News: Academic Anthology to Focus on Tori

Jes Battis, a postdoctoral fellow at the City University of New York, is gathering submissions for an academic look at Tori and her music called “Blood Roses: The Cultural Witchcraft of Tori Amos.” Read on to find out more about the book and, if you’re game, how to approach Jes about submitting work.

“Blood Roses: The Cultural Witchcraft of Tori Amos”

With the release of her latest 2007 album, “American Doll Posse,” Tori Amos has once again produced a unique piece of aggressive counter-culture, proving that she has lost none of her subversive and critical edge since she first amazed us with “Little Earthquakes.” Inventive and hermetic with her lyrics, always political in interviews, creative and provocative in marketing her albums and tours, and passionately committed to a variety of social causes, Tori Amos remains a figure of considerable power and endurance within the fleeting world of alternative rock and roll.

Unlike Madonna, who has redefined what it means to be a global celebrity a queer icon, Tori has more subtly maintained her status as a globally successful musician, activist, poet, and sexually ambiguous performer.

This volume will include essays on any aspect of Tori’s music, performance, lyrics, politics, or history. Work that engages with her new album is especially welcome, as well as work that explores the interdisciplinary connections in her song-writing (her shared references with Neil Gaiman and the “Sandman” comics, for instance, and her interest in magic and the occult).

Publisher information will be forthcoming, but I anticipate strong
interest. Deadline: Sept 30, 2007. Please email 500-1000 word
abstracts and CVs to: jbattis_at_gmail_dot_com.