The GLCA New Writers Award
is now closed for the 2025 Season
Please check our website in January 2025 for the announcement of the 2025 winning writers.
GLCA Now Accepting Nominations for the 2025 New Writers Award
The GLCA invites literary submissions from publishers to its New Writers Awards (NWA) 2025 competition. For this year’s program the NWA will accept entries that bear a publication imprint of 2023 or 2024.
For the 55th year this group of thirteen independent Midwestern colleges will confer recognition on a volume of writing in each of three literary genres: poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction. Publishers submit works on behalf of their authors; a defining criterion for this award is that a work must be an author’s first published volume in the genre. Judges of the award are professors of literature and creative writing at GLCA member colleges.
Entries will now be accepted. To be considered for this year’s award, all entries must be postmarked no later than May 25, 2024.
Publishers should consult the following key resources (Complete Guidelines and FAQs) in completing a submission. Nomination materials must be submitted electronically and hard copies of books must be mailed. To nominate a book:
(1) Publisher fills out and submits Nomination Form for each book being nominated.
(2) Authors fills out and submits Author Statement of Agreement, agreeing to the terms of the award. (Nomination Form and Author Statement can and likely will be submitted separately.)
(3) Mail four copies of the books to the address below (electronic copies of books are NOT accepted)
Send books to:
GLCA New Writers Award
535 W. William St., Suite 301
Ann Arbor, MI 48103
GLCA Announces 2024 Winners of the
New Writers Award
The Great Lakes Colleges Association is pleased to announce the winners of the 2024 GLCA New Writers Award.
Now entering its 55th year, the New Writers Award confers recognition on promising writers who have published a first volume in one of the three genres: Poetry, Fiction, and Creative Non-fiction. Judges of the New Writers Award are faculty members of creative writing and literature at GLCA’s member colleges.
We extend our warmest congratulations to the 2024 Award Winners:
Poetry: Jesse Nathan, Eggtooth (Unbound Edition Press)
Judges: Christopher Bakken (Allegheny College); Derek Mong (Wabash College);
Lynn Powell (Oberlin College)
Fiction: D.K. Nnuro, What Napoleon Could Not Do (Riverhead Books)
Judges: Michael Brooks (Hope College); Onyinye Ihezukwu (Earlham College);
Ivelisse Rodriguez (DePauw University)
Creative Non-Fiction: Roger Reeves, Dark Days: Fugitive Essays (Graywolf Press)
Judges: Sarah Heidt (Kenyon College); Marin Heinritz (Kalamazoo College);
Michael Weinstein (Earlham College)
About the New Writers Award
The GLCA New Writers Award was founded in 1970 as a program to enrich the environment of literary creativity and expression for students and faculty members of GLCA member colleges. The program focuses on writers, typically in early stages of a literary career, who have published a first volume in fiction, poetry, or creative non-fiction.
Judges of the award are faculty members of creative writing and literature at GLCA’s 13 member colleges. Each year the winning writers in the three categories receive invitations to visit several GLCA colleges, where they give readings, meet with students and faculty, sign books, and often visit a creative writing class.
Full list of all New Writers Award winners from 1970 to the present
The 2023 winning writers are currently touring campuses. (See here for 2022 and 2021 winning announcements).
Publishers interested in finding out more about this award can contact Colleen Monahan Smith ([email protected]), via email (preferred) or at 734.661.2336.