(via Matthew Noe, Harvard University)
With the new year comes time for the second annual Graphic Medicine International Collective (GMIC) Award!
This award recognizes an outstanding health-related comics project published in the prior year (in this case, comics published in 2022). Last year was the inaugural year and the shortlist makes an excellent reading list and collection development tool: 2022 GMIC Award Shortlist. You can see more about last year’s winner, Parenthesis by Élodie Durand, and what the award looks like here.
All the details are found on our website but I will share the FAQ below as well. If you have any questions about the award, please feel free to contact me directly (I am GMIC’s treasurer). Please also share this information with any creators or publishers you think may want to submit titles for consideration. We want to get as good a look at the field as we can and the more submissions the better!
Q: What qualifies as a work of graphic medicine for this award?
A: Comics of any length that emphasize one or more health-related topics and were completed or published in 2022 are eligible for this award. Graphic medicine comics take as their theme (or meaningfully include) topics that impact health. We define the term “health” here broadly, based on the World Health Organization definition: a state of physical, mental, and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Comics can be fiction or nonfiction, memoir or biography, educational and/or entertaining. Both print and web-based comics are eligible for this award.
Q: Is there only one award?
No, there will be two awards in 2023. This is a change from last year. We will have one award for short-form comics (25 pages and below) and one award for long-form comics (greater than 25 pages.)
Q: Must eligible comics be published in English?
A: No, but all incorporated text must be translated into English in 2022 for judging purposes and the original text must have been published in the preceding five years (i.e., 2017 or later).
Q: Who can submit a work for consideration?
A: Each comic for consideration must be submitted by the creator of the comic or their publisher. Due to the nature of the award process, we will not be able to accept anonymous submissions, but we will respect pseudonyms.
Q: How should works be submitted?
All works should be submitted as a PDF using this online form.
Q: Is there a deadline for making submissions for the 2023 GMIC award?
A: Yes. All submissions must be made between Sunday, January 1, 2023, and Tuesday, February 14, 2023.
Q: How will the award winners be selected?
A: Two shortlists of awards (long and short form) will be generated from all submitted works. These lists will be announced to the public around May 1, 2023. The GMIC Award Judges will then meet to choose the winners. Both shortlisting and final judges are a diverse group consisting of at least five persons, each representing one or more of these categories: cartoonist, academic, clinician, librarian, person with lived experience of illness, caregiving, and/or disability, and comics critic/reviewer.
Q: When will the award be presented?
A: The winners of the 2023 GMIC Awards will be announced at the Graphic Medicine Conference in Toronto July 13-16. Winners need not be present.
Q: What will the award winner receive?
A: The winning comics will be awarded $1,000 (U.S. dollars) and a keepsake suitable for display. Please note that the monetary award may be subject to taxes for which the winner will be responsible.