Black Women in Librarianship: Voices from the African Diaspora. The updated call for submissions (below) has been extended with the new deadline of July 23, 2025

Call for Essays: Black Women in Librarianship: Voices from the African Diaspora

We are pleased to announce that Rowman & Littlefield (Bloomsbury) has approved a proposal for Black Women in Librarianship: Voices from the African Diaspora. This collection of essays will highlight the achievements and contributions of Black women in librarianship from all over the world, from any country, any nation, and any continent. The co-editors for this volume are Jahala Simuel and Michele Fenton.

We welcome submissions highlighting the achievements and contributions in the following areas. However, if there is an area not listed here that you believe deserves coverage, please feel free to submit an essay about that area: 

• Academic Libraries
• Advocacy, Outreach, and Programming
• Entrepreneurship
• Library Associations
• LIS Education
• Non-profit Organizations
• Museums, Galleries, and Archives
• Podcasting, Blogging, and Social Media
• Public Libraries
• School Libraries
• Special Libraries
• State and National Libraries
• Technology
• Writing, Editing, Publishing, and Bookselling 

Your essay can focus on one area or multiple areas. Also, the contributions to these areas can either be at the local, state, national, international level, or multiple levels. Essays can focus on librarians who are deceased or living. Authors may write about their own contributions to the library profession if they wish. Furthermore, the librarians you write about do not have to be degreed librarians. In addition, authors may submit more than one essay.

Criteria:

Essays should be between 2,500 and 3,500 words; Times New Roman, 12-point font; double-spaced; have works cited according to MLA 9^th edition; and submitted in Microsoft Word. Authors may include pictures, tables, and graphs with their chapters if desired.

Submissions should include your name, email address, cell number, and a 3-to-4-line biography.

Submission Deadline:  July 23, 2025

Email submissions to: Library1915@gmail.com

We are looking forward to your reply and submissions.

Cover Image Credit: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library. “Four portraits of Negro women: The librarian” New York Public Library Digital Collections. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47df-8dd4-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99