Lived Places Publishing is Seeking Practitioners, Community Activists, Consultants and Citizen-Authors

By David Parker, Founder and Publisher, and Rebecca Bush, Commissioning Editor

The path of academic study need not necessarily lead to a life of research and university teaching; this is only one expression of expertise. For many, the desired post-education destination is within the community: anything from participation in the non-profit sector and activism, to social work, or consulting. And, often, those with a high level of formal academic training will swing between the university and teaching positions and work and contribution outside the university. At Lived Places Publishing, we seek authors committed to improving curriculae and enhancing course reading materials access in their area of expertise, regardless of the career path they are on.

At Lived Places Publishing, we believe in the power of story to bring studies to life and to show students how to ground theory in human experience. Our books are course readings, easily read within a week. Our books are dyslexia-friendly, accessible, and include suggested discussion topics and learning activities. The author best-placed to write a Lived Places course reading book is the author who has the knowledge, experience, and desire to tell that story.

Lived Places Publishing publish course readings in collections led by collection editors with academic expertise and a passion for cultivating authors – it is part of their role to bring the academic rigour that is necessary for quality course materials. In authors, then, we seek experience and knowledge that can help higher-education learners explore the intersection of places (whether they are real, geographical places, or more metaphorical places) and social identities. If you look across the various collections under our imprint you will be able to spot what they all have in common; each collection is discipline-based or interdisciplinary, and explores an area of human identity, or experience of life, whether that is race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, education, indigeneity, disability, or culture. For students engaging with social identity in a higher-education course, theoretical rigor is less useful in sparking understanding and connection, than is a more student-friendly tone, delivered in a course reading that explores human subjects and human connections that lead to inspiration, passion, and real understanding.

So, this call is to you – the non-academic, the author dedicated to teaching, learning, improving the world, and with an active interest in helping to shape what future scholars and practitioners will learn. Maybe you’re a practitioner, working in the field every day; maybe you’re an activist or advocate, speaking up for a marginalised identity group; or maybe you are simply a human being with something to say about living life with a specific social identity, or complex of social identities in a specific place or context that defines your unique lived experience.

We’re the publishing experts – our collection editors and commissioning editors will help you address the necessary academic conventions and practices specific to the collection within which your book will be published. We need you to bring your expertise, your lived experience, and your passion to your writing that will bring these course readings to life for students.

To go straight to submitting a proposal, please click here: Call for Authors

If you would like to speak with one of our collection editors about the book proposal process you can find our collection editors here: Collections

If you have an idea for a collection, or if your collection does not yet have an editor, we still want to talk to you and hear your ideas, so please drop us a message here: Contact

To stay connected with Lived Places Publishing, you can subscribe to our email list, to our channel on Medium, or to our Substack list.

IMAGE CREDIT: James Wheeler, used under the Pexels Licence