The Quills Awards are open to League of Utah Writers members who have published a book in the past year

Winners announced at the
Quills Conference Awards Ceremony
August 9th, 2025

Entry Fee

$40 per entry. Each submission may be entered in one category only.

Rules and Guidelines

Submission period begins February 26, 2025 and closes April 26, 2025

Must be a member of the League of Utah Writers. Note: At contest close, submissions will be verified for member eligibility. If membership will have lapsed or will be lapsed by September 2025, the submitter will be prompted to renew their membership. If a week goes by without their membership being renewed, the submission will be denied without their entry fee being refunded.

Publishing date of the submitted work must be between May 2024 - May 2025. For traditionally published works, if an ARC is available prior to the submission deadline with a release date before July 31, 2025, the work is eligible.

All forms of publication are welcome - indie, traditional, etc - as long as it's in its final form and available to audiences.

AI Generated or Assisted Texts are not eligible.

Previous winning works are ineligible to be entered again.

2025 Categories

Novel (40k+ words)
Novella/Novelette (10k-40k words)
Middle Grade (up to 80k words)
Young Adult (40k+ words)
Collections. This category is open to editors who edited an anthology and single author collections. Authors who submitted a short to an anthology collection, please submit your short story to the Typewriters.
Graphic Novels -- minimum of 50 pages
Nonfiction (all types) (25k+ words)

A Gold Quill, Silver Quill, and Bronze Quill award are given in each category.

The Diamond Quill Award is given to the highest score among all entries.

Categories may also include Recommended Read awards in the event of close scores.

Restrictions and Judging

Multiple entries are accepted from a single author, but each book can only be entered once.

Judges are anonymous professionals from outside the League of Utah Writers.

Judges will know the author's name since it is impossible to redact names or other identifying information.

In no way does the League of Utah Writers share your personal information with any third party. Any information of such a nature is only for use in contacting the submitter or allowing Reviewr to identify your account, should you need assistance.

Award winners will be announced at the Quills Awards during the Quills Conference. Please make sure your submission via our Submission Manager provides a valid MAILING ADDRESS, along with your email address. You do not need to be present at the awards ceremony to win. If you are not present and you place in a category, we will mail you your award, but can only do so with a valid mailing address.

Submission

Entries can only be accepted electronically via Submission Manager.

If you made an account with our Submission Manager last year, you will need to make a new one this year!

Formats Accepted: PDF, DOC, DOCX

Please include your cover for marketing purposes should your piece place.

File will be deleted at the conclusion of judging.

Final Notes

Contacting a judge, editor, or agent regarding the contest (before, during, and after) will result in the contestant being disqualified from future participation in any hosted contests by The League.

Violation of the rules will result in a non-judged piece and forfeiture of entry fees.

Categories may be combined if there are insufficient entries.