AWP sponsors the Award Series, 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is open to all authors writing in English regardless of nationality or residence and is available to published and unpublished authors alike.
AWP seeks screeners for the Award Series. Those selected as screeners will be assigned up to one hundred submissions to review, of which they will select and rank the five best manuscripts. Based on screener feedback, a selection of these manuscripts will be passed along to that year's judge for the given genre. In exchange for their work, screeners will be paid $700 upon completion of responsibilities.
Screeners should be involved in the literary community and have demonstrated expertise in their selected genre. Please note that this application is open year-round, but we will reach out to applicants as needed. If we do not have an opening when you first apply, we may not contact you immediately but instead keep your application on file for a future session.
Small Press Publisher Award
Criteria for the AWP Small Press Publisher Award
The AWP Small Press Publisher Award is for presses or journals that have consistently demonstrated excellence in the following: quality and discernment in curatorship of published work, quality of content, quality of editing, and skill and innovation in design. Nominees will be committed to nurturing the talents of their published authors, supporting their literary communities, and actively engaging in consistent and effective public engagement and outreach.
The award includes a $2,000 honorarium and a complimentary exhibit booth, including two complimentary conference registrations, at the AWP Conference & Bookfair in the year following the recipient’s recognition. In even years, the award is given to a journal, and, in odd years, to a press.
The 2024 AWP Small Press Publisher Award will be given to a journal.
Eligibility Requirements
The AWP Small Press Publisher award will be given to a press or journal that has made significant contributions to contemporary literature.
· The nominee will be a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization.
· The nominee will have participated in at least three previous AWP bookfairs, which may include the bookfair held in the year in which they are nominated.
· The nominee will have been in operation for five years or more at the time of its nomination.
· The winner must travel to the AWP conference to receive the award.
Guidelines for Letters of Nomination
Letters of nomination should include an explanation of how the nonprofit press or literary journal fulfills the criteria above, a detailed explanation of how the nominated organization has contributed to the literary landscape, demonstrated consistent excellence in the criteria above, and demonstrated commitment to nurturing authors.
Letters should be no longer than two single-spaced pages. Letters should include the name, return address, and signature of the nominating person as well as contact information for a representative of the organization nominated who can accept the award on behalf of the organization. All nominations should be in PDF format and submitted through AWP's Submittable portal. Postal submissions will not be considered. An employee of an organization may not nominate his or her own organization for the award.
AWP's mentorship program, Writer to Writer, matches emerging writers with published authors for a three-month series of modules on topics such as craft, revision, publishing, and the writing life. Mentors volunteer their time and receive a free one-year AWP membership. Writer to Writer is free of charge to mentees.
If you have mentored with us in the past, please reach out to us directly at mentorship@awpwriter.org.
We require that each mentor have at least one published book. No formal teaching experience is required, but we do look for responses that demonstrate an understanding of the special nature of a good mentor-mentee relationship, and a willingness to be supportive, responsive, and receptive to learning from the experience. The more detailed you are in your responses to the questionnaire, the easier it will be for us to find great potential matches for you. If chosen, we will send you a small selection of applicants, from which you will choose your own mentee. We ask that you dedicate at least one hour per week to communicating with your mentee throughout the twelve-week duration of the program.
As a note: though mentor applications are open year-round, we may not reach out to you immediately, as we tend to review applications more actively as we begin to approach each new season, though we will give you plenty of advance notice if selected.
We get many wonderful applicants each season. If we think you would be a good fit for the program but we do not have a space for you immediately, then we may reach out to you for a future session.
Thank you for your interest in mentoring through Writer to Writer!
George Garrett Award for Outstanding Community Service in Literature
The award will be given to an individual who has demonstrated exceptional generosity to writers by excellent work in one or more of the following activities:
• Teaching creative writing and literature;
• Serving as a mentor, supporter, or guide to writers;
• Publishing or editing literature, especially works by emerging or neglected talents;
• Building new resources that benefit writers (reading series, presses, awards, endowments, fellowships, stipends, programs, community centers, foundations, etc.);
• Administering to programs or institutions that benefit writers or that expand audiences for contemporary authors; and
• Working generally to make North America a more supportive place for contemporary literature and its makers.
To receive the award, the recipient must be willing to travel to the annual AWP Conference & Bookfair. AWP will cover the expenses for travel, lodging, and conference registration for the winner.
Eligibility Requirements
Any living individual who meets the above criteria may be nominated for the award except for the following: members of the current AWP board or staff; family members of the AWP board or staff; and former AWP trustees or staff who served AWP within the last four years. A former trustee or employee of AWP may be nominated for the award only after at least four years have lapsed between the deadline for nominations and his or her last official day of service to AWP. Previous recipients of the award may not be nominated or considered. Self-nominations will not be considered.
Letters of Nomination
Anyone, nonmember or member of AWP, may submit a letter of nomination. The Award Committee reviews over 100 letters each year. Please prepare your letter with care.
Nomination letters should feature the following:
• An explanation of how your nominee fulfills the criteria.
• Please note where the nominee did good works, length of service, names of writers helped, or detailed descriptions of what your nominee did or built in support of writers. Please be as specific as possible.
• Your letter of nomination should be no longer than two pages, single-spaced, in a 12-point font.
• The date, your name, email address, and signature must appear on your letter.
Letters of nomination are accepted each year between September 1 and October 31, and should be uploaded via Submittable.
Duration of Active Nominations
Letters of nomination will remain in active consideration for three years, for three cycles of the process of adjudication. If you submit your letter in 2023, for instance, your letter of nomination will remain active until the end of the 2025 cycle of deliberations.
Process
Each year the AWP Board of Directors and Staff choose three individuals from AWP’s general membership to serve as judges of the nominees. This Award Committee of three judges ranks and selects the recipient of the award. AWP selects new judges each year. As is the case with other literary awards, the deliberations of the judges are confidential.
For information about the award's namesake author and for a list of past winners, please visit AWP's website.