The best and brightest music writers join guest editor Alex Ross and series editor Daphne Carr for a marathon reading of some of the year's most important contributions to music journalism.

About Best Music Writing 2011:

Da Capo Press is pleased to announce that revered New Yorker music critic and author Alex Ross is the Guest Editor for Best Music Writing 2011. In the introduction, Ross argues that "just as we would not want to live in a world that adhered to one language, one political system, or one mode of religious belief, we would not want to live in a world that imposed a single musical taste." In recognition of the numerous genres of music available, Ross and Carr have brought in as many different worlds as possible in the latest edition of the series, emphasizing "pieces that led the reader into an unfamiliar realm or marked new paths on well-trod ground-pieces that assumed no prior knowledge, only a spark of curiosity."

Ross joins an esteemed list of previous guest editors from a variety of disciplines including Ann Powers, Greil Marcus, Nelson George, Robert Christgau, Mary Gaitskill, JT Leroy, Mickey Hart, Matt Groening, Jonathan Lethem, Nick Hornby, and Peter Guralnick. Daphne Carr will reprise her role as Series Editor for the sixth year.

In a celebration of everything from the marginal to the mainstream—Beethoven to Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson to Duke Ellington—Best Music Writing 2011 once again compiles essays, profiles, interviews, news articles, and blogs from the top writers in the industry to explore the role of music in a constantly changing cultural landscape through the eyes of those who know and love it best.

Alex Ross is a music critic for The New Yorker and the author of The Rest is Noise and Listen to This. He lives in New York City.

Daphne Carr is a music scholar and the author of Pretty Hate Machine. She lives in New York City.

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