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Annual Book Prize

Since 2014, Permafrost Magazine has held an Annual Book Prize contest for the best manuscript (genre alternating each year). The winner of the contest receives $1000.00 and publication through the University of �ֻ�ֱ�� Press. Each year, the book prize genre alternates through poetry, fiction, and nonfiction.

The final judge will be award winning author Alison Hawthorne Deming. Permafrost editorial staff as well as select outside readers serve as the preliminary judges. Winner receives publication of their full-length manuscript and $1000. The submission period opens on April 21, 2025, and closes on October 1 at midnight, �ֻ�ֱ�� Standard Time. We plan to announce the finalists by January, and the winner by March.

Guidelines:

• Submissions should be approximately 150-300 double-spaced pages (45,000 - 90,000 words). Please note that these numbers are intended as a guide, and not a mandate. We are more interested in the quality of the work than adherence to a page or word count.
• The reading fee is $25. 
• All nonfiction sub-genres and forms are eligible.
• We only accept original manuscripts; AI-generated or AI-supported works are not accepted.
• Please do not include your name anywhere on the actual manuscript.
• Please include a brief bio in the “cover letter” section of Submittable.
• It is fine to include acknowledgements of previously published stories, novellas or novel excerpts.
• Simultaneous submissions are fine and encouraged. Please let us know immediately if the manuscript is accepted elsewhere
• Current and former �ֻ�ֱ�� and University of �ֻ�ֱ�� Press employees, current and former UAF students, and anyone who has served as an editor or reader for Permafrost whether for journal submissions or the book prize may not submit to the contest. Previous winners of the prize are also ineligible.

About the Judge

Poet, essayist, and editor Alison Hawthorne Deming, recipient of fellowships from Guggenheim Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, and the Borchard Center for Literary Arts, has published six books of poetry and five books of nonfiction. Two new books are out in 2025: the poetry collection Blue Flax & Yellow Mustard Flower (Red Hen Press) and the anthology The Gift of Animals: Poems of Love, Loss, & Connection (Storey Press). She co-edited with Lauret E. Savoy the anthology The Colors of Nature: Culture, Identity, and the Natural World. She served as Poet-in-Residence at the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens for the Language of Conservation; and the Milwaukee Public Museum and Milwaukee Public Library for Field Work, both projects sponsored by Poet’s House. Her other awards include fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, the Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University, and the Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets. She is former Agnese Nelms Haury Chair in Environment and Social Justice and former Director of the UA Poetry Center. Currently she is Regents Professor Emerita at the University of Arizona. She lives in Tucson, Arizona and Grand Manan, New Brunswick, Canada.

Most Recent Winners by Genre