Below is an extensive listing of grants, scholarships, and awards available to writers working in various genres as well as some for librarians and those involved in research.
AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award
The AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Awards represent the pinnacle of achievement for professional journalists in the science writing field. The awards recognize outstanding reporting for a general audience and honor individuals (rather than institutions, publishers or employers) for their coverage of the sciences, engineering and mathematics.
American Library Association Awards
Each year the American Library Association and its member units honor people and institutions through an awards program that recognizes distinguished service to librarians and librarianship.
American Library Association awards include, but are not limited to:
John Newbery Medal
Laura Ingalls Wilder Award
Theodor Seuss Geisel Award
The American Library Association’s Youth Media Awards honor outstanding contributions to children’s writing.
American Academy of Arts and Letters awards
Honors five artists, eight writers, four composers, and three architects.
American History Book Prize
Awarded by the New York Historical Society for an adult nonfiction book on American history or biography.
Academy of American Poets
Provides numerous awards for poetry in the United States.
Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence
Provides awards for fiction and nonfiction, funded by the Carnegie Corporation and awarded by the American Library Association.
The Authors’ Foundation – UK
http://www.societyofauthors.org/sites/default/files/Guidelines-Authors’%20Foundation_0.pdf
The Foundation provides grants to writers who have been commissioned by a commercial British publisher to assist them while writing their work.
Awesome Foundation
http://awesomefoundation.org/blog/about/
Monthly grants awarded to projects in the areas of technology, arts, social good, and beyond.
The Bancroft Prize
Awarded by Columbia University for authors of distinguished work in American History and Diplomacy.
Banipal Trust for Arab Literature
Awards an annual prize for a book of poetry or fiction translated from Arabic into English, published for the first time in English during the previous year.
The BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-fiction
The UK’s most prestigious nonfiction award for the best nonfiction published in the UK, from biography, travel and popular science to the arts and current affairs.
Black Caucus Literature Awards
Awards for fiction, first novel, nonfiction by African American author and outstanding contribution to publishing for unique book positively depicting African Americans.
Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry
A privately funded poetry award given under the auspices of the Library of Congress.
Bollingen Prize for Poetry at Yale
A prestigious literary honor bestowed every two years on an American poet.
Man Booker Prizes
Promotes the finest in fiction by rewarding the very best book of the year.
Arts and Letters Awards
Annual awards to writers, composers, and architects.
Brown Foundation
Awards yearly grants for full-length plays, screenplays, musicals or operas that present the gay and lesbian lifestyle in a positive manner and that are based on, or inspired by, a historic person, culture, event, or work of art.
Center for Jewish History fellowship programs
Children’s Book Awards
Children’s Book Council of Australia Awards
The Christy Awards
Honoring excellence in Christian fiction.
Commonwealth Writers Fiction Prize
Develops and promotes the best new fiction from across the British Commonwealth.
IACP Cookbook Awards
The International Association of Culinary Professionals Cookbook Awards celebrate the year’s most outstanding food and beverage publications.
Costa Book Awards
Awards for U.K. and Ireland-based authors of novel, first novel, biography, poetry, and children’s book.
Croly Award for Excellence in Journalism Covering Issues of Concern to Women
General Federation of Women’s Clubs awards prizes to journalists who best capture the courage, vision, and spirit of Jane Cunningham Croly.
Dagger Awards
Awarded by the Crime Writers Association, UK.
Edgar Awards
Prizes awarded by the Mystery Writers of America.
Eric Hoffer Awards
Awards for unpublished short prose and books.
Fellowship of Southern Writers Awards (for poetry, fiction, drama, writing about the Appalachian South, and lifetime achievement)
Clifton Fadiman Medal
An award for work of fiction by a living American author that is deserving of rediscovery and a wider readership.
Benjamin Franklin Awards
Various genres awarded for excellence in independent publishing
“First Book” Contests
George Washington Book Prize
Prize awarded for the most important new book about America’s founding era.
The Lincoln Book Prize
Prize awarded annually for the best book on Lincoln or the Civil War era.
The Frederick Douglass Book Prize
Prize awarded for the study of slavery, resistance, and abolition for an outstanding book about slavery or abolition.
The George Washington Book Prize
Awards for outstanding published works that contribute to a greater understanding of the life and career of George Washington and/or the founding era.
Giller Prize
Scotiabank’s Giller Prize is Canada’s largest literary prize awarded to the author of the best Canadian novel or short story collection published in English.
Glamour’s “My Real-Life Story Essay Contest”
The contest provides a cash award and publication in Glamour magazine.
The Glimpse Correspondents Program http://www.glimpse.org Assists writers, journalists, photographers and filmmakers who are working, living, studying or volunteering outside of their home countries for a period of at least 10 weeks.
Guggenheim Fellowships
Awards up to 220 fellowships annually to “men and women who have already demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts.”
Gumshoe Awards
Awards by Mystery Ink for best achievements in the world of crime fiction.
Dashiel Hammett Award for Literary Crime Writing
Awarded by the North American Branch of the International Association of Crime Writers.
The Haven Foundation: Supporting Freelance Artists in Need
Stephen King’s foundation provides aid to writers and artists who, through tragic events and no fault of their own, are unable to work.
Hemingway Foundation PEN Award
Award for a first work of fiction by an American author, now administered by PEN/New England.
Hillman Prizes in Journalism
This prestigious journalism award is provided by the Sidney Hillman Foundation for books that illuminate the great issues of the day.
Hodson Trust-John Carter Brown Fellowship (supports work by academics, independent scholars, writers, filmmakers, novelists, or creative and performing artists working on significant projects relating to the literature, history, culture, or art of the Americas before 1830)
Hodson-Brown Fellowship (supports work by academics, independent scholars, writers, filmmakers, novelists, or creative and performing artists working on significant projects relating to the literature, history, culture, or art of the Americas before 1830)
Hope Clark’s blog and daily listing of funds for writers
How We Pick Our Awards (National Book Critics Circle)
Hugo Awards for science fiction (presented by members of Worldcon)
Hurston/ Wright Legacy Award. The first national award presented to published writers of African descent by the national community of black writers — with prizes for the highest quality writing in the categories of fiction, debut fiction, nonfiction, poetry.
ICIJ Award for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting (cash prizes to honor transnational investigative reporting, Center for Public Integrity, ICIJ)
IABC Gold Quill Awards (global awards recognizing outstanding achievement in communication, sponsored by International Association of Business Communicators). A complex, expensive award submission process.
Idea Grants. National Association of Science Writers grants ($1,000 to $50,000)to individuals or groups for projects and programs designed to help science writers in their professional lives and/ or to benefit the field of science writing).
Ig Nobel Prizes. Administered by Improbable Research (research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK). Among award winners: The definite article: acknowledging ‘The’ in index entries, Glenda Browne’s article in The Indexer, for her paper on the many ways “the” causes problems for anyone who tries to put things into alphabetical order. Those qualified may join The Luxurious Flowing Hair Club for Scientists. See also Paul Krugman’s 24/ 7 lecture (“24 seconds of impenetrable jargon, followed by a 7-word explanation of your field”).
Independent Publisher Book Awards (“Ippy” Awards)
Indies Choice Book Awards (ICBA), chose by indie booksellers across U.S., in these categories: Best Indie Buzz Book (fiction), Best Conversation Starter (nonfiction), Best Author Discovery, Best Indie Young Adult Buzz Book (fiction), Best New Picture Book, Most Engaging Author.
Institute for Justice and Journalism (Annenberg IJJ fellowships, conferences, and reporting resoruces)
Institutes for Journalism and Natural Resources (week-long expedition-style learning programs/ fellowships for mid-career reporters and editors)
International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (€100,000), for a novel, from anywhere
International Journalists’ Network links to fellowships and awards
International Reporting Project (IRP) for journalists covering international issues (Johns Hopkins)
The International Reporting Project (IRP) fellowships (offers IRP Fellowships for U.S. journalists to cover neglected, “under-reported” health stories of global importance (on topics such as malaria, HIV/ AIDS, tuberculosis, water-related diseases, maternal and child health or new scientific research aimed at reducing the impact of global diseases)
International Writers Fellowship at Brown University awards a one-year fellowship to Brown’s Program in Literary Arts for an international writer or poet who faces personal danger and threats to their livelihood. Fellowships cover the costs of relocation and the writer’s expenses in the U.S., and provide an office on the campus of Brown University for ten months. Deeply practical in nature and intention, the International Writers Fellowships will allow persecuted writers to establish a new environment in which to pursue their work.
Ippies, the only New York area competition recognizing excellence among journalists, photographers, graphic artists, editors and publishers of the ethnic and community press, given by the New York Community Media Alliance. Different from the Ippy given by the Independent Book Publishers.
IRE fellowships and scholarships for training in investigative journalism and computer-assisted reporting (CAR)
Ironic and humorous awards (Wikipedia’s list)
Rona Jaffe Foundation Awards for writers ($25,000, for women, early in their careers),
James Beard Foundation Book Awards. It appears individuals don’t submit for this, but awards are presented for cookbooks in American Cooking, General Cooking, Baking and Dessert, Beverage, Cooking from a Professional Point of View, International, Writing and Literature, Photography, Reference and Scholarship, Single Subject. There are also awards in media and among professional chefs. You can download a list of recent winners on the website.
James Jones Fellowship for a First Novel. Annual fellowship of $10,000 for a work-in-progress of fiction (novella, or collection of closely linked stories) by a U.S. writer who has not yet published a novel
James Tait Black Memorial Prizes . Britain’s oldest literary awards. Two prizes, each of £10,000, are awarded annually by the University for the best work of fiction and the best biography written in English and published or co-published in the UK the previous year.The only awards of their kind to be presented by a university, they have an international reputation for recognizing excellence in biography and fiction.
Japan-U.S. Creative Artists Program 2012, residencies sponsored by the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission in conjunction with the National Endowment for the Arts to published U.S. poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers to live in Japan and pursue creative projects. A monthly stipend of 400,000 yen for living expenses, 100,000 yen a month as a housing supplement, and up to 100,000 yen a month for professional support services (totaling roughly $7,000 or enough to live on in Japan. Extremely competitive.
JournalismJobs.com links to awards and contests
Journalist Law School (free four-day intensive seminar at Loyola Law School)
J-Lab/ New Voices grants to seed innovative community news ventures
Kaiser Media Fellowships in Health (for journalists in all media to study health policy issues)
Kaiser Mini-Fellowships in Health ($10,000 to journalists to research and report on global health issues, especially those related to HIV/ AIDS, TB, and malaria)
Keck Futures Initiative (National Academies Communications Awards)
Kickstarter
http://www.kickstarter.com/help/faq
Focused on creative ideas and ambitious endeavors by artists, filmmakers, musicians, designers, writers, athletes, adventurers, illustrators, explorers, curators, promoters, and performers.
Kiplinger Program in Public Affairs Journalism. Fellowships give mid-career journalists the time and training they need to learn to produce multimedia projects.
Kiplinger Fellowship (digital media training at Ohio State University)
Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Journalism Awards
Kiriyama Prize for outstanding books about the Pacific Rim and South Asia
Knight-Batten Awards for Innovations in Journalism (J-Lab)
Knight-Bagehot Fellowship in Economics and Business Journalism (an academic year at Columbia University for journalists)
Knight Community Information Challenge (grants to fill community information voids)
Knight Digital Media Center week-long boot camps in Multimedia Skills for traditional journalists at the Graduate School of Journalism at University of California Berkeley.
Knight Digital Media Center (several training seminars in West)
Knight Fellowships for Professional Journalists ($60,000 and a year at Stanford)
Knight Foundation grants to transform communities and journalism (John S. and James L. Knight)
Knight International Fellowships
Knight Science Journalism Fellowships for self-motivated journalists who hope to improve their coverage of science, technology, medicine or the environment. Each year 10 to 12 journalists devise their own plan of study, auditing courses at MIT and Harvard, attending lectures and colloquia, and interviewing faculty members. Fellows receive a stipend of $65,000 plus tuition and benefits.
Knight-Wallace Fellowships at the University of Michigan (for experienced full-time journalists–several general and specialized fellowships available)
Kyoto Prize Journalism Fellowship. Point Loma Nazarene University (PLNU) awards spring and fall fellowships to working journalists who want to advance their knowledge in technology, sciences, and the arts. Fellows interview the latest Kyoto Prize laureates and interact with top journalism students at Point Loma Nazarene University.
Lambda Literary Awards, awarded to the finest lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans literature available in the United States. The “Lammy” is the most prestigious, competitive, and comprehensive literary award offered specifically to LGBT authors.
Lannan Literary Foundation, a private family foundation dedicated to promoting cultural freedom, diversity, and creativity, supports lucrative literary awards and fellowships and
literary grants (supporting publishers and distributors, literary journals, residency programs, educational programs, and literary centers).
Gilder Lehrman Institute of History (short-term fellowships for post-doc research in New York City)
Gilder Lehrman National Book Prizes. The Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and George Washington Book Prizes for outstanding books in American History are among the most prestigious awards for history writing in the United States:
• The Lincoln Book Prize ($50,000, awarded annually, in partnership with Gettysburg College) for the best book (the finest scholarly work in English) on Lincoln or the Civil War era. When submissions carry similar merit, preference is shown for work on Abraham Lincoln or the common soldier, or work that reaches a broad literate public.
• The Frederick Douglass Book Prize ($25,000 awarded annually, in partnership with the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University) for an outstanding book about slavery or abolition.
• The George Washington Book Prize ($50,000 awarded annually, in partnership with Washington College and Mount Vernon) for outstanding published works that contribute to a greater understanding of the life and career of George Washington and/ or the founding era.
Leon Levy Biography Fellowships ($60,000 stipend). Fellows must participate in monthly seminars and other programs at the Leon Levy Center for Biography at The Graduate Center, CUNY. There are also Biography Dissertation Fellowships for PhD candidates.
Library of Virginia Literary Awards. Prizes of $3,500 each to Virginia authors of poetry, fiction, nonfiction (and, in the case of nonfiction, by any author about a Virginia subject), and for literary lifetime achievement.
Lilly Scholarships in Religion for Journalists
Literary Awards (CLMP’s list)
Livingston Awards (for young journalists)
Lettre Ulysses Award for the Art of Reportage (perhaps inactive?)
Lilly Scholarships in Religion for Jouralists ($5,000 to study religion)
Locus Guide to Science Fiction Awards (1971-2009)
Logan Science Journalism Program (polar hands-on science at Toolik Field Station, Alaska, or biomedical hands-on science at Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole)
Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography (£5,000 presented annually for a historical biography published the preceding year)
Los Angeles Times Book Prizes in several categories: Biography, Current Interest, Fiction, First Fiction (Art Seidenbaum Award), Graphic Novel, History, Mystery/ Thriller, Poetry, Science & Technology, Young Adult Literature. There is also a Robert Kirsch Award and an Innovator’s Award.
J. Anthony Lukas Prize Project, co-administered by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and the Nieman Foundation:
• The J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize (a $10,000 award) recognizes superb examples of nonfiction writing that exemplify literary grace, a commitment to serious research and social concern.
• The Mark Lynton History Prize ($10,000) is awarded to the book-length work of history, on any subject, that best combines intellectual or scholarly distinction with felicity of expression.
• The J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award ($30,000) is given annually to aid in the completion of a significant work of nonfiction.
Sponsored by the family of the late Mark Lynton, a historian and senior executive at the firm Hunter Douglas in the Netherlands.
Macavity Awards (Mystery Readers International, for best mysteries in four categories: best mystery novel, best first mystery, best mystery-related nonfiction, best mystery short story)
Major book award winners (bookawardsonline.com)
MacDowell Colony residency fellowships (for residencies year-round, on a 450-acre estate in Peterborough, New Hampshire, of up to two months for emerging and professional artists in fields of architecture, film/ video arts, interdisciplinary arts, literature, music composition, theatre, and visual arts). See answers to frequently asked questions .
Man Asian Literary Prize (annual literary award given to the best novel by an Asian writer, written in English or translated into English–$30,000 USD to writer, $5,000 to translator, if any). Long list of 10-15 titles announced in October, shortlist in January, winner in March.
The Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference is associated with various Mayborn contests and opportunities, including cash awards for the Mayborn Writing Competition for Reported Narrative, Personal Essay, and Book Manuscript. Mayborn has also introduced a Young Spurs Biography Contest to encourage young biographers.
Mayer Foundation Grants
McCloy Fellowships in Journalism (travel & stipend for U.S. journalists to explore Europe-based stories of their own design)
Medicine in the Media (NIH’s free but selective annual training opportunity to help develop journalists’ and editors’ ability to evaluate and report on medical research)
Medicine in the Media (NIH’s free but selective annual training opportunity to help develop journalists’ and editors’ ability to evaluate and report on medical research)
Medill-sponsored awards (Medill Northwestern University)
• The Medill Medal for Courage in Journalism (to the individual or team of journalists, working for a U.S.-based media outlet, who best displayed moral, ethical or physical courage in the pursuit of a story or series)
• John Bartlow Martin Award for Public Interest Magazine Journalism (honors the best public interest magazine journalism of the previous year)
• The Ida B. Wells Award (honors media executives whose actions demonstrate a commitment to a diverse newsroom or coverage of minorities in American journalism)
Mercantile Library Center for Fiction awards including the
• Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize ($10,000 for the best debut novel of the year, and $1,000 to shortlisted authors)
• Maxwell E. Perkins Award (to an editor, publisher, or agent who over the course of their career has discovered, nurtured, and championed writers of fiction)
• The Clifton Fadiman Medal ($5,000, to honor a book, by a living American author, which deserves renewed recognition and a wider readership.
• Roger Shattuck Prize for Criticism (devoted to the support and encouragement of emerging critics–two critics receive $5,000)
Metcalf Fellowships. The Metcalf Institute for Marine & Environmental Reporting offers an Annual Science Immersion Workshop for Journalists(at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography). Fellowships include
• Environmental Reporting Fellowships, diversity fellowships for early-career minority journalists (provide traditionally underrepresented racial and ethnic minority journalists with an opportunity to learn basic science, gain environmental research and reporting skills, and apply new knowledge and skills in an environmental reporting assignment)
• Metcalf-Yale Forum Fellowship for Climate Change and Business Reporting.
MetLife Foundation Journalists in Aging Fellowship (for journalists who cover issues in aging and/ or who work for ethnic media outlets). Administered by the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) and New America Media (NAM); underwritten by the MetLife Foundation (awards $100K for year two of media fellowships). Here’s a list of recent fellows.
Minonline Editorial and Design Awards (media and pr professionals showcase their best communications initiatives). I stumbled on this award through this award winner for video: My Grandma’s Tattoo (AARP Bulletin, 3 generations discover an indelible family anchor)
Montreal International Poetry Prize ($50,000 for one poem, in English). As reported by Poets&Writers, New Fifty-Thousand-Dollar Poetry Prize Has Global Ambitions (G&A, Prize Reporter, 4-4-11)
Jenny McKean Moore fellowship and workshop (a creative writing fellowship for a poet or novelist, who teaches a free community workshop for local adults, at George Washington). Explained in A Daughter Remembers Jenny Moore
NAA’s Digital Edge Awards (the Edgies)
NAGC Blue Pencil and Gold Screen Awards (for employees or contractors who have produced a communication product for a federal, military, state, regional, county, municipal, or other government entity), National Association of Government Communicators
National Academies Communication Awards. Four $20,000 cash prizes, through the Keck Futures Initiative (NAKFI), to those who best bring science, engineering, medicine, and interdisciplinary work to the public through books, newspapers, television, radio, films and online media (elsewhere on site it says “within and beyond the scientific community”). Site for nominations.
National Arts Journalism Fellowship for mid-career journalists (temporarily suspended)
National Biography Award ($20,000, awarded annually, open to Australian citizens and permanent residents who have published a work of biography or autobiography, memoir)
National Book Awards , National Book Foundation presents awards in four genres: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and young people’s literature. Winners, selected by a five-member independent judging panel for each genre, receive a $10,000 cash award and a crystal sculpture.
National Book Awards (National Book Foundation, $10,000, prestigious awards in four genres: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and young people’s literature). See winners, alphabetical by genre (also showing former categories). Winners are selected by five-member, independent judging panels for each genre.
National Book Critics Circle awards:
• National Book Critics Circle awards for fiction, biography, poetry, criticism, general nonfiction, and autobiography
• Frequently asked questions
• Past NBCC award winners and finalists (first page of two or more)
• Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing (awarded only to a member of the National Book Critics Circle)
• The Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award (seems to have no permanent website link). Named after the first president of the NBCC, the award is given annually to a person – a writer, publisher, critic, or editor, among others – who has, over time, made significant contributions to book culture. Past winners have included Dalkey Archive Press, Joyce Carol Oates, PEN American Center, Pauline Kael, Studs Terkel, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Bill Henderson, John Leonard, Louis D. Rubin Jr., Jason Epstein, William Maxwell, Leslie A. Marchand, Robert Giroux, Alfred Kazin, Elizabeth Hardwick, and the Library of America.
National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowships (fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry)
National Indie Excellence Awards (sponsored by book shepherd Ellen Reid)
National Jewish Book Awards
In the past 60 years, the Jewish Book Council has awarded over 550 authors the National Jewish Book Award or Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature. These prestigious awards recognize outstanding literature in the field and aim to encourage authors to continue to write on themes of Jewish interest.
The National Jewish Book Awards is the longest running awards program of its kind in the field of Jewish literature and is recognized as the most prestigious. The awards, presented by category, are designed to give recognition to outstanding books, to stimulate writers to further literary creativity and to encourage the reading of worthwhile titles.
The Sami Rohr Prize recognizes the unique role of contemporary writers in the transmission and examination of Jewish life today and throughout the ages. The Prize is designed to encourage and promote outstanding emerging writers who will make a significant contribution to Jewish literature. The $100,000 Prize, the largest monetary prize in the field, is presented to fiction and non-fiction writers in alternating years.
National Magazine Awards
National Mature Media Awards (for the best marketing, communications, educational materials and programs for adults 50 and older)
National Outdoor Book Awards
National Peace Essay Contest (U.S. Institute of Peace’s significant award for high school students)
National Press Foundation awards (in broadcasting, print, and online journalism, as well as editorial cartoons)
National Press Photographers Association competitions (by photojournalists, for photojournalists–for members only): Best of Photojournalism (for Photo Editing, Still Photography, Web Site, and TV News Video Photography and Editing); NPPA Solo Video Contest (for Photo Editors, TV Photographers, Solo Videojournalists, and TV Editors); Monthly News Clip Contests; and Monthly Multimedia Contest.
Nautilus Awards, for books & audiobooks for children and teens–books that promote spiritual growth, conscious living, and positive social change, that change the world or change lives; silver and gold awards for books that contribute to the fields of high-level wellness, green values, responsible leadership, as well as to the worlds of art, creativity and inspiration)
Nebula Awards for excellence in science fiction writing (Science Fiction Writers of America, SFWA). Entry guidelines here.
Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction ($1500 and publication in Colorado Review, for a short story).
NewsLab’s excellent links to journalism fellowships
New Voices grants (a 2010 J-Lab program to seed innovative community news — citizen media — ventures in the U.S.)
New York Foundation for the Arts. An extensive national directory of awards, services, and publications for artists (over 4,500 arts organizations, 3,600 award programs, 4,700 service programs, and 900 publications for individual artists). NYFA also provides grants to small and medium-size organizations in New York state. Check out Grant Opportunities on the NYFA blog.
Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scientists awards these fellowships tocreenwriters who have not earned more than $5,000 writing fictional work for film or television.
New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards (these Australian literary prizes that range in value from $5,000 to $40,000)
Nieman Fellowships (prestigious fellowships for experienced print, broadcast and online reporters, editors, photographers, producers, editorial writers and cartoonists)
Nieman Foundation Awards:
Worth Bingham Prize for Investigative Journalism ($20,000) honors investigative reporting of stories of national significance where the public interest is being ill-served. These stories may involve state, local or national government, lobbyists or the press itself
Taylor Family Award for Fairness in Newspapers (one $10,000 award and two for $1000, to encourage fairness in news coverage by America’s daily newspapers (the Taylor family published the Boston Globe).
NIHCM Foundation Health Care Research and Journalism Awards. National Institute for Healthcare Management offers $10,000 prize to winners in each category: winner for Health Care Print Journalism Article or Series from General Circulation Publications and another from Trade Publications, plus a $10,000 award for excellence in television and radio reporting on health care issues and policy.
Nobel Prizes
North American Travel Journalists Association awards, honoring the “best of the best” from travel media (writers, photographers, video journalists) and travel promotion submitted by travel journalists, travel magazines, public relations agencies and destination marketing organizations (DMOs/ CVBs)
Online journalism awards for 2011 announced (six awards come with a total of $33,000 in prize money). For 2011, entries came to the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas (University of Texas at Austin)
Open Society Fellowship supports individuals (journalists, activists, academics and practitioners) seeking innovative and unconventional approaches to fundamental challenges in an open society. See full list of Soros grants.
Orange Prize for Fiction (£30,000 prize, which celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in women’s writing from throughout the world)
Oregon Book Awards
Orwell Prize, Britain’s most prestigious prize for political writing — with prizes for the book, the journalism, and (since 2009) the blog.
Payne Awards for Ethics in Journalism. Here are past winners and nomination criteria and forms.
Peabody Awards, the world’s oldest annual honor in electronic media, especially for excellence in radio and television broadcasting. The Peabodys honor distinction and achievement in broadcast journalism, documentary film making, educational and children’s programming, and entertainment. The Peabody was first awarded in 1941 for radio programs from 1940; TV awards were added in 1948 and awards for material distributed on the Web were introduced in the 1990s. Wikipedia lists Peabody Award winners by year. Administered by the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia
Alicia Patterson Fellowship. Prestigious, highly competitive fellowship award, established to improve the quality of U.S. print journalism. Open only to U.S. citizens who are fulltime print journalists, or to non-U.S. citizens who work fulltime for U.S. print publications, either in America or abroad. One-year grants of $40,000 and six-month grants of $20,000 are awarded to working print journalists and photographers, to pursue independent projects of significant interest.
Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting (International Consortium of Investigative Journalists awards of $5000 and $1000 to honor cross-border investigative reporting)
PEN/Faulkner Foundation Award ($15,000 awarded to winner; $5,000 awarded to finalists)
http://www.penfaulkner.org/award-for-fiction/
• Honors the best published works of fiction by American citizens in a calendar year
PEN/Malamud Award ($5,000)
http://www.penfaulkner.org/pen-malamud-award/
To honor excellence in the art of the short story.
PEN American Literary Awards
Provides numerous honors and awards to writers of various genres. Included are:
PEN Emerging Voices
http://penusa.org/programs/emerging-voices
A literary fellowship program that provides new writers, who lack access, with the tools they will need to launch a professional writing career. Not open to B.A., M.F.A., and Ph.D. graduates in Creative Writing or students currently enrolled in B.A., M.A., or M.F.A. programs.
• PEN/ Nabokov Award
PEN/ Robert W. Bingham Prize
• PEN/ Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction
• PEN/ W. G. Sebald Award for a Fiction Writer in Mid-Career
• Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship
• PEN/ E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award ($10,000). To a book of literary nonfiction on the subject of the physical and biological sciences.
• PEN/ Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay ($5,000). To a book of essays that best exemplifies the dignity and esteem of the essay form.
• PEN/ ESPN Lifetime Achievement Award for Sports Writing ($5,000). To a living writer for exceptional contributions to the field of literary sports writing.
• PEN/ Steven Kroll Award Honoring the Author of an Illustrated Children’s Book ($5,000). To an American or U.S.-based writer for an exceptional story illustrated in a picture book.
• PEN Emerging Writers Awards ($1,660). To three promising writers — one fiction writer, one nonfiction writer, and one poet.
• PEN/ Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography ($5,000 to the best author of a distinguished biography published in the United States)
• PEN/ Galbraith Award for Nonfiction ($10,000) To a distinguished book of general nonfiction possessing notable literary merit and critical perspective.
• PEN Open Book Award ($5,000). To an author of color who has not received wide media coverage.
Prix Italia
A prestigious international competition, with awards for excellence in radio, TV and Web programs.
Project Report
A contest for nonprofessional, aspiring journalists to tell stories that might not otherwise be told, shown as short video journalism on YouTube, sponsored by the Pulitzer Center and Sony.
Pulitzer Prizes
The prestigious Pulitzer Prizes are awarded annually by Columbia University for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition.
Rea Award for the Short Story
Award to a living American or Canadian writer whose work has made a “significant contribution to the discipline of the short story form.”
Rebecca Caudill Young
Readers’ Book Award
Annual award given to the author of the book voted most outstanding by students in grades 4 through 8 in participating Illinois schools.
River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Prize
Awarded to a book-length manuscript of literary nonfiction.
Rita Awards
Awarded by the Romance Writers of America for outstanding published romance novels and novellas.
The Royal Literary Fund http://www.societyofauthors.org/grants The Society administers three charitable trusts, which award occasional grants to professional authors who find themselves in sudden and temporary financial difficulty.
Royal Society Book Prizes
Include the Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books and the Royal Society’s Young People’s Book Prize.
Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize
This prestigious award honors a living U.S. poet whose lifetime accomplishments warrant extraordinary recognition.
San Francisco Writers Conference Scholarships http://sfwriters.org/scholarships/ The conference offers two scholarships, The Kevin Smokler Scholarship and The Bharti Kirchner Ethnic Writing Scholarship. Please visit their website for more information.
Scripps Fellowships in Environmental Writing
Open to full-time U.S. print or broadcast journalists interested in deepening and broadening their knowledge of environmental issues.
Script Pipeline Screenwriting Competition
Awards for television and film screenwriting.
Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing
Awarded annually by Writers’ Trust of Canada to a nonfiction book that captures a political subject of interest to Canadian readers.
Sydney Taylor Book Award
The Sydney Taylor Book Award is presented annually to outstanding books for children and teens that authentically portray the Jewish experience.
Society of Children’s Book Writers & Publishers (SCBWI)
The SCBWI presents several types of annual awards: the Golden Kite Awards, the Sid Fleischman Humor Award, the Magazine Merit Awards, the Sue Alexander Most Promising New Work Award, and the Portfolio Award.
Story Prize
Established in 2004, The Story Prize annually honors the author of an outstanding collection of short fiction written in English and published in the U.S.
The U.S.A. Songwriting Competition
Since 1995, the USA Songwriting Competition®, the world’s leading international songwriting event, has been honoring songwriters, composers, bands, and recording artists everywhere.
Victoria Schuck Award
The Victoria Schuck Award is given annually for the best book published on women and politics. It carries a prize of $1,000.
The Webby Awards
The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet. Established in 1996 during the Web’s infancy, The Webbys is presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.
Wellcome Trust Book Prize
The Wellcome Trust Book Prize celebrates the best of medicine in literature by awarding £25 000 each year for the finest U.K. published fiction or non-fiction book centered around medicine.
Whiting Writers’ Awards
Since 1985, the Foundation has supported creative writing through the Whiting Writers Awards which are given annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and plays. The awards, of $50,000 each, are based on accomplishment and promise.
Willa Awards
Honors the best in literature featuring women’s or girl’s stories set in the West.
Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards
The Eisner Awards, considered the “Oscars” of the comic book industry, are given out in 28 categories for works published in the preceding year. Awards are announced during Comic-Con International.
Witter Byner Foundation for Poetry
The organization provides grants from $1K-$10K for organizations and individual poets.
Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction
The Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize was established in 2000. Named in honor of the great P. G. Wodehouse, it is the UK’s only literary award for comic writing.
Wolfson History Prizes
The Wolfson History Prizes, which were established in 1972, are awarded annually to a book published in the United Kingdom to promote and encourage standards of excellence in the writing of history for the general public.
Writers Boot Camp Fellowship
The Writers Boot Camp Fellowship is based on the philosophy of professional education and awards three $5000 full scholarships to our Online Professional Membership (OPM) every month throughout the year, including a writing/development deal to at least one Fellow each year with Writers Boot Camp Productions and/or a studio, network or independent producer.
Writers’ Trust of Canada
The Writers’ Trust of Canada presents 10 annual prizes to writers at various stages of their careers working in the categories of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and children’s literature. In total, winners receive $196,000, finalists receive $43,000, and an additional $60,150 is given to jurors.
The prizes/competitions include:
Dayne Ogilvie Prize
Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction
Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize
Writers’ Trust Engel/Findley Award
Vicky Metcalf Award for Children’s Literature
Matt Cohen Award: In Celebration of a Writing Life
Journey Prize
Writers’ Trust Distinguished Contribution Award
Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing
RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers
Writer’s Digest Writing Competitions
The magazine offers a variety of contests including their Annual Writing Competition, Self-Published Book Awards, Science Fiction Competition, YA Fiction Competition, Romance Competition, Horror Competition, Short Story Competition, among others.
Young Adult Library Service Association (YALSA)
YALSA offers more than $90,000 in grants and awards to librarians and authors who serve young adults each year including, but not limited to the following:
YALSA Conference Grant
YALSA Service to YA Achievement
YALSA Writing Award
Zoetrope: All-Story Short Fiction Contest
The contest awards a first prize of $1,000, second prize of $500, and third prize of $250 with the prizewinners and seven honorable mentions being considered for writer’s representation. Past agencies considering representation include: William Morris Endeavor, ICM, Regal Literary, the Elaine Markson Literary Agency, Inkwell Management, Sterling Lord Literistic, Aitken Alexander Associates, Barer Literary, the Gernert Company, and the Georges Borchardt Literary Agency.