Awards

2019 Call for Submissions

The following call for submissions pertains to:

In November 2019, QWF will award prizes of $3000 each to honour excellence in the categories of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and first book (see separate Calls for Submissions for Translation and Children’s/Young Adult Prizes). A first book may also be submitted for the fiction, non-fiction or poetry prize.

Publishers or authors with eligible titles (see eligibility criteria below) must submit 5 copies of the book (exception: for a first book, if it is to be considered in two categories, we require 8 copies).

For a book published only electronically, we require 4 printed copies and one electronic copy in PDF or EPUB format.

It is the responsibility of the publisher (or author) who is submitting the books, whether electronic or hard copies, to ensure that the submission has been received.

Each submission must be accompanied by a completed entry form (two, if the book is submitted in two categories), and a $25 non-refundable registration fee for each submission (i.e., $50 for a book entered in two categories).

Eligibility criteria

  1. Books must have an ISBN, be commercially available to the public, and contain at least 48 pages of text, excluding illustrations, acknowledgments, etc. (Exception for “graphic novels”: the illustrations will be considered an integral part of the work, and therefore the work as a whole, not the textual component alone, must have at least 48 pages.)
  2. Electronic books are eligible provided that they become commercially available in their final form during the eligibility period, and that they meet all of the other criteria listed here.
  3. Books must have been written in English. The author must be alive and have a residence in Quebec at the time of submission. A person who has been living outside of Quebec continuously for the past five years will be considered ineligible. In the case of joint authorship (by two authors), one of the authors must satisfy all of the above requirements. Books by more than two authors are not eligible.
  4. The prize will be awarded to the author of the book. Should a co-authored book win, the prize will be divided equally between the two authors, or, if one of the authors is deceased, between the living author and the deceased author’s estate.
  5. The term “graphic novel” includes works of fiction and non-fiction. Such works are eligible as long as there is a significant textual component. The illustrator is eligible for half the prize money if said illustrator is named on the title page of the book and/or otherwise given credit equal to the writer’s.
  6. Selections and collections of poetry, short stories or essays are eligible as long as they contain at least 48 pages of new text and those new pages constitute at least 51% of the entire book. “New” text includes individual pieces – i.e., stories, poems, or essays – previously published in magazines or journals.
  7. A book may be submitted to the QWF Awards only once.
  8. Rewritten, expanded or otherwise altered books (traditional publication or print-on-demand) may be considered eligible only if deemed a new book by QWF.
  9. Anthologies, reprints and previously published books are not eligible.
  10. Also excluded are translations, plays and children’s books (see separate calls for submissions), non-literary works such as: textbooks or books designed primarily for the education market; tertiary material such as indexes, bibliographies, etc.; catalogues; professional reference books; travel guides; instruction or self-help books, manuals, including books that describe how-to techniques, skills or games; cookbooks; calendars, agendas and colouring books.

QWF reserves the right to make the final decision regarding the eligibility of any book.

Submission deadlines

  • Books published between August 1, 2018 and September 30, 2019 may be submitted, provided that they were not submitted for the 2018 Awards.
  • Books published between August 1, 2018 and May 15, 2019 must be submitted for the June 1, 2019 deadline, along with a completed submission form and a $25 non-refundable fee for each submission.
  • Publishers or authors with titles coming out between May 16, 2019 and September 30, 2019 must send in a completed submission form and submission fee by the June 1, 2019 deadline. Completed books, ARCs or bound galleys must be received in the QWF office by August 1, 2019. The final published books must be received by September 30, 2019, or the title will be disqualified.
  • Electronic submissions must be received at admin@qwf.org by the appropriate deadline date.
  • Mixed-genre books: A single copy (or manuscript) must be submitted by May 15, 2019 to allow QWF to determine whether the book is eligible and in which category it should be submitted.
  • Books published between August 1, 2019 and September 30, 2019 may instead be submitted for the 2020 prizes.

Submission forms

Books may be submitted by publishers or authors.

The books, accompanied by the entry form(s) and a $25 registration fee per submission, should be sent to:

Quebec Writers’ Federation Awards
1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount, QC H3Z 1X4

Please make cheque payable to QWF.

Please contact us for further information.