Young Children's Literature

• Children's Literature (age 0-6) includes poetry, fiction, and nonfiction books (with or without illustrations). The Gold Medal winner in this category will be awarded the "Gwen P. Reichert Gold Medal for Young Children's Literature", which provides a cash prize. This special award, established in 2014, is in memory of Gwen P. Reichert and serves as a lasting tribute to honor her accomplishments as a rare book collector, nurturer of authors and their audience, and her commitment to children's education.

Older Children's Literature

• Children's Literature (age 7-12) includes poetry, fiction, and nonfiction books (with or without illustrations).

Cooking

• A book containing recipes and/or other information about the preparation and cooking of food. Authors need not be current Florida residents; the book's content must primarily focus on Florida.

Florida Nonfiction

• Florida Nonfiction includes Florida history, biography, autobiography, or memoir. Authors need not be current Florida residents; the book's content must primarily focus on Florida.

General Fiction

• This category includes literary fiction and short story collections and has a word count requirement of at least 40,000 words.

General Nonfiction

• Nonfiction books not about Florida. All authors must be Florida residents. Books fitting this category should be written in English for a general audience (i.e., without academic jargon).
  • Submissions can be from the following broad areas:
  • "Humanities" (including philosophy, religion, language, arts, literature, rhetoric, biographies, and history)
  • "Science and Technology" (including the natural sciences, mathematics and applied sciences)
  • "Social Sciences" (including psychology, statistics, sociology, anthropology, geography, political science, economics, law, education, public administration, social services, communications, commerce, and folklore)
• Reference books, bibliographies, textbooks, or edited anthologies will not be eligible.

Poetry

• The Poetry category includes chapbooks (a pocket-sized booklet) over twenty pages; submissions must be by a single author.

Popular Fiction

• Popular Fiction includes mystery, fantasy, romance, horror, science fiction, westerns, short story collections, and adventure.

Spanish Language

• This category includes non-fiction, fiction, young adult literature, children's literature, and poetry for all ages written in the Spanish language.

Visual Arts

• This category includes books that are predominantly visual or graphical in nature. This may include books of photography, art, museum or exhibition catalogs, or coffee-table books. Artist books, of which there is only one copy, are not eligible for this category. Authors need not be current Florida residents; book contents must primarily focus on Florida.

Young Adult Literature (for ages 12-19)

• Young Adult Literature includes poetry, fiction, and nonfiction books (with or without illustrations).

Except for the Spanish Language category, all submissions must be in the English language.