The $6,000 Prize: Who is the Best Writer of Nonfiction on Eastern Long Island?

For the last 25 years, Dan’s Papers has showcased artists on the cover of the publication.  Now Dan’s Papers wants to similarly showcase writers.  We believe this is the first literary prize ever offered on the eastern end of Long Island for nonfiction in literature.  

Author Robert Caro, winner of two Pulitzer Prizes and the National Book Award will be the Honorary Chair of the Dan’s Papers Prize for Nonfiction.  

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Dan’s Papers is pleased to announce the first annual Dan’s Papers $6,000 Literary Prize for Nonfiction. The winner of the 2012 prize and two runners-up will be announced at an awards ceremony at the John Drew Theater of Guild Hall in East Hampton on Saturday, August 25 between 4 and 6 p.m. At that time, the winning entries will be read aloud to those in attendance. The winner will receive $5,000. The two runners-up will receive $500 each. All writers of nonfiction are welcome to compete.

An independent panel of judges will determine the winners.

There is a $20 fee to enter the competition. Here are other basic requirements.

Entries must be submitted digitally and double spaced in Microsoft Word or Word compatible format beginning March 31 and no later than July 31, 2012. Information about where to submit is at the end of this article.

The author’s name and contact information should appear at the top of the first page and any brief biographical details the author believes might be relevant to the judges.  The entries should all be prose. Contestants can enter up to three submissions.

Each work must be between 600 and 1,800 words and can be any sort of nonfiction, including autobiography, biography, account of a day, opinion, history, profile of a person or institution, memoir, essay or humor.  It may be an excerpt from an earlier work but can only be considered as an entry if permission is granted to the competition for its use.

The works must reference in some meaningful way eastern Long Island.

All works submitted will remain the property of the writer or their agents. However, writers submitting to win the Dan’s Papers $6,000 Literary Prize for Nonfiction grant Dan’s Papers the right to publish the submissions in Dan’s Papers and www.danshamptons.com, understanding that the pieces will become part of the permanent archive of Dan’s Papers and its website and affiliates and may reappear in retrospective issues and on the website’s archive and that in submitting each writer agrees to their pieces’ use in such way.

The work of deceased writers will not be eligible. Entries by anonymous writers will not be eligible. Works by employees of Dan’s Papers will not be eligible.  Works of poetry will not be eligible. All entrants must attest to the originality of the work submitted.

Dan’s Papers intends to publish the best entries in the view of the editors as submissions to Dan’s Papers and online together with an author biography and thumbnail photo as promotion for the prize. An honorarium of $50 will also be paid to each of the authors of those published.

Also, at the end of the competition, all submissions that have been selected for publication in Dan’s Papers to promote the prize, together with the winners chosen by the judges will be posted on the www.danshamptons.com site to comprise the 2012 Dan’s Papers Literary Journal.

For information about the prize and making an entry to win it, visit literaryprize.danspapers.com.