Spark Awards

Nominations for the 2025 Spark Awards are now open through March 1, 2025!

2025 Spark Awards are for emerging creators who produced, revised, or released a work in 2024. Please review the eligibility requirements below thoroughly before nominating.

The LDSPMA Spark Awards program (previously called the Emerging Author Awards contest) recognizes the talent and potential in “emerging creators” within publishing, media, and the arts. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who create in these industries and have earned less than $500 from their work, are not traditionally published, are not represented by an agent/producer, have had less than 15,000 views or streams (etc. – “emerging creators”) can submit works that align with the standards in the 13th Article of Faith.

As the Spark Awards are awarded to the creator, not to a specific work, individual creators are generally awarded only ONE Spark Award in their lifetime.

Part of the LDSPMA mission is to provide creators with the “skills, connections, and confidence to achieve lasting reach and impact with their work.” The Spark Awards give up-and-coming creators the opportunity to showcase their work and rub shoulders with successful professionals in their industry.

Nominations do not need to be religious. We welcome submissions from multiple genres that explore a variety of themes and content, including material that reflects the struggles of real life. If you have any questions about specific content in your submission, please feel free to contact us at awards@ldspma.org.

*Depending on the number and quality of submissions, we may not designate an award in each of these categories. Any categories that receive fewer than four unique nominations may not be judged or may be merged into another category.

Eligibility Requirements

The following requirements must be met for a work to be eligible for a Spark Award:

• The work must be the original work of the creator or collaborators.
• At least a portion of the work must have been produced or revised between January 1, 2024 and December 31, 2024.
• At least one collaborator must be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
• Nominated works must be free of content that is profane, vulgar, excessively violent, or sexually explicit, or that glorifies practices contrary to the standards taught by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Works that violate these principles will be disqualified.
• Submissions must be received between January 13, 2025 at 12:00 a.m. and March 1, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. (MT). Late submissions will not be considered.
• Publishing industry categories must meet the following requirements:
  • The author cannot be traditionally published, contracted with a publishing house, or represented by a literary agent.
  • If self-published, the author cannot have earned a net income of more than $500 from their creative work.
• Media industry categories must meet the following requirements:
  • The creator cannot be contracted with or represented by a professional producer or publisher. The creator cannot have had more than 15,000 views, downloads, plays, etc. on any single digital platform. Additionally, the creator cannot have earned a net income of more than $500 from their creative work. 
• Arts industry categories must meet the following requirements:
  • For music and performing arts categories, the creator cannot be contracted with or represented by a professional producer, agent, or company. The creator cannot have had more than 15,000 streams, downloads, plays, etc. on any single digital platform. Additionally, the creator cannot have earned a net income of more than $500 from their creative work, whether sold in digital or physical forms.
  • For art categories, the creator cannot have earned a net income of more than $500 from their creative work.

Nomination Guidelines

• Any organization or individual, whether a collaborator of the work or not, may nominate individuals for the Spark Awards by submitting a work created by that individual that meets the eligibility requirements above. (If you are not one of the original collaborators of the work, you will be expected to provide us with contact information for the principal representative of the team who produced the work. If the representative is unable to provide our judges with appropriate materials, the nomination may be disqualified.)
• Multiple works by the same creator can be submitted for Spark Award nominations in a given year. As the award is to a creator (a person), not a work, however, each creator may only win up to one award per industry (Publishing, Media, or the Arts). (Creators generally win only one Spark Award in their lifetime).
• All submissions MUST be provided in a digital format.
• For publishing categories, please submit no more than the first 2,500 words of the manuscript. Submissions must be a PDF in Times New Roman font, double spaced, one-inch margins. Exceptions are certain categories where style is a large factor, such as Lifestyle or Picture Books/Graphic Novels. For applicable categories, please include illustrations in the manuscript.
• For media categories, please submit either the first ten (10) minutes of the production or the first ten (10) pages of the script.
• For arts categories:
  • For recorded music & performance, please submit up to the first ten (10) minutes of the recording.
  • For sheet music or scripts, please submit up to the first ten pages only.
  • For visual (2D and 3D) art, please upload digital files easily viewable and shareable for our judges.
• For all submissions, please upload the actual file rather than a link (e.g. for a podcast episode, upload an MP3 file rather than a link to a podcast platform), or in the case of certain large files like videos, provide a “Anyone can access” unlisted link. If the judges cannot access your files easily, your work may be disqualified.

Judging and Prizes

Submissions will be rated by a team of three judges who are active professionals in their assigned category. The rating criteria vary by form and genre, but all entries will be rated by the quality of their craft and their adherence to the 13th Article of Faith. The specific work submitted is considered a sample of the nominee’s work – the award will be to the creator themselves (a person) not to the work specifically.

Judges will designate one winner in each category. If a category’s entries do not meet the standards for the Spark Awards, our judges also reserve the right to designate no award. The Spark Award is awarded to the creator generally, not to the specific work.

In the months preceding our conference, winners for each category will be posted on our website and the creators notified. The works will also be displayed on our social media platforms as well as at the LDSPMA Conference.

The winner of each category will then be announced and honored at our LDSPMA Awards Banquet. Winners will also be announced on our website and social media platforms.

Each winner will receive a certificate to display and a digital badge containing the LDSPMA logo, the award title, and year. Winners may include the badge on their websites, publications, social media pages, and elsewhere.

Spark Award winners may receive other benefits (such as mentoring and networking help, modest “scholarship” funds, etc.) to be determined by the awards committee after winners are decided each year.

FAQs

Please review the following questions carefully before reaching out to us with further questions.

Any other questions? Please email us at awards@ldspma.org or judging@ldspma.org.