THE EDMUND WHITE AWARD FOR DEBUT FICTION

Established in 2006, the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction recognizes outstanding first novels or story collections by LGBTQ authors, or by authors of any age whose work contains queer themes.

Authors may have appeared in anthologies or journals before, and they may have published works of nonfiction or poetry. The book submitted for consideration must be their first book-length work of fiction. Self-published works are eligible, but only in the same year in which they were first available, via any platform: subsequent reissues by commercial publishers are thus eligible only if they appear same year as the original self-published year.

Translations into English of works originally published in another language are eligible the year the English translation first appears, anywhere in the world, but not thereafter.

A book may be submitted for both the Edmund White Award and the Ferro-Grumley Award, or for both White and the Publishing Triangle Award for Trans and Gender-Variant Literature; in either case, the entrance fee, covering both categories, is $80.

Full guidelines are below. For questions, email [email protected].

GUIDELINES

  • Deadline (for receipt of submission form): December 6, 2024 / Submission fee: $40
  • Books must be published between January 1, 2024, and December 31, 2024. A print edition must be available—titles published only in e-book format are not eligible.
  • All submissions will be done online, via our submission form. Submissions will not be accepted after 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on Friday, December 6, 2024. Contact [email protected] if you need to make other arrangements.
  • All current, dues-paying individual members of the Publishing Triangle may submit 1 book in 1 category for free. If you yourself will not be supplying the books as well, please provide a contact name at the publisher whom we may contact for the requisite number of books.
  • All current, dues-paying corporate members of the Publishing Triangle may enter up to eight (8) submissions for free. (A single book’s submission in 2 categories counts as 2 submissions.) After that, the fee is $40 per additional title.
  • All others must pay an entry fee of $40 per submission. Payment is by PayPal (which also accepts credit cards; no account required) or by check or money order sent to our mailing address.
  • Submissions from Canada or elsewhere outside the U.S.: If you are not paying via PayPal, contact [email protected] for special payment instructions, telling us how many books/categories you intend to enter.
  • Entrance fees are due with the submission form. For those paying by check or money order, you should mail it to us within 5 working days of when you submit the submission. In any case, we must receive it no later than January 10, 2025; if payment is not received by then, the book will be removed from the competition. Payments via check or money order should be mailed to The Publishing Triangle, 511 Avenue of the Americas, #D36, New York, NY 10011.
  • Questions about membership? Email [email protected].
  • For more information on the eligibility of anthologies, collections of previously published materials, and other special cases, e-mail [email protected].
  • The decisions of the coordinators and/or judges regarding eligibility are final.
  • After we have received and processed your submission form and payment, the coordinator of each individual award will email you instructions as to where books should be sent. (Do not jump the gun and mail us any books before we request them!) In many categories, some judges, but not all, may prefer to read in e-book format. (Note: The mailing of books from submitters and the receipt of books by judges are not governed by the December 6, 2024 deadline.)
  • A title submitted in two categories requires an $80 fee.
  • If you are submitting more than one book for consideration, you do not have to send separate checks (i.e., send an $80 check for 2 separate titles, etc.). Nor do you have to send in separate envelopes.

A list of the previous winners is available on our website, here.

Finalists/nominees will be notified in March 2025.

Note: Submission for a Triangle Award does not equal “nomination”: authors and publishers are requested not to use the latter term on their websites or in any promotional material.