Applications for the 2023 Anthony Davis Book Prize are now open!

The Anthony Davis Book Prize is open to any student studying at a London-based university who has a coherent collection of printed and/or manuscript material. The winner will receive £600 as well as an allowance of £300 to purchase an item for UCL Special Collections and the opportunity to give a talk on their collection as part of the UCL Special Collections events programme.  

The collection should be based around a common theme which has been deliberately assembled and that the collector intends to continue growing. However, the items in the collection do not have to be valuable or historically important – anyone who collects items from comic books, to postcards, to modern publications is welcome to apply!  

The prize is intended to encourage the collecting of books, printed and manuscript materials by students by recognising a collection formed by a London student at an early stage in their collecting career. All current undergraduates and postgraduates studying for a degree at a London-based University, both part-time and full-time, are eligible to enter for the prize. 

For more information: 

To apply or to learn more about the eligibility criteria:

• the Anthony Davis Book Prize webpage. 

For advice on what a collection can look like: 

• How to be a student book collector (and apply for the Anthony Davis Book Collecting Prize) 
• Anthony Davis Book Collecting Prize: Collecting with Intention 

Conversations with previous winners and finalists: 

• Anthony Davis Book Collecting Prize: Books that built a zoo 
• Bound to read: collecting Victorian texts in 20th-century bindings from Bookish: The Birkbeck Library Blog
• Q&A with Erick Jackaman, 2021 Anthony Davis Book Collecting Prize Runner Up 
• Florilegium: gathering the language of flowers from Bookish: The Birkbeck Library Blog

Announcements of previous winners: 

• Results announced for Anthony Davis Book Collecting Prize 2020 
• Announcing the winners of the 2021 Anthony Davis Book Collecting Prize 
• Anthony Davis Book Collecting Prize 2022: results announced 

Keep an eye out for future blog posts on what book collecting can look like!  

We look forward to seeing your book collection!