Richard J. Margolis Award

The winner of the annual Richard J. Margolis Award is announced in November, with the Blue Mountain Lake residency taking place in the following summer or fall.

 

Applications are accepted year round but must be received by July 1 for consideration for the current-year award. Applications received after this date will be considered for the award in the following year.

 

Application Guidelines

Submit the following materials either as separate documents or combined into one or more documents as specified below:

​

• A cover letter stating your interest in and qualifications for the award;

• A project description of your current and anticipated work and what you will work on during your Blue Mountain residency;

• A brief biographical note; and

• Two to three samples of your work, published or unpublished, meeting the following criteria:

  • Nonfiction samples only (no fiction or poetry);

  • 30 pages maximum; and

  • At least one sample being non-memoir material.

​

When submitting samples, please bear in mind the selection criteria for the Margolis Award. The award is designed to help developing journalists make progress on non-fiction writing projects that reflect important social values. The Selection Committee judges applications on the quality of the writing samples and the relevance and potential impact of the proposed project. Submitted samples should all be non-fiction pieces that give a clear indication of the applicant's ability to write well and apply journalistic skills effectively.

​

All materials may be emailed as PDF files (preferred!) to award@margolis.com. Please name all files starting with your last name (e.g., Smith-cover letter+description.pdf, Smith-writing sample.pdf, etc.).

 

If submitting paper materials, mail them to the address below. Please note that we cannot return samples.

​

Richard J. Margolis Award

c/o Margolis & Bloom

20 William Street

Suite 320

Wellesley, MA 02481

​

Guidelines for Award Recipients

Recipients of the Margolis Award are asked to:

• Note in their biography statement(s) both online and in print, as well as in any book acknowledgements, that they are a recipient of the Margolis Award;
   

• Include a link to this website (https://MargolisAward.org) in all online biographies; and
   

• Notify the Margolis Award Committee of any honors, publications and career milestones achieved after receiving the award so the bio statement on this website can be updated. This can be done by emailing hsm@margolis.com, by using the contact form on this website or by sending postal mail to the address below.

​