The Hazel Rowley Prize — $5,000 prize for best proposal from a first-time biographer

About this program

Biographers International Organization (BIO) administers the Hazel Rowley Prize, awarding $5,000 plus a careful agent reading, one year’s BIO membership with registration to the annual BIO conference, and publicity for the best proposal from a first-time biographer writing in English. The award is for an uncommissioned, uncontracted, unpublished (not self-published) biography; memoirs are ineligible but young-adult biographies are allowed. Eligible applicants worldwide must never have published a book-length biography, autobiography, history, or narrative nonfiction, may not be represented by an agent or have the proposal under consideration, and may submit one entry by completing an online form, paying a $25 fee, and uploading a single PDF (max 20 double-spaced pages, 12‑pt type) with synopsis, proposed table of contents, market/competing literature notes, writing sample, and résumé. Application forms become available after September 1 with a March 1 deadline; finalists are contacted by email and the winner is announced at BIO’s annual conference, and winners agree to try to market the proposal and acknowledge BIO’s support.