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Grove Music’s 2021 spoof article contest is now open!

I think we can all agree that recent months of pandemic and political unrest have been difficult ones, and often entirely bereft of humor. I am therefore pleased to announce the revival of the Grove Music Online Spoof Article Contest 2021.

Spoof articles have had a long history with Grove Music. Grove’s particular style and format have inspired all kinds of parodies. In previous iterations of the contest, we’ve received articles on instruments (“Musical Cheesegrater” submitted by Caroline Potter won our 2016 contest), composers (our 2014 winner Joanna Wyld submitted an article on American satirical composer Lucas John Henderson, whose works included Oiseau de für Elise for voice and Bunsen burner, which was sadly, but perhaps not surprisingly, destroyed in a fire), performers (our very first contest winner Keith Clifton in 2013 wrote about soprano Stella Del Marinar, who gained late career fame writing gender-swapped opera adaptations such as Le garçon du régiment), and even notation (2016 honorable mention Daniel Melamed wrote about the a little known neume, the sphinculus).

So in the interest of continuing the tradition and in honor of Grove Music Online’s 20th anniversary on 20 January of this year, warm up your keyboards and sharpen your pencils. This year’s winner will receive a year’s subscription to Grove Music Online and $100 in OUP books. May the best parodist win!

Submission Guidelines:

  • Articles must be no longer than 300 words, including any bibliography or works lists you might choose to include. There is no minimum length. Entries that do not adhere to the length limit will be folded, spindled, and rejected.
  • Articles will be judged by a mix of staff and outside judges including Grove Music’s Editor in Chief Deane Root, Editor Anna-Lise Santella, and a guest to be named later.
  • Judges will consider the following criteria:
    1. Does the article adhere to Grove style?
    2. Is it entertaining?
    3. Could it pass for a genuine Grove article (maybe if you forgot your glasses and you were squinting at it)?
  • Submissions must be sent by email sent to editor[at]grovemusic.com as follows:
    1. Subject must read “Grove Music fake article contest-[title]” (e.g., Grove Music fake article contest-Ear flute).
    2. Body of the email must include the title of the article and your full name and contact information (street address, email, phone)
    3. The article must be included in an attached document. It must not include your name. This is to facilitate blind judging. Use your article’s title as the document name (if your article includes punctuation that can’t be in a document title, replace the punctuation with a space). You may send as many as three articles, but please send each submission separately. No more than three entries will be accepted from a single author.

All submissions must be received by 23:59 EST on 28 February 2021. Manuscripts received after that time will not be considered.

  • The winning article(s) will be announced on 1 April 2021 on the OUPblog
  • The winner will receive USD100 in OUP books and a year’s personal subscription to Grove Music Online. There is no cash alternative and the prize is not transferable.
  • We reserve the right not to award a prize if we feel the submissions do not meet our criteria.

Feature image: Sara Levine for Oxford University Press.

Recent Comments

  1. Gary Baldwin

    OK! SOMETHING FOR THE COLD SNOWING DATES OF THE WINTER!

Comments are closed.