Site Navigation
Literary Awards Program
Literary Awards recognize Illinois writers and promote greater awareness of non-commercial publishing in the state. The award encourages Illinois not-for-profit literary magazines to publish and disseminate new work by living Illinois writers and poets. Awards are given to both the selected writers and to the magazines (print or web-based) that published their work.
Literary Awards are given to those publications whose primary mission is to publish contemporary poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction. Creative non-fiction (CNF) is distinguished from non-fiction by its strong narrative and literary quality as found in personal essays or memoirs. CNF does not include work that is predominately analytical, scholarly, or journalistic.
Companion awards of $1,000 will be given to selected Illinois writers and to the publications that nominated their work.
- Nominations must be previously unpublished works of fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction.
- Nominated works cannot:
- Be collaborative pieces.
- Consist of interviews, reviews, or literary translations.
- Have been previously published.
- Nominations must be made by the editorial staff of the applicant magazine.
- Editorial staff may not nominate their own work.
- A maximum of ten pieces can be nominated by any one applicant.
- Nominations can include a combination of poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction pieces.
- More than one piece by the same writer can be nominated, but each piece will count toward the maximum of ten.
- The nominated work must be available for review by PDF document or via a direct link on the publication’s website.
Deadline
October 15, 2018
To access the Literary Awards Program Guidelines, follow the link:
http://arts.illinois.gov/sites/default/files/content/program-forms/FY19_...
To access the Literary Awards Application, follow the link:
https://illinoisarts.slideroom.com/#/login/program/44262/FleJUrshKa
For further information about the Literary Awards program, contact Susan Dickson, Program Director, by email: susan.dickson@illinois.gov or by phone: 312/814-6740.