Applications for the 2024 Anthony Davis Book Collecting 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. The prize will also include the opportunity to give a talk on your 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. The items in your collection do not have to be typically seen as valuable or historically important. If you collect printed or manuscript materials, which can include anything from comic books and postcards to modern publications, then you are welcome to apply!

The prize is intended to encourage students to collect books, printed items, and manuscript material, 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.

This year, we have changed the application process. We are no longer asking applicants to email us – instead, please apply by filling out our online form here.

The application period will end at 23:59 on Sunday 5^th May 2024. Shortlisted applicants will be invited to present their collections to a panel with representatives from UCL Special Collections, the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association, and the Bibliographical Society. This will take place on 5^th June 2024, between 10am and 1pm.

We look forward to seeing your book collection!

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
• Anthony Davis Book Collecting Prize: Interview with LSE Library

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:

• Winners of the 2023 Anthony Davis Student Book Collecting Prize
• Anthony Davis Book Collecting Prize 2022: results announced
• Announcing the winners of the 2021 Anthony Davis Book Collecting Prize
• Results announced for Anthony Davis Book Collecting Prize 2020

Keep an eye out on the blog for an interview with last year’s winner!