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Military and veteran experience book awards
Recognition for books about service, conflict, and coming home, written by the people who were there and the people who study it. Every book is read in full and measured against our published Standard of Excellence.
What this category recognizes
This category holds the nonfiction of service. Memoirs of deployment and of the years afterwards, military history, books about transition to civilian life, writing on injury and moral injury, books for military families, and analysis of conflict written for a general reader.
It exists because service writing is poorly served by categories that split it between memoir and history. A book that is both is assessed here on its own terms.
Novels of conflict belong in Military and War Fiction.
What the standard looks like here
The ten pillars apply to every category. This is how each one is read when the book is about service.
The Writing
Voice, Tone and Style
Whether the author writes without performing either heroism or damage.
Craft and Technical Execution
Whether experience is rendered in scene, and whether technical detail is accurate without becoming a manual.
Structure and Organization
Whether the book handles the shape of service, including the long stretches and the years after.
The Substance
Originality and Concept Strength
Whether the book brings something to a heavily written field.
Depth of Content and Insight
Whether it examines rather than recounts, including what service cost and what it gave.
The Reader
Audience Impact and Purpose Fulfillment
Whether a reader who served would recognize it, and a reader who did not can enter it.
Emotional and Psychological Impact
Whether the human weight registers without being asserted.
Overall Impact and Distinction
What the reader understands afterwards that they did not before.
The Finished Book
Production Quality and Presentation
Trade-standard production, with sourcing where history is claimed and maps or glossaries where the reader needs them.
Category Relevance
Whether service or conflict is genuinely the subject.
Questions about entering a military and veteran experience book
My book is a memoir of my deployment. Which category?
Either this or Memoir. This category is the better fit if service is the subject; Memoir if the life around it is. Many authors enter both.
Is military history eligible here or in History?
Either. Enter where the center of gravity sits, or enter both.
Are books for military families eligible?
Yes, and they are assessed on how well they serve that reader.
Related categories
Submit your military and veteran experience book
Entry is $79 for your first category. Your complete manuscript is read in full and measured against the ten pillars.