Young Reviewers Contest Begins

We’re looking for the next young Michiko Kakutani, James Wood, Susan Sontag, or Edmund Wilson. Could it be you?

To find out, we’re running a Young Reviewers Contest to encourage reviewers and critics under the age of thirty. The winner gets $1,000 and a one-year publishing contract with us, worth up to another $3,000. We’re accepting submissions through the month of September, so you’ve got a few weeks to produce your own in-depth review of a book published during 2008.

There’s no entry fee. Don’t even think about e-mailing or snail-mailing in your submission. Proof of age will be required from the winner, so though your friends might humor you in having celebrated your 29th birthday three times, we’re not buying it. We don’t care who you are, just how well you write: all submissions are read blind, with a little software magic that anonymizes any personally-identifying information. We’ve got lots more rules and details—do yourself a favor and read them over before you start writing.

While some may argue that encouraging youngsters to read and think critically about books is akin to suggesting they take up Morse Code, we’re old-fashioned that way.