Pollard Memorial Library Foundation
Elinor Lipman Award for Writing
The Pollard Memorial Library Foundation is delighted to sponsor the annual Elinor Lipman Award for Writing. Â This award honors Elinor Lipman, a distinguished, prolific and much-loved author born and raised in Lowell, by awarding a prize of $1,000 for a work of fiction or creative nonfiction written by a Lowell-based author. Â Submissions for 2025 are now closed. Â Click HERE for complete eligibility and submission guidelines.
The Pollard Memorial Library Foundation
The Pollard Memorial Library Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that raises funds to supplement the budget provided by the City of Lowell to the Pollard Memorial Library, Lowell’s public library. This additional funding helps ensure that the Library achieves its goal of excellence in providing service to Lowell residents.
The Foundation created the Lipman Award to encourage Lowell’s residents and college students from various age groups, backgrounds, cultures, ethnic groups and neighborhoods to share their fiction and creative nonfiction work.
Elinor Lipman Award for Writing
The Pollard Memorial Library Foundation has established The Elinor Lipman Award for Writing, a competition for fiction and creative nonfiction written by a current resident of Lowell, a current student of the University of Massachusetts Lowell or a current student of Middlesex Community College. The first annual award was bestowed in 2022 to Lillian-Yvonne Bertram, the second award was given in 2023 to Ben Morrison, and the third award was given in 2024 to Chance Lee.
The award pays tribute to the work of Lowell native Elinor Lipman, author of numerous novels, stories, essays and poetry for which she has received the New England Book Award for fiction, a lifetime achievement award from the New England Library Information Network, and the Paterson Fiction Prize of the Poetry Center.
The Lipman Award recognizes the importance of literacy and learning in the City of Lowell and the lives of its residents.
The Lipman Award was initiated with a generous donation from Loom Press to the Pollard Memorial Library Foundation.
2025 Judges
Elinor Lipman, Lead Judge
Elinor Lipman, born in Lowell and a graduate of Lowell High School, served as the Elizabeth Drew chair in Creative Writing at Smith College in 2011-2012 and was a fiction judge for both the National Book Award and the National Endowment for the Arts. Elinor is the recipient of the New England Book Award for fiction, a lifetime achievement award from the New England Library Information Network, and the Paterson Fiction Prize of the Poetry Center. Her recent books include Rachel to the Rescue, Good Riddance, and On Turpentine Lane. In 2008, her novel Then She Found Me was made into a film starring Helen Hunt and Bette Midler. Her most recent book, Every Tom, Dick & Harry, has recently been published.
Lillian-Yvonne Bertram, Judge
Lillian-Yvonne Bertram is an Associate Professor of English, and Director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing at the University of Maryland. Previously they taught at Northeastern University and directed the MFA in Creative Writing at UMASS Boston. Lillian-Yvonne has published poetry, prose, and essays in numerous journals, their honors include a 2017 Harvard University Woodberry Poetry Room Creative Grant, a 2014 National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship, finalist nomination for the 2013 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and others. They hold a PhD in Literature & Creative Writing from the creative writing program at the University of Utah, among degrees from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. They are the 2022 recipient of the Elinor Lipman Award for Writing.
Pilar Garcia-Brown, Judge
Pilar Garcia-Brown is a Senior Editor at Dutton, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Previously, she worked at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for seven years. Pilar concentrates on fiction in multiple categories, as well as the occasional narrative nonfiction. Recent and forthcoming titles include: the instant New York Times bestseller Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour; The Stolen Queen and The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis, Yes, Daddy by Jonathan Parks-Ramage; The Very Nice Box by Laura Blackett and Eve Gleichman; All Day is a Long Time by David Sanchez; In Sensorium by Tanaïs; and NBCC award winner You Play the Girl by Carina Chocano, among others. She has been a mentor through the Representation Matters Mentorship Program and was co-chair of the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Fete Committee. Pilar is from Los Angeles and lives in Brooklyn.
Contact
For any questions, please email LipmanAward@gmail.com.