The American Bar Association’s magazine, the ABA Journal and the University of Miami’s Schools of Law and Arts & Sciences have announced the launch of the Scott Turow Prize for Excellence in Legal Fiction. The announcement states:
“Named in honor of pioneering attorney and international bestselling author Scott Turow — the “father of the modern legal thriller” — the Turow Prize seeks to unearth compelling works of fiction that illuminate the dynamics of law, the justice system and the human experience and highlight and reward novels that best exemplify the role of lawyers in society and their power to effect change.
The deadline for entries is Aug. 1.
The Turow Prize is a successor to the Journal’s prior literary prize, the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, established in 2011 and awarded 10 times (2011–2020) to authors including Michael Connelly, John Grisham and James Grippando.
The winning author will receive a cash prize and a signed copy of `Presumed Innocent,’ Turow’s bestseller,at the award ceremony and reception, and the exclusive right to feature the Turow Prize logo on their winning book’s cover. The winner will also be featured in a print edition of the Journal, profiled in an ABAJournal.com online article and highlighted in promotional campaigns across the Journal’s platforms.”
Submissions must be book-length works of fiction published in 2025-2026 that best illuminate the role of lawyers in society and their power to effect meaningful change. For further information, see the website.
Many blog readers may have been introduced to Scott Turow’s writing by the book One L: The Turbulent True Story of a First Year at Harvard Law School, first published in 1977. For me, it did not make me look forward to law school.
