Awarded biennially for the best first monograph in Romantic Studies, this prize is open to first monographs published between 1 January 2023 and 31 December 2025. The prize will be awarded at the \u2018Romantic Retrospection\u2019 conference at the University of Birmingham in 2026. In keeping with the remit of the British Association for Romantic Studies, the prize is designed to encourage and recognise original, ground-breaking, and interdisciplinary work in the literature and culture of the period c. 1780-1830. The prize is awarded to the value of \u00a3300.<\/p>\n\n
The prize is open to scholarly monographs published in English by authors who have not published a monograph before. Books may be nominated by publishers, by members of BARS, or by authors themselves, using the form at the link below. Nominations should attest to the significance of the book\u2019s scholarly contribution, detailing its particular strengths and describing the nature of its originality in no more than 300 words. To ensure this remains a prize for Early Career Academics, the book\u2019s official date of publication will be no later than 10 years after the award of the author\u2019s PhD.<\/p>\n
The BARS Executive has appointed a panel of judges consisting of: Susan Civale (Canterbury Christ Church University); Daisy Hay (University of Exeter); Andrew McInnes (Edge Hill University); Cleo O’Callaghan Yeoman (University of Stirling); Emily Paterson-Morgan (The Byron Society); Amy Wilcockson (Queen Mary University of London). The panel is chaired by Ross Wilson (University of Cambridge).<\/p>\n\n\n
Nomination forms, accompanied by e-copies or hardcopies of the book submitted, should be received by the chair of the panel no later than 12th January 2026. Successful entrants will be notified shortly prior to the \u2018Romantic Retrospection\u2019 conference where the prize itself will be awarded.<\/p>\n
Email address for all submissions and queries: barsfirstbook@english.cam.ac.uk.<\/p>\n
Postal address for hardcopies of books: Prof. Ross Wilson, Emmanuel College, St Andrew\u2019s Street, Cambridge, CB2 3AP.<\/p>\n\n
The 2023 shortlist<\/a> was as follows:<\/p>\n The panel of judges, chaired by Simon K\u00f6vesi and comprising Mary Fairclough, Yimon Lo and Brianna Robertson-Kirkland, awarded the prize to Stephanie O\u2019Rourke’s Art, Science, and the Body in Early Romanticism<\/em><\/strong>, with an honourable mention for Jillian M. Hess’s How Romantics and Victorians Organized Information: Commonplace Books, Scrapbooks, and Albums<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n The 2021 shortlist was as as follows:<\/p>\n The panel of judges, chaired by Francesca Saggini and comprising David Fallon, Tess Somervell and Angela Wright, awarded the prize to Gerard Lee McKeever’s Dialectics of Improvement: Scottish Romanticism, 1786-1831<\/em><\/strong>, with an honourable mention for Hrileena Ghosh’s <\/strong>John Keats\u2019 Medical Notebook: Text, Context, and Poems<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n The 2019 shortlist was as as follows:<\/p>\n The panel of judges, chaired by Claire Connolly, awarded the prize to Thomas H. Ford’s Wordsworth and the Poetics of Air<\/em><\/strong>. The judges’ report can be read on the BARS Blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n The 2017 shortlist was as as follows:<\/p>\n The panel of judges, chaired by Nigel Leask, awarded the prize to Julia S. Carlson’s Romantic Marks and Measures: Wordsworth\u2019s Poetry in Fields of Print<\/em><\/strong>. The judges’ report can be read on the BARS Blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n The 2015 shortlist was as as follows:<\/p>\n The panel of judges (Emma Clery (Chair<\/em>), Ian Haywood, David Higgins and Susan Valladares) awarded the prize to Orianne Smith’s <\/strong>Romantic Women Writers, Revolution, and Prophecy: Rebellious Daughters, 1786\u20131826<\/strong><\/em>. The judges’ report can be read on the BARS Blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-169","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/main\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/main\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/main\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/main\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/main\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/main\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":875,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/main\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/169\/revisions\/875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/main\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n \t
The 2021 Award<\/h2>\n\n
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The 2019 Award<\/h2>\n\n
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The 2017 Award<\/h2>\n\n
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The 2015 Award<\/h2>\n\n
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