The competition is run by the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP), a nonprofit literary organization based in US. The AWP Award Series is an annual competition for the publication of excellent new book-length works.

The competition is open to all authors writing in English, regardless of nationality or residence, and is available to published and unpublished authors alike.

Only book-length manuscripts are eligible. The AWP Award Series defines “book-lenght” as:

• Poetry: 48 pages minimum text;
• Short story collection or creative nonfiction: 150–300 manuscript pages; and
• Novel: at least 60,000 and no more than 110,000 words.

Prizes

• 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
• 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

We are keen to encourage quality, so suggest writers to check their stories before submitting using Prowritingaid. They have free and paid versions and are the best writing software we know to help improve grammar, readability and check for repetition, ‘sticky’ sentences and suggest alternatives.