WASHINGTON, DC, Dec 5 – The Grateful American Book Prize has begun accepting submissions for 2018. The Prize is awarded annually to authors for outstanding works of historical non-fiction and historically based fiction, which are intended to inspire 11 to 15 year olds. Books published between July 1, 2017 and July 31, 2018 are eligible.

“In fact, we’ve already started accepting new books from authors eager to get in early for this year’s Prize due to the high level of enthusiasm that has developed among authors and publishers since the first Prize was presented in 2015,” says David Bruce Smith, co-founder of the Grateful American Book Prize.

Margot Lee Shetterly’s, Hidden Figures, was the recipient of the 2017 Prize. Her work of non-fiction tells the story of the so-called human ‘computers’– African-American mathematicians who worked at NASA in the very early days of America’s space program. These women overcame racism to prove they had the right stuff. They started out performing menial tasks at the space agency, but ended up calculating the trajectories that launched the country’s first astronauts into space. Hidden Figures was made into an Oscar nominated film starring Octavia Spencer, Taraji P. Henson, and Kevin Costner.

Jennifer Latham’s Dreamland Burning, a work of historical fiction—also about racial injustice—and Edward Cody Huddleston’s The Story of John Quincy Adams 250 Years After His Birth, received the Prize’s “Honorable Mentions” for 2017.

Dreamland Burning, published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, with its focus on the Tulsa race riot of 1921, raises important questions about the complex state of US race relations – yesterday and today, according to one reviewer.

The Story of John Quincy Adams, produced by the Atlantic Publishing Group, examines the life of the sixth president of the United States, whose father, John Adams, was America’s second American president. “This biography is likely to have a special appeal to young readers; despite his burdensome self-doubt, Adams was a constant achiever,” according to Smith.

Along with a distinctive medallion created by American artist Clarice Smith, the Prize comes with a $13,000 cash award in commemoration of the 13 original Colonies.  The two “Honorable Mention” authors receive the medallion, and $500 each.

The 2018 Prize panel of judges includes co-founders Smith, an author-publisher, and Dr. Bruce Cole, the former chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities

Also on the panel of judges are Dr. Louise Mirrer, President and CEO of the New-York Historical Society; Dr. Peter Carmichael, the Robert C. Fluhrer Professor of Civil War Studies & Director of the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College; Dr. Douglas Bradburn, author, historian and Founding Director of the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington at Mount Vernon; John Danielson, Chairman of the Board of Directors at Education Management Corporation; and Dr. Neme Alperstein, a teacher of Gifted and Talented Students in the New York City Public School System.