The Panic in Needle Park 
/(1971), /Play It as It Lays /(1972), /A Star Is Born /(1976), /True 
Confessions /(1981), and /Up Close & Personal /(1996). Their numerous 
unproduced screenplays and teleplays include /The Deer Park 
/(1984–1986), /The Gold Coast /(1990), /Playland/ (1987–1997), /The Big 
Clock /(1998–2002), and /The Set-Up /(2002). For a full list of NYPL’s 
holdings, which contain notes, correspondence, and typescripts 
pertaining to Didion and Dunne’s film career, please visit 
https://archives.nypl.org/mss/186276#detailed 
<https://archives.nypl.org/mss/186276#detailed>.

In addition to chapters that are dedicated to particular films, I am 
also seeking essays that will consider “how they wrote,” which may 
discuss multiple projects and draw connections from across Didion and 
Dunne’s shared and respective oeuvres. However, all chapters should 
include original analysis of the films or screenplays in question and 
will contextualize these projects within the creators’ lives and times. 
Reception studies and more theory-driven chapters, particularly those 
considering gender and sexuality, are welcome too.

If you are interested in contributing, please submit a 250-word abstract 
and a short author bio to me, Geoffrey Lokke, at (gl2493 /at/ columbia.edu) 
<mailto:(gl2493 /at/ columbia.edu)>. Contributors may be scholars or film 
professionals. Bloomsbury Academic has expressed interest in the volume, 
which would be my second collection for Bloomsbury’s Screen Storytellers 
Series. Please submit all proposals by March 27, 2026.

For more information or to propose a volume for Bloomsbury's Screen 
Storytellers series, please contact Anna Weinstein, series editor, 
(ataweinst6 /at/ kennesaw.edu) <mailto:(aweinst6 /at/ kennesaw.edu)>.


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