Please consider submitting book nominations for the 2021 Mississippi Author Awards. The deadline for nominations is March 1st, 2021. Committee members will begin reading and reviewing the nominated titles after March 1st. Winners will be announced in late summer, and the awards will be presented at the annual MLA conference held in October. Please review the criteria below before nominating a title to be sure it meets the guidelines. 

The criteria for awards include the following: 

• Awards may be presented in three categories: Adult Fiction; Adult Non-fiction; or Youth Fiction or Non-fiction; if meritorious works have been published in each category. 

• The honored author(s) must be a Mississippian by birth or have lived in Mississippi for at least five consecutive years. 

• An editor, illustrator, or translator may be considered. 

• The honored author(s) must be living. 

• The award(s) shall be presented for a specific work rather than a body of work. 

• To be eligible for consideration, a book must have been published within three calendar years preceding the year in which the award is made. 

• Each work should be judged on its overall quality, with consideration given to literary merit, style and technique, originality, grammar, and if applicable, accuracy, authenticity, and illustrations. 

Nominations should be sent via email to Caroline Barnett (cbarnett@firstregional.org).  

Please note that it can be an issue for the committee to get enough copies of the book to read and review. If you know the author or publisher, please ask if they might be able to supply a few copies which we could share among the committee members. Books can be mailed to the following address: 

Caroline Barnett 
M. R. Davis Public Library 
8554 Northwest Drive 
Southaven, MS  38671 

Please share this information with others, including authors, publishers, staff members, and library patrons. We would like to reach as many people as possible to get great nominations for this prestigious award. 

Submitted by: 
Caroline Barnett 
Head Librarian 
M. R. Davis Public Library