Literature Awards

Each year FAW recognizes new emerging Midwestern authors or those whose novels or non-fiction writing are set in the Midwest. The Literature Awards Committee reads and reviews dozens of books submitted for the FAW Literature Award. The review and selection process starts in September with the selection of winners occurring in April, and celebrated at our May Luncheon. Books are eligible for review based on the following criteria. Send in your book and become a FAW Literary Award Winner!

• The author must be a resident (or previously have been a resident for approximately five years) of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota or Wisconsin; or the locale of the book must be in a region identified above.
• The books can be fiction or creative non-fiction.
• Self-published (vanity press) and e-Books are not eligible.
• The book must be published in the calendar year prior to the awards year. Currently we are evaluating books published during the 2024 year.
• The author must not have published more than three books under his/her own pen name, with up to and including the third book being eligible for consideration. If an author has more than one book published during the award year, we will consider all of them.
• Books nominated for the award must be submitted to the FAW Awards Committees by December 14, 2024.

No applications are necessary. Forward your submission to one of the designated Literary chairs as early as possible (Aug - Dec). Send two copies of each book along with a short biographical material regarding the author. Email FAW with further submission questions. We also give awards to YA books. The eligibility requirements are the same.

Click here for submission Address.

Click here to donate to the FAW Literature Awards.

Below is a partial listing of our award winning authors. Click here for a complete list.

2024

• A.D. NAUMAN,   Down the Steep (Regal House Publishing)
• THAO THAI,   Banyan Moon (Mariner Books)
• LAUREL J LANDIS,   Gunshots in Grudgeville and Other Stories (Ten16 Press) Honorable Mention

2023

• KIRK W JOHNSON,   The Fishermen and the Dragon: Fear, Greed, and a Fight for Justice on the Gulf Coast (Viking)
• TOYA WOLFE,   Last Summer on State Street (William Morrow)

2022

• LYNDSEY ELLIS,   Bone Broth (Hidden Timber Books)
• ANDREW GRAFF,   Raft of Stars (Harper Collins)

2021

• TIFFANY MCDANIEL,   Betty: A Novel (Knopf, August 18, 2020)
• ELIZABETH WETMORE,   Valentine: A Novel (Harper, March 31, 2020)

2020

• SETH FRIED,   The Municipalists (Penguin Books, March 19, 2019)
• ANDREW RIDKER,   The Altruists (Viking, March 5, 2019)

2019

• LING MA,   Severance (Farrar, Straus and Giroux,New York, August, 2018)
• ALICE HATCHER,   The Wonder that was Ours (Dzanc Books)

2018

• LESLEY NNEKA ARIMAH,   What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky: Stories (Riverhead Books; 1st edition April 4, 2017)
• NICKOLAS BUTLER,   The Hearts of Men (Ecco March 7, 2017)

2017

• LISA FENN,   Carry On (Harper Collins, 2016)
• NATHAN HILL,   The Nix (Alfred A. Knoph, 2016)
• MICHELLE PRETORIUS,   The Monsters Daughter (Melville House Books, 2016)

2016

• GEORGE HODGMAN,   Bettyville: A Memoir (Viking Press, 2015)
• ANDREW MALAN MILWARD,   I was A Revolutionary (Harper, 2015)
• JUDITH CLAIR MITCHELL,   A Reunion of Ghosts (Harper, 2015)

2015

• CELESTE NG,   Everything I Never Told You (Penguin Press, 2014)
• STUART ROJSTACZER,   The Mathematician's Shiva (Penguin Books, 2014)
• REBECCA ROTERT,   Last Night at the Blue Angel (William Morrow, 2014)

2014

• ABBY GENI,   The Last Animal (Counterpoint)
• ETHAN RUTHERFORD,   The Peripatetic Coffin and other Stories  (Ecco)

2013

• CHRISTOPHER HEBERT,   The Boiling Season (Harper)
• MARJORIE CELONA,   Y: A Novel (Free Press)
• NICK HEALY,   It Takes You Over (New Rivers Press)

2012

• KEVIN FENTON,   Merit Badges (New Issues Poetry & Prose)
• CHAD HARBACH,   The Art of Fielding (Little, Brown and Company)

2011

• CHRISTIE HODGEN,   Elegies for the Brokenhearted  (W. W. Norton & Company)
• HEATHER SELLERS,   You Don't Look Like Anyone I Know  (Riverhead Hardcover)

2010

• NICK REDING,   Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town (Bloomsbury USA)
• BICH MINH NGUYEN,   Short Girls: A Novel (Viking Adult)

2009

• KALISHA BUCKHANON,   Conception (St. Martin's Press)
• FRANCES DePONTES PEEBLES,   The Seamstress (Haper Collins)

2008

• THOMAS MALTMAN,   The Night Birds (Soho Press)

2007

• SARA GRUEN,   Water For Elephants (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill)
• GILLIAN FLYNN,   Sharp Objects (Shaye Areheart Books)

2006

• DEAN BAKOPOULOS,   Please Don't Come Back From the Moon  (Harcourt)
• STEVE BOGIRA,   Courtroom 302 (Knopf)

2005

• PAUL JASKUNAS,   Hidden (Free Press)
• ROBERT KURSON,   Shadow Divers (Ballantine Books)

2004

• ERIN HART,   Haunted Ground (Scribner)
• MICHAEL BYERS,   Long For This World (Houghton Mifflin)

2003

• TED KOOSER,   Local Wonders: Seasons in the Bohemian Alps (University of Nebraska Press)
• K. J. ERICKSON,   Dead Survivors (St. Minotaur Press)

2002

• JIM KOKORIS,   The Rich Part of Life (St. Martin's)
• SARAH STONICH,   These Granite Islands (Little, Brown)

2001

• J. D. DOLAN,   Phoenix (Alfred A. Knopf)
• ELIZABETH ONESS,   Articles of Faith (University of Iowa Press)

2000

• TERRI PAUL,   Glass Hearts (Academy Chicago Publishers)
• BUNNY McBRIDE,   Women of the Dawn (University of Nebraska Press)

1999

• KENT MEYERS,   The Witness of Combines (University of Minnesota Press)
• WILLIAM KENT KRUEGER,   Iron Lake (Pocket Books)

1998

• TESSA BRIDAL,   The Tree of Red Stars (Milkweed Editions)
• SHARON SKOLNICK,   Where Courage Is Like a Wild Horse (University of Nebraska Press)

1997

• DEBORAH IIDA,   Middle Son (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill)
• SHAUNA SINGH BALDWIN,   English Lessons and Other Stories (Goose Lane Editions)

1996

• DAVID HAYNES,   Somebody Else's Mama (Milkweed Editions)
• JOSIP NOVAKOVITCH,   Apricots From Chernobyl  (Graywolf)

1995

• MAXINE CLAIR,   Rattlebone (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• A. MANETTE ANSAY,   Vinegar Hill (Viking Penquin)

1994

• LARRY WATSON,   Montana 1948 (Milkweed Editions)
• SHELLEY MICKLE FRASER,   Replacing Dad (Algonquin Books)

1993

• MEG PEI,   Salaryman (Viking)
• DEBORAH EISENBERG,   Under the 82nd Airborne  (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

1992

• MICHAEL SHELDON,   Orwell (Harper Collins)
• CAROL BLY,   The Tomcat's Wife and Other Stories  (Harper Collins)

1991

• JAMES HYNES,   The Wild Colonial Boy (Atheneum)
• JAMES HICKEY,   Chrysanthemum in the Snow  (Crown)

1990

• HARRY MIDDLETON,   The Earth is Enough (Simon & Schuster)
• WILL WEAVER,   A Gravestone Made of Wheat and Other Stories (Simon & Schuster)

1989

• SUSAN DODD,   Mamaw (Viking)
• JOHN HILDEBRAND,   Reading the River: A Voyage Down the Yukon (Houghton Mifflin)

1988

• STEVE HELLER,   The Automotive History of Lucky Kellerman (Chelsea Green Publishing Company)
• MONA SIMPSON,   Anywhere But Here (Knopf)

1987

• KAREN LEE OSBOURNE,   Carlyle Simpson (Academy Chicago)
• MAXINE CHERNOFF,   Bop (Coffee House Press)

1986

• CHARLES DICKINSON,   Crows (Knopf)
• MARY MORRIS,   The Bus of Dreams (Houghton Mifflin)

1985

• JACK FULLER,   Fragments (Morrow)
• SARA PERETSKY,   Deadlock (Dial)

1984

• JOAN CHASE,   During the Reign of the Queen of Persia (Harper & Row)
• REBECCA HILL,   Blue Rise (Morrow)

1983

• WILL D. CAMPBELL,   The Glad River (Holt, Rinehart & Winston)
• JOHN MADSON,   Where the Sky Began (Houghton Mifflin)

1982

• JANE SMILEY,   At Paradise Gate (Simon & Schuster)
• BARRY HOLSTUN LOPEZ,   Winter Count (Charles Scribner's Sons)

1981

• DOUGLAS C. JONES,   Elkhorn Tavern (Holt, Rinehart & Winston)
• JOHN YOUNT,   Hardcastle (Richard Marek)

1980

• NANCY PRICE,   An Accomplished Woman (Coward, McCann & Geoghegan)
• JOHN CASEY,   Testimony and Demeanor (Knopf)

1979

• BETTE HOWLAND,   Blue in Chicago (Harper & Row)
• ROSLYN ROSEN LUND,   The Sharing (Morrow)

1978

• JON HASSLER,   Staggerford (Atheneum)
• TONI MORRISON,   Song of Solomon (Knopf)
• JONATHAN PENNER,   Going Blind (Simon & Schuster)

1977

• WILLIAM BRASHLER,   City Dogs (Harper & Row)
• JOSEPH E. FINLEY,   Missouri Blue (G. P. Putnam's Sons)
• DOUGLAS C. JONES,   The Court-Martial of George Armstrong Custer (Charles Scribner's Sons)