The Susan Kamil Emerging Writers Prize provides aspiring writers with money they can use to focus on writing their manuscripts. Two writer-booksellers or creator-comic retailers will receive $12,500, which will be administered by the Book Industry Charitable (Binc) Foundation.

The prize is open to any writer working on a full-length manuscript, graphic novel, or comic who is currently working at a book store or comic shop in the US. The application period is now open and runs through April 22, 2025.

Kamil’s publishing career spanned over 40 years, beginning in the 1970s when she worked in the children’s book division of Macmillan Publishers. She was known for finding new literary voices, and by the time of her death in 2019, she was the Executive Vice President and Publisher of Random House. The prize was established by the husband and wife team of Pulitzer Prize winning reporter and author Charles Duhigg and California State University Biology Professor Liz Alter.

“Booksellers are the heart of not only our literary communities, but defenders of democracy and freedom,” Duhigg said. “I hope this scholarship helps some writer, toiling away, know that there are legions cheering for their success.”

A panel of judges will choose the winners of the prize. They include Emma Aprile (copyeditor), Chriscynethia Floyd (Vice President & Publisher of Our Daily Bread Publishing), Jonathan Hawpe (bookseller at Carmichael’s Bookstore in Louisville, KY), James Killen (Director of Retail Operations for the Manga Spot stores for Kadokawa World Entertainment), Susan Hans O’Connor (owner of Penguin Bookshop in Sewickley, PA), Jonathan Putnam (author of historical fiction), and Christie Roehl (member of the Binc Program Committee).