Call for Submissions!
- Elsa Kenningham
- Mar 11, 2023
- 2 min read
Updated: Mar 4, 2024
Pictured below is the first edition of Musical Rough Guides: 16 introductions to a genre, artist or place close to each writer's heart.
After two sold-out print runs and thanks to encouragement from a handful of readers who felt inspired to create their own little guide, the time has come for a reprint!
This second edition will be revamped, redesigned and reissued under Buoy Press with an illustrator, a designer and a bigger budget and so... now open submissions for new additions to the collection.
Structure
- Pick a genre, artist, place, decade (or any other reasonable category of music) that you love and want to share
- Write an introduction
Why do you like the music? How did you discover it? Is it played in a particular context? Does it involve a certain kind of clothing, food, dancing, venue? How does it make you feel? Why is it significant?
- Create a playlist of 6-10 songs
Usually ordering them chronologically makes sense
- Write some blurb for each track
Are there particular lyrics that you like? A moment that moves you? Is there a story behind the song (either your own or the artist's)? How does it sit within the genre, was it avant-garde, influential or particularly typical in some way?
This is a suggestion, not a hard-and-fast structure. If you come up with another way you'd like to format/present that's also totally fine. For example the guide to Bob Dylan begins with an introduction, then includes a chronology of the styles he played over the course of his career before turning to the songs themselves. Also, FTR, there is (obviously) no need to be an expert to write a rough guide. Rough is the operative word when you're limited to 10 tracks and you may either wish to consider it a research project, or consider it along the lines of Desert Island Discs, where personal anecdote often makes things more digestible. This is about enthusiasm, not expertise!
Examples
How to submit
Please send your article (max. 2,000 words) and playlist to elsakenningham@yahoo.co.uk with the subject line 'Rough Guide to [x]' by Monday 1st May (extended).
If you are keen to write something but struggling please do still send an email and we can organise a Zoom, a chat or email to refine/structure your ideas. Please feel emboldened to share your love for the music! I edit all submissions so do not worry if English isn't your first language or you're not completely confident in your writing abilities. Also please pass on word of this project to others who may be interested - the more the merrier, I'd love it if we could have writing from all round the world.
The finished collection will be sold at Morocco Bound, an independent bookshop in Bermondsey.
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