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.
Publishing. Both traditionally published and independently published works can be submitted.
Co-authors. Only CAL members may submit entries, but their co-authors and non-writing collaborators such as illustrators do not need to be CAL members. In the case of co-authors who are BOTH CAL members, both must enter the same book for each to receive a trophy for a winning entry.
Illustrators and Book Cover Designers who are CAL members may 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. Short Stories, Essays, or Single Poems may be entered in the same year as a Collection or entered in different years from the Collection.
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 TBA (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 jpeg 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?
AI or Ghost-Written. Works written with AI or a ghostwriter are ineligible for submission. See CAL's statement on AI.
Blog Posts. Works that have ONLY been written on 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.
Revised or Second Editions. Any work that was previously published before the entry window is ineligible.
MULTIPLE ENTRIES
Adult FICTION books may be entered in up to two GENRE categories (Mainstream/ Literary is not considered a genre category).
Adult NON-FICTION books may be entered in up to two categories as long as one of the two isn't General Nonfiction.
Cover Design may be a second or third entry for any book entry
Each category entered costs the listed amount.
SOCIAL MEDIA PROMOTION
Because we want to promote all the CAL finalists, you will be asked to submit a picture of YOURSELF holding your entry. Please hold it kind of close to your face.
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.