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Awards & Prizes
The Woody Guthrie Award  ::  Graduate Student Paper Prize

The Woody Guthrie Award
A Book Award from the US Branch of
The International Association for the Study of Popular Music

Call for Nominations:
2008 Woody Guthrie Award

The International Association for the Study of Popular Music-US Branch (IASPM-US) will again present the Woody Guthrie Award to honor the most distinguished monograph in popular music studies written in the English language. Any member of IASPM-US in good standing may nominate a book; committee members may also nominate books; and association members may nominate their own books. IASPM-US members may encourage publishers and eligible authors to suggest books for nomination, but all official nominations must be made by an IASPM-US member in good standing. Books must have been copyrighted in 2007.

The deadline for nominations is May 15, 2008. Nominations should include the author's name, book title, and publisher's information. Nominations and submissions should be sent electronically to any of the members of the award committee. The award committee will announce the winner at the Spring 2009 IASPM-US meeting.

The members of the committee for the 2008 Woody Guthrie Award are

Barbara Fox (chair)
University of Nevada at Reno

Trudy Mercadal
Florida Atlantic University

Larry Witzleben
University of Maryland at College Park

Previous winners of the Woody Guthrie Award

Award Details

Purpose: To recognize the year’s most distinguished English-language monograph in popular music studies.

Regularity: Annually.

Eligibility: Any English language monograph in popular music studies published during the prize’s competition year is eligible for the prize. (See below for a definition of “competition year.”) Edited books (books edited by one individual or group and consisting primarily of the work of other individuals or groups) and new editions of previously published works are not eligible for the prize.

Definitions: The term “competition year” refers to the year in which books that are eligible for the prize are published. The term “review year” refers to the year during which books eligible for the prize are judged. (For example, books published in 2010 will all be eligible for the 2010 Book Award. In this example, 2010 is the competition year and 2011 is the review year).

Administration: The Book Award Committee will consist of three members of IASPM-US appointed by the President of the Association. Any member in good standing of IASPM-US may nominate a book; committee members may also nominate books, and Association members may self-nominate their books. The call for nominations will go out no later than March 15, and the nomination process will conclude no later than May 15 of the review year. The Award Committee will contact publishers if their books are nominated, and publishers will have till July 1 to send copies of nominated books to the committee members. Publishers should be aware that books received after July 1 will not be eligible for the prize and that the books will not be returned. Further, publishers should be made aware that if they only send one book, or if they send the three books to the chair (rather than mailing one copy of each book directly to each committee member), then their submission will not be eligible. The committee will have until December 15 of the review year to select a winner. The winning book will be announced at the conference’s business meeting the following Spring.