How to Enter
1: Complete the appropriate submissions form:
Books and Journals Entry Form
Jackets and Covers Entry Form
2: Submit payment for your entries:
3: Ship ONE copy of each of your entries to the AUPresses Central Office:
Association of University Presses
Attention: Kate Kolendo
Book, Jacket, and Journal Show
1412 Broadway, Suite 2135
New York, NY 10018
Deadline for Entries: Friday, January 20, 2023
Please mail entries as soon as possible to avoid a deluge of entries arriving close to, or after, the deadline.
View the call for entries PDF.
Entry Fees
$45.00 per book/journal
$35.00 per jacket/cover
Fees are due upon submission.
books and journals
Scholarly typographic, Scholarly illustrated, Trade typographic, Trade illustrated, Poetry & literature, Journals, and Reference
jackets and covers
Book Jacket design, Book cover design, and Journal cover design
explanation of categories
Books can be entered for competition in the AUPresses Book, Jacket, and Journal Show in the following categories: Scholarly typographic, Scholarly illustrated, Trade typographic, Trade illustrated, Poetry and literature, and Reference. Books may also be submitted for their jacket or cover design. Journals are judged on their overall design or on their covers.
SCHOLARLY BOOKS are intended for a specialized audience, oftentimes for academic instructors to use as texts in college courses. They are not widely distributed to sell in bookstores and are most often available from online retailers and directly from the publisher. They are reviewed in academic journals and advertised directly to their core audience. The text structure is typically more complex, requiring a design that helps the reader navigate the variety of text elements and scholarly apparatus, including footnotes, endnotes, and appendices. These books are given a specialist or short discount, which usually indicates that they will not be stocked in brick and mortar retailers; and online retailers may sell to customers at full price or less than their usual discount.
SCHOLARLY TYPOGRAPHIC: A book with no or comparatively few illustrations that are clearly subordinate to the text.
SCHOLARLY ILLUSTRATED: A book in which the visual elements (such as photography, art, or graphic design) are the focus and the text is subordinate.
TRADE BOOKS are intended for a general audience and to be widely distributed. The design is typically open and accessible and the text features few, if any, notes, appendices, and bibliographies. They are available for sale in bookstores and are reviewed and advertised in general interest and national newspapers, magazines, websites, and other media. These books are given a trade discount by publishers so that they may be stocked by brick and mortar retailers, and online retailers may sell them to customers at a discounted price.
TRADE TYPOGRAPHIC: A book with no or comparatively few illustrations that are clearly subordinate to the text.
TRADE ILLUSTRATED: A book in which the visual elements (such as photography, art, or graphic design) are the focus and the text is subordinate.
POETRY AND LITERATURE Poetry books often require line-for-line formatting and have unique spacing requirements, while works of literature typically have few formatting needs.
REFERENCE books may be primarily intended for a trade or a scholarly audience, depending on the subject. Because they will not be read from beginning to end, reference books must organize information in a way that allows for quick location of specific entries in the text, which should be easy to read. The text may be paired with illustrations or other visuals.
JOURNALS are intended to be available to readers in libraries and other reference collections for many years, so design for both interiors and covers must be timeless. Balancing the need for fresh design against the importance of honoring the journal’s brand (which might be decades in the making) is also an important consideration. A note on the cover design: it must work on its own and as part of a series. The spine design is particularly important, since journals typically sit together on a shelf.
Eligibility
This competition is open to members of AUPresses only. Presses may submit any number of books, jackets, and covers published in the current calendar year, 2022, and journals published at least twice during 2022. Books may have been manufactured anywhere in the world, but imports or copublications from another publisher are not eligible.
The Jurors
books and journals
Jason Alejandro is a Puerto Rican graphic designer and educator based in New Jersey. He is currently an Assistant Professor at The College of New Jersey. Jason has produced award-winning design work for publishers and institutions of higher education. His professional experience includes roles in environmental graphic design and art direction, including 8 years as a book designer at Princeton University Press. Jason’s work has been recognized by Communication Arts, AUP, The New York Book Show, and the Society of Typographic Arts. He holds an MFA in Graphic Design from Vermont College of Fine Arts and a BFA from Kean University.
Jayme Yen is a Seattle-based graphic designer and design educator. Her work has been part of exhibitions in The Netherlands, New Zealand, and the Czech Republic. As an Artist-in-Residence at the University of Washington School of Art + Art History + Design, she teaches classes in publication design and information visualization. Her teaching focuses on rethinking approaches to publication formats and reading experiences. Her work has been recognized by AIGA’s 50 Books | 50 Covers competition. Jayme is also a co-founder and co-organizer of the Seattle Art Book Fair, a free annual festival that celebrates independent publishing, book design, and books-as-art.
jackets and covers
Anna Jordan designs book covers from her studio in Rochester, New York, USA. Her award-winning artwork explores the intersection of typography and materials. In 2015, PRINT Magazine named Anna one of the best New Visual Artists: 15 Under 30. Her work is exhibited internationally and featured in many design publications. Anna earned her BFA in Graphic Design from Rhode Island School of Design, and her MFA in Design/Visual Communications from Virginia Commonwealth University, School of the Arts. She is Assistant Professor in the MFA Visual Communication Design program at Rochester Institute of Technology.
Amanda Weiss is a freelance designer based out of Nashville, TN. From 2014 to 2017 she worked as a book designer at Princeton University Press, learning the ins and outs of how to design covers and interiors, before launching into freelance full-time. She now works for a variety of clients including university presses, indie publishers, and trade publishers. Her work has been recognized by AUPresses, AIGA 50 Books/50 Covers, and the New York Book Show. Her hobbies include gardening, birding, and knitting.
About the Book, Jacket, and Journal Show
The Association of University Presses Book, Jacket, and Journal Show honors excellence in design produced by its member presses. The show recognizes meritorious achievement in the design, production, and manufacture of books, jackets, covers, journals, and digital publications by members of the university press community. 2023 marks the 58th anniversary of this book show.
What you may notice first about the publications by AUPresses members is the wide variety of subjects, forms, and approaches to disseminating scholarship. This variety reflects the diversity of the members themselves. Some members are among the very largest scholarly publishers in the world while other presses are offices with small staffs and limited resources. It also reflects the variety of new forms and formats available to publishers including digital and print-on-demand technologies in addition to offset printing. The budgets for the publications themselves reflect the market needs of the individual project, the press’s resources at hand, and decisions a press makes about physical aspects of the publication. What unites these books, however, is something you cannot see. It is the fact that these publications have been subject to the rigorous standards of peer review.
The design and production aspects of these publications are also integral to the very mission of the Association. Excellent design contributes to a book or journal’s reception and its impact in the larger world.
In addition to recognizing excellent work, the AUPresses Book, Jacket, and Journal Show provides an evaluation of members’ work and serves as a focus of discussion and a source of ideas for intelligent, creative, and resourceful bookmaking. The 2023 show will include books published by AUPresses members in 2022 and jackets and covers of books published that year. Books may have been manufactured anywhere in the world, but imports, and copublications designed and produced by a with a foreign publisher, are not eligible.
Through the show, and its acclaimed annual catalog, the Association seeks to expand the conversation about the essential importance of good design in scholarly publishing.
Special thanks to the 2022–2023 Book, Jacket, and Journal Show Committee
Mindy Basinger Hill, Washington, Co-Chair
Wendy McMillen, Notre Dame, Co-Chair
Jennifer Blanc-Tal, Rutgers
Kevin Barrett Kane, California
Mark Lerner, Fordham
Lori Lynch, Alabama
Isaac Morris, New Mexico
Peter Perez, North Carolina
Regina Starace, Penn State
Carrie Downes Teefey, Wayne State
David Zielonka, Stanford
Kate Kolendo, Communications Program Manager, AUPresses