First Book Award

Books published in the two years prior to the call for submissions are eligible for consideration. A submission must also be a scholar’s first published book. For the present award cycle, books must have copyright dates of 2016 or 2017. The First Book Award is given in two categories: (1) monograph and (2) edited book.

Submission of first edition monographs bearing an ISBN are welcome from any publisher or organization worldwide. While second edition books are not eligible, volumes previously published in another language and translated into English may be submitted. A book based on a dissertation may not be submitted for the book award if the dissertation has also been submitted for the AAAL dissertation award in past or present award cycles. Similarly, books previously submitted for the general Book Award may not also be submitted for the First Book award and vice versa.*

The author(s) or editor(s) of a submitted book must be members of AAAL in good standing. Individuals may renew membership or join AAAL concurrent with submission.

Submission Procedure

Submission should be made directly by the publishing organization. Complete the online submission form, including the name, address, e-mail, and phone number of the publisher’s point of contact as well as the name, institutional affiliation, and e-mail address of the author(s) or editor(s).

Submit eight hard copies of each book along with the award submission form no later than June 1, 2018 to

Jessica Atkinson
AAAL Business Office
1827 Powers Ferry Road
Building 14, Suite 100
Atlanta, GA 30339
United States of America

Please note that eBooks must be submitted in addition to hard copies. Hard copy books will not be returned.

A publishing organization may submit up to two different titles for award consideration in each category (i.e., up to two monographs and up to two edited books and no more than four in total). To offset administrative costs, a processing fee of 100 USD should be included for each title submitted for consideration. The fee will be waived for non-profit organizations who may submit verification of their status in lieu of the processing fee. This is an administrative fee only; the book awards do not include a monetary prize for recipients.

Awarding Process

Submissions will be reviewed by an interdisciplinary committee of applied linguistics who will evaluate the production qualities (e.g., title, layout, copyediting, and indexing) and scholarly contributions (e.g., theoretical/methodological rigor, organization and clarity of writing, and potential impact on applied linguistics), with greater weight given to scholarly contributions.

The publishers of books that are selected as the finalists and the award recipient will be notified in January 2019. These publishers will also receive comments from the review committee which may be used for promotional purposes. The award will be presented at the 2019 AAAL annual conference.

*Note: The present award cycle includes only the AAAL First Book Award. The next call for the general AAAL Book Award will be announced in 2019. While an author’s first book may be submitted for either the general AAAL Book Award or the First Book Award, but not both, the latter award specifically recognizes a scholar’s first book. In the case of more than one author, the nominated text should be each author's first book.

For questions regarding the web submission process, please email the AAAL Business Office at info@aaal.org.