MWSA Awards

Special Recognition | Medals | Other Award Details

Each year, MWSA presents special recognition awards to especially noteworthy authors and their works.  The list of awards varies each year, but is generally made up of the following:

• Founder's Award

  • Award recipient determined by MWSA Founder, Bill McDonald

• President's Award

  • Selected by the MWSA President

  • Click here for details.

• Writer/Author of the Year Award

  • In March of 2018, the MWSA Board of Directors approved renaming the MWSA Author of the Year Award to honor long-time member, Mike "Moon" Mullins.

  • The award is now the Military Writers Society of America (MWSA) Mike Mullins Memorial Writer of the Year (WOY) Award.

  • Click here for details.

Special Recognition Awards are a separate function handled by the Board of Directors and awarded during our annual conference.

Gold, Silver and Bronze Medal Awards

Medals are awarded each year based on the combined average, numerical scores of the three reviewers assigned to each book. Because books are scored against our standard—and not against each other—we often award more than one of the same medal in each genre.

MWSA announces our medal winner results in two steps:

• Awards Finalists: After our submission window closes and all books are scored, MWSA announces each year's Finalists.

  • Being designated as a Finalist means that the submitted book scored high enough for a Gold, Silver, or Bronze medal

  • Announcement of Finalists (names and books) should occur about 4-6 weeks after the close of each season

• Medal Awards Announcement: Medal winners are announced during MWSA's annual membership conference.

Awards Packets

All medal winners receive an awards packet, which is presented to the author during our awards ceremony/banquet. Each package contains:

• One medal and ribbon

• 100 book stickers

• Award Certificate

• Notification letter

If the author cannot attend the ceremony, MWSA will mail the package to an address in the United States free of charge.

• MWSA will work with winning authors who need packages mailed overseas on an individual basis.

If an award-winning book has more than one author: extra medals, stickers (and postage, if necessary) can be purchased in our online store.

• Purchase must be completed before the awards ceremony if you'd like us to present the extra awards materials during the awards banquet.

Authors who’ve been notified that they are finalists must keep their MWSA dues current through the time of the season’s awards banquet. For more details about how to renew your MWSA membership, please visit the membership section of our website.

Marketing & Promotional Materials

• Press Releases

  • Announcement of Finalists

  • Announcement of Awards

• Video Annoucements

  • for both events above

  • via social media (Facebook, YouTube)