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The First-Book Manuscript Prize

The Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture offers a biennial, $3,000 cash prize to an exceptional book-length scholarly manuscript pertaining to the histories and cultures of North America from circa 1450 to1820, including related developments in the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, and Africa —in short, any subject encompassing the Atlantic world in this period.  

The Prize competition is open to any author who has not previously published a scholarly book except current and past holders of Institute postdoctoral fellowships, who are ineligible. All other first-book manuscripts accepted for publication by the Institute will be considered. The Institute will award the Prize every two years. The competition now under way ends April 30, 2011.

To submit a manuscript to the Institute for publication (and thus for the First-Book Manuscript Prize), please first send a letter of inquiry with a book prospectus and current c.v. Mail al materials to the Editor of Publications, OIEAHC, P.O. Box 8781, Williamsburg, VA 23187-8781. The Institute will then invite the authors of all promising proposals to send their complete work. Submission to the Institute implies an applicant’s understanding that the Institute holds first claim to publish the manuscript. Institute titles are published in conjunction with the University of North Carolina Press.

The cash prize is awarded in addition to all royalties earned on sales of the winning book.

Rules for the Prize appear on the Institute’s website: www.wm.edu/oieahc/pub/jamestown_rules.html. Preliminary questions may be directed to the Associate Editor: mcglad@wm.edu.