Any graduate students who presents a paper at the conference in Boston is invited to compete for the prize for the Best Graduate Student paper at the Narrative Conference. The winner will receive a copy of a Perkins Prize-winning book of his or her choice and will be encouraged to expand the winning paper for consideration by Narrative. In addition, the 2014 award winner will be eligible for $500 toward expenses to attend the 2015 conference. Submit papers electronically as attachments (Word PC-compatible files) to both of the judges, Kay Young <kayyoung@english.ucsb.edu> and Paul Wake <pfwake@gmail.com>. Papers should be sent to them by May 1, 2014. Papers must be unrevised conference presentations.

Established in 1994, the Perkins Prize honors Barbara Perkins and George Perkins, the founders of both The Journal of Narrative Technique and the Society itself.  The prize, awarded to the book making the most significant contribution to the study of narrative in a given year, consists of $1,000 plus a contribution of $500 toward expenses for the winning author to attend the Narrative Conference where the award will be presented.

The Perkins Prize is conceived as a book prize rather than an author prize. Thus all books on the topic of narrative, whether edited collections, collaboratively written books, or monographs, are eligible to compete.  If an edited collection or collaboratively written book is selected, the prize goes to the editor(s) or the collaborators.  The winner of the competition for books published in 2013 will be announced at the Vancouver MLA Convention in 2015, and the prize will be presented at the Narrative Conference in Chicago in March 2015.

To nominate books with a copyright date of 2013, please send an email with “Perkins Prize” in the subject line to the Chair of the judging committee: Emma Kafalenos <emkafale@wustl.edu>.  Publisher, third-party, and self-nominations are appropriate.  Please indicate in the email whether the publisher, the author, or the Chair of the judging committee is to be responsible for ensuring that books are sent to the judges.  Copies of books must be sent to each of the three judges.  The deadline for nominations and for receipt of books by the judges is June 1, 2014.

Books should be sent by authors or their publishers directly to each of the three members of the judging committee:

Brian McHale
Department of English
The Ohio State University
164 W. 17th Ave.
Columbus OH 43210

Marie-Laure Ryan
6207 Red Ridge Trail
Bellvue, CO 80512

Emma Kafalenos
4242 Laclede Ave, Unit #204
St. Louis, MO 63108