Dear CAL Members: we welcome your entries for the 2027 CAL Awards!!
Submissions Open November 1, 2026, and close January 31, 2027.
The Early Bird Price of $60 for a Long Entry and $30 for a Short Entry ends Dec. 31. After that date, the price goes up to $65 and $35 respectively.
Eligibility
You must be a CAL member in good standing to submit for any award. Non-members are welcome to apply for CAL membership and then submit for award consideration.
Both traditionally published and independently published works can be submitted.
Only CAL members may submit entries as principal authors, but co-authors and non-writing collaborators such as illustrators do not have to be CAL members.
Illustrators and book cover designers who are CAL members may now enter their own illustrated books and book cover design, whether or not the author is a CAL member. Please note, if an author enters on behalf of their non-CAL member illustrator or cover designer and wins, the illustrator or book cover designer will receive the trophy, and the author will receive the cash award and a certificate.
Short works published in a larger publication such as anthologies, collections, and magazines, are acceptable.
RULES
A few things have changed this year, so before clicking on the CAL Awards link (you must be logged in to see it), please review our current submission rules below. If you have questions after reviewing the submission rules, don’t hesitate to email Ellen Busch at ebusch1500@gmail.com (Include the words CAL AWARDS in the subject line of your email.)
There is a two-year time period for published works eligibility.
Only works FIRST published from January 1, 2025, to December 31, 2026 are eligible for entry. Only works that have never been entered before are eligible. The exception to this is short works (essays, short stories, or poems) that are later included in a Poetry or Prose Collection. Revisions of a work published in a previous year are not eligible.
All books submitted must be commercially available. (This availability can be on the author's website). You must indicate on the entry form where your entry is available, including a link where applicable.
Electronic and Physical Submissions
You may submit your work electronically once you have created an account on the CAL Awards site and have been verified as a CAL member in good standing (this could take a day or even two). We highly recommend that entries be submitted electronically as PDFs for your own convenience, cost-cutting, and environmental impact, but physical copies can still be submitted, with one exception: Please upload a jpg only for Cover Design. No physical books will be shipped to judges for Cover Design. If you send a book for Cover Design, put a bow on it for the book mailer, who gets to keep it.
If sending physical copies, please include two copies per category entered to:
Jodi Bowersox
3922 Alemeda Circle
Colorado Springs CO 80918
email: jodi.bowersox@gmail.com
INCLUDE THE CATEGORY ENTERED
If your book is part of a series, take advantage of the ability to upload another pdf called "The Story So far" to give judges a quick overview.
What is ineligible for entry?
Works written entirely by AI or a ghostwriter are ineligible for submission. See CAL's statement on AI.
Works that have ONLY been published to the author's own blog are not eligible for entry. Online publication of articles, poems, short stories, and essays must have gone through a submission, review, and acceptance process. All entries must have been published by a source other than the author, illustrator, or designer's own website or blog.
You must indicate on the entry form where your entry is available, including a link, where applicable.
NEW THIS YEAR: You will be required to upload a picture of yourself with your entry at this time. Please hold it close to your face.
Multiple Entries
Adult FICTION may be entered in up to two GENRE categories (Mainstream/ Literary is not considered a genre category).
You may only enter ONE Suspense category. These all have very specific criteria, so enter accordingly.
Adult NON-FICTION BOOKS may be entered in up to two categories as long as one of the two isn't General Nonfiction.
Each category entered costs the listed amount.
Judges
As always, all judges for the CAL Awards are independent of CAL, and CAL reserves the right not to confer any award in a given year.
Judges are selected from all over. We pull in teachers, professors, writers, and librarians from across the country, taking care that any judge isn't personally acquainted with an author whose work they will be judging. We also look for people in the fields of book cover design and illustration to judge those specialized categories.