MLA Guidelines & Details

Submission Guidelines

All submissions must be submitted (and postmarked, if mailed) between December 1, 2023 and February 1, 2024. Receipt of submissions will be acknowledged. The MWPA is not responsible for lost or damaged submissions.  All entrants will be notified of the finalists in each category via email, prior to the awards ceremony, which will be held in late May.

Book Awards & Excellence in Publishing Award
Members $25 | Nonmembers $45

Short Works Awards & Drama Award
Members $10 | Nonmembers $25

Youth Awards & Middle/High School Literary Magazine Award
Free!

How to Submit

• Please submit two copies of each book being nominated.

  • Unless you are submitting a book of Maine themed nonfiction (nonfiction, memoir, or anthology). In which case, please submit three copies of your book for consideration for the John N. Cole Award for Maine themed nonfiction.

• No email or fax submissions will be accepted.

• No submissions will be returned.

• Please mail your books and the completed form, and entry fee to:

Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance
ATTN: 2024 Maine Literary Awards
314 Forest Avenue, #313
Portland, ME 04101

• Make checks payable to “MWPA,” or you can pay the book submission fee below.

• Do not mail any submissions that require a signature.

• Postmarked from December 1, 2023 to February 1, 2024. We are not able to make any exceptions on this deadline.

• Unpublished or previously published works are accepted in the Short Works competition; excerpts from larger works may also be submitted. All unpublished short works must have been completed in 2023; all previously published short works must have been published in 2023. Please Note: a piece may not be submitted both when it is unpublished and again in the year it is published; e.g. a short work may be submitted only once.

• Please submit your manuscript via Submittable by clicking on the button below. If you do not have a Submittable account, you can create one for free.

• Manuscripts cannot exceed 20 pages for fiction and nonfiction or 5 pages for poetry (one to five poems totaling no more than five pages), and may include the entire script for drama.

• All manuscripts must meet the following formatting requirements:

  • 12-point Times, double-spaced lines (fiction and nonfiction), and one-inch margins on standard 8.5 x 11 paper;

  • poetry and drama may be submitted single-space;

  • fiction, nonfiction, and drama should include page numbers.

• The author’s name should not appear on any of the manuscript pages.

This free competition is open to young adults in Maine’s middle and high schools, and to home-schooled students at comparable age and grade levels. The awards in youth categories are generously sponsored by Maine Authors Publishing and the Maine Poetry Society.

• Please submit your manuscript via Submittable by clicking on the button below. If you do not have a Submittable account, you can create one for free.

• Manuscripts cannot exceed 20 pages for fiction and nonfiction or 5 pages for poetry (one to five poems totaling no more than five pages).

• All manuscripts must meet the following formatting requirements: 12-point font, double-spaced lines (excluding poetry), and one-inch margins on standard 8.5 x 11 paper.

• The author’s name should not appear on any of the manuscript pages.

• Multiple nominations for the Youth Competition categories will be accepted, but make sure the relevant name, work, and genre are clearly indicated in the Cover Letter part of the Submittable form.

• Teachers and Parents: if you are nominating a student, please include your name and contact information in the Cover Letter part of the Submittable form.

FAQs

The Maine Literary Awards are open to all Maine writers. Membership in the MWPA is not required to enter or win. Every year, nonmembers of the MWPA are winners or finalists in the Maine Literary Awards. In 2016, for example, there were numerous winners and finalists in the both the book awards and short works awards categories.

A few examples of non-MWPA-member winners include:
Love and Other Ways of Dying by Michael Paterniti (Nonfiction), How to Cook a Moose by Kate Christensen (Memoir), Little Arias by Kristen Case (Poetry), The Lemonade Hurricane by Licia Morelli (Children’s Literature), Historical Atlas of Maine by Stephen J. Hornsby and Richard W. Judd (Excellence in Publishing).

A few examples of non-MWPA-member finalists awards include:
Enchanted August by Brenda Bowen (Fiction), Plucked by Rebecca M. Herzig (Nonfiction), The Presumpscot Baptism of a Jewish Girl by Lizzy Lemieux (Poetry), Azalea Unschooled by Liza Kleinman (Young People’s Literature), One Maine Christmas Eve by Douglas Coffin (Children’s Literature), Full Service by David Hill (Excellence in Publishing).

The Maine Literary Awards are open to all current Maine residents (including part-time, seasonal residents who grew up in Maine and have a regular presence in the state and/or those who own a second home in the state).

• The editors (or lead editor) of books entered in the Anthology category must be Maine residents.

• Maine publishers of books by out-of-state authors may enter the Excellence in Publishing Award.

All nominations to the Book Awards, regardless of category, must have been published during the 2023 calendar year.

• Nominations to the Drama Awards and Short Works Awards may be unpublished or previously published works, as well as excerpts from larger works; previously published short works must have been published in 2023.

Yes! Authors may self-nominate, or be nominated by others.

• Nominators: if you are not the author of a book but are nominating a book, you must supply the author’s Maine mailing address, email, and phone number (nominations without this author information will not be eligible).

Yes!

• Multiple different books or manuscripts may be nominated by authors and publishers, but each individual entry must be accompanied by its own nomination form.

• For Short Works and Youth Awards, a person can enter more than one manuscript, but each manuscript submission must be made separately on Submittable.

Yes, self-published books may be entered in the relevant book-award category; there is no separate category for self-published books.

You may enter your book into ONE of the following categories

• Fiction

• Crime Fiction

  • includes noir, thriller, suspense, mystery, police procedurals, cozies, and related genres.

  • Submissions in the Crime and Speculative Fiction categories are elective; authors may nominate crime or speculative fictional works in the general Fiction category.

• Speculative Fiction

  • includes science fiction, fantasy, dystopian, horror, postapocalyptic, supernatural, and related genres.

  • Submissions in the Crime and Speculative Fiction categories are elective; authors may nominate crime or speculative fictional works in the general Fiction category.

• Nonfiction

  • Maine themed nonfiction is eligible for the John N. Cole award

• Memoir

  • Maine themed memoir is eligible for the John N. Cole award

• Poetry

• Children’s Literature

  • Illustrated books meant to either be read to young children or read by very young, new readers. *As this award is primarily for writing, the author must meet the Awards’ residency requirements in order to be eligible. 

• Young People’s Literature

  • A general term for books intended for a young audience including chapter books, middle grade novels, and young adult literature.

• Anthology

  • Defined as “a published collection of writings (such as poems or short stories) by different authors.” In some cases, anthology may also refer to a collection of various genres of writing by a single author (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, etc.) collected in a single book but selected by an editor other than the author. Collections of prose or poetry written by a single author should be submitted in their appropriate categories.

  • Maine themed anthologies with significant nonfiction are eligible for the John N. Cole award

• Excellence in Publishing

  • Open to Maine publishers of books written by both in-state and out-of-state authors. Submissions may include a wide range of books that do not fit other categories, such as photography books, cookbooks, and field guides, for example. This is the only category that considers the quality of the book as an object—design, printing, production, etc.—over the quality of the writing.

• High School Literary Magazine

  • Maine middle and high school students or teachers may submit two copies of a school literary magazine or annual collection of student writing and art published in 2023. One school literary magazine will be chosen as the winner based on the overall quality of the student writing it contains. There is no entry fee for this award.

If the book being entered is both Maine-themed and nonfiction (including nonfiction, memoir, and anthologies with significant nonfiction), please submit a third copy of the book so that it can be considered for the John N. Cole Award. This award is no longer a separate category—follow the link for more information.

No. Each individual book may only be entered into a single category—e.g. either nonfiction or memoir, but not both; either fiction or crime fiction, but not both.

All entries will be judged by a panel of professionals in the literary arts, including accomplished and award-winning authors, editors, librarians, university professors, and others. Jurors are selected for their expertise in a specific genre or in the literary arts generally. Every possible effort is made to avoid conflicts of interest during the review and award process.

Each entry to the Maine Literary Awards is reviewed separately by two judges who evaluate the entry in the following categories:

Strength of writing, which considers questions like: How well structured, grammatical, eloquent, and expressive are the sentences, lines, stanzas, paragraphs, or chapters? How does the writing convey versatility, dexterity, or mastery in the use of prose or verse? How much does the writing heighten the reading experience or accentuate the literary intent? How evocative, elegantly executed, and subject-appropriate are metaphors and figurative language?

Depth of characterization and content, which considers questions like: How complex, nuanced, and fully realized are the characters or speakers? How does the execution of the narrative or the treatment of the subject enhance the literary intentions of the work? How well researched, historically appropriate, or creatively sophisticated is the work?

Achievement of literary intent, which considers questions like: How well does the work achieve its explicit or implicit objectives? How does it seek to inform, educate, or enlighten? How well does it immerse the reader in evocative imagery, the unfolding narrative, an imagined setting, a historical period, a cultural issue, or a scientific topic?

Emotional impact, which considers questions like: How does the work provoke an emotional reaction or a feeling of sympathy or empathy with its characters or speakers? How does the work elicit a connection with or greater investment in the characters, themes, or subject matter?

Literary merit, which considers questions like: To what extent does the work show exceptional literary talent, ambition, or promise? To what extent does it represent a meaningful, important, or unique addition to Maine and American literature or our shared cultural experience?

(*Only in the category of Excellence in Publishing is the book as a physical object also taken into consideration.)

Further questions about the Maine Literary Awards may be directed to info@mainewriters.org.

The Fine Print

• If an incomplete nomination is received and time allows, the MWPA will do its best to notify the submitter and rectify the problem, however, the MWPA is not responsible for fixing incomplete nominations.

• The MWPA reserves the right to decline to give out an award in any category if the judges determine there are no entries of sufficient quality to merit an award. In such a circumstance, one-half (50%) of the entry fee will be returned to the entrants in the relevant category.

• The MWPA reserves the right to announce fewer than three finalists in any category if the judges determine there are not enough entries of sufficient quality to merit naming three finalists. In such a circumstance, no entry fees will be returned so long as a winner in the category is announced.