Nomination sought for the 2020 William Mills Prize for Non-Fiction Polar Books

Nomination are now being sought for the 2020 William Mills Prize for Non-Fiction Polar Books. The William Mills Prize for Non-Fiction Polar Books was established in memory of William Mills, a polar librarian and author, and a core member of Polar Libraries Colloquy during its formative years. The book prize honours the best Arctic or Antarctic nonfiction books published throughout the world.

The prize consists of $500 US, certificates for the author and publisher, and the right to use the William Mills Prize logo when advertising the winning book.

Qualifications for Nomination

1. The book must be nonfiction, about the Arctic or Antarctic.
2. The book may be any type of substantive work of nonfiction, or reference resource. Textbooks, anthologies, translations and new editions will not be considered unless they are truly outstanding contributions to polar literature.
3. Books authored, edited or published by members of the current Polar Libraries Colloquy Steering Committee are not eligible for nomination.
4. Individuals who are not affiliated with the Polar Libraries Colloquy are welcometo submit nominations.
5. The book must have been published for the first time within the two calendar years before the Colloquy at which the award will be given. The timeframe for the 2020 award is January 2018 to December 2019.
6. The official language of the Colloquy is English. For this reason books must be published in an English language version to be eligible.

Nominations must include information such as author(s), title, publisher and date of publication. as well as a statement of the reasons why the nominator thinks the book should be considered for the prize and the value of the title to polar literature.

Nominations should be sent via email to Julia Finn, William Mills Prize Coordinator at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

The deadline to submit a nomination is March 31, 2020.

A list of previous William Mills prize winners is available at https://polarlibraries.org/william-mills-prize/