YA Book Prize opens for 2023 entries

The YA Book Prize has reopened entries for 2023 and is looking for the best Young Adult fiction titles from the UK and Ireland published last year.

It is the second year that the award, which was founded by The Bookseller magazine in 2014, will be run in association with Edinburgh International Book Festival (EIBF).

This year’s prize is open to titles published between 1st January and 31st December 2022 that are aimed at readers aged 16 to 24 and written by an author resident in the UK or Ireland. Self-published books are not eligible and entries must be made by publishers. Each publisher is allowed to enter up to four titles per imprint or company. 

A shortlist of 10 titles will be revealed in June. The shortlisted authors will appear at the festival and the winner will be announced there live on Thursday 24th August. A judging panel of experts, led by The Bookseller’s children’s editor and deputy features editor Caroline Carpenter and also featuring EIBF’s children’s and schools programmes director Rachel Fox, will pick the recipient of the £2,000 award.

Last year, Adiba Jaigirdar’s queer rom-com Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating (Hachette Children’s) took the gong. Jaigirdar told The Bookseller: "Winning the YA Book Prize has been a huge honour and an incredible career milestone. It’s not always easy to have your work recognised and celebrated in the publishing industry, especially as an Irish author of colour, so I’m immensely grateful. I feel like winning the YA Book Prize has also led to many more opportunities for me, and to more teens having access to my books." Previous winners include Alice Oseman, Juno Dawson, Patrice Lawrence and Louise O’Neill.

More information, including full entry details and terms and conditions, can be found on the YA Book Prize website. Entries close on Friday 24th March 2023.