ACIS Logo Book and Dissertation Prizes

The American Conference for Irish Studies sponsors six book prizes annually for scholarship on Irish subjects, open to books published worldwide. It also sponsors an article/book chapter prize, a dissertation prize, and a postgraduate prize.

The winners are recognized at the annual ACIS national meeting, where the selection committee’s encomium is read during the ACIS luncheon and business meeting. The Maureen Murphy Prize includes a cash award of $100 USD. All other prizes include a cash award of $500 USD. The award money will be split in the case of co-authored texts. ACIS will also announce the award winners on its website.

Eligibility & Submission Instructions

Books and articles submitted for these awards must have a publication date matching the year of the award. Dissertations must have been defended in the same year as the award year. Single-author and co-authored books and articles (by no more than two authors) will be considered. Edited collections, fiction, poetry, and anthologies of literature are not eligible. Submissions must be in English or Irish. Works originally published in another language and translated into English or Irish will be considered.

No book may compete for more than one of the four disciplinary prizes (Donnelly, Durkan, McCaffrey, Rhodes), but an author’s first scholarly monograph may be submitted to the Donald Murphy prize committee in addition to one of the four disciplinary committees. An Irish-language book may be submitted for a maximum of two of the following awards: the Duais Leabhar Taighde na Bliana (Irish Language Prize), a disciplinary prize, and the Donald Murphy prize, if applicable. Committee chairs may choose to reassign entered works to a more appropriate prize if necessary.

The Adele Dalsimer Prize, Catherine Shannon Prize, Ann Owens Weekes Prize, and Maureen Murphy Postgraduate Prize are submitted by self-nomination only. Books may be submitted for consideration by anyone (author, publisher, or other party). All prize nominations must be submitted through the online form located at the bottom of the respective webpage.

Authors of nominated books are responsible for sending copies of the book to the committee members, whether directly or through their publisher. The addresses of the committee members will be provided to authors when their book is nominated. Hard copies are strongly preferred, but e-copies (such as PDFs) will be accepted if necessary to meet the deadline (especially if your book is scheduled for publication in November or December). Authors are particularly reminded that, whether they mail books themselves or ask their publishers to do so, responsibility rests with the author to ensure that the postmark deadline of January 1, 2027, is observed. Late submissions will NOT be accepted

For more information, contact the chair of the ACIS awards committee, ACIS vice president Sarah Townsend ([email protected]).