The Philippine Board on Books for Young People (PBBY) is now accepting entries for the 2019 PBBY-Salanga Prize. The winner shall be given a cash prize of P25,000.00, a gold medal, and an opportunity to be published. Prizes will be awarded in an appropriate ceremony to be held during the celebration of National Children’s Book Day on July 16, 2019. This year’s theme is narrative nonfiction.

DEADLINE: Entries must be received by the PBBY Secretariat and time-stamped no later than 5:00 p.m. on January 11, 2019.

The contest rules are as follows:

  1. Open to all Filipino citizens except those who are related to any PBBY member up to the third degree of consanguinity.
  2. Content should be intended for children aged 8–12. The content must be capable of sustaining an illustrated book.
  3. Topic must be about narrative nonfiction (e.g. historical nonfiction, biographies).
  4. Citing of sources and research materials used is a must. Citations should include the name of the author, the title of the resource, the publisher and the year of publications. URLs for online sources should be cited as well.
  5. Entries may be in Filipino or English.
  6. Entries must be in hard copy, double-spaced, on short bond paper. Each entry must be 2,000-5,000 words long.
  7. A contestant may send in up to three (3) entries.
  8. Contestants who envision their works to come with special features (e.g. photos, maps, timelines, infographics) should include a write-up on these special features. The write-up should be 1,000 words or less.
  9. Each entry must be signed by a pen name only. Five (5) copies of each entry should be placed in an envelope, on the face of which only the pen name of the contestant should appear.
  10. Together with each entry, contestants must submit a second envelope, on the face of which the pen name shall appear. This must contain the contestant’s full name, address, contact numbers, a short literary background, and a notarized certification from the author, vouching for the originality of the entry and for the freedom of the organizers from any liability arising from the infringement of copyright in case of publication, and affirming that the entry or any variant thereof has (a) never been published nor (b) won any other contest i.e. that it has never won 1st, 2nd, 3rd, honorable mention in any other contest or otherwise been awarded a medal, a citation, or included in a publicized list of meritorious entries to a literary contest.
  11. All entries must be sent through snail mail to the PBBY Secretariat, c/o Adarna House, Inc., Scout Torillo cor. Scout Fernandez Sts., Barangay Sacred Heart, Quezon City.
  12. All entries must be received by the PBBY Secretariat no later than 5:00 p.m., January 11, 2019.
  13. Winners will be announced no later than February 2, 2019. Non-winning entries will be disposed of by the PBBY Secretariat.