PLEASE NOTE: ENTRIES FOR THE 2024 PRIZE ARE NOW CLOSED. Entries for the 2025 prize will open in the autumn of 2024.
How do I enter a book?
Books must be submitted by agents or publishers, nominations from individuals will not be considered.
Please send FOUR COPIES of each nominated book to:
Bread & Roses
c/o Lighthouse
43-45 West Nicolson Street
Edinburgh
EH8 9DB
Further copies may be requested of books which make the shortlist.
There is no entry fee for nominated titles but publishers will be asked for £50 + VAT per shortlisted title as a contribution to marketing costs.
The covering letter should state that the books are nominated for the Bread and Roses Award, and should give relevant contact details for the agent/publisher and the address and email address of the writer.
What are the entry criteria?
- The first edition of the books must be (or have been) physically published between January 1 and December 31 2023
- Nominations must be received by 29th February 2024. Judges may call in other eligible works but, otherwise, late submissions will not be considered
- Self-published books are not eligible
- Work by writers under sixteen is not eligible
- Books must be written, or largely written by authors or editors normally living in the UK
- The setting or the subject of the book need not have any connection to the UK
- We accept books published by international publishers where the submission meets all criteria, the book must be available for purchase through the UK book trade
- Books must be published in a physical form. Ebooks and books published solely online are not eligible
- Books would normally be expected to have a spine and an ISBN so that we can promote the shortlist within the trade. On rare occasions we may shortlist exceptional pamphlets
How is ‘self-published’ defined?
- Where material is directly self-published by the writer
- Where the writer is expected to contribute financially to the production or publishing process
- Where a publishing company has been set up expressly to publish the work of its owner or the partner of the owner
- Where publishing is dependent on the author buying a number of copies of the work.
This exclusion therefore covers all forms of ‘vanity’, subsidy, ‘joint venture’ or ‘shared responsibility’ publishing. We value the editorial support and independence that professional publishers supply.
What are the prizes?
There is one prize only: the winning entry will receive £500. We will endeavour to promote the shortlist as widely as possible within the book trade and within the radical publishing community.
Who is behind the Bread and Roses Award?
The Bread and Roses Award is given by the Alliance of Radical Booksellers.
The trustees of the award are Ross Bradshaw of Five Leaves Publications, and Nik Gorecki of Housmans.
The prize will be administered by Lighthouse Bookshop on behalf of the Alliance of Radical Booksellers.
Who are the judges?
Judges for the 2024 Award are to be announced.
When will the winner be announced?
The Winner will be announced in the autumn of 2024, an exact date to be set once we have received all submissions and can determine a timeline based on the volume of entries.
Why ‘Bread and Roses’?
There has been a long history of struggle in the American textile industry, not only for fair pay and better working conditions, but for the right to join a union. This struggle was symbolised by the first great industrial strike in America, which took place in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1912, when 20,000 people (22% of the town’s residents) went on strike to demand ‘Bread and Roses, Too’. One of the most impressive features of this strike was that immigrants from at least 30 nations who spoke 45 different languages all manned the same picket lines. The mill owners had mistakenly assumed that language and culture barriers would prevent the workers joining together, and as a result of the Bread and Roses strike, attention was drawn to the appalling working conditions, and a great victory was won by the strikers.
The Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing 