The biennial ASLE book and graduate student paper awards in the areas of ecocriticism and environmental creative writing recognize excellence in the field. The first awards were given at the 2007 Biennial Conference held at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The tenth biennial awards will be presented at the Authors’ and Awards Reception at our next conference, to be held at the University of Maryland from July 8-11, 2025.
Book Awards
ASLE 2025 Book Awards Call (PDF)
The Association for the Study of Literature and Environment invites submissions for its 2025 ASLE Book Awards. Both awards include a prize of $500.
The Book Awards will be presented in two categories:
- the best book-length work of scholarly ecocriticism
- the best book-length work of creative writing (any genre) with an environmental theme
Eligibility Requirements:
- Works published in 2023 or 2024 are eligible. (Books published in January 2025 will be eligible for the next cycle.)
- Works of narrative scholarship, or works that in other ways blend scholarly criticism with creative writing, can only be submitted in one category, indicated with the submission.
- Edited collections in both the scholarly and creative categories are eligible.
- The committee on scholarly ecocriticism will consider only titles in that genre; books with a
general environmental theme that do not meet that criteria will not be entered into the contest. - Works must be in English.
- Self-published books, or writing that is not book length, will not be considered.
- Nominees must be current members of ASLE or an international affiliate as of January 10, 2025. If you are unsure of your member status, log in here, or contact info@asle.org or your international affiliate membership secretary to verify.
Submission Instructions:
- Works may be submitted by either the author or publisher. Authors are advised to coordinate with their publishers to avoid multiple, or missed, submissions.
- Deadline for receipt of all submissions is January 17, 2025. This deadline is firm and NO EXCEPTIONS will be made for late entries.
- Electronic copies of the work (eBook or publisher’s PDF; password-protected and/or watermarked is fine) are encouraged if available. Otherwise, three hard copies of the nominated book should be sent to the appropriate coordinator below.
- If a hard-copy book submission makes the finalist round, we will require two more hard copies for judges.
- Submit ALL book entries via the Google forms linked below; e-copies can be uploaded via the form. If sending hard copies, use the appropriate mailing address below to complete submission.
Creative Writing Book Award:
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Ecocriticism Book Award:
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| UWB IAS – Ching-In Chen Box 358530 18115 Campus Way NE Bothell, WA 98011-8246 Contact email: chingin@uw.edu |
Eric Morel, English Department |
Graduate Student Paper Awards
2025 ASLE GRADUATE STUDENT AWARDS CALL (PDF)
The Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE) will once again honor the best work of graduate students with awards for presentations made at its 2025 conference, to be held July 8-11, 2025 at the University of Maryland, College Park.
- One awardee, and up to two honorable mention recipients, will be chosen from the submissions of eligible work.
- Both scholarly papers in ecocriticism and environmental creative writing (any genre) by a graduate student to be presented at the conference are eligible for the awards.
- Those submitting papers must be presenting at the conference, be members of ASLE or an international affiliate, and should be or have been enrolled as a graduate student at some time within seven months of the conference dates. Those presenting virtually during the July 17-18, 2025 online sessions are also eligible.
- Award includes a prize of $100 and publication in ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment; all honorable mention recipients will receive a prize of $100.
- The content that is submitted for the awards must be essentially the same content that is presented at the conference. Submissions longer than 10 double-spaced pages (works cited excluded) will not be accepted.
Papers must be submitted as an email attachment in a standard format (doc, docx, or pdf) by the deadline, May 24, 2025.
Send submissions to Sylvan Goldberg, Graduate Student Paper Award Coordinator, at aslegradawards@gmail.com.
