One Week Left to Submit Your Entries for 2025 ASJA Awards

Odds are, you wrote some terrific freelance articles in 2024. Maybe  you even published a nonfiction book. If so, have you entered the 2025 ASJA Awards? Now’s the time.

There’s only one week left before the awards submission deadline of Friday, May 16 at 11:59 p.m. ET. can submit entries here, using the Eventbrite platform (creating an Eventbrite account is free).

The ASJA Awards honor the best articles, essays, books and content marketing pieces published in 2024. Two categories –  The Arlenes: Articles That Make a Difference, and June Roth Memorial Award for Outstanding Medical Book –  may include works published in either 2023 or 2024.

As co-chair of the ASJA Awards Committee, we welcome your entries and look forward to having our esteemed judges read them. Winners and honorable mentions will be chosen and announced in coming months.

Here’s a brief rundown about the awards entry rules and categories:

All freelancers are eligible to enter, but ASJA members get a substantial discount — one of the many benefits of being an ASJA member. For ASJA members, fees are $40 per article entry and $60 per book entry. For non-members, fees are $60 per article entry and $90 per book entry.  

Writers may submit up to 10 entries, though each article or book may be entered in only one category. One award – the June Roth Memorial Awards for Outstanding Medical Article and Outstanding Medical Book – is open to ASJA members only, see details below.

The 2025 ASJA articles and book awards are available in dozens of categories listed on the ASJA site:

The 2025 Special Category Article Award: Environment/Climate Change/Sustainability, This award will go to the freelancer who wrote the best article, or series of up to 3 articles, in 2024  best  about the environment, climate change, or sustainability. Prize: $500.

The Arlenes: Articles That Make a Difference. These awards, for articles that “made a difference by inspiring positive action within a locale or community, society, or the world” may have been published in 2023 or 2024. Prize: $1,000. (Arlene Book Awards will be back in 2026.)

The Donald Robinson Memorial Award for Investigative Journalism Entries should be articles that include in-depth, original research and reporting, and demonstrate outstanding writing and organization, as well as new or previously unrevealed research. Prize: $1,000.

June Roth Memorial Awards for Outstanding Medical Article and Outstanding Medical Book. This award, for ASJA members only, recognizes articles or books that represent exceptional achievement in health and medical writing. The June Roth Book Award is for books published in 2023 and 2024; articles must have been published in 2024. Prize: $1,000 for each of the June Roth awards. 

The other Article Award categories include Personal Platform; Online Writing; Business Writing; Excellence in Reporting; First-Person Essays; Wellness, Fitness & Sports; Food and Drink; Health; How-To (Service); Lifestyle; Opinion/Op-Eds; Profiles; Reported Essays; Science, Social Change; Technology, Trade and Travel.

The Outstanding Content Awards honor writers whose freelance articles — produced for a brand, business, nonprofit, hospital, university or association — display excellence in writing, research and clarity of presentation. 

Categories include: B2B (Business to Business) Blog or Article; B2C (Business to Consumer) Blog or Article and Long-Form Content (B2B and B2C content of more than 2,500 words published in print or digital publications).

The other nonfiction Book Award categories are Biography/History; Children/Young Adult Nonfiction; General Nonfiction; Memoir/Autobiography and Service/Self-help. Self-published books, eBooks, and traditionally published books may be nominated; only PDF or eBook submissions will be accepted.

OK, time to stop reading and start entering! Good luck to everyone!