Illustrated by Asa Montenejo

2023 Call for Entries

The Philippine Board on Books for Young People (PBBY) is now accepting digital entries for the 2023 PBBY-Alcala Prize. The winner shall be given a cash prize of P25,000.00, a medal, and an opportunity to be published. Prizes will be awarded in a ceremony to be held during the celebration of National Children’s Book Day on July 18, 2023.

Contest Rules

DEADLINE: Entries must be sent to secretariat@pbby.org.ph, with the subject ALCALA2023, by May 8, 2023.

  1. The contest is open to all Filipino citizens except those who are related to any PBBY member up to the third degree of consanguinity.

  2. Entries must be based on the 2023 PBBY-Salanga Grand Prize winner, Koronang Santan by Arnold Tristan L. Buenaflor.

  3. A copy of the stories may be downloaded here.

  4. All entries must be original, unpublished illustrations that have not won in any previous contest.

  5. All entries must consist of three (3) illustrations that are of the same size, two of which are colored and in sequence. The third spread should be a rough sketch of any other spread. The artworks should be in 72 dpi. Contestants are free to determine how to distribute the text for their spreads, bearing in mind that the interaction of art and text is an important criterion of the contest.

  6. All three artworks should be compiled in one PDF. The total size of the PDF should not exceed 5 MB. The PDF file name should follow the format: 2023ALCALA_PenName.

  7. Entries should not contain any names or signatures. 

  8. A contestant may send in more than one (1) entry.

  9. Together with each entry, contestants must submit a document containing the contestant’s full name, address, contact numbers and a short background, as well as a statement from the contestant, vouching for the originality of the entry and for the freedom of the organizers from any liability arising from the infringement of copyright in case of publication, and affirming that the entry or any variant thereof has (a) never been published nor (b) won any other contest i.e. that it has never won 1st, 2nd, 3rd, honorable mention in any other contest or otherwise been awarded a medal, a citation, or included in a publicized list of meritorious entries to a literary contest. The file name should follow the format: YourName_Bio and YourName_StatementOfOriginality.

  10. All entries must be sent to secretariat@pbby.org.ph by May 8, 2023.

  11. Winners will be announced no later than June 5, 2023.

Grand prize and honorable mention winners shall be subject to a bidding process to be facilitated by PBBY, to determine which publisher/s will publish their winning stories.

For more details, interested parties may contact PBBY at secretariat@pbby.org.ph.