Maurice Prize for Fiction of $10K Accepting Submissions
Submissions are being accepted for the 2023 Maurice Prize for Fiction, a $10,000 award for the best novel written by a UC Davis graduate who has not yet published or been accepted for publication by the contest deadline. Submissions are limited to novels; no short story collections.
The deadline for submission is Aug. 14.
The award was established in 2005 by bestselling author and Davis resident John Lescroart in honor of his father. The prize is co-sponsored by the College of Letters and Science. Literary merit will be the overriding criterion in the selection of the winning entry. Works are judged by established authors, selected annually.
In creating the prize, Lescroat said that it took winning a prestigious award early in his career to “believe I could be a writer.” He works with the winners in helping them pursue publication of their works.
How to enter
To enter, submit a manuscript as a PDF by email to tldawley@ucdavis.edu. Remove the author's name from the PDF — works will be judged anonymously. Include name, mailing address, email address and phone number in the body of the email. There is no fee to enter. The winner will be announced in October.
Past Winners
(No awards were given in 2021 and 2018 due to program hiatus.)
2022: Kirk Colvin (M.A., creative writing, '98), Bloodless Coup.
2020: Laura Marsh (B.S., animal behavior, ’85), SAV•AGE(S).
2019: Peter Shahrokh (M.A. ’75, Ph.D. ’83, English; M.B.A ’99), A Wind Will Come.
2017: Ben Hinshaw (M.A., English, ’14), Exactly What You Mean (Viking, 2022).
2016: Megan Cummins (M.A., English, ’11), Beasts.
2015: Reema Rajbanshi (M.A., English, ’07), Sugar, Smoke, Song.
2014: Kiik Araki-Kawaguchi (M.A., English, ’11), Poor as You Are, My Heart, Don’t Grieve Here in Earth.
2013: Naomi Williams (M.A., English, ’07), Landfalls (Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 2015).
2012: Cora Stryker (M.A., English, ’07), The Evolution of Flight.
2011: Maria Kuznetsova (M.A., English, ’10), The Accident.
2010: Melinda Moustakis (M.A., English, ’06), Bear Down, Bear North (University of Georgia Press, 2011).
2009: Angie Chau (M.A., English, ’05), Quiet As They Come (IG Publishing, 2010).
2008: Melanie Thorne (B.A., ’04, M.A. ’06, English), Hand Me Down (Dutton, 2012).
2007: Elizabeth Chamberlin (M.A., English, ’06; Ph.D., ecology, ’08), these people, they crawl all over the place.
2006: Shawna Yang Ryan (M.A., English, ’01), Water Ghosts (Penguin Press, 2009), originally released as Locke 1928 (El Leon Literary Arts).
2005: Spring Warren (M.A., English, ’02), The Breaks.
— Jeffrey Day, content strategist in the College of Letters and Science at UC Davis