Call for Submissions: WritersNL’s 2025 Newfoundland & Labrador Book Awards
(October 9, 2025) –
This year’s categories are:
- The E.J. Pratt Poetry Prize
- Non-Fiction Book Award
The NLBAs have been delayed this year due to staff turnover and will now take place on a compressed timeline. Publishers and authors must send books to WritersNL by post, courier, or in person for arrival at our offices no later than 4pm on Friday, November 28, 2025. A shortlist and winners will be announced in January. (See information below for those outside the Avalon area who are affected by the Canada Post strike action.)
The NLBAs celebrate and honour excellence in writing by authors in Canada’s easternmost province and are made possible by the generous support of sponsors and the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador.
The authors of the winning books will receive $1,500. Two runners-up will be selected in each category and will receive $500 each.
Submission Deadline:
Friday, November 28, 2025 (4:00pm NLT)
Send submissions to:
Newfoundland & Labrador Book Awards
c/o WritersNL
223 Duckworth Street, Suite 202
St. John’s, NL A1C 6N1
See below for more details on eligibility and how to submit your books.
Residency Requirement:
The awards are open only to residents of Newfoundland and Labrador. For the purposes of these awards, a resident is defined as a person who has lived in Newfoundland and Labrador for the 12 months immediately prior to the date of publication OR who has lived in Newfoundland and Labrador in any combination of 36 of the last 60 months.
The residency period for the 2025 awards is the five calendar years of 2019-2024.
Eligibility:
– Books published between January 1st, 2023, and December 31st, 2024.
– Submissions must be written either by a single author or by two authors who have contributed equally to a single-narrative project (ie. not an anthology). In the event that a co-authored book is selected for a prize, the money awarded will be divided equally between both authors.
– Either the author(s) or the publisher may enter a title.
– Books must be in English.
– Books that have been translated are eligible. However, in the case of a translated book, the award is to go exclusively to the author(s).
– Self-published books are eligible provided they are professionally produced (i.e. printed and bound by a commercial printer).
– Collected or selected works by a single author are eligible provided at least 50% of the text is previously unpublished material.
– Books that contain other media in addition to writing (e.g. photos, illustrations, CDs, graphics) are eligible; however, the work will only be judged on the written portion, and any award will only go to the written portion and author(s) thereof.
– Books containing material not written by the author (e.g. letters, diaries, memoirs, blogs, oral histories, selected writings) are eligible provided at least 50% of the text is written by the author(s) (e.g. introduction, exposition, commentary, reporting, narrative, footnotes, epilogue).
– The following are not eligible for the NL Book Awards: anthologies with more than one author: audiobooks; unpublished manuscripts; textbooks; self-help or how-to books; manuals or guidebooks on any subject (e.g. travel, nature, cooking); dictionaries; encyclopedias. Further, books produced (in any part) by AI or LLMs are not eligible.
– Revised editions will be considered when the following conditions are met:
a) The book has not been previously submitted to the Newfoundland and Labrador Book Awards; and
b) In the opinion of the Literary Awards Committee, the book contains new material to the extent that it is not merely a re-issue of a previous publication.
– Current members of WritersNL’s Literary Awards Committee are not eligible for the NL Book Awards.
– Final decisions on the eligibility of submitted entries remain with WritersNL’s Literary Awards Committee.
– WritersNL reserves the right not to present the award should there not be enough entries for competitive adjudication.
Assessment Process:
– Assessment of all eligible submissions to the NL Book Awards will be adjudicated by independent juries recruited and facilitated by WritersNL.
– A jury with appropriate literary expertise will be convened for each award.
– The independent jury for each award will submit a longlist of six books, a shortlist of three books, and a winning book from that shortlist.
– The paramount consideration is excellence in writing. Jurors should reflect on creativity, wordsmithing, and originality.
– A juror must disclose any conflict of interest. WritersNL defines conflict of interest in terms of whether a juror stands to gain any financial benefit through association with a submitted title, or if the juror stands to gain from any moral or intellectual rights, or if the juror has a significant personal relationship with the author(s) of a submitted title. If there is a conflict of interest, the juror will be asked to step aside.
– The decisions made by the NL Book Award juries are final.
Submission Procedures:
– Include four (4) non-returnable, professionally printed and bound copies of each book.
– Include a signed letter stating the category entered and confirming that all submission requirements have been met. Please also note your total word count, and page count.
– Include the non-refundable entry fee that applies to you:
• Free submission for WritersNL members paying full membership fee
• $15 submission fee per title for WritersNL members paying $25 membership fee
• $40 submission fee per title for non-WritersNL members
Submit your books to:
Newfoundland & Labrador Book Awards
c/o WritersNL
223 Duckworth Street, Suite 202
St. John’s, NL A1C 6N1
The deadline for 2025 NLBA submissions is:
4pm NLT, Friday, November 28, 2025
A WritersNL Staff Member will be in the WritersNL office at 223 Duckworth Street on:
- 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday, November 25, 2025
- 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Friday, November 28, 2025
Applicants with mobility issues are asked to put their NLBA Submissions in the trunk of their car and call the office at (709)-739-5215 upon arrival. Staff can pick up your submission from your trunk. If you are sending submissions via post, you will be notified via email when your submission is received.
Please note that the WritersNL office is not accessible. Curb-side pick-up is available by calling 709-739-5215. Please pull up outside of the building, call the number listed above, and a WritersNL representative can pick up your submissions.
PLEASE NOTE:
• Ineligible and/or incomplete submissions will not be returned, and entry fees will not be refunded.
• All books and materials submitted become the property of the WritersNL and will be used for jury members, sponsors, and promotional activities.
• Late submissions will not be accepted.
Submission Deadline: Received by 4:00pm (NLT) November 28, 2025
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