Thanks to the Susan Kamil Emerging Writers Prize administered by the Book Industry Charitable (Binc) Foundation, five aspiring writer-booksellers or creator-comic retailers will each receive $10,000 to focus on a full-length manuscript. The application period for the final year of the prize will start March 25 and run through April 22, 2026. You can learn more about eligibility.

Any writer working on a full-length manuscript, graphic novel, or comic who is currently employed at a physical book or comic store in the U.S. and has been for a minimum of three months is eligible.

The prize was established by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and bestselling author Charles Duhigg and his wife, Liz Alter, a professor of biology at California State University Monterey Bay. Kamil was executive vice president and publisher of Random House when she died in 2019. Her publishing career, spanning more than 40 years, began in the 1970s working in the children’s book division of Macmillan Publishers. Over those years she was known for recognizing new literary voices and introducing them to the public.

The following panel of judges will award the writing prizes:

Emma Aprile works as a copyeditor of literary fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for independent presses, and as a part-time bookseller at her local independent bookstore, Carmichael’s Bookstore, in Louisville, Kentucky.  

Gayle Brandeis is the author of nine books of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, most recently Drawing Breath: Essays on Writing, the Body, and Loss (Overcup Press.) She and her husband Michael opened Secret World Books in Highland Park, Illinois, in 2024.

Cal Crosby, a member of the Cherokee Nation, is an owner of The King’s English Bookshop in Salt Lake City and serves as executive director of Brain Food Books, a nonprofit providing books to under-recognized communities. He has served as a juror for the National Book Awards and the Kirkus Star Prize.

Jeanne Joesten has been a bookseller for 26 years at the first Borders Bookstore and then Literati Bookstore, both in Ann Arbor, and worked at the Borders Corporate Office in the Store Operation Department. Jeanne “retired” from Literati but still does the frontlist university press ordering.

Erika Mantz spent more than 20 years in public higher education communications and marketing after working as a daily newspaper reporter. She joined Binc in 2023 as communication coordinator and is an avid reader and advocate for bookstores and libraries.

Christie Roehl began her bookselling career at B Dalton, moving to Borders after college. She was a member of the Borders Group Foundation board as well as a long-term Binc board member. She currently works for the non-profit SME and volunteers on the Binc Program Committee.