Apply Now for American Song Archives’ Phil Ochs Fellowship

The American Song Archives would like to welcome applications for its Phil Ochs Fellowship. The deadline to apply is October 1, 2022.

In September 2014, the only daughter of Phil Ochs, Meegan Lee Ochs, donated an extensive collection of Phil Ochs materials to the Woody Guthrie Center Archives & Special Collections, including original lyrics, handwritten travel journals and notebooks, personal belongings, photographs, and audio and film recordings. In addition, the Woody Guthrie Center was gifted the collections of Phil’s brother, Michael Ochs, and his sister, Sonny, in 2015 and 2018, respectively. Together these collections comprise more than 80 linear feet of archival materials related to the life of the folk singer and topical songwriter.

The annual Phil Ochs Fellowship is a partnership between the Woody Guthrie Center Archives and A Still Small Voice Inc.This annual opportunity awards up to $5,000 for research investigating folk music from 1930s-1980s related to Ochs and his contemporaries. This  may also include related cross-disciplinary topics covering social change in American and global politics. Fellows are required to visit the archives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, within one year of award receipt and to produce a published creative work at the culmination of their research: within a three-year time frame.

Qualifications:

• Projects must be creative, viable, realistic and publishable.
• Researchers must provide a bibliography demonstrating a thorough understanding of available secondary source materials. The archives is comprised primarily of unpublished documents meant to be viewed after the initial stage of research is completed.
• Projects must be sufficiently extensive as to require a suggested minimum of two weeks of research in the archives.

To apply, applicants must upload the following materials as PDFs:

• 1500 -2500 word project summary/proposal including: project abstract/summary, current status of the project, other funding sources (such as awarded grants), project timeline, and bibliography/works already consulted.
• Professional resumé and/or curriculum vitae
• Budget proposal: this fellowship covers costs associated with travel to the archives including: air fare, taxi and/or Uber or Lyft services, per diem (for per diem please consult the GSA calculator), and lodging.

No applications will be accepted that promote artists or musical compositions using original lyrics found in the archival collections.