Hamilton History Prize for Best Manuscript

The Award
Established in 1972, Dundurn Press evolved from a small publisher of Canadian history, politics, and biography to a leading Canadian trade publisher of Canadian non-fiction, literary fiction, drama, poetry, art books, and junior fiction and non-fiction. In October, 2010, Dundurn Press was awarded the Wilson Prize for Publishing Canadian History. Using a portion of the prize money from this award, publisher Kirk Howard has created the Hamilton History Prize for Best Manuscript in order to continue the Wilson Prize mandate of supporting high quality works in Canadian History.

The Criteria
The one-time prize recognizes and honours fine writing in the field of Canadian history, with specific focus on the city of Hamilton and/or its surrounding region. The genre of the manuscript may include, but is not limited to, essays, memoirs, biography, fiction, young-adult fiction and non-fiction, as well as traditional historical treatments. Submissions should:

1. Be full-length manuscripts of at least 48-pages of text, excluding illustrations, acknowledgements, etc., that are previously unpublished in any form, anywhere.
2. Have strong historical significance to the city of Hamilton and/or its surrounding region.
3. Be authored by a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident of Canada.
4. Show high quality in both writing and research.
5. Deadline for submissions is August 31, 2011.

Dundurn Press reserves the right to withhold the prize should the jury decide no submitted manuscript meets the aforementioned criteria. In such case, the prize will be re-opened in 2012.

The Prize
The winning author will receive $1,000.00 CAD and a publishing contract from Dundurn Press. The award will be presented by the publisher in 2011. Publication of the winning manuscript will be based on the publishing calendar of Dundurn Press, and will be announced by the publisher at a later date. Upon publication, the winning book will bear a prominent notice of the Wilson Prize, and two copies of the book will be donated to the Wilson Institute at McMaster University.

The Jury
Assessment of manuscripts will be undertaken by Kirk Howard, President and Publisher of Dundurn Press, and Michael Carroll, Associate Publisher & Editorial Director.

Submission Process

• Authors must provide two (2) copies of a full-length manuscript. Manuscripts can either be sent electronically to: historyprize@dundurn.com, or sent by mail
  to:
  Hamilton History Prize for Best Manuscript
  c/o Dundurn Press
  3 Church Street, Suite 500
  Toronto, ON M5E 1M2
• Manuscripts may be submitted by agents on behalf of their client, or the author may submit on their own behalf.

For more information, please email historyprize@dundurn.com.