Call for Submissions

The Research Society of American Periodicals invites submissions for its 2021-2022 Book Prize. The prize is awarded to the best scholarly monograph on the subject of periodicals of the Americas published between January 1, 2021 and December 31, 2022. We understand “the Americas” as a geopolitical region to encompass more than the fifty US states and we welcome submissions with local, regional, national, international, transnational, transatlantic, and/or hemispheric archives, methodologies, and orientations. We also consider serial publications that might not reflect the conventional form of periodicals like newspapers, scholarly journals, and magazines; therefore, books about publications like zines and comics as well as digital publications may be eligible for this prize. Please note that submissions from all fields and disciplines are welcome, though at this time we are only able to consider books written in English.

The prize winner will be awarded $1000. The prizewinner and two honorable mentions will also be provided with a one-year membership to the Research Society of American Periodicals, which includes a subscription to the society’s journal, American Periodicals. The winner and two honorable mentions will be invited to participate in an RSAP Book Prize Roundtable held at the 2023 American Literature Association conference. If the conference is held in person, all roundtable participants will be reimbursed for travel expenses related to the conference (up to $1000). In order to alleviate costs as much as possible and allow for an international panel of scholars to review submissions, we ask that all monographs be submitted in electronic form. 

To apply, please email Agatha Beins at abeins @ twu.edu with the information listed below as well as an electronic version of the monograph.

• Author name, institutional affiliation, and program/department, as applicable
• Book title, publisher, and year of publication

In order to be considered, all submissions must be received by December 31, 2022, 11:59 p.m., and award recipients will be notified by the end of January 2023.

2021 RSAP Article Prize Results

We are delighted to announce the results of our 2020-2021 RSAP Article Prize competition. Congratulations to all!

RSAP Article Prize Winners

(alphabetical order)

Jordan Taylor, “Enquire of the Printer: Newspaper Advertising and the Moral Economy of the North American Slave Trade, 1704-1807,” Early American Studies

Scott Zukowski, “Subversive Editing: Rebellious Reprints in Freedom’s Journal,” Atlantic Studies

RSAP Article Prize Honorable Mentions

(alphabetical order)

Leah Budke, “The Definitive Editor: Alfred Kreymborg and the Others Magazine-Anthology Duo,” Modernist Cultures

Juan Carlos Mezo González, “Consuming the Mexican Body: Gender, Race, and the Nation in Macho Tips, 1985-1989,” Hispanic American Historical Review

Browse previous book & article prize winners.

Follow RSAP on Twitter!

We are delighted to announce the results of our 2019-2020 RSAP Book Prize competition. Congratulations to all!

RSAP Book Prize Winner

Victoria Bazin, Modernism Edited: Marianne Moore and the Dial Magazine

RSAP Book Prize Honorable Mentions

(listed in alphabetical order)

Jean Lee Cole, How the Other Half Laughs: The Comic Sensibility in American Culture, 1895-1920

Samuel Graber, Twice-Divided Nation: National Memory, Transatlantic News, and American Literature in the Civil War Era

James West, Ebony Magazine and Leroy Bennett Jr.: Popular Black History in Postwar America

Paul Williams, Dreaming the Graphic Novel: The Novelization of Comics

Browse previous book & article prize winners.

Follow RSAP on Twitter!

Winner:

Kirsten MacLeod, American Little Magazines of the Fin de Siecle: Art, Protest, and Cultural Transformation

Honorable Mentions:

Graham Thompson, Herman Melville among the Magazines

Thomas Aiello, The Grapevine of the Black South: The Scott Newspaper Syndicate in the Generation Before the Civil Rights Movement

Agatha Beins, Liberation in Print: Feminist Periodicals and Social Movement Identity

Submission Deadline: December 1, 2014

For the author of the best monograph on American periodicals published by an academic press between January 1, 2013 and December 31, 2014.

The prize will be awarded at the American Literature Association (ALA) conference in Boston, MA, May 21-24, 2015.

Books will be judged by a peer review of three scholars chosen by the RSAP Advisory Board.

Applicants should download and submit a completed registration form and THREE hard copies of their work to:

Timothy Helwig
010 Simpkins Hall
Department of English
Western Illinois University
Macomb, IL 61455

The winner and up to two honorable mentions will be notified by March 1, 2015 and will be recognized at an RSAP-sponsored reception at ALA.

Applicants to the RSAP Book Prize must be current members of RSAP when they submit their books.

Ryan Cordell (Winner), Charlton Yingling (Hon. Mention), and Melissa Renn (Hon. Mention), along with prize chair Bill Hardwig led a spirited and wide-ranging discussion on issues confronting periodicals researchers at an ALA roundtable session Fri., 5/23. Ryan, Chaz, and Melissa were later honored at the RSAP reception in the Hyatt’s Article One Lounge.