Deadline January 1st annually for publications from the previous year.

Prize: $250 and one free registration to NALS
Judges: Previous winners and a panel of Native American Writers

The Electa Quinney Award for Published Stories seeks to highlight the work of story creators who continue the tradition of teaching through narratives often crossing the boundaries of genres, formats and disciplines. To celebrate the dissemination of stories into spaces where they can be shared all published stories qualify including small press and fine arts printing.

Submission Guidelines: Please send a review copy of the book with author contact information to: The Electa Quinney Institute University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Bolton Hall 187 2200 E. Kenwood Blvd. Milwaukee, WI 53201-0413. If the book is in an alternate art form or has an extremely limited print run, please email author information text and accompanying jpeg images of the original to: Margaret Noodin
Please contact us if you have any questions.

2020 Awardee

The Beadworkers combines poetry and prose in a set of Native American stories. This collection opens with a feast, grounding its stories in the landscapes and lifeworlds of the Native Northwest, exploring the inventive and unforgettable pattern of Native American life in the contemporary world.

Beth Piatote, photo by Kristen Lara Getchell

Beth Piatote is a Nez Perce writer and scholar. Her works include short stories, essays, poems, and a play, Antikoni. Her mixed-genre collection, The Beadworkers: Stories, was long-listed for the PEN/Bingham Prize and the Aspen Words Literary Prize and shortlisted for the California Independent Booksellers Association “Golden Poppy” Prize. It is a great honor that The Beadworkers was named the winner of the Electa Quinney Award for Published Stories. Central to her work is Niimiipuutimt/Nez Perce language, Nez Perce literature and aesthetics, and Indigenous language revitalization. She is a founding member of luk’upsíimey/North Star Collective.