AWP Award Series

The AWP Award Series is an annual competition for the publication of excellent new book-length works. The prizes are supported by the AWP Award Series Endowments. The competition is open to all authors writing in English, regardless of nationality or residence, and is available to published and unpublished authors alike.

The AWP Award Series conducts an evaluation process of writers, for writers, by writers. AWP hires a staff of screeners who are writers themselves; the screeners review manuscripts for the judges. Typically, the screeners will select ten manuscripts in each genre for the judges’ final evaluations. Entries may be submitted each year from January 1 to February 28 via our online submission portal.

Prizes

Click on the individual prize names below for submission details.

Sue William Silverman Prize for Creative Nonfiction: $2,500 and publication by the University of Georgia Press

James Alan McPherson Prize for the Novel: $5,500 and publication by the University of Nebraska Press

Donald Hall Prize for Poetry: $5,500 and publication by the University of Pittsburgh Press

Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction: $5,500 and publication by Mad Creek Books, an imprint of The Ohio State University Press