Description
The Center for Renaissance Studies at the Newberry Library is pleased to announce the Newberry Medieval Minicomic Prize. Generously funded by the Medieval Academy of America, two juried mini-grants of $250.00 each will support emerging artists who are primarily self-published for the creation of a new minicomic that engages with medieval culture.
The prize program was inspired by Cartooning the Medieval, a collaborative workshop and conference at the Newberry Library in 2025 that brought together professional cartoonists and medievalists to imagine new opportunities for sharing medieval culture through comics. The Newberry Medieval Minicomic Prizes will continue this mission by funding original work that reflects on, engages with, and/or takes inspiration from medieval manuscripts, printed books, visual art, and objects.
The prize will consist of:
- $250.00 towards printing costs for an original work
- Mentorship from Newberry staff on working with medieval culture (see below)
- The opportunity to be featured in Newberry publications
- The opportunity to sell work in the Newberry Bookshop
- One copy of each winning comic will be entered into the Newberry collection
Eligibility Requirements
- Be at least 18 years of age at the time of applying
- Be able to develop and complete a minicomic by May 1, 2026
- Be primarily self-published with no work published by a major publisher (except for anthologies)
- Be applying as a sole creator and not as an independent publisher or collective, although collaborative partnerships—especially with professional medievalists (i.e., graduate students or faculty)—are welcome.
Application Guidelines
Applications will open September 8, 2025. Applications will be submitted via email to renaissance@newberry.org. Your application must include your bio information, work sample(s), and a pitch as a single PDF.
All application materials must be submitted by Friday, October 17, 2025.
Bio Information
- Name, address, phone number, email, website, social media, and a three-sentence introductory biography.
Work Sample Guidelines
- The work sample should be one or two completed comics or works in progress made and published by you. One sample work must include a minimum of 4 pages of a single sequence; no samples of illustration work, please.
- AI-generated work of any kind WILL NOT be considered for the prize.
Minicomic Pitch
This prize is intended for minicomics and zines between 16 and 36 pages that engage in some way with some aspect of life, thought, or culture during the time period that we now know as the Middle Ages, that is, roughly 500 to 1500 CE. We use “Middle Ages” very broadly: minicomics can focus on people, events, and stories during this time from Africa, the Islamic world, and Asia as well as Europe.
When formulating your pitch, we encourage applicants to spend time engaging with surviving material witnesses of medieval culture (or at least digital images of them) that are held in libraries and museums: manuscripts, early printed books, visual art, objects, architecture, and so on. Applicants are especially encouraged to work with the medieval collections at the Newberry Library in Chicago; you can find information about visiting the library here.
These interactions, we hope, will ground the way in which your minicomic engages with medieval culture. For questions about how to access these objects, either at the Newberry or elsewhere, send an email to fletcherc@newberry.org.
For the application, the pitch should be a maximum of 3 pages and include the following information:
- A short summary (max 300 words) of your minicomic
- An overview of the anticipated final printed format of the comic, including estimated dimensions and number of pages. Once again, the intended page length for this prize is between 16 and 36 pages.
- A timeline for completing the comic that begins in November 2025 and ends May 1, 2026.
- An estimate for printing costs
- A short description (max 300 words) of how your minicomic engages with medieval culture.
- Optional: Any concept art you wish to include (not required!)
Medievalist Mentoring
In addition to the prize money, the winners will receive one-on-one guidance (in-person or on Zoom) from Dr. Christopher Fletcher, the Assistant Director of the Center for Renaissance Studies at the Newberry, to help you complete your comic. Dr. Fletcher will be happy to answer any questions you have about medieval books and objects, how to adapt medieval culture into modern contexts, and how comics can illuminate, explain, and provide access to the medieval past in ways traditional scholarship can’t.
Timeline
- Application deadline: October 17, 2025
- Winners will be notified by the end of November 2025
- 3 copies of the completed comics must be delivered to the Newberry by May 1, 2026. One copy will be added to the Newberry collection, and two copies will be added to the pedagogical resources of the Center for Renaissance Studies and the scholar-cartoonist Dr. Kristen Haas Curtis
- Publications showcasing winners’ work will circulate in the summer of 2026