About The Florida Book Awards

Toni Morrison QuoteThe Florida Book Awards, established in 2006, is an annual awards program that recognizes, honors and celebrates the literature by Florida authors and books about Florida published in the previous year. Authors must be Florida residents, except in the Florida nonfiction, cooking, and visual arts categories, where the subject matter must focus on Florida.

The awards program is coordinated by the Florida State University Libraries, with the involvement of other library, literary, and cultural organizations, including the State Library and Archives of Florida, Florida Library Association, Florida Humanities, Florida Center for the Book, Midtown Reader, and the Word of South festival.

The call for submissions of eligible books is announced in the summer and concludes in early January. By early March, medalists will be announced in each of the 11 categories. Traditionally, awards are presented to all award winners at a banquet in Tallahassee in April.

Florida Book Award winners are promoted in a variety of ways, including participation in conference and book festival panels. Winning books and their authors are featured in the Summer issue of FORUM, the statewide magazine of the Florida Humanities. Visit the FORUM website to learn more about the authors and to buy the award-winning books. Historical interviews with The Florida Book Award winners that were featured on "The Florida Channel" are linked and archived on this website.

Florida Book Award-winning books are on permanent display in the library at the Governor's Mansion in Tallahassee, and in an exhibit case on the third floor of Florida State University's Strozier Library.