AWP Award Series
See the 2011 Winners & Finalists!
The 2011 Award Series contest has closed.
Results will be mailed in September. -->2011 results were mailed in September.
2012 entries will be accepted starting January 1, 2012.Manuscript Format Guidelines | Eligibility Requirements | Entry Requirements
Terms | Deadline | 2012 Final Judges & Participating Presses
Award Series Guidelines, 2012 (PDF-496KB)
Award Series Entry Form (doc) OR Award Series Entry Form (rtf)
DEADLINE: Entries must be postmarked between Jan. 1 and Feb. 29, 2012
The Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) is a nonprofit organization of writers, teachers, colleges, and universities. AWP sponsors an annual competition for the publication of excellent new book-length works—the AWP Award Series. The competition is open to all authors writing in English regardless of nationality or residence. The Donald Hall Prize for Poetry is an award of $5,500 and publication for the best book-length manuscript of poetry. This competition is open to published and unpublished poets alike. The Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction awards the winner $5,500 and publication. Winners in the novel and creative nonfiction categories receive a $2,500 cash honorarium from AWP and publication. The Award Series conducts an evaluation process of writers, for writers, by writers. AWP hires a staff of “screeners” who are themselves writers; the screeners review manuscripts for the judges. Typically, the screeners will select ten manuscripts in each genre for each judge’s final evaluations.
Manuscripts must be typed and double-spaced on good quality paper, 8 1/2 x 11 inches. Poetry manuscripts may be single-spaced. Photocopies or copies from letter-quality printers are acceptable, but dot matrix is not acceptable. Manuscripts should not be bound or in a folder; they must be binder-clipped or rubber-banded together. Each manuscript must include:
Eligibility Requirements
- The official AWP Award Series entry form, which includes spaces for your name, manuscript title, contact information, and an agreement to the terms of the Award Series. Please download this form from our website, enter all the information, and attach it to the manuscript as the cover page.
- A title page with the manuscript title only. The entry form will be removed so that each submission can be read anonymously. If the author's name appears anywhere except the entry form, the manuscript will be disqualified. Do not send acknowledgement of previous publications or a biographical note.
Only book-length manuscripts are eligible. The Award Series defines "book-length" as: poetry-48 pages minimum text; short story collection and creative nonfiction-150-300 manuscript pages; novel-at least 60,000 words.
Poems and stories previously published in periodicals are eligible for inclusion in submissions, but manuscripts previously published in their entirety, including self-published, are not eligible. As the series is judged anonymously, no list of acknowledgements should accompany your manuscript.
The AWP Award Series is open to all authors writing original works in English for adult readers. No mixed-genre manuscripts can be accepted. Criticism and scholarly monographs are not acceptable for creative nonfiction, which the Award Series defines as factual and literary writing that has the narrative, dramatic, meditative, and lyrical elements of novels, plays, poetry, and memoirs.
To avoid conflict of interest and to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, friends and former students of a judge (former students who studied with a judge in an academic degree-conferring program or its equivalent) are ineligible to enter the competition in the genre for which their former teacher is serving as judge.
AWP makes every effort to vary the judges by region, aesthetic, and institution so that writers, if ineligible one year, will certainly be eligible other years.
If a contestant wins in any genre, he/she may not enter the competition again in the same genre for the next five consecutive years.
You may submit your manuscript to other publishers while it is under consideration by the Award Series, but you must notify AWP immediately in writing if your manuscript is accepted elsewhere. No e-mail or phone calls, please.
AWP cannot consider manuscript revisions during the course of the contest, but the winning authors will have an opportunity to revise their works before publication. Please read carefully the entry requirements and guidelines before submitting your work.
- An entry fee of $30 to nonmembers and $15 to AWP members (not Chronicle subscribers). Make your check or money order in U.S. dollars, drawn on a U.S. bank, payable to AWP. All entry fees are nonrefundable.
- An official AWP entry form, completed with the required information. See the links at the top of this page for the entry form, or send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to AWP Award Series and request the entry form.
- Include a self-addressed, stamped postcard for notification that the entry has reached AWP. Notification will include your log number for the competition. Please use this number in corresponding with AWP regarding your entry. Due to the high volume of manuscripts, we cannot acknowledge receipt by phone.
- Also include a self-addressed, stamped envelope, business size (9 1/2 x 4 inches), if you would like direct notification of contest results. Results will be mailed in September. Do not include an envelope for the return of your manuscripts. No manuscripts can be returned.
- Send one copy of each manuscript entered, prepared according to manuscript format guidelines.
- You may enter in more than one genre, and you may also enter multiple manuscripts in one genre, provided that each manuscript is accompanied by its own entry form, postcard, and entry fee.
- Your submitted manuscript must be an original work of which you are the sole author.
- Your manuscript must be submitted in accordance with the eligibility requirements, format guidelines, and entry requirements or it will be disqualified.
- No entry fees or manuscripts will be returned.
- This competition is void where prohibited or restricted by law.
- The decision of the judge is final. The judge may choose no winner if he or she finds no manuscript that, in his or her estimation, merits publication and the award.
Manuscripts must be postmarked between Jan. 1 and Feb. 29, 2012. All manuscripts and correspondence should be sent to:
AWP Award Series in (genre entered)
The Association of Writers & Writing Programs
Carty House, Mail Stop 1E3
George Mason University
Fairfax , VA 22030-4444