Celebrating 20 Years of the Florida Book Awards

Recognizing Excellence in Florida Literature

The Florida Book Awards, coordinated by Florida State University Libraries, have announced the 2025 award winners, recognizing outstanding literature by Florida authors and books that celebrate the state’s culture, history and creativity.

This year’s competition received more than 160 submissions across 11 categories. A panel of jurors honored 29 books with awards and selected two additional titles for honorable mention.

READ THE FULL ANNOUNEMENT

KEY DATES

July 31, 2025: Entries Accepted

December 12, 2025: Entries Close

February 2026: Winners Announced

April 23, 2026: 20th Anniversary Celebration, Abitz Family Dinner, Tallahassee

April 24—26, 2026: Word of South Festival

Established in 2006, the Florida Book Awards has grown to include awards in eleven categories of competition and is introducing a new Gold Medal for Poetry Chapbooks within the Poetry Category. Books may be submitted by authors, publishers, or members of the public in any of the eleven categories: Cooking, Florida Nonfiction, General Fiction, General Nonfiction, Older Children’s Literature, Poetry, Popular Fiction, Spanish Language, Visual Arts, Young Adult Literature and Young Children’s Literature.

Descriptions of these categories and instructions for submitting nominations are available at www.floridabookawards.org/enter. All books nominated must have a copyright date of 2025 and an ISBN number.

Authors must be full-time Florida residents, except in the Florida Nonfiction, Visual Arts and Cooking categories, where the subject matter must focus on Florida.