Groundbreaking. Purposeful. Bold. Excellent. Challenging to social constructs.

Jane’s Stories Press Foundation announces that nominations are open for the 2023 Clara Johnson Award for Women’s Literature. This award will be given to a woman author whose book, published in 2022, bears many attributes of the award’s namesake. The winner will be awarded $1000. The ceremony for the 2023 Clara Johnson Award will be held in October or November of 2023.

• The Jane’s Stories Board will choose the finalists from a field nominated by editors, publishers, authors, booksellers, librarians, and readers. The award’s intention is also to promote the publishers of women writers and their thought–provoking works.
• An author may receive the 2023 award for a specific work or for a body of work published within the year of 2022, or January through December of 2022. For purposes of this award: Women’s Literature includes all literary works by women (born or identified).
• The award is open to prose of all genres. This includes, but is not limited to fiction, nonfiction, creative nonfiction, or memoir. All subgenres are welcome. Works in popular categories such as romance, and mystery are acceptable only if they rise to the level of literature. Genre–bending is encouraged.
• Works that are defined as erotica or pornography will be excluded from judging.
• Literature which denigrates any group or category of people will be eliminated.
• Nominations are open March 8 through May 8, 2023. All nominations must use the JSPF/CJA Nominating Form. You can download the form at the bottom of this page.

Who is Clara Johnson?Clara Johnson spent the bulk of her career as a chemist, at a time when women were rarely hired as scientists. During World War II, she assisted in the war as a chemist. Johnson persisted as in her work after the war despite being warned she would lose her job to male chemists returning to the workforce. She retired as a chemist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. She then managed the Illinois National Organization for Women throughout its ERA ratification campaign. Later, she wrote a self–published memoir of growing up in rural Illinois, managed a feminist essay contest, and became a co–owner of Prairie Moon Feminist Bookstore in Arlington Heights, Illinois. As one of the first editors of the Jane’s Stories anthologies by women, she pushed for “stories with a purpose.”