It’s that time of year again! Leaves are changing color, temperatures are dropping, and OWAA’s Excellence in Craft Contest is open! Enter your work in the 2026 Excellence in Craft Contest today.
If it is your first time hearing about OWAA’s Excellence in Craft Awards, we invite you to take a look at last year’s winners. You can find their work here.
The Outdoor Writers Association of America annually recognizes exceptional work in outdoor journalism through its Excellence In Craft Awards. The 2025 contest opened for entries on Nov. 1, 2025.
Check out the guidelines below and link to the rules for submission! Guidelines and full category rules are posted on OWAA’s Submittable homepage under EIC Contest.
Categories, deadlines, and everything you need to know to enter
Entry Process
The EIC Contest is open to all OWAA individual members in good standing (i.e. your membership dues are current) and will award first-, second- and third-place winners in 11 Media Categories: Blog, Book, Column, Graphic/Illustration, Magazine/E-zine, Newspaper/News Website, Photography, Photo Essay, Radio/Podcast, TV/Video/Webcast, plus an Open Category.
All entries must be related to the outdoors, published either in traditional media or online, as a professional effort, meaning the member has received direct payment or otherwise derived income through advertising or other sponsorship related to the published entry.
All entries must be published, broadcast, or sold during the contest period – Jan. 1, 2025 through Dec. 31, 2025, except for the Book Contest which is for works published between Dec. 1, 2023 through Nov. 30, 2025.
Entries in all contest categories can be submitted beginning Nov. 1, 2025. The final deadline for the Book Contest is Dec. 1, 2025. The early bird deadline for all other entries is Jan. 15, 2026. The final deadline for all other entries is Jan. 31, 2026.
The entry process for the 2026 EIC Contest is managed through a partnership with Submittable, an OWAA Supporting Group that specializes in online contest submissions. All entries must be submitted online through Submittable, exceptfor Book entries, which must be mailed to OWAA EIC Contest, c/o Chez Chesak, 3420 Lyleburn Pl, Cincinnati OH 45220 with a postmark no later than midnight EST Dec. 1, 2025.
Members must enter only their OWN work. This eliminates the chance an entry is inadvertently submitted twice (once by the member and once by a co-worker, editor, or someone else). In such cases, the second submission will be disqualified. Entry fees for disqualified submissions are not refunded.\
Accessing Submittable
If you are using Submittable for the first time, create your FREE Submittable account by going to https://owaa.submittable.com/signup. If you are new to Submittable or need a refresher, visit https://submittable.help/en/articles/904856-how-do-i-submit for assistance.
Once your Submittable account is created, you can begin submitting entries at https://owaa.submittable.com/submit, which allows you access to all EIC Contest entry forms. Each Media Category – Blog, Book, Column, Graphic/Illustration, Magazine/Magazine Website, Newspaper/News Website, Photography, Photo Essay, Radio/Podcast, and TV/Video/Webcast, and Open – has its own entry forms.
Deadline to enter
The final entry deadline is midnight EST, Jan. 31, 2026, for all categories except the Book Contest in which entries must be postmarked no later than midnight EST Dec.1, 2025.
Entry fees
The entry fee is $15 per submission if entered by midnight EST Jan. 15, 2026.
Entries submitted after midnight EST Jan. 15, 2026 but before midnight EST Jan. 31, 2026, will be charged an additional $10 late fee. Entries submitted after midnight EST Jan. 31, 2026 will be disqualified.
Entry fee(s) can be paid through Submittable or by check. Credit card payments can be made individually for each entry or with a single payment for multiple entries. Contact eic@owaa.org for guidance. Check payments with single check for all entries (one or multiple) must be mailed to OWAA EIC Contest – c/o Chez Chesak, 3420 Lyleburn Pl, Cincinnati, OH 45220. Checks must be postmarked before the contest deadline.
General rules
Except for the Book Contest, all entries must be submitted online using Submittable. No mail-in entries allowed.
Members may submit up to two entries each in Book, Column, Graphic/Illustration, Open, and Photo Essay. (NOTE: Entries in the Open Contest may not be submitted to any other contest.
Members may submit up to two entries per topic in Blog, Magazine, Newspaper, Photography, Radio/Podcast, and TV/Video/Webcast. For example, two entries in Magazine/Fishing or two entries in Photography/Scenic, etc.
Members may submit one work in multiple topics if the topic description applies. For example, a Photography/Action entry also may qualify for Photography/Fauna, or a story on fishing that includes substantial information about the gear used may qualify for Magazine/Fishing and Magazine/Gear-Technical.
If you have any questions about an entry and what category/topic it best fits in the EIC Contest, please contact eic@owaa.org for guidance.
Categories or topics receiving fewer than three entries will be canceled and entry fees reimbursed.
Categories or topics receiving only three entries will award only first- and second-place prizes.
Entries submitted during a previous contest year that have simply been re-published or re-broadcast are not eligible.
A second or later edition of a book may be entered in the Book contest if 1) at least 20% of the content is new material, 2) it was republished within the contest dates, and 3) the original version was not entered in a previous OWAA EIC Contest.
Book contest entries are not returned to the author but instead donated to the Book contest judges (per Board directive in 2000). Co-authored, co-photographed and co-produced creations may be entered only once in a topic, regardless of how many people received bylines/credits. For co-authored,co-photographed and co-produced entries, all authors/photographers/producers must be OWAA members except in the Book Contest in which only one author must be an OWAA member. The prize will be split among the co- authors/photographers/producers, and one certificate will be awarded with all co-authors/photographers/producers’ names on it.
A letter of verification from the editor or publisher must accompany newspaper and magazine entries published under pen names.
Family or friends may enter deceased OWAA members’ works published or broadcast during the contest year.
Award certificates and checks are made out to individuals, not organizations, publications or broadcast stations.
Entry constitutes a waiver of copyright restrictions on reprinting or reproducing entries by OWAA to promote the organization and the EIC Contest.
If you have any questions about the guidelines listed above, please contact the EIC contest coordinator at eic@owaa.org
If you have any questions about using Submittable, contact the help desk at support@submittable.com or the EIC Contest coordinator at eic@owaa.org
View a full list of the 2026 Excellence in Craft contest categories here!