First awarded in 1904, the Chicago Folklore Prize, awarded to the author(s) of the best book-length work of folklore scholarship for the year, is the oldest international award recognizing excellence in folklore scholarship. Occasionally, a joint recipient is also selected. The prize is offered jointly by the American Folklore Society and the University of Chicago.

From its inception, the administrators and judges for the prize have interpreted "folklore” in a broad and inclusive sense, and winners have traditionally come from the fields of folklore study, cultural studies, ethnomusicology, literary study, anthropology, sociology, cultural geography, and dance ethnology. The recent recipients of the prize provide a sense of the disciplinary range represented in the competition.

We encourage entries from scholars in folklore and their publishers all over the world. Works submitted must be monographs published in the 15 months prior to the annual submission deadline of April 1.

We will not consider articles, dissertations, reissues of older works (unless they have been substantially revised and rewritten), editions of works by others, or works-in-progress for the prize. A modest cash award is made to the winner or winners of the prize. If no entry is deemed worthy, no prize will be awarded. The winner/s will be announced at the Society's annual meeting each year.

If you have questions, please direct them to American Folklore Society executive director Timothy Lloyd at lloyd.100@osu.edu. Please submit four copies of your entry to: Chicago Folklore Prize, American Folklore Society, Mershon Center, The Ohio State University, 1501 Neil Avenue, Columbus OH 43201 USA.

1998: Jane Sugarman. Engendering Song: Singing and the Social Order at Prespa Albanian Weddings (University of Chicago Press)

Second place: Regina Bendix. In Search of Authenticity: The Formation of Folklore Studies (University of Wisconsin Press)

1999: Susan Slyomovics. The Object of Memory: Arab and Jew Narrate the Palestinian Village (University of Pennsylvania Press)

Second place: Harold Scheub. Story (University of Wisconsin Press)

2000: Glenn Hinson. Fire in My Bones: Transcendence and the Holy Spirit in African American Gospel (University of Pennsylvania Press)

Second place: John D. Niles. Homo Narrans: The Poetics and Anthropology of Oral Tradition (University of Pennsylvania Press)

2001: Daniel W. Patterson. A Tree Accurst: Bobby McMillon and Stories of Frankie Silver (University of North Carolina Press)

2002: Linda Dégh. Legend and Belief: Dialectics of a Folklore Genre (Indiana University Press)

2003: Bill C. Malone. Don't Get Above Your Raisin': Country Music and the Southern Working Class (University of Illinois Press)

2004: Enrique R. Lamadrid. Hermanitos Comanchitos: Indo-Hispano Rituals of Captivity and Redemption (University of New Mexico Press); and Barre Toelken. The Anguish of Snails: Native American Folklore in the West (Utah State University Press)

2005: Marcia Gaudet. Carville: Remembering Leprosy in America (University Press of Mississippi)

2006: Jo Farb Hernández. Forms of Tradition in Contemporary Spain (University Press of Mississippi)

2007: Cristina Bacchilega. Legendary Hawai’i and the Politics of Place: Tradition, Translation, and Tourism (University of Pennsylvania Press); and James P. Leary. Polkabilly: How the Goose Island Ramblers Redefined American Folk Music (Oxford University Press)

2008: Felicia R. McMahon. Not Just Child's Play: Emerging Tradition and the Lost Boys of Sudan (University Press of Mississippi)

2009: Ray Cashman. Storytelling on the Northern Irish Border (Indiana University Press); and Michael Dylan Foster. Pandemonium and Parade: Japanese Monsters and the Culture of Yokai (University of California Press)

2010: David Delgado Shorter. We Will Dance Our Truth: Yaqui History in Yoeme Performances (University of Nebraska Press)

2011: Amira Mittermaier. Dreams That Matter: Egyptian Landscapes of the Imagination (University of California Press)

2012: Debra Lattanzi Shutika. Beyond the Borderlands: Migration and Belonging in the United States and Mexico (University of California Press)