Riffs – Volume 2 – Issue 1: CFP
Call for Proposals
The editorial team of Riffs: Experimental Writing on Popular Music invite 300 word / one page of A4 (visual) proposals for the next 2018 volume from PhD, MA, and outstanding undergraduate students, based on the following prompt:
“There is nothing wrong with hating rock critics” – Of Montreal, 2003
Your response should consider in some way journalistic and academic forms of writing and critiquing popular music, and the overlap between these two forms/forums. This volume will be guest edited by Laura Snapes, a music and culture writer based in London.
In their own ways and for different purposes, writers, and musicians draw upon their creative, critical, and experimental qualities. Sometimes a song, or a phrase, will leap from the imagination, perfectly formed. At other times a degree of elbow grease is required. When the two worlds meet – as they do in often through music journalism, interviews, research, and elsewhere – the relationship between writer and musicians can be fraught, or else riddled with delight, but seemingly always contains an underlying tension. In this issue of Riffs, we explore that relationship through various forms of experimental writing about popular music.
As the journal title suggests, we are interested in pieces that take an experimental approach to the consideration of popular music. For examples of pieces based on previous prompts, please visit our journal website-http://riffsjournal.org
Eight (experimental) written/visual contributions and two photo essays will be published in print, but we encourage audio, visual, and additional written contributions (from musical performances to poetry), to be included within the journal website.
Deadline for 300-word proposals: 5pm, Friday 17th November 2017
Please include your name, institution, contact email, and current level of qualification
Full submissions (of 2,000-4,000 words/ visual content to not exceed 4 A4 pages / or an audio/video file suitable for hosting on Word Press) will be invited by the 23rd November 2017 and a full contribution expected by the 12th of January 2018. All contributions published by Riffs will be considered by the whole editorial panel, and edited by two specialist editors before publication.
Please email proposals to info@riffsjournal.org
Please note: Riffs shall be entitled to first use of the contribution in all the journal’s different forms, but the author remains the copyright owner and can republish their contribution without seeking the journal’s permission. Riffs reserve the right to decline to publish contributions, if they are submitted after the agreed deadline and without the assigned editor being informed (and agreeing to) a new submission date.