The Must Read Books Award

About

The Must Read Books Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing is an award given annually to the best short-story written in the science fiction or fantasy genres by a full-time undergraduate college student.
The award was started by Asimov's Science Fiction magazine editor Sheila Williams and science fiction writer and creative writing professor Rick Wilber in 1992, when they met at the World Fantasy Conference in Pine Mountain, Georgia. As Sheila Williams said in a column in Asimov's a few years ago, "At the convention, we hatched the idea of an award that would honor the legacy of Isaac Asimov and encourage the works of younger writers. Isaac, who had begun publishing science fiction stories when he was eighteen, had died that spring. When he was a young man, there were numerous magazines vying for short fiction. During the ten years that we worked together, he often mentioned that he had founded Asimov's Science Fiction magazine so that talented writers who were just starting out would find the same kind of welcoming home for their stories that he had once found. Rick and I both felt that starting an award aimed at the works of younger writers would be a way to further Isaac's objective. The creation of this award, which came to be known by the extremely long name of The Isaac Asimov Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing was announced ten years ago at the 1993 Conference on the Fantastic in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. The award is co-sponsored by two organizations that strongly believe in promoting the works of early career writers, the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts and our own magazine. It is also supported by the Graduate Program in Creative Writing: Low-Residency MA/MFA in Genre Fiction at Western Colorado University."
Since then, the award has changed its name to the Must Read Books Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing.

Fees Notice: This project charges fees (or requires purchases) for all submissions.
The fee is USD $5 (below average for contests).

Limited Demographic: Submissions are restricted to full-time undergraduate college students.

Want more insight into the editors' preferences? Read our interview with the editor(s).

Country of Publication & Year Established

United States

Established in 1992

Publication Medium & Contest Frequency

Electronic Publication Electronic Publication: Awarded 1 x per year

AI Policy

Unknown AI policy

Fiction Temp Closed

Audience:

Open to a broad Audience.

Genres:

Fantasy Open to all/most Subgenres
Science Fiction Open to all/most Subgenres

Lengths:

Short Story: 1,000 - 7,500 words.
Novelette: 7,500 - 10,000 words.

Styles:

Open to all/most Styles, including: Mainstream.

Topics:

Open to all/most Topics.

Winner's Prize:

Professional payment (5 or more US cents per word) Professional payment. Details: USD $500 prize.

Submissions:

Method: Online form.
Reprints: Reprints are NOT allowed.
Simultaneous submissions: Unknown.
Multiple entries: Multiple entries are allowed.
Media: Text.

Always check guidelines for details and restrictions. If you aren't familiar with these terms, see our glossary.

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The Must Read Books Award Submission Statistics

The statistics in this section are compiled from submission reports sent to us through our submission tracker. They are not provided by the publication's editors/staff or by Duotrope's admins. Information in this section is updated a few times per day. Learn more about the statistics.

We have not received any submission reports for this listing in the past 12 months.

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Dates

Last Updated: 01 Jul 2026

We check their guidelines for changes every four weeks, and we audit the listing twice a year.