Frontlist Categories

Publication date: the previous year or early in the year of entry. For 2025, a pub date of 2024 or early 2025.

DIRECTORIES, TRAVEL GUIDES, HOW-TO’S, SELF-HELP, REFERENCE, ETC.

Nonfiction that describes, explains, informs — teaches. From overview to in-depth study. From general to niche.

The writing may be straightforward, objective, neutral: “authorless.” Or it may take on more personality, more voice. There may even be narrative features, such as stories, folded within the work. The key is the goal — comprehension of a particular subject — and the organization. By topics, not chronology. By subject matter, not lived experience.

Note:  In this program, we do best with general nonfiction. Topics can be esoteric or niche, but readers should not need highly specialized technical, scientific, or mathematical skills to make sense of the material.

BIOGRAPHY, MEMOIR, TRUE STORIES OF ANY SORT.

Nonfiction that tells a story, whether of a person, an event, a time period. Or that offers personal reflection. Or both. Narrative nonfiction can incorporate the results of investigative elements and research. That information threaded into the story will deepen and enrich it, but narrative or reflection (or both) — that is, lived experience — forms the spine, drives the material.

Narrative nonfiction is a sprawling category, encompassing the many ways there are to tell, and reflect upon, true stories. It is eclectic, elastic. Sometimes novelistic, other times essayistic. Sometimes journalistic, other times personal.

FICTION THAT DOES NOT NEATLY FIT INTO A CATEGORY.

Literary fiction can be difficult to define. There are no typical worlds, no typical plot elements that characterize it, and for that reason it can sometimes seem to be genre less — most particularly for realistic stories set in a contemporary landscape. But literary fiction can approach any topic, take on any aspect, masquerade as something else.

This fiction is more about a quality: a concern with language, a focus on character. Where genre fiction will most typically explore how characters solve problems — it’s often this solution-finding that drives the story — literary fiction, by contrast, typically cares more about tracing the intricate swirls and eddies of character-in-crisis. This is one reason literary fiction tends to be less “pacey.”

MYSTERY, THRILLER, ROMANCE, SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY, ETC.

Fiction that meets (or sometimes plays on) reader expectations for a certain recognizable category of story. Genres have one or more core features that serve as hallmarks for that genre, features that a story must incorporate to be of a particular genre. (For romance, for example, a happily-ever-after or a happily-for-now ending.)

A particular genre story can also — and to be successful ought to also — break with the more malleable conventions of the genre, surprising readers and reshaping expectations. Contemporary genre fiction often also incorporates features traditionally associated with literary fiction, such as fine language and nuanced characters.

SOMETHING OTHER THAN (OR IN BETWEEN) LITERARY AND GENRE. A VARIETY OF CATEGORIES.

For novels or short stories that do not fit neatly into either literary or genre. Books that combine or cross genres in ways that extend beyond what’s typical, often reaching wider audiences: general (aka mainstream) fiction. Books that seem to have no genre at all, that read like everyday life: contemporary fiction. Books with, as is sometimes said, “literary feel, but market appeal”: upmarket (aka book club) fiction. Books that attempt to do something apart from any sort of usual brand of storytelling, even literary: experimental (aka avant-garde) fiction.

These varieties can be difficult to pin down and the market categories certainly aren’t hard and fast. But this awards category enables fiction that’s not strictly either genre or literary to find a competitive edge. The certificates for award winners will specify the relevant category: typically general, contemporary, upmarket, or experimental fiction.

EXPRESSION IN LINES AND STANZAS.

The literary art that is most entwined with, that most accentuates, language. Its rhythm and cadence, its power, its delights. Alliteration, assonance, metaphor, and all the rest. Poetry is inseparable from the language it shapes and that shapes it.

Adult or YA works: If you have one long story told in verse, enter it instead as fiction or narrative nonfiction. By contrast, if you have a collection of poems, even if linked, then enter it as poetry.

Children’s works: If you have a children’s story in verse or a collection of poems for children, enter it as a children’s book. Here, the age group is most important.

FICTION OR NONFICTION, FOR 12 AND UNDER.

(An age category, not a genre)

Young adult books can be of nearly any genre, any subject. It’s the treatment that differs, with the focus on teens and the particular challenges they face. The category is far from homogenous: there’s a world of change from 12 to 18. Books written for the younger of this range differ markedly from those written for the older.

YA works, particularly those for older teens, can have much the same content as fiction/nonfiction for adults. There are no real content restrictions. It’s how that content is handled that makes it YA.

FICTION OR NONFICTION, FOR 12 AND UNDER.

(An age category, not a genre)

Picture books (ages 3–8), early readers (ages 5–8), middle grade literature (ages 8–12). Although these very different sorts of books all compete with one another in this combined awards category, each is judged on its merits with respect to its own age group.

Children’s books can wander over various subjects, as appropriate for the age: content, treatment, and reading level are key.

Backlist Categories

Publication date: from 2010 up through two years previous to the year of entry. For 2025, from 2010 up through 2023.

DIRECTORIES, TRAVEL GUIDES, HOW-TO’S, SELF-HELP, REFERENCE, ETC.

BIOGRAPHY, MEMOIR, TRUE STORIES OF ANY SORT.

ALL TYPES: LITERARY, GENRE, GENERAL, CONTEMPORARY, UPMARKET.